manila folder, which he laid open-faced on the desktop. Then, without hesitation, he leaned in and eyed her directly.
“May I speak plainly, Miss James?”
“Is that not what you’ve already been doing, Mr. Hanover?”
Something tightened in his face. She noticed the almost nondescript twinge of a muscle that flexed in his jaw once she’d decided to answer him with a bit of moxie.
Score one for Miss James.
She could see by his response that there was a lot at stake. This guy was polished, comfortable in his own skin, and impossibly good looking. But despite his subtle efforts to see if she’d be intimidated in an office that was bigger than her entire Lower East Side apartment, she refused to fold.
Sera coughed over the nervous tickle in her throat and notchedher chin a little higher in the air. She’d be confident in front of him if it killed her.
“Do you know what I have here?” he said, drumming the folder with his fingertips.
“I’m sure I don’t.”
“It’s a copy of my grandfather’s will. Signed little more than a year ago, stipulating that the entire estate should be left to someone none of us have ever heard of. Someone without a name. The owner of a certain painting. We have a painting in our possession, but it’s a copy of the original. What’s more, we don’t know where the original is or who owns it. Now, you can imagine what kind of surprise this was to us, the unsuspecting family members who now have to keep my grandfather’s business afloat with no assets to do so. Would you think that as president of my grandfather’s company I might be a bit, we’ll say, taken aback by this turn of events?”
“I suppose so.”
“Would you say that I have the right to be concerned when some anonymous gallery owner waltzes in with a story that she’s searching for a lost painting, our painting, mind you, and positions herself to clean out the estate my grandfather worked his entire life to build up?”
Sera’s palm flew up on instinct, asking for a pause to the accusation. “Wait—you think I’m here for your money?”
He didn’t flinch. “Aren’t you?”
“Of course not!” Surely he wasn’t serious. The man thought she was there on a mission to find the painting so she could cash out on the family estate? “You can’t think I’m capable of doing such a thing.”
His eyes sparkled a little. “I think anyone would be capable of it given the one-hundred-million-dollar paycheck involved. That’s why we’ve sought to keep this matter quiet. No media. You understand. If it got out that the estate goes to the owner of somelost painting, we’d have every fortune hunter and news outfit in the country descending on the estate in a matter of minutes.”
It was a difficult situation, no doubt. Having heard a bit of the backstory helped her make some sense of it all. But that was where Sera’s compassion fizzled. This man was a stranger, yet he possessed the ability to stare straight through her.
Sera could feel her temperature starting to rise hotter than the California sun outside. “Listen. My gallery stumbled across your painting by chance. We’ve been searching for the original for the last two years and had hoped this was the key to finding it.”
“For two years?” He cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve been after the same painting I’m looking for?”
“It would seem so.”
William paused and, tilting his head to the side, said, “Then your explanation for wanting it is . . . ?”
She couldn’t tell him the truth. Not now. Best to gloss over the fact that she’d do just about anything to find the one link she had to her father’s memory. “The fact that this painting is named in your grandfather’s will has nothing to do with me. I am merely doing my job as an art historian. We’re acquiring Holocaust era art for the gallery. My job right now is to find the painting—end of story.”
“Has someone hired you to find it?”
“No.”
“Well, Miss James. It
“May I speak plainly, Miss James?”
“Is that not what you’ve already been doing, Mr. Hanover?”
Something tightened in his face. She noticed the almost nondescript twinge of a muscle that flexed in his jaw once she’d decided to answer him with a bit of moxie.
Score one for Miss James.
She could see by his response that there was a lot at stake. This guy was polished, comfortable in his own skin, and impossibly good looking. But despite his subtle efforts to see if she’d be intimidated in an office that was bigger than her entire Lower East Side apartment, she refused to fold.
Sera coughed over the nervous tickle in her throat and notchedher chin a little higher in the air. She’d be confident in front of him if it killed her.
“Do you know what I have here?” he said, drumming the folder with his fingertips.
“I’m sure I don’t.”
“It’s a copy of my grandfather’s will. Signed little more than a year ago, stipulating that the entire estate should be left to someone none of us have ever heard of. Someone without a name. The owner of a certain painting. We have a painting in our possession, but it’s a copy of the original. What’s more, we don’t know where the original is or who owns it. Now, you can imagine what kind of surprise this was to us, the unsuspecting family members who now have to keep my grandfather’s business afloat with no assets to do so. Would you think that as president of my grandfather’s company I might be a bit, we’ll say, taken aback by this turn of events?”
“I suppose so.”
“Would you say that I have the right to be concerned when some anonymous gallery owner waltzes in with a story that she’s searching for a lost painting, our painting, mind you, and positions herself to clean out the estate my grandfather worked his entire life to build up?”
Sera’s palm flew up on instinct, asking for a pause to the accusation. “Wait—you think I’m here for your money?”
He didn’t flinch. “Aren’t you?”
“Of course not!” Surely he wasn’t serious. The man thought she was there on a mission to find the painting so she could cash out on the family estate? “You can’t think I’m capable of doing such a thing.”
His eyes sparkled a little. “I think anyone would be capable of it given the one-hundred-million-dollar paycheck involved. That’s why we’ve sought to keep this matter quiet. No media. You understand. If it got out that the estate goes to the owner of somelost painting, we’d have every fortune hunter and news outfit in the country descending on the estate in a matter of minutes.”
It was a difficult situation, no doubt. Having heard a bit of the backstory helped her make some sense of it all. But that was where Sera’s compassion fizzled. This man was a stranger, yet he possessed the ability to stare straight through her.
Sera could feel her temperature starting to rise hotter than the California sun outside. “Listen. My gallery stumbled across your painting by chance. We’ve been searching for the original for the last two years and had hoped this was the key to finding it.”
“For two years?” He cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve been after the same painting I’m looking for?”
“It would seem so.”
William paused and, tilting his head to the side, said, “Then your explanation for wanting it is . . . ?”
She couldn’t tell him the truth. Not now. Best to gloss over the fact that she’d do just about anything to find the one link she had to her father’s memory. “The fact that this painting is named in your grandfather’s will has nothing to do with me. I am merely doing my job as an art historian. We’re acquiring Holocaust era art for the gallery. My job right now is to find the painting—end of story.”
“Has someone hired you to find it?”
“No.”
“Well, Miss James. It
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