Regina turned.
Harper was suddenly face-to-face with the most beautiful woman she’d ever seen. Even with reddened eyes and wet cheeks, she was stunning. Long, shining dark brown hair stood in dramatic contrast to her form-fitting red dress and smooth, golden skin. Dark eyes fastened on Harper. Harper stepped down and clutched at the bannister.
It’d all happened so quickly. She’d been caught red-handed and flustered in the act of eavesdropping. Jacob suddenly appeared on the landing. He tapped David hard on the chest.
“She has a history of substance abuse, you idiot. And she’s on medication. Don’t give her any more alcohol.”
“Listen, you son of a bitch—”
“Stop it, David. You don’t know what you’re talking about, and neither does Mr. Holier Than Thou here. Just take me back to the hotel,” Regina said, her speech slurred. She grabbed David’s hand and proceeded very unsteadily down the stairs. It was only then that Jacob noticed Harper standing there. His eyes seemed to blaze in his rigid face.
Regina paused next to her.
“So you’re the new flavor of the night? Is this some new kink you’ve dreamed up, screwing the girl next door?” she called back to Jacob.
“Damn it, Regina.” Jacob jogged down the steps and grabbed David’s elbow aggressively. He was so large and intimidating, such an oncoming storm, Harper stepped back instinctively.
“Get a cab and take her back to the hotel,” Jacob demanded. “I don’t want you or her driving—”
“I’m not drunk. And I’ve had about enough of you,” David blazed, throwing off Jacob’s hold. Harper wondered if what Jacob had insinuated about David being drunk was true. David was clearly the smaller of the two men, but seemed strangely cocky in the face of Jacob’s pointed anger, concern, and much more intimidating size.
“Oh shut up, both of you,” Regina hissed disgustedly. She shoved David in the opposite direction of a dangerous-looking Jacob. Harper saw her look back once at Jacob in a kind of desperate longing before they disappeared into the crowd.
Jacob turned to her with a jerky movement. His volatility seemed to roll off him in waves. Harper didn’t know what to say. It’d all happened so quickly. So unexpectedly . . . and it all seemed so out of character for Jacob.
“I’m sorry,” he said thickly. He raked his fingers through his hair in a gesture of sharp frustration. His gaze focused on her. “Regina is . . . an old friend.”
She didn’t reply. She’d never seen him so frayed. Harper wasn’t sure what she was feeling at that moment, beyond confused. It was clear that despite his anger at the woman, he cared about her a great deal.
The chimes calling the audience back to the performance rung. Jacob blinked at the sound dazedly. Suddenly, a handsome, gray-haired man of medium build who was dressed to the nines separated himself from the crowd. He came toward them. Jacob glanced around and froze.
“Clint,” he said, his voice hollow with disbelief.
“I saw her. The girl. Gina,” he pointed in the direction where Regina and David had disappeared. “You still have contact with her?” the man asked incredulously, his mouth slanting into a frown.
Jacob straightened, all vestiges of his strained state vanishing. Here was the glacial, utterly in control, intimidating man Harper recognized. “I saw her just now. What’s it to you?” A strange expression suddenly slid over Jacob’s face. He glanced uneasily at the doors where Regina had just exited with her date. “Did she see you? Regina?”
Jefferies scoffed.
Jacob lunged toward him. Jefferies’s smug, disdainful expression vanished and he took a half step back, clearly alarmed.
“Did Regina see you, damn it?” Jacob seethed.
“No, not that I’m aware of,” Jefferies said with bravado, although it was clear he was intimidated by Jacob’s pointed fury. He glanced around, seeming to take heart in the fact that they were in the middle of a public forum, despite the diminishing crowd. “Honestly, Jacob. I can’t believe you’re still letting her get to you. I swear, I’ve stopped trying to understand you.”
Jefferies’s gaze landed on Harper and moved over her speculatively, as if suddenly aware that there was a close audience to their charged conversation.
“Clint Jefferies,” he said, stepping toward Harper and putting out his hand, all smooth urbanity. He struck Harper as oily and manipulative in that moment. Jacob moved so fast, Harper was stunned. He came between her and the other man and grabbed her hand.
“Don’t you even look at her.”
She walked next to Jacob back toward the theater, his furious snarl echoing in her ears.
twenty-four
During the performance, Harper couldn’t help but be aware of Jacob’s continued tense state. Although he looked at the stage, he seemed to silently simmer, and she felt sure his mind was on what had just occurred during intermission—on Regina and Clint Jefferies—and not the opera. At one point, she glanced to the left and saw him in the audience: Clint Jefferies. His gaze was trained directly on Jacob and her.
She knew from Ruth Dannen’s pre-cocktail-party coaching that Jefferies owned the multibillion-dollar Markham Pharmaceuticals and had once been a kind of older brother–father figure to Jacob.