“Yes?” He made no move to invite Hannigan in but rather blocked the door.

“We were unable to reach you. Not a great area for cell phones up here in Sonoma.” Hannigan attempted small talk.

Daniel made no comment. Should he beat him up now or later? His visitor seemed to feel the uncomfortable silence.

“Mr. Merriweather has sent me to get an urgent signature from you. The contingency bond? He said he’d mentioned it to you.”

“Yes,” Daniel barked back. “Where do I sign?”

“I should go over the document with you. That’s why Mr. Merriweather didn’t send it by courier.” He tried to take a step forward, but Daniel didn’t yield from his spot at the door.

“That won’t be necessary. Pen?”

Nervously, the lawyer reached into his suit to find a pen, tapped on both sides of his inside pockets but came up empty. “So sorry. I must have misplaced it. You wouldn’t have one?”

Daniel’s anger level was at boiling point already. “Wait here.”

He stalked back the two steps it took to get into the kitchen and pulled out a couple of drawers before he found a pen.

“Daniel, do you think the housekeeper could—” Sabrina’s voice came from behind and suddenly broke off.

He jerked around instantly.

“Sabrina?” Hannigan. He’d stepped into the cottage and looked straight at her as she stood in the room wrapped in a towel.

“Oh no!” Sabrina shrieked.

“What the hell?” Hannigan looked from Daniel to her and back. “You little bitch. You had to fuck our richest client, didn’t you?”

Daniel instantly blocked Hannigan from approaching her. “Sabrina, go back to the bedroom. I’ll deal with him.”

Hannigan didn’t know when to shut up. “So she does spread her legs—for the right price.”

That’s when Daniel saw red. Nobody had the right to insult her. “Get the FUCK out!” he thundered. “Get out while you can still walk!” A supersonic airplane couldn’t have created any more powerful sound waves.

He rushed toward Hannigan, who instantly backed away, recognizing the raw brutality hidden beneath Daniel’s words. There was a promise of violence in the air as his nostrils flared dangerously. Hannigan didn’t wait to find out what Daniel was capable of and ran.

With the force of a thunderstorm Daniel slammed the door shut and turned around. Sabrina had left the kitchen.

***

Sabrina’s hands shook violently as she pulled her shorts over her thighs and zipped up. The trembling wouldn’t stop, but she had to get the t-shirt over her head. It didn’t matter that her hair was still wet. She had to get out of here.

Daniel had called her Sabrina. He knew her name, he knew who she was! There’d been no surprise when Hannigan had called out her name.

“Sabrina,” she heard Daniel’s voice as he rushed into the bedroom.

She quickly smoothed her t-shirt down.

“We need to talk.”

Now he wanted to talk? Good grief, the man had timing. She searched for her handbag.

“What are you doing?” His voice sounded frantic.

“I’m leaving.”

“No. Sabrina. You can’t leave.”

He had no right to tell her what to do or not to do. “You played me. You, you knew all along. Did you enjoy the laughs you were having behind my back? Did you?” Her voice was shrill.

“I never played you. Please. I was going to talk to you today.”

She gave him a sarcastic look. “Sure you were.” Talk about what, that he’d found her out? That he’d decided to toy with her, see how far she’d go? “How? How did you know?”

She realized now that he was the rich East Coast client the entire office had been talking about. That’s why Hannigan was here, not because he’d stalked her, but because he was looking for Daniel. Was that how he’d figured it out? He’d seen her in the office?

“Your friend, Holly.”

“Holly?”

“She confessed when I made the booking for this weekend.”

It was as stab that hit her hard. Her best friend had betrayed her. How could she? They’d grown up together, they’d looked out for each other. “I have no friend.”

“Sabrina, just listen. What did you expect me to do? You pretended to be an escort, and I went along with it. I never meant to hurt you. I want to be with you. We have something special between us. I love you.”

She ignored the three words she would have loved to believe. How could he love her? “I was your whore! You paid for my services, and I gave you what you paid for.”