She wandered along the edge of his desk, glancing over the photos lining his credenza against one wall. Dolph flanked by Dodgers Matt Kemp and Clayton Kershaw. Dolph with Raiders’ quarterback Terrelle Pryor. Dolph with the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant. Then there was frame after frame of Dolph with politicians, Forbes 500 icons, celebrities, celebrities, and more celebrities.
Not one image of Rubi. Not from her childhood. Not from her two college graduations. Not from her modeling career.
Nothing.
“Right. You’re busy,” she said, her tone light but her heart heavy. “So why not take this house off your plate altogether and accept one of the six offers I made you over the last year? Or even simply acknowledge them?”
Wes remained perfectly silent. Perfectly still. Yet perfectly present.
“Because,” he drew out the word, patience waning, “this is business. Putting property on the market creates competition-”
“Driving up the price,” she finished for him, a sinking, half-numb sensation dropping low in her belly. “And the sales game is far more important to you than my feelings. ”
“Feelings have no place in business. ”
“What about ethics?” Rubi asked. “What about kindness? What about human decency? Do those have any place in business?”
He exhaled heavily, a look of utter exasperation on his face. He glanced at Wes again. Crossed his arms. “Who’s this?”
Wes approached. Rubi had seen Wes’s size and unexpected intensity intimidate smaller men, but Dolph was too full of himself, too arrogant for intimidation.
“Wes Lawson,” he said without offering his hand. His eyes looked stony in the dim light. “A friend of your daughter’s. ”
Rubi appreciated his attempted relationship plug, though she knew it would go unheard.
“Wes Lawson. ” Dolph’s eyes narrowed. He turned, taking a sudden interest in Wes. “Lawson…” he drew out as if trying to remember where he’d heard the name. Dolph’s gaze darted back to Rubi. “Is this the guy you called me about? Something about a physical therapy device?”
Wes shot a stunned look at Rubi, and her stomach fell the rest of the way to her feet. Her phone call to Dolph about the rig had never entered her mind. Shit. She would have liked to have told Wes about that first. But…too late now.
“Wait. ” She held up her hands, palms out. “You remember that, but you don’t remember my six offers on your house?”
“I gave the message to one of my junior partners. ” Dolph spoke directly to Wes. Rubi had been completely dismissed. “She did some research into this rehabilitation unit and thinks it’s viable. She tells me you’re a very talented engineer. Graduated at the top of your class from Missouri S&T, right?”
“I graduated top of my class from USC and Birmingham,” Rubi said, “but you’ve never even mentioned it. Didn’t show for graduation. Didn’t even pick up the fucking phone. ”
“Excuse me. ” He spared her a disapproving, don’t-interrupt parental glance. “I’m talking. ” Then refocused on Wes. “Tell me about this device you’ve created. ”
The look on Wes’s face was a cross between disgust and fury. “I’m here because Rubi is interested in buying the house she’s living in. Not to talk about the rig. ”
“Have you hit up other developers?” Dolph asked with a fresh glint in his eyes as if he smelled money. “Have you had any offers on the device yet?”
“Several. ” Rubi stepped up beside Wes. This was over. She was swamped in a flood of pain and anger that stretched deep below the surface, and she had to get out of here. Hopefully save Wes in the process. “Multimillion-dollar offers from major corporations. ”
Wes gripped her forearm. “I think we’re done here. ”
“If you’re interested,” Rubi laid out her last card on Wes’s behalf, “you’d better come up with a better deal than he’s already got. ”
Wes pulled her around toward the door. She didn’t resist or argue.
“Wes. ” Dolph called at his back, approaching with a business card in his hand. “Call my chief of development. She’s young and sharp. And very excited about your invention.
”
“Rubi’s also young and sharp and very interested in your house. ” Wes took the card and met Dolph’s gaze purposefully. “It seems like a good time for consideration all around. ”
Seventeen
Wes jammed the elevator’s down button with a knuckle. It took everything he had not to walk back into that room and slam his fist into Dolph’s face. He was so damned average—average height, average build, average appearance. All the looks in the family had to have come from Rubi’s mother. How a man so average could spew such hurtful words, Wes couldn’t quite get his mind around.