“Jared Ryder does not want us to print it.”

“Jared Ryder can stuff it. We need the numbers.”

Melissa began to panic. “You can’t run it.”

“Yes, I can.”

She scrambled for a solution. “I lied, Seth,” she lied baldly. “I made it up. The quotes are bogus, and I was never on the Ryder Ranch.”

Seth’s complexion went ruddy, and a vein popped out in his forehead. “Have you gone insane?”

“I’ll swear to it, Seth. I’ll tell the whole world I made up the story.”

“And I’ll fire your ass.”

“I don’t care!” she shouted. She had to stop him. She couldn’t let her work see the light of day.

Seth’s gaze shifted to a point over her left shoulder and his eyes went wide.

Fear churned in her stomach, but she carried on, anyway. It was her last chance to make things right. “If you run it, I’ll swear I made the whole piece up. The Bizz will get sued, and you’ll lose your job.”

Seth’s mouth worked, but no sound came out.

“Don’t test me on this, Seth,” she vowed. “Pull the article. I’ll quit. I’ll go away quietly. You can make up whatever you want to tell Everett.”

“Noble of you,” came a voice behind her.

Everett. The publisher had heard her threats.

Not that she’d expected to keep her job, anyway, but it was humiliating to have an additional witness. She clamped her jaw, squared her shoulders and headed for the door.

Her stomach instantly turned to a block of ice.

In the doorway next to Everett stood Jared. They both stared at her, faces devoid of expression.

Neither of them said a word as she forced one foot in front of the other. She prayed they’d step aside and give her room to get out the door.

They did, but inches before freedom, Jared put a hand on her arm. Neither of them looked at the other, and his voice was gruff. “Why’d you pull the story?”

She struggled with the cascade of conflicting emotions that swamped her body. She was proud of herself. She was brokenhearted. She was frightened and unemployed and exhausted.

She decided she owed him her honesty. So she glanced up and forced the words out. “The same reason your grandfather did what he did.”

Love. Plain and simple. When you loved someone, you protected them, even at a risk to yourself.

Then she jerked away, grabbed her purse from her desk and kept right on going to the elevator.

Jared’s first impression of Seth Strickland was hardly positive, so he didn’t much care now that the man looked like he was going to wet his pants. Seth had shouted at Melissa. And while he was shouting, it was all Jared could do not to wring his pudgy little neck.

Jared might be angry with her, but that didn’t give anyone else license to hurt her. Sure, she’d betrayed him. But she was fundamentally a decent person. Even now, he was battling the urge to chase after her. Not that he knew what he’d say. Not that he even understood what had just happened.

She’d behaved in a completely incomprehensible manner. Of course, she’d baffled him from the moment they met.

While Jared struggled to put her in context, Everett stepped into the office, moved to one side, then gestured for Jared to enter.

Everett shut the door firmly behind them and focused on the sweating Seth Strickland. “Mr. Ryder, this is Seth Strickland, Windy City Bizz’s managing editor. For now. Seth, this is Mr. Jared Ryder, the new owner of Windy City Bizz.”

Seth’s jaw dropped a notch further.

Jared didn’t bother with pleasantries. It seemed a little ridiculous after what they’d just witnessed.

“Is this a copy of the article?” He advanced on Seth’s desk and pointed to the papers piled in front of him. Seth nodded.

“We won’t be running it,” said Jared, lifting the pages from under Seth’s nose.

He gave Everett a polite smile. “Thank you for your time. One of Ryder International’s vice presidents will be in touch next week.”

Then he turned and exited the office. He couldn’t care less if Everett fired Seth or kept him on. Melissa wasn’t fired, that was for sure. And she could write for Seth or for anyone else in the company.

He took the elevator to the first floor, crossed the lobby, trotted down the outside stairs and slid into the Aston Martin idling at the curb.

“How’d it go?” asked Royce, pushing the car into gear and flipping on his signal.

“It’s taken care of,” said Jared.

“Good.” Royce gave a nod. Hard rock was blaring on the stereo, while the air conditioner battled the heat from the sunshine.

“Did you see Melissa come out the door?”

Royce zipped into the steady stream of traffic. “You saw Melissa?”

“She was inside.” Jared shoved his sunglasses onto the bridge of his nose.

“And?”

“And.” Jared drummed his fingers on the dashboard. “She was trying to get her editor to kill the article.”

