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“That’s the gossip column that ran in last weekend’s newspaper, isn’t it?” she asked, wondering if the nefarious story would ever go away.
“Yes.” Creed had been out of town on business for the past six days and had apparently just learned about the article.
Walking over to her desk, he slapped the clipping down in front of her. She gasped when she read the sticky note attached to it. “How does it feel to come out the loser for a change?” She looked up at him. “Where did you get this?”
“It arrived in today’s mail.”
She felt as if she might be sick. “Who would do such a thing?”
“I think we both know who’s responsible,” he growled.
“Y-you think Blake sent this to you?”
“Who else?”
“You’re wrong, Creed.” Sasha’s fingers trembled as she rubbed at her suddenly throbbing temples. “Blake would never do anything like this.”
He propped his fists on the surface of her desk, then leaned forward. “Are you sure?”
Tears filled her eyes as she nodded. “Of course.”
“Then who else would be malicious enough to send me something like this?”
“I don’t know.” She felt as if she were being interrogated on a witness stand and Creed was her prosecutor, judge and jury.
When she opened her bottom desk drawer for a tissue, then wiped at an errant tear on her cheek, Creed swore vehemently. “I knew he’d do something like this. I just didn’t anticipate it happening this soon.”
“Y-you’re wrong, Creed.” Sasha tried to sniff back a fresh wave of tears. “Blake’s not like that. What would he have to gain?”
“The satisfaction of publicly humiliating me,” Creed stated flatly. “Sending this to me was just his way of rubbing my nose in it.”
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Other than the picture of her and Creed dancing at Case and Gina’s wedding reception, his name had only been mentioned a couple of times. She’d been the one the columnist had focused on.
“You think you’ve been publicly humiliated? How do you think I feel?” she asked, suddenly more angry than hurt. “I’m the one who’s been accused of being a social-climbing gold digger.”
That seemed to drain away much of his anger and, straightening to his full height, he shook his head. “I never meant to dismiss the effect this has had on you, Sasha.”
“But that’s exactly what you’ve just done,” she said, saddened that her friend hadn’t even considered how the story might have upset her.
They stared silently at each other for what seemed like an eternity, each knowing their friendship had suffered a serious blow.
“Are you going to Deadwood this evening?” he finally asked.
She shook her head. “Blake’s flying in later this afternoon to spend the weekend here.”
Creed’s mouth flattened into a tight line a moment before he nodded, and without another word walked out of her office.
Feeling drained from the confrontation, Sasha began to carefully stack the marketing charts she’d been working on when Creed had shown up. After what he’d just put her through, he owed her the rest of the afternoon off. With pay.
As she retrieved her purse from the bottom drawer of her desk, turned off her computer and left her office, she made a conscious decision not to mention the disturbing incident to Blake. The brothers were already at odds and there was no way she was going to add fuel to a fire that was rapidly growing out of control. Nor was she going to be the catalyst that brought their feud to a head.
Getting into the shiny red sports car he kept at the airport for his frequent visits to Sioux Falls, Blake started the powerful engine and headed straight for Sasha’s apartment. It had been four days since she’d left Deadwood and he couldn’t believe how much he’d missed her. He’d called her every night, but phone conversations were a poor substitute for holding her, kissing her and making love to her until they both collapsed from exhaustion.
A half hour later, when he parked the car in front of her apartment building and got out to walk up to her door, he whistled a tune. Life was good. Profits at his three casinos were higher than any of the projections; there hadn’t been any more reports about him and Sasha in the gossip columns and he was going to spend the next three days with the most exciting woman he’d ever known. As far as he was concerned, it didn’t get any better than that.
When he stopped to dig Sasha’s apartment key from his jeans pocket, he smiled. She was going to be surprised and hopefully quite pleased when she came home from work and found that he’d had a caterer deliver a specially prepared dinner for them. She was expecting him to take her out, but after spending the past four days without her in his arms, the last place Blake wanted them to be was in a crowded restaurant.
“It’s past time that you and I have it out, little brother.”
At the sound of his brother’s angry voice, Blake’s good mood took a nosedive and he turned to find Creed storming up the sidewalk toward him. “I don’t have anything to say to you.”
“But I have plenty to say to you and you’re going to listen.”
“The hell I am.” Blake wasn’t the least bit intimidated by Creed’s menacing expression. “I have plans for the evening and they don’t include talking to you.”
“I don’t give a damn about you or your plans,” Creed said, poking Blake in the chest with his index finger. “You’re going to listen.”
White hot fury invaded every fiber of Blake’s being. “Do that again and I’ll knock the hell out of you.”
Although there were six years difference in their ages, they were pretty well matched in size and build. And if it came to blows, Blake figured he had a pretty good chance of taking Creed in a fight.
“Until today, I couldn’t figure out why you’d taken a sudden interest in Sasha when you hadn’t so much as given her a second glance in the four years she’s worked at Dakota Fortune,” Creed growled.
“And you think you’ve figured it out now?” Blake snapped back.
“Oh, yeah.” Creed’s smile was filled with loathing. “Because it appeared that Sasha and I were a couple, you decided to seduce her away from me. But you were too blinded by your jealousy of me to see that there was never anything romantic between us.”
Guilt coursed through Blake. That was exactly the way his involvement with Sasha had started out. Fortunately, it hadn’t taken long for him to realize how special she was and how much he needed her in his life.
But Blake’s need to retaliate quickly became stronger than his sense of regret and before he could stop himself, he lashed out. “I figured that out about the same time I took her virginity.”
