Chapter 187

He quirked an eyebrow as if to say, “Oh really? Prove it.”

“You make money,” she stated succinctly. “Lots of it. I know what you’re worth.”

This time the other eyebrow went up, too. She’d surprised him.

“I don’t want you to make his problem go away. I want you to pay off his debt.”

“You need money.” He spoke slowly, as if marveling at the irony. “And you have no one else to ask?”

Despite the embarrassment creeping under her skin, she forced herself not to look away. Not to shy away from his cool, appraising gaze. “There’s no one else. He owes a lot.” She sucked in a deep breath. Gut-check time. “Fifty thousand dollars. We could mortgage the house, but it’d be weeks before we saw the actual money, and frankly, it’s not worth that much.”

A slow, cynical smile toyed with his lips. “You want me to just hand you a check for fifty thousand dollars?”

“I know you have it.”

His smile broadened without any humor reaching his eyes. “And why would