But all they see is the confidence, and that’s all I’ll let them see today.
“May I call you Sienna?” Quinn asks, and I nod in return. “Sienna, I’d like you to meet Bruce House.”
“Hello.” I reach out to shake his hand.
“And this is my assistant, Kami. She’ll be taking notes, and helping out as needed.”
The younger blond woman nods, but she doesn’t smile. She looks determined, and I like that.
She’s not office candy.
“Okay, let’s get down to it,” I say as I sit and set my briefcase on the floor next to my seat. “I assume you have a deed to show me?”
Both men frown, and Mr. House shifts in his seat.
“I don’t,” he says.
“Then why are you wasting my time?”
“I have other documentation and an offer,” he replies. He’s balding, and his hands are shaky. He’s wearing a brown suit one size too small, and everything about this meeting feels smarmy.
I don’t like Bruce House.
I look at Quinn and shake my head, but he holds up a hand. “Just hear us out.”
“You have exactly three minutes.”
Chapter Two
~Quinn~
“Let me show you what Bruce has with him,” I begin and pass a manila envelope to Sienna, then wait as she opens the folder and begins to read. She looks beautiful, and off-limits, in her proper suit, her hair up, and those horrible shoes.
I suspect she’d look amazing in a paper sack. Her hair is strawberry blond, and her ice-blue eyes are more expressive than she’d be comfortable with.
She’s smart, and I’m damn attracted to her.
“This is a promissory note from 1913,” she says with a frown. “Between Lawrence Hendricks, my great-grandfather, and Reginald House.”
“My great-grandfather,” Bruce says with a nod. “It says that Reginald gave Lawrence twenty thousand dollars, and in exchange for the money, Lawrence signed the land over to Reginald.”
“But it also says here,” Sienna replies, “that the land would be deeded back to Lawrence when the money was paid back in full.”
Her blue eyes find Bruce’s and she raises a brow.
“I have no documentation that it was repaid,” Bruce says.
“But you also don’t have documentation that it wasn’t,” she argues, and keeps going. “And as a matter of fact, I don’t have proof that this isn’t a fake. It could have been printed last week, for all I know.”
“Both men signed it,” I reply and watch as she bites her lower lip and gazes down at the paper again. “It’s not a fake.”
“I don’t know that,” she snaps.
“I understand that this is a surprise,” Bruce says and adjusts his tie. Bruce isn’t a bad guy. I don’t believe he’s trying to pull one over on Sienna; he thinks he’s in the right.
Whether he is or not, I don’t know for sure, but it’s my job to represent him.
“I also know that this property is worth much more than the twenty thousand dollars that Reginald paid for it, and I’d like to make it right.”
Sienna’s eyes narrow, but she doesn’t say anything as Bruce continues talking.
“I’d like to have Quinn file a formal deed, officially transferring the land into my name, and in exchange, I’ll pay you one hundred thousand dollars.”
She blinks rapidly and sits back in her seat, closing the folder and pushing it away from her. I know before she says anything at all that the answer is a resounding hell no.
“Listen,” she says, her voice deceptively calm. Bruce nods, smiling with confidence that he’s just talked her into his plan.
He’s about to be disappointed.
“Bruce, you don’t know me very well. If you think that you can pay me barely six figures for a piece of property that’s worth millions, all based on a piece of paper that may or may not be real, you’re a complete idiot and your attorney should have given you better advice.”
That stings. I didn’t know about Bruce’s ludicrous offer until about twenty seconds ago.
“I’m going to take this before a judge,” I say, waving Bruce off when he wants to speak again. “I’m going to ask him to file the deed.”
“Based on what?”
I shake my head. “Based on this letter.”
She watches me for a moment, then a slow smile spreads over her pink lips and she stands, gathering her things.
“Looks like I’ll see you in court, then. Have a good day.”
She walks out, and I can’t take my eyes off her ass. I’m not proud of it, and I’d never admit it, but Sienna with her strawberry-blond hair and her quick wit turn me the hell on. I wonder what it would take to mess up her hair and get her out of that sensible suit?
Kami discreetly leaves the room, leaving me alone with my client.
“Now what?” Bruce asks.
“Now we go to court.”
“She’s not wrong,” Bruce says. “I can’t prove that this letter is real. I found it three months ago, before her grandfather died.”