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“Great, actually,” Cole said. “When I took the position, it was more about family duty and obligation, but I have to admit my mother saw something in me that I am just discovering. I am enjoying the work and have a good eye for it. I want to succeed. Not to best my brothers for the CEO position my father will vacate, but to help make the best for whichever of my brothers succeeds him.”
Cole. Ever loyal. And expecting nothing less. Even from her.
I will never let you down again, my love.
She rose slightly to look down at him and stroked the side of his face. “So, you’ve decided you don’t want it?” she asked.
“I never did, but I’m ready now to officially step down from being in the race,” he said before turning his head to press a warm kiss to her palm. “I’m learning that focusing on antagonizing my father is foolish. Perhaps in my need to best him, I am worried I will become him.”
She kissed the side of his mouth and fought the urge to declare her love for him even as it nearly burst her heart. She so badly wanted to ask for the impetus for his broken relationship with his father, but she refrained. Knowing how close she was to her parents, she couldn’t imagine what had caused such a deep fracture between them.
“Whenever you want to talk about it, I am here for you,” she whispered, needing him to know that she would always have his back.
Cole looked up and locked his eyes with her own. They searched hers for so long. So intensely. She could only hope that what he sought he found in her brown depths. “You are making this harder and harder for me,” he admitted with the hint of a smile.
She tilted her head to the side, feeling hopeful. “Good,” she whispered down to him.
One week later
The silence in Cole’s now beautifully furnished living room was stunning as he, Gabriel and Monica sat on the low-slung, dark blue suede sofa and eyed the woman sitting across from them on the matching piece. Nothing echoed but the crackle of the modern slate fireplace to the side of them.
Bobbie Barnett, a medium-brown woman with long, wild, loose ebony curls that floated beyond her shoulders, long black lashes and pouty lips glossed with brown, was beautiful. Still, it wasn’t the private investigator’s looks that held everyone captive.
It was the truth she’d just revealed to them.
“Well, damn,” Gabe finally said, reaching for Monica’s hand and holding it tightly.
Cole rose and walked over to the dining room, needing space and clarity. He hadn’t known what secrets, if any, would be uncovered, but never had he expected to be told his father had an illegitimate son in England from when he was just eighteen. Before he’d even met their mother.
Another Cress son.
A brother.
What do we do with this information?
“What’s his name?” Gabe asked.
Cole turned and crossed his arms over his chest as he awaited the response.
“Lincoln Cress,” Bobbie offered, her voice soft and raspy.
Cole frowned. “Did he know? Our father. Did he know?” he asked, striding across the room to rejoin them.
Bobbie sat back and crossed her legs. “At this point, I doubt it. His name is on the birth certificate, but it’s not signed,” she said, opening the file she held in her lap. “I have a little info on your brother. On Lincoln. Do you want it?” She eyed them all.
Gabe and Monica shared a brief look.
Cole released a deep breath as he glanced at his booted feet and then back over to her. “I do,” he admitted.
“Me, too,” Gabe agreed.
Bobbie nodded and tossed her wild mane behind her shoulder as she cleared her throat. She removed a photo and set it on Cole’s wide metal-trimmed stone coffee table. “He lives in England where he is a chef at his own Michelin-star restaurant,” she said, pausing to look up at them at the similarity. “Single. No children. Well off. Well educated. And upon meeting him, without revealing to my true intent in being there, he is...uh...quite a character.”
Cole reclaimed his seat and took the photo Gabe had studied and then handed to him. “Meaning?” he asked before looking down.
Their eldest brother resembled Lenny Kravitz. In good shape. Strong features. Handsome.
He could see similarities in this stranger and their father.