Royce glanced at him for a split second before turning his attention to the busy intersection. “What? Why?”

“Beats the hell out of me. The guy fired her.”

“She lost her job?”

“No. Of course she didn’t lose her job. She works for us now, remember?”

“And you don’t think we should fire her?”

Jared killed the clanging music. He needed to think.

“Jared?” Royce prompted.

“Why would she kill the article?” Her cryptic remark about his grandfather didn’t make sense.

“Maybe she’s afraid of getting sued.”

Jared glanced down at the papers in his hand. He scanned one page, then another, then another. The story was innocuous. It was lightweight to the point of being boring.

“Anything about Gramps?” asked Royce as they turned to parallel the lakeshore. Skyscrapers loomed to one side, blocking the sun.

“Nothing. It’s crap.”

“She’s a bad writer?”

“No. She’s a fine writer. But she held back. She had a ton of stuff on me.” He flipped through the pages again. “She didn’t use any of it.”

“Then why did she try to pull it?”

“I asked her,” Jared admitted, flashing back to that moment, remembering her expression, remembering the emotional body slam of seeing her again, his desire to attack Seth and to chase after Melissa.

“Bro?” Royce prompted.

Jared cleared his throat. “She said it was the same reason Gramps did what he did.”

Royce’s hand came down on the steering wheel. “All this, and the woman’s talking in riddles?”

Jared rolled it over in his mind. “Why did Gramps do what he did?”

“To protect Dad.”

“Why?”

“Because he was his son.”

“And…”

The brothers looked at each other, sharing an instant of comprehension. Gramps had protected Jared’s father because he loved him.

“Holy crap,” said Royce.

“Not what I needed to know,” said Jared.

“Do you care?” Royce pressed.

Jared swore out loud. “She lied to me. She duped me. She invaded the hell out of my privacy.” He slammed the pages onto his lap.

“Yet you love her, anyway,” Royce guessed.

Jared clamped his jaw shut. Did he love Melissa? How could he love an illusion? He didn’t even know which parts were her and which were the lie.

“And she loves you,” Royce continued. He slowed for a stoplight, gearing the car down.

“I need a drink.”

The woman was a damn fine illusion. If even half of what he’d seen of her was real, it might be enough. Hell, it would be enough.

“What are you going to do?”

“Drink,” said Jared.

Royce laughed. “Since you’re not denying it and since you’re even considering her, I’d say you absolutely need a drink. You’ve got it very bad, big brother.”

“Why her?”

“It doesn’t matter why her. It’s done.”

“Nothing’s done.” Jared certainly hadn’t made any decisions. He was barely wrapping his head around falling for Melissa.

“You forget, I watched you watch her,” said Royce. “You were never letting her go to Seattle.”

“She never was going to Seattle. It was all a lie.”

Royce shook his head and laughed. He glanced in the rearview mirror. Then he spun the steering wheel, yanked the hand brake and pivoted the car in a sharp u-turn.

“What are you doing?” Jared stabilized himself with the armrest.

“You do need a drink.” Royce screeched to a stop in front of the Hilliard House tavern’s valet parking. “If only to come to terms with the rest of your life.”

Melissa should have realized her brother Caleb would call in reinforcements. She’d found herself at his house Saturday morning, looking for emotional support. Caleb was the most sympathetic of her brothers, and she’d really needed a shoulder to cry on.

Within an hour, Ben and Sheila had arrived, their baby and two-year-old in tow. Then Eddy showed up, without the new girlfriend, demonstrating how seriously he was taking the situation. He was quick to envelop Melissa in a protective hug, and she had to battle a fresh round of tears.

Soon all her siblings and her nieces and nephews filled Caleb’s big house with love and support. The jumble of their conversations and chaos of the children provided a buffer between Melissa and her raw emotions.

She’d told herself she couldn’t be in love with Jared. Maybe it was infatuation. Maybe it was lust. She hadn’t known him long enough for it to be real love.

But then she’d remember his voice, his smile, his jokes, his passion and the way she’d felt in his arms. What if it was real love? How was she going to get over it?

She swallowed, smiling as one of her nephews handed her a sticky wooden block, forcing her thoughts to the present.

The doors and windows of Caleb’s house were wide open to the afternoon breeze. Some of her brothers were shooting hoops in the driveway while Adam cranked up the grill on the back deck and distributed bottles of imported beer. His wife, Renee, was calling out orders from the kitchen.