Risqué Business (Club Risqué #8)

Chapter 1

TRINITY AND CHRISTIAN

“ Hi, I wonder if you can help me? I’m trying to find an old friend by the name of Krista Knightley.” Trinity spoke politely to the woman whose number she’d acquired after half a dozen similar calls. In all honesty, she was becoming frustrated and felt like she was just being given the runaround. But this was important to Christian, and therefore, it was important to her.

For more reasons than one.

“What did you say your name was?” The woman asked. “I didn’t,” Trinity replied, wondering if the woman was deliberately trying to catch her out. It certainly felt like it. “But my name is Taryn Trent, if that helps.”

“And why are you trying to contact Mrs Knightley?”

None of your goddamn business.

She didn’t say that, of course. No matter how tempted she was.

“Like I said, Krista is an old friend. I lost contact with her a few years ago when I moved out of the area, and I’d like to get back in touch.”

“Not much of a friend if you’re having to contact her company to get in touch because you don’t have a number for her,” the woman replied caustically.

“I do have several numbers for her,” Trinity said from between gritted teeth, her patience fast deserting her. “I also have her previous address. But my letters have been returned, unopened, which I guess