Seduced by a Steele
Autore
Brenda Jackson
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Capitoli
22
One
Mercury Steele glanced over at his mother, sitting across the breakfast table. Eden Tyson Steele, you just had to love her.
He’d just told her how awful the past few days had been for him. Not only had he lost a client but also one of his prized antique cars had been stolen. She had the audacity to say there must be a reason for the streak of bad luck he’d had lately. Of course, she couldn’t resist blaming it on his womanizing ways.
“That’s awful about your car getting stolen, Mercury. What did the police say about it?” his father asked with concern.
He appreciated his father’s empathy, but then, Drew Steele had passed his love for antique cars on to his six sons. He’d passed something else on to them, as well. Namely his testosterone-driven genes.
In Drew’s younger days he’d been quite the ladies’ man. His reputation as a philanderer had been so bad that he’d been run out of Charlotte by a bunch of women out for blood—namely Drew’s. He had fled from North Carolina, where most of the Steele family lived, and made his way to Phoenix. That was where he’d eventually met and fallen in love with Mercury’s mother.
Eden Tyson Steele, a green-eyed beauty and former international model, whose face had graced the covers of such magazines as Vogue, Cosmo and Elle, had practically snatched Drew’s heart right out of his chest. Proving miracles could happen.
For the longest time, it seemed their six die-hard bachelor sons had inherited Drew’s philandering genes when their womanizing reputation rivaled that of their father’s. They’d become known as the Bad News Steeles. Four of Mercury’s brothers had now married, leaving only two brothers still single: Mercury and Gannon.
He couldn’t speak for Gannon, but Mercury intended to be a bachelor for life.
Their brother Galen was the oldest of the six and had gotten married first. At thirty-eight he’d made millions as a video-game creator. Tyson was thirty-seven, the most recent to marry, and was a gifted surgeon. Eli, at thirty-six, was a prominent attorney in town and had been the second to marry. Jonas, who was thirty-five and the third to marry, owned a marketing business. Mercury was thirty-four and was a well-known sports agent; and Gannon, who had recently turned thirty-three, had become CEO of the family’s million-dollar trucking firm when Drew had retired.
“They will be on the lookout for it, Dad, but I was told not to get my hopes up about getting it back. More than likely it will be dismantled for parts. Knowing that hurts more than anything. That particular car was my favorite.”
Drew nodded sympathetically and Mercury appreciated his father’s understanding of just how upset he still was about it, even if his mother did not. He glanced at his watch. “I need to get going if I intend to make that appointment. A possible new client.”
Getting up from the table, he leaned over and placed a kiss on his mother’s cheek. “Thanks for breakfast, Mom. You’re still my number one girl.” He then glanced over at his father. “I’ll talk to you later, Dad.”
Ten minutes later he was headed toward his office in the Steele Building. A few years ago, his attorney brother, Eli, had purchased a twenty-story high-rise in downtown Phoenix. Eli’s wife, Stacey, owned the gift shop on the ground floor. Their brother Jonas’s marketing company, Ideas of Steele, was housed on the fifth floor, and Galen leased the entire second and third floors as a downtown campus for his wife’s etiquette schools. Mercury and his brother Tyson jointly leased the tenth floor. Although Tyson was the physician in the family, he’d leased the space as a gift to his wife, Hunter, for her architecture company.
Sharing office space with Hunter worked out great. Mercury liked Hunter and for now they shared an administrative assistant, Pauline Martin. The older woman was perfect and had to be the most efficient woman Mercury had ever met. She knew how to handle him, his clients and his appointments.
The moment he merged into traffic on the interstate that would take him downtown, he blinked. Three cars ahead of him was his car. His stolen car. He would recognize his red 1967 Camaro anywhere. Hell, they hadn’t even bothered changing the license plates.
Moving into the other lane, he tried getting as close as he could. Finally, he was two cars behind. When the driver changed lanes, he did likewise. When the car exited off the interstate, he followed, but now he was three cars behind. He pressed the call-assist button on his car’s dash. Within seconds a voice came on through the car’s speaker. “Yes, Mr. Steele, how can we help you today?”
