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“I need to speak to your husband.”
“And me, too, I assume.”
Hallie might be massively pregnant, but she still didn’t want to be sidelined. I knew she drove Tam crazy wanting to be involved. Our business was dangerous, and Tam’s instinct was to protect Hallie and their unborn child, and Hallie raged against it. She’d never wanted to be controlled, despite what our father had been like, or maybe because of it, but I knew she wouldn’t put the baby at risk either.
My sister stared at me, her eyes widening. “What did you do to yourself?”
She hadn’t seen me since I’d had the style change. “I figured since I’m now the head of the family, I needed to start looking the part.”
“I’ve never seen you in a suit. And what did you do to your hair?”
It still wasn’t exactly short, but the jaw-length locks were a thing of the past.
“I cut it, obviously.”
Her lips thinned. “You seem older.”
“Good.”
My youth was one thing that was going to go against me, or perhaps I could make it work for me instead. I didn’t like the idea of not having any respect simply because of my age. The prospect pissed me off.
I couldn’t help making a comment on her size. “You’re...round.”
Her hand went to her belly. “Gee, thanks.”
“Well, you do have a whole other person in there.”
“Not for too much longer, I hope. Only another few weeks to go.”
Hallie was a Cornell now, and I hadn’t exactly always got along with her husband, Tam. It made me uneasy. My father’s decision to join our families hadn’t taken into account the possibility of his death. With him gone, the Wynter family was now almost non-existent. Hallie insisted she was still one of us, but how could that be when she was married to a Cornell and was about to birth another one, too, adding to their number?
That was what I needed. A woman to put a baby in her belly. I needed to create a family of my own now. A legacy. I was old enough. I was financially secure. I pictured a faceless woman’s belly growing round with my child, and then her birthing it, and, as soon as she was ready, I’d put another baby inside her.
I’d raise sons of my own—many, many sons—and build our empire again. It wouldn’t help in the short term, but it would continue our family name.
I knew plenty of women, though most were more like girls and in no way would make good mothers. It was breeding stock I was looking for and not some simpering teenage girl more focused on makeup and clothes than raising a family.
To my surprise, Ivy Gilligan’s face popped into my mind.
No, that was not a good idea at all.
“You’d better come in then,” Hallie said.
I loved my sister. Hallie was probably one of the only people left in this world who I had genuine love for. I hadn’t been happy for her to marry into the Cornell family, but my father had insisted it was the right thing to do. He’d been the boss then, and both Hallie and I knew better than to question him. Of course, that didn’t mean we’d never fought with him—of course we had—but when it came to business, he got the final word.
Now he was gone, and the final word was mine.
His men were my men now. Rumblings among them left me uneasy, but I didn’t think any of them would be stupid enough to cross me. They didn’t like taking orders from someone so much younger, however. I knew how they’d seen me—the wild, fun-loving one, who never took anything seriously and loved drinking and picking up as many women as possible. Our father had encouraged it, too. I think he’d lived vicariously through me, remembering what it had been like when he was younger and didn’t have the responsibilities of the family on his shoulders. I felt bad for Hallie for never getting to experience that. She never would now, and when she became a mother, she’d have even more responsibility. Maybe, when she reached forty, she’d go wild then. I found myself smirking at the idea. Tam Cornell wasn’t far off that age now. Would his younger wife leave him behind eventually?
Hallie led me into the house and shut the door behind me. The big gates I’d driven through had also swung shut and automatically locked. Security was important.
“Tam,” she called out as we walked through the house. “Jay’s here.”
Tam Cornell emerged from his office, twin lines between his brows. He was always so serious. It wouldn’t do him any harm to smile occasionally.
“I got a name out of one of the Gilligans’ men last night,” I said. “Does the name Doyle mean anything to you?
His eyebrows furrowed deeper. “Doyle? Is that a first name or surname?”
