He looked at her, and she saw again the intensity with which he hated.“Lansky.”His words were barely audible.“I know why Jennings didn’t kill me when he had the chance.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t need to.The patent had already been awarded.”
“Cole,” she pleaded, “you’re speaking in riddles.Tell me what happened.”
“Jennings was awarded the patent,” he said in a voice that was devoid of emotion.He sat and buried his face in his hands.
Chapter Nine
Lesley closed her eyes as the hurt and disappointment for Cole curled around her, cutting off her voice for a stunned moment.“Oh, Cole,” she whispered, “I’m so sorry.Is there anything that can be done?”
He raised his head and looked straight ahead.“Not now, not legally anyway.”
Just the way he said it shot a shiver of cold fear up Lesley’s back.“Cole, what are you going to do?”
“Ruin Jennings,” he replied without the least hesitation.
“And yourself in the process.”Her voice was high-pitched, with a sharp edge of fear.
“Listen, Lesley, let’s get one thing straight right now.My business life is my own.I do what I want, when I want.If you’re going to be my wife, that’s something you’ll have to accept here and now.”
“I don’t understand.”Her fingers were laced together until she was sure the fierce grip had cut off the flow of blood to her hands.
“Understand?”he repeated angrily.“What’s so difficult about it?”
“Okay,” Lesley murmured in a trembling breath, “maybe you’d better define what it is you want from a wife.”
“A home.”He sounded determined.
“Wouldn’t a housekeeper serve as well?”How could she argue with Cole.He’d just heard the most devastating news of his life and she was fighting with him over a definition.“Cole.”She said his name softly, not revealing any of her own anger and disappointment.“I’m sorry.These are the kinds of questions we can discuss later.For now we’ve got to trust God to see that justice is done.”
“Trust God?”Cole spat the words back with bitter rejection.“God is righteous and just?Then I would have been awarded the patent.”
Lesley placed her hands over her ears, unable to bear hearing his hostility.“Cole, please, don’t say that.I know you’re angry.You have every right to be.But there’s a reason for this.God wouldn’t have allowed it to happen otherwise.”
“I’m being cheated out of millions of dollars.Doesn’t that mean anything to you?We could have been set for life—no problems, no worries.”
“Of course it matters.Not the money so much as the fact you deserve to have been awarded the patent.”
“I might have won if they—Jennings’ men—hadn’t found the car.”
“The car?”
“I had a prototype of the air bag installed in a sports car.I gave it to Lansky because he felt it was the evidence we needed to prove my case.But Jennings’ men destroyed it.Apparently inside they found my road map and evidence that I stopped in Coeur d’Alene.”
Lesley had wondered about the red car he had driven when he first arrived.Now she knew.
“Cole,” she murmured and laid her hand over his.“Let’ssleep on this.It’s been a blow, a terrible blow.You have every right to be angry and disappointed.I’ll go back to Terry’s and spend the night there.But tomorrow I’ll be home and we can discuss things then.”
He nodded, but Lesley wasn’t sure he’d even heard what she’d said.
He walked her to the door.Lesley turned and wrapped her arms around him, allowing her love to flow from her as she murmured a silent prayer on his behalf.Cole crushed her to him and buried his face in her neck while he drew in deep, shuddering breaths.
“Do you want me to stay?”she asked in a low, gentle voice when he didn’t release her.
He raised his face until their gazes met.The dark, haunted look in his eyes pulled at her heart.“No, I think I’d rather be alone, at least for a little while.There are some things I need to sort out within myself.”