Creed laughed humorlessly. “And she was ripe for the picking, wasn’t she?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Blake demanded, barely resisting the urge to plant his fist in his brother’s nose.
“I’ve seen the way she looked at you over the past year. But being a self-absorbed bastard, I don’t suppose you could see that she was attracted to you.” Creed gave him a disgusted look. “Although for the life of me, I’ll never understand why.”
Blake shook his head. “I don’t give a damn what you do or don’t understand. Sasha’s with me now and you’re out of the picture.” Without thinking, he added, “I win.”
“A real man would walk away from this before Sasha ends up getting hurt.” Creed raised an arrogant eyebrow. “But then, her feelings have never been your concern, have they? You were too focused on getting back at me to consider what your little game would do to her. And if the truth is known, you wouldn’t have cared even if you had.”
Blake didn’t think he’d ever despised his brother more than he did at that moment. “I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’ll do whatever it takes just for the privilege of watching you land on your ass. But that’s not—”
He started to tell Creed that he’d come to care too much for Sasha to hurt her in any way, but the words died in Blake’s throat when he heard the soft female gasp behind him. Spinning around, Blake felt as if he was being torn apart when he saw the devastated expression on Sasha’s sweet face and the tears streaming unchecked from her emerald eyes.
Neither he nor Creed had noticed her opening the apartment door, and Blake knew that she’d heard every one of the verbal barbs and accusations that they’d hurled at each other.
Arriving home from the office, Sasha had barely had time to change clothes and feed her cat, Melvin, before she’d heard the angry male voices outside of her apartment door. When she’d peeked out the window to see what was going on, the elation she’d felt at the sight of Blake had quickly turned to desolation. He and Creed had been embroiled in a heated argument and it hadn’t taken long for her to realize that she was the subject of their battle.
“H-how could you?” she stammered, unsure which of the Fortune brothers to address first.
“Sasha—”
“Sweetheart—”
They both spoke at once, but she’d heard more than enough. “Don’t.” She shook her head. “There’s nothing left to say.”
Blake took a step toward her. “You heard—”
“E-everything,” she said, drawing back. If he touched her, she knew for certain she’d shatter into a million pieces.
“I thought you were still at work,” Creed said, his expression guarded.
“After our conversation, I didn’t feel like staying at the office.” She swiped at the tears running down her cheeks. “But don’t trouble yourself with firing me for leaving work early.”
“I wasn’t going to,” Creed said, frowning. “Why would you think that I would?”
“It doesn’t matter whether you were or not because effective immediately, I’m no longer an employee of Dakota Fortune.” When he opened his mouth as if he intended to refuse her resignation, she held up her hand. “I don’t want to hear it. I thought you were my friend, Creed.”
“I am,” he insisted.
She shook her head. “A true friend wouldn’t have talked to me the way you did earlier today.”
“What did you say to her?” Blake demanded, his fists doubled at his sides.
“It doesn’t matter,” Sasha answered, staring at Creed. She feared she wouldn’t be able to continue if she looked at Blake. And it was extremely important that she let them both know exactly what their feuding had cost them.
“I’m here defending you now,” Creed said stubbornly. “If that’s not friendship, I don’t know what is.”
“You weren’t defending me as much as you were letting Blake know what easy prey you thought I was.” She could tell that her statement shocked him, but it was past time they both heard just how destructive their warring had become and the high price they’d both have to pay for it. “In light of everything that’s happened today, I think you’ll have to agree that our friendship has come to an end, Creed.”
“It’s just as well, sweetheart,” Blake interjected. “The son of a bitch wouldn’t know how to be a friend if his life depended on it.”
Sasha finally looked at him and she felt as if her heart broke all over again. “What you did to me is far worse than anything Creed could have ever done.” Her voice caught on a sob. “Only the ones you love the most have the power to devastate you.”
“Sasha, listen to me,” Blake said, reaching for her.
“Don’t touch me.” She brushed his hand away. “Don’t ever touch me again.”
“Sasha, sweetheart, you don’t mean that.”
“Yes, I do.” She took a deep breath as she forced herself to push the all-consuming emotional pain aside and dig deep within her soul to muster the last scrap of her tattered pride. “How could you have such little regard for my feelings? Did you even think of what it would do to me when I discovered that you were using me to get back at Creed?”
“If you’ll let me explain—”
“I don’t want to hear your excuses, Blake.” She shook her head. “You win?” she quoted him. “I think that more than sums up the reasons behind your sudden interest in me, don’t you?” Sasha held out her hand to Blake. “I’d like my apartment key back, please.”
He reluctantly placed it in her hand. “It doesn’t have to end this way, Sasha.”
“Too late, Blake. It’s already over.” She glanced from one man to the other through her gathering tears. “I want nothing more to do with either of you.” Knowing she was seconds away from losing the last of her control, she added, “Now, feel free to resume your shouting match. But I would appreciate you taking it elsewhere. I have no desire to listen to anything more that either of you have to say.”
Her heart breaking, Sasha entered her apartment and closed the door behind her. Shaking uncontrollably, she leaned back against it, then covering her face with her hands, sank to the floor as she released the torrent of tears she’d been holding at bay. How could she have been so stupid? Why hadn’t she been able to see past Blake’s handsome face and charming smile to the coldhearted man inside?
She should have known there was more behind his excuse than just wanting to get to know her better. He’d had ample opportunity in the four years she’d worked at Dakota Fortune to strike up an acquaintance with her. But he hadn’t bothered to look her way. At least, not until Creed had asked her to help him keep the fortune-hunting women in search of a great catch at arm’s length by accompanying him to various events.
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