The bank president simply stared at her. “I know you’ve only been here a short time, but have I ever asked you to do anything dishonest?”

“No, sir. That’s why I thought it must be very important.”

“And you have no idea who put the papers there?”

“None. They were there when I arrived for work. You were in your office, so I was sure you’d left them, just like the note said.”

“I don’t suppose you kept the note,” Nate said.

She shook her head. “No, sir.”

Grogan sighed heavily. “You may go, Miss Ames.”

“You’re…you’re not firing me?”

“Not at this time,” he said. “Not until we get all of this sorted out, at any rate. But if I find you know more than you’ve told us just now, you will be out of here. Am I making myself perfectly clear?”

Her head bobbed. She left the room looking so terrified that Grady almost felt sorry for her.

“I apologize,” Grogan said. “I don’t know what she could have been thinking.”

“That she was doing you a favor, I’m sure,” Grady told him wryly. “Obviously she’s very loyal to you.”

“Or to someone else,” Grogan said wearily. “I’ll straighten this out. I promise you that. And I will call Mrs. Hanson and explain things to her.”

Grady nodded. “I wish you would. And one more thing. Were you the one who warned Caleb Hanson about this so-called attempt on my part to buy up his mortgage?”

“Yes. I saw to it that the application was denied and then told him what was going on. He and his family have banked here for years. I thought he had a right to know.”

“Who else could have left those papers on your secretary’s desk, especially before she arrived in the morning?”

“Anyone who works here. The other employees arrive here around eight. Miss Ames drops her son off at school. She doesn’t arrive until closer to eight-thirty. It wouldn’t take a minute to drop off the file. People leave papers on Miss Ames’s desk all day long. No one would think a thing about it.”

“But it couldn’t have been an outsider, correct? It had to be someone working here?”

“So it seems.” He looked Grady in the eye. “I’ll get to the bottom of it. You have my word on that.”

Grady nodded. He didn’t doubt that Nathaniel Grogan’s intentions were honorable, but as Jarrod Wilcox had already pointed out, this incident, like the others, had taken place long ago. Finding answers wasn’t going to be simple. People’s memories faded. Except, of course, for the person who’d done it. He or she wouldn’t have forgotten. But could the wrongdoer be persuaded to tell the truth?

“I’ll hold you to that,” he said as Nate walked with him onto the main floor of the bank.

Just as they stepped into the marble-floored lobby, Karen walked through the front door, took one look at the two of them and turned pale. Then bright patches of color flared in her cheeks right before she turned and fled.

“Dammit,” Grady muttered, and took off after her. He knew what she was thinking, knew she was adding up two and two and coming up with a hundred and ten or whatever number would be most damning.

He caught up with her halfway down the block and fell into step beside her. She didn’t even glance over at him.

“Good morning,” he said, being deliberately upbeat.

“I have nothing to say to you.”

“That’s fine, because I have quite a lot to say to you,” he said, steering her into Stella’s before she could protest. He knew her well enough to understand that she wouldn’t make a scene, not here in front of her friend Cassie, who was staring at them, clearly ready to intercede.

“This looks like a nice quiet place to talk,” Grady said tightly as he aimed for the booth in the back.

He stood there until she sank onto the seat with a resigned sigh, then he slid in next to her just to be sure she couldn’t bolt before they had this out.

“Everything okay?” Cassie asked, her worried gaze on Karen.

“Fine,” Grady said. “Bring us two cups of coffee.” He glanced at Karen. “Have you had breakfast yet?”

“It’s after ten. What do you think?”

He bit back a grin, then glanced up at Cassie. “I guess the coffee will do for now.”

He noted that Karen’s hands were folded primly on the table, that her gaze was everywhere but on him. Those angry patches of color in her cheeks hadn’t faded. He warned himself to give it another couple of minutes before saying anything. Maybe once she’d had her coffee, her temper would die down and she’d be ready to listen to reason.

Cassie brought the steaming cups to the table, then lingered, but when neither Karen or Grady looked up, she sighed and walked away.

“I suppose you were wondering what I was doing with Nate Grogan,” he said finally.

“I don’t think it takes much imagination to figure that out,” she snapped. “Did he agree to let you buy up the mortgage this time?”

“I never tried to buy the blasted mortgage,” Grady retorted. “Not today. Not two years ago.”

“So you say.”

“Ask Grogan. He intends to call you to explain what happened anyway.”

“I’m sure he’ll say whatever you want him to say,” she said.

“He didn’t before, did he? Wasn’t he the one who called Caleb to tell him what I was supposedly up to?”

She hesitated at that. “Yes,” she conceded.

“Well, today he found out that I was not the person who filled out that original paperwork. I’m sure he’ll tell you that if you ask.”

She turned to him at last, her blue eyes filled with confusion. “But the papers…?”

“They were forged by someone and later notarized by a loyal secretary who thought she was doing what Grogan wanted her to do.”

Her gaze searched his and Grady thought he saw a faint flicker of hope in her eyes. “Honestly?”

“I won’t lie to you, Karen. I haven’t before and I won’t start now. I want that land, but I have never done anything devious or underhanded to try to get it.”

A sigh seemed to shudder through her at that. “I want to believe you,” she admitted.

“Then do it,” he pleaded. “Believe me. Trust me.”

“If only it were that simple,” she whispered.

She didn’t have to say what she was really thinking. Grady knew. Caleb had labeled him the enemy. How could he possibly overcome the accusations of a dead man, especially a dead man that she had loved with all her heart?

At that moment, for the first time, Grady understood the true meaning of hatred and jealousy. He hated Caleb Hanson, not for all of the lies he had believed about Grady and shared with his wife in the past, but for his ability to rob them of a future even from the grave.

Chapter Nine

Something had changed in that split second when Grady had looked into Karen’s eyes at Stella’s. It was as if a light had gone off inside him, as if he’d been defeated. It wasn’t long before he’d made his excuses and left, leaving her staring after him in confusion.

She had told herself then that it would pass, that things would return to normal, that he would pop up when she least expected him at the ranch, but it hadn’t happened that way. Just as he’d disappeared before when she’d hurt him, he hadn’t been around for days now. Even Hank and Dooley, who had regarded him with suspicion from the beginning, had commented on his absence.

“Thought he was becoming a permanent fixture around here,” Dooley said, a hint of disapproval plain in his voice.

“Well, he wasn’t,” Karen said defensively. Hiding her confusion behind anger, she added, “And we don’t have time to stand around gabbing about a man who had no business being here in the first place.”

“Fine by me,” Dooley said.

“And me,” Hank said fervently. “The boss never did like him.”

“I’m the boss now,” Karen reminded him. “You need to worry about what I like.”

Dooley’s eyes widened. “Are you saying you trust a scoundrel like Grady Blackhawk?”