SEVEN
“SO HOW LONG HAVE YOU and Eric known each other?” asked Claire, Luke’s girlfriend.
Calling the feisty auburn-haired electrical contractor a girl anything felt very wrong. Julie suspected the woman could move mountains if she wanted. She certainly hadn’t let a male dominated industry stop her from taking over her father’s business and according to Luke making it an even bigger success. The contrast to her relationship with her father twisted something in Julie’s chest, but she pushed it aside to answer Claire’s question.
“About ten years,” she said. “We met when Eric came to work on my father’s farm one summer. We lost track of each other and reconnected Christmas Eve.”
“That part I knew about.”
Julie glanced over her shoulder to the security guy that was following them as they went from store to store window shopping. She knew Claire and Luke had been with Eric when he got the ransom demand. She might have been embarrassed about it if the other woman hadn’t worked so hard to make her feel comfortable.
Julie, Eric and Luke had spent the morning looking at property that might work for the aquaculture farm. Eric acted like it was a given that she’d take his help getting the financing and the more she thought about it, the more she wanted to take him up on his offer. She’d actually started to let herself believe it might work.
After real estate hunting, they’d met Claire for lunch and when they were finished, the men insisted they go shopping and spend some time together. It made sense. Eric and Luke were best friends and had been for years. It would be easier on everyone if she and Claire were at least friendly, which shouldn’t be hard. Julie genuinely liked her, even if she didn’t particularly like shopping. It didn’t seem like Claire was that into it either, but it was nice to just look at things and to have another woman to talk to. Over the years, she’d let herself get so wrapped up in Blake Enterprises. She’d fallen out of touch with the few friends she had.
“How many more clothing stores do you think we have to go in to maintain our female status?” Claire asked, holding the door open.
“Personally, I don’t think it’s a requirement,” Julie said with a laugh.
“Oh, thank God. Hey there’s a restoration warehouse nearby. I like to go there to look for treasures. I found some perfect doorknobs once with the pressed lock plate and everything. Maybe we could go there?” She sounded so hopeful; Julie couldn’t help but laugh.
“Aren’t billionaire’s girlfriends supposed to shop for expensive clothes and extravagant jewelry?” asked Julie, grinning.
“I don’t know,” said Claire over her shoulder. “What about celebrity chef’s girlfriends?”
“Point taken. I’d love to go to the restoration place.” She followed Claire out the door and the security guy fell into step behind them. She wasn’t sure how Claire felt about having the guy trailing them, but she was getting tired of having a shadow everywhere she went.
Regardless, she’d promised Eric she’d cooperate with anything Jackson or his team asked of her, and she wouldn’t go back on her word. Not on that or on anything else she’d told Eric. She’d gotten a glimpse of how much her withholding things had cost him. She wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“Door knobs, huh?”
“They’re spectacular,” said Claire, with a smile.
“CAN YOU FIND out what we’d need to get into the third property we looked at?” Eric asked Luke. “The one on Roosevelt.”
Luke leaned forward, his arms resting on his huge glass topped desk. “Are you sure you want to do that?”
“Not without making sure that it’s what Julie wants, but it seemed like the one that suited what she was looking for the best. She’s going to have very specific requirements for the build out, and I’m honestly not sure how the hell to handle the zoning. Hopefully being zoned industrial can be spun to include aquaculture.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, tapping his pen on the blotter. “Listen, I like Julie. You know I do, but you can’t ignore what Jackson said.”
Eric wasn’t ignoring it. He just didn’t think it was relevant to Julie. Her sleazy brother yes, but not Julie.
“He knows Caleb was involved with the kidnappers. There isn’t any doubt of that. At a minimum, he’s the one who tipped them off to your past with Julie. He has to be.” Luke held his gaze, not backing down.
It was a tactic Eric had seen him use before and one that had closed dozens of deals. But until today, Eric had never been on the receiving end of Luke’s laser focus.
“You’re gonna want to hit me,” he said. “I get that, but I wouldn’t be your friend if I didn’t try to look out for you. Jackson’s pretty sure the whole kidnapping was staged. The only question is what was Julie’s involvement?”
Eric clenched his fist on the arms of his chair and reminded himself that Luke was his friend and a good one at that. “I know what Jackson knows and what he thinks. We spent a great deal of time going over it. I also know Julie wasn’t involved.”
“How can you be so sure? No, listen,” he said before Eric could protest. “I understand that you want to believe her, but what do you really know about her?”
“Enough. I know enough. What would you do if it was Claire?”
“I’d like to think I wouldn’t lose my head. I like Claire, a lot.”
“Oh bullshit. You love her and you know it. What the fuck happened to you that made it so hard for you to admit how you feel about her?”
