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out in the parking lot?”
    He towered over her, his face flushed. “You think I had something to do with that?”
    â€œI think the circumstances are highly suspicious.”
    His tone was suddenly steely. “So now you want me to hand over all the corporate records?”
    â€œYes. Given the circumstances, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t accept everything you say at face value.”
    He took a breath, opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it again. He jammed his hat back on his head and made to leave, but then turned back with his hand on the door. “Look, Ms. Brandt. I gotta get something off my chest right here and now.”
    â€œAnd what’s that?” Monica asked warily.
    â€œI get that you trust me about as much as a rattlesnake dozing in your boot. And part of me appreciates your suspicions ’cause you don’t know me from Adam, but what you need to understand is the man in that bed right there,” he jerked his head toward Tom, “means every bit as much to me as he does to you—probably even more, given that I’ve known him twice as long. Hell, he practically raised me.”
    â€œI’m sorry if my style is too direct for you, cowboy, but I’m only acting in my father’s best interest.”
    â€œI’ve got nothing to hide,” he said. “Since we both want what’s best for him, you can consider me at your disposal.” He tipped his hat and walked out.
    She looked after him, thinking disposal might be exactly the right word.

Chapter Four
    T wo weeks after Tom’s stroke, Ty was still reeling with disbelief. In a matter of days, Monica Brandt had managed to turn his entire life inside out. As soon as Tom was taken out of critical care and moved to rehab, she’d wasted no time in making good on her threat, waltzing right to the hotel’s corporate floor and moving herself lock, stock, and barrel into the CEO’s office—the one right next to his. Managing Tom’s affairs was one thing, but her patronizing attitude was just too damned much!
    Almost from the start, Ty had felt a powerful antipathy for Monica Brandt. He’d wanted to like her for Tom’s sake, but he preferred warm, soft women, and there was nothing remotely warm or soft about her. Of course, he’d probably have viewed her through a much kinder lens if she hadn’t given him the cold shoulder from the start.
    Before meeting her, Ty had imagined Tom’s daughter as one of those uptight, intellectually superior Harvard MBA types. As it turned out, he’d pegged her pretty damned close. Too bad, really. She wouldn’t be hard on the eyes if she didn’t always look like she’d been sucking lemons.
    What burned his ass most of all was her unmerited mistrust of him. He’d done nothing to deserve it. Monica oozed suspicion from her every pore. He had to wonder what asshole had made her that way. Women were a lot like horses in his experience. Handled right, they were sweet, soft, and eager to please, but the wrong set of hands could destroy their trust forever.
    Initially he’d wanted to help her, if only for Tom’s sake, but when she’d asked for—or, better said, demanded —the company’s financial records, he’d promptly obliged her, with eight years’ worth. He’d thought the towering monstrosity of accounting records would keep her out of his hair for a while. He was wrong. Just this morning she’d sent him a barrage of text messages that read about as friendly as a court subpoena. Hell, the way she was going about this financial review, he half-expected that would be next.
    He’d held on as long as he could, but it was time to face the fact that Tom was never coming back and the agreement they’d reached over lunch was worth about as much as the air they’d wasted talking about it. Monica had no vested interest in the place and no reason for