Rough Harbor by Andrea Stein Read Free Book Online Page A

was interesting stuff, stuff he probably should have known sooner. But that wasn’t what they were here to talk about.
    Tommy brushed back his blond hair and tossed back the last of his drink.
    “May I?” he asked, reaching for the bottle. Sam hesitated just for an instant before nodding. Tommy smiled. Didn’t like to share the good stuff, did he? Tommy thought as he poured himself a generous measure.
    “You didn’t bring me here to talk about old history, did you?”
    Sam looked at him, shook his head and said, “I really like what you’ve done with the Platinum Fund. We have clients clamoring to get in. I see a bright future for you here at the new Randall Group.”

Chapter 12
    Noah stood on the beach, wrapped in a warm jacket lifted from his father’s closet. His clothes were all Californian now, not suited for October on the East coast, so he had found this one that was old and shabby, but only a little too small. He had come down here to clear his head. The police had made their final, formal call. The medical examiner had ruled his father’s death an accident, one caused by an excess of alcohol, a penchant for drinking outside and a set of rickety old stairs that ended on a rocky bit of beach. Noah could sense that they were already losing interest, moving on to the next case.
    He rubbed his hands through his hair. His head was still reeling. The news that lawyer had delivered hadn’t been a complete surprise. His father had been clear that he wanted to pass the firm on to his son. His father had believed in passing things down from one generation to the next. The foundation of great wealth, he’d often said. He wouldn’t have cared whether or not the next generation wanted it – or whether it had really been his to give.
    Noah had always been bothered by that. The simple, almost effortless way Maxwell had taken control of the company after Lucas Montgomery’s death, squeezing out Caitlyn and her mother. They’d been left with nothing of the company her family had built over the generations. Even the name had been changed.
    Noah now had something he did not want, did not need and, most importantly, did not know what to do with. He would have no clue how to run an investment advising firm. He was focused on his next project, and that was going to require all of his time and energy.
    He looked out over the water as if the answers to all his problems could be found there. His father’s house sat on a short promontory of land that stuck out in the wide expanse of Queensbay Harbor. To the west was the actual village of Queensbay, to the east, more land that rounded off into bluffs and a beach that overlooked the Sound. Hills ringed the whole harbor, dotted with the homes of those who had enough cash to pay for a water view. The easiest way to get down to the beach were by the private staircases that wound up and down the face of the bluffs.
    Noah had decided to avoid his father’s precarious stairs. It was too hard for him to look at them without imagining his father falling, not sober enough to realize just what was happening. So, he had taken the long way around, cutting across the small row of trees that divided his father’s property from the neighbors’ and then borrowed their stairs, which were sturdy and in good condition.
    The breeze was running fresh air through him, cleansing him, serving to scour him of the pain he felt. He’d known coming home wouldn’t be easy, having successfully avoided it for years. There were too many memories for that, but he hadn’t expected it to be quite this hard. Seeing Caitlyn would have been treacherous under any circumstances, but the past couple of days had stirred up too many old memories, too many old feelings.
    Why was it she could do that to him, make him feel like he had when he’d been twenty and under her powerful spell? Her eyes had been distant and a little sad, and he knew that, of everyone there, she best understood his pain, his complex feelings,