“Connect me with the Phoenix Police Department.”
“Yes, Mr. Steele.”
He nodded, appreciating hands-free technology. Moments later the connection was made. “Phoenix Police Department. May I help you?”
“My car, the one that was stolen three nights ago that you guys haven’t been able to find, is three cars ahead of me. I’m tailing them as we speak.”
“Your name, sir?”
“Mercury Steele.”
“What is your location?”
“Currently, I’m in the Norcross District, at the intersection of Adams and Monroe. If the driver makes a stop, then I will, too.”
“Sir, you are advised not to tail anyone or take matters into your own hands. Police in the area have been summoned.”
Like hell he wouldn’t tail the person who’d had the nerve to steal his car, he thought, disconnecting the call.
Mercury saw the driver making a right turn ahead and he quickly put on the brakes when the car ahead of him got caught by a traffic light.
“Damn!” He hoped he didn’t lose the thief. It seemed to take forever for the traffic light to change and then he turned right at the intersection. Glancing around, he saw he was on a busy street, one that led to the Apperson Mall.
Sloan Donahue didn’t have time to go back home and change her blouse, and there was no way she could wear one bearing coffee stains to her job interview. That meant she needed to dash into this clothing store and buy a new blouse and then swap it out in the dressing room with the one she was currently wearing.
She was excited. For the very first time she would be interviewing for a job without her parents’ help or interference. She’d left Cincinnati, Ohio, a week ago when her parents tried forcing her into an arranged marriage, saying that in their social circles it was their duty to ensure her future and her fortune. She’d refused. Luckily, her parents’ predictions that she couldn’t make it on her own and would be returning home in less than forty-eight hours didn’t happen. She wouldn’t go back if they still expected her to marry Harold Cunningham. And she knew they would.
Sloan didn’t care one iota that marrying Harold would be a financial marriage made in heaven. It was her life and future they were dealing with. She didn’t love Harold any more than he loved her. For the past six months he’d wined and dined her, romanced her like a good suitor was supposed to. For a short while, she’d almost convinced herself maybe he was falling in love with her and that she could possibly fall in love with him.
Then she’d discovered he was having an affair. She’d received the text message he’d intended to send another woman. When she confronted Harold about it, he didn’t deny anything. He admitted to being in love with the woman, but said he would do his “duty” and marry Sloan. However, he wanted her to know that, married or not, he intended for the woman he loved to forever be a part of his life. In other words, he would have a mistress if he and Sloan got married.
When she told her parents to call off the wedding and the reason for doing so, they felt Harold marrying her and keeping his piece on the side shouldn’t matter. She should consider the boost the marriage would play in her financial future and suck it up. They’d given her an ultimatum to marry Harold or else. She told them she would take the or else.
She needed time away from her family, and wanting to get as far away from Cincinnati as she could, Sloan had looked up an old college roommate who invited her to come to Phoenix. But then Priscilla had unexpectedly had to leave the day after Sloan arrived. Priscilla’s boyfriend had finally asked her to marry him and had sent her an airline ticket to Spain.
The good thing was that the rent was paid up and Priscilla told Sloan she was welcome to stay in the house for the remainder of the month. That meant getting a job to have funds to cover the rent for next month. For the past few days she’d studied interview videos on the internet and felt she was ready.
As she rushed into the store, she glanced back at her car. Her car. It wasn’t the Tesla sports car she’d left behind in Cincinnati, but a car that was probably older than she was. But it ran okay, and she’d only paid three hundred for it. It was hers and that was what mattered.
Since her parents had made good on their threat and placed a hold on the funds in her bank account, she had to watch her money. No telling what else they would do in order to get her to return home. Well, she had news for them. She would rather endure the hardship of not having the finer things in life she was used to than a forced, loveless marriage.
She knew she would be making decisions she’d never had to make before, decisions her parents had always made for her, but it was time for a change. For the first time in her life she felt a sense of freedom she’d never had before, and she truly loved it.
