"I also understand you are Michael Shuttle's daughter?"
There was no point denying it. "I am. My mother and Mick were together for over thirty years. My relationship to Mick is not public knowledge, and I'd prefer it stayed private."
Piper wiped Ty's face and hands and handed him oversize plastic house keys to play with. They immediately went to his mouth. "Why are you here?"
Simms nodded. "Unlike his business, your father's personal assets were very well-documented. On his list were numerous pieces of furniture, with annotations that they are in this house. There is a Georgian desk, a painting by Zabinski, a sculpture by Barry Jackson. A Frida Kahlo painting."
"He gave those to my mother. They were gifts."
"The spreadsheet states the items were on loan to Gail Mills." Mr. Simms looked sympathetic.
From the kitchen she could see into the living room, where the bronze sculpture of a ballet dancer sat on the credenza. "Are you telling me they have to be sold?"
Simms nodded. "Yes. They are part of his estate."
Piper bit her bottom lip to keep her curses from escaping. "On loan, my ass! They were gifts. I was there when he gave them to her." Feeling sad and a little sick, Piper stood up to release Ty from his high chair.
Simms made a note in a small black notepad and looked at her as she swayed side to side, Ty on her hip. "I'll send a crew to collect the table, the art and the bronze. They'll go up for auction and you can buy them back."
Yeah, right, that wasn't going to happen. "I'll keep that in mind. Thank you." Piper looked at the door, hinting that she'd like him gone.
"There's just one more thing, Miss Mills."
Oh, God, judging by his serious face, whatever he was about to say would be a kick to the gut. She tightened her grip on Ty and waited for the hammer to fall.
"This property is owned by one of your father's companies and will definitely have to be sold to repay some of his creditors."
Piper felt her knees buckle, and she dropped to a chair, Ty landing on her lap. "What? But he left this house to my mom, who left it to me. I've requested a copy of the deed but I've received nothing."
"That's because he left the right for your mom to live in it. He didn't leave the asset. It's definitely not yours to live in. It will be sold. That is indisputable."
Indisputable? That sounded pretty damn final. Piper pushed past the panic and forced herself to think. "Would I be able to buy it?" she asked, her voice breaking.
"Do you have around three million dollars?" Simms asked. "Or a way to raise three million dollars?"
No, but she had some stones that might be worth that much, if they were real. This was her home, Ty's home! She'd lost her mother; she couldn't lose her house, too. If she could raise money from the sapphires, she might be able to get a mortgage for the rest...
"I can try to find the money. How much time do I have?"
Mr. Simms's face softened. "Your father left a hell of a mess, and you're being punished for it. That's not right. I'll push the sale of the property down my list of priorities and hope like hell I don't get caught. What about three months?"
Piper nodded, tears in her eyes. "Three months to raise three million. Holy crack-a-doodle."
Simms cocked his head at her. "If anyone can do it, Michael Shuttle's daughter can."
Piper didn't bother explaining that, while she carried Mick's DNA, she'd been anything but his daughter.
But she was Gail's daughter and Ty's mom, and she had a life she loved, a life now under threat. Piper looked around her colorful, cozy home, and her stomach twisted into a sailor's knot. This was her nest, the center of her life. It was her refuge, her cave, her son's playpen. It was where she felt safe.
Leaving her house and her life wasn't an option, so she had to fight for it, and that meant... God. Piper pushed her hand against her flat stomach, ordering her lungs to work.
Fighting for her life and her home meant selling her stones. And selling her stones meant going back to see Jaeger, the only man who'd ever tempted her to walk on the wild side. It didn't matter that she was still furious that he'd refused to see her, still hurt that she was so easily forgotten. She needed him.
Dammit. She needed Jaeger.
Only, she quickly qualified, to buy her sapphires so she could save her and Ty's home. She didn't need Jaeger to be her lover or Ty's dad or even to rehash the past and explain his actions.
It was a simple transaction: she'd give him ten sapphires and he'd give her a considerable amount of money.
It would be swift and simple.
With her rising stress levels, she didn't think she could cope with anything but swift and simple.
* * *
Sitting in the reception area, three floors up from the magnificent flagship jewelry store on Fifth Avenue, Piper took in the details of the Ballantyne and Company headquarters.
Unlike the restrained elegance of the jewelry store below, where the furnishings were top quality but designed to play second fiddle to the magnificent jewels, the corporate offices were modern, light and airy. Orange backless couches sat on polished cement floors, and wide windows allowed visitors to watch the Manhattan traffic below. Modern artwork-Piper instantly recognized the massive monochromatic Pinz-dominated the wall above a light wood credenza holding a coffee machine.
The knowledge that she was in danger of losing her house had galvanized her, and she'd swung into action. She had no choice; she had to establish whether the stones were valuable or not.
Piper hadn't wasted her energy trying to get an appointment with Jaeger directly, choosing instead to use her contacts in the art world. Art collectors had deep pockets, and many of them, including her old client Mr. Hendricks, purchased jewelry as well. She'd once saved him from purchasing a fraudulent Dali, and he'd quickly agreed to facilitate a meeting between her and Jaeger.
She would've saved herself a lot of heartache if she'd had this brainwave last year. Baby brain, she decided. Those pregnancy hormones had a lot to answer for!
Despite Jaeger acting like a toad after Milan, she trusted him professionally to tell her the truth about the stones. His reputation as an honest dealer was vitally important to him. Ballantyne and Company was also reputed to pay the highest prices for quality gems. Three very good, very business-y reasons for her to be here. Piper felt a drop of perspiration run down her spine. Her heart was bouncing off her rib cage and the air seemed thin.
She had to calm down.
She was going to see Jaeger again. Her one-time lover, the father of her child, the man she'd spent the past eighteen months fantasizing about. In Milan she hadn't been able to look at him without wanting to kiss him deeply, madly, without wanting to get naked with him as soon as humanly possible.
Jaeger, the same man who'd blocked her from his life.
Piper sucked in as much air as she could. She had to pull herself together! She was a few months shy of thirty, a mother. She was not a gauche girl about to meet her first crush. She had sapphires to sell, her house to save, a child to raise. She was being utterly ridiculous! This meeting had nothing to do with Ty or Milan. This meeting was about her gems and her need to raise the cash to keep her home. Ty's home.
Unable to sit still, Piper walked down the hall to examine another painting, this one by Crouch. Not his best work, she decided. Piper turned when male voices drifted toward her, and she immediately recognized Jaeger's deep timbre. Her skin prickled and burned and her heart flew out of her chest.
"Miss Mills?"
Piper hauled in a deep breath and looked at Jaeger. His hair was slightly shorter, she noticed, his stubble a little heavier. His eyes were still the same arresting blue, but his shoulders seemed broader, his arms under the sleeves of the black oxford shirt more defined. A soft leather belt was threaded through the loops of black chinos.
The corner of his mouth tipped up, the same way it had the first time they'd met, and like before, the butterflies in her stomach took flight and crashed into one another. Heat ran up her neck and into her cheeks and she bit her bottom lip, frantically telling herself she couldn't, wouldn't, throw herself into his arms and tell him that her mouth had missed his, that her body still craved his.
He held out his hand. "I'm Jaeger Ballantyne."
Yes, I know. We did several things to each other that, when I remember Milan, still make me blush.
What had she said in Italy? "When we meet again, we'll pretend we never saw each other naked."