Stephanie ignored his growl, addressing Cole with a wry smile. “Yes, I know who you are, Mr. Miller. In fact, I recognize all three of you from your pictures. I know all about you.
“You know all about us? Even how we met?” The dark-haired man tilted his head, glancing at Bran from the corner of his eye.
“Yes, I know you’re Jarrett Alvarez from Denver.” Then she addressed the other two. “Cole Miller from Texas. And Finn Anderson, from New York. I know how you met and what you all have in common, besides the corporation.”
“And what do we all have in common?”
She flinched at the sharp edge in Cole’s voice.
“Unless I’m mistaken, you all have a love for kids with disabilities, and that’s why you started Limitless, to help those kids.” She lifted her chin, refusing to be intimidated by Cole’s towering stature or the wealth and power he represented as one of the four kingpins in Phantom Enterprises. After all, she dealt with his equal on a daily basis.
“And how we met?” Finn Anderson asked in his charming accent, though his brows drew together with suspicion.
“You met at the computer camp you all went to every year from age thirteen on,” she announced, triumphant in her knowledge.
“Computer camp?” Finn glanced over his shoulder where Bran’s shoulders drooped as if he were resigned to the death chamber.
“It was computer camp,” Branson defended.
“For kids with disabilities,” Finn clarified.
With great difficulty, she stopped her jaw from dropping open, but her eyes must have gone wide. Unbidden, her gaze darted to the three, surreptitiously searching for their hidden flaws. Each one was drop-dead handsome in his own way, though none of the others held a candle to Bran. She’d noticed Jarrett limping earlier, but she forced her eyes away from his feet.
“I can’t believe you never told her the truth.” Cole aimed an ineffectual glare at her sullen boss.
“It’s not like she doesn’t know I’m blind. I had no reason to give her details about the three of you—especially you, Cole.” She saw a tell-tale twitch on Bran’s lips, and suspected he was holding back a grin. “I always said we shouldn’t have let you in the group. You’re only missing your left hand. And you have a prosthetic replacement that works better than the original. Hardly counts.”
Her furtive glance at his hand didn’t expose any clue that it was anything but natural. She almost wrote off Bran’s comment as a jest.
“It counts.” The impatience in Cole’s voice told her they’d repeated this argument a thousand times. He turned and gave Stephanie a knowing look, extending his hand for examination. “This one is fairly useless… just for looks. I prefer my other one. It looks like a colorful robot arm, but the function is impressive.”
She marveled at the realistic prosthesis, though close inspection revealed its artificial nature. “Why not wear the other all the time, if you like it better?”
“Social settings. It makes people uncomfortable.” Cole used his elbow to push her boss back when he tried to edge around him. “Bran, I see you’ve been trying to keep her sympathy all to yourself. Too bad, buddy.”
“Sympathy?” She let her disbelief show. “He gets no sympathy from me.”
“Good. He doesn’t need it.” Jarrett lifted his pant leg to show a metal prosthesis with a dress shoe. “I’m the one with the fake leg. Osteosarcoma. I lost it when I was thirteen.”
“I see.” She plastered a smile on her face and nodded, all the while, thinking of the trauma that must have been involved in fighting childhood cancer, and secretly wondering what his longevity might be.
“It’s cystic fibrosis for me,” Finn said. “I guess I’m the least disabled. I don’t struggle with anything but breathing. But I’m thirty-two and living on borrowed time.”
Steph felt a sting in the back of her eyes and blinked fast to keep tears from spilling out. She understood cystic fibrosis all too well.
“Shut up, Finn.” Jarrett gave his shoulder a friendly shove. “You’ll probably outlive all of us.”
“It makes sense, now.” Steph tucked her head down, to hide her trembling chin. “I mean, I get why you’re all so determined to do something for those kids out there. Limitless is an awesome organization.”
“Yeah, but that’s not why we want to ta
lk to you.” Finn herded her toward the couch and settled her onto the buttery soft leather, where she found herself flanked by him and Jarrett. “Tell us all Carina Parker’s dirty secrets, so we can stop this disastrous marriage.”
“Leave it…” Bran’s voice gurgled a warning. The only time she’d ever seen him this emotional was when he got off the phone with his father. “This isn’t your business.”
“Of course it’s our business.” With his arms crossed and shoulders squared, Cole faced Branson. “You’re one quarter of Phantom Enterprises. You’re risking everything, marrying this woman we don’t even know.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Branson retorted. “She’ll sign a pre-nup. And we don’t need to discuss this in front of Stephanie. She has nothing to do with my personal life.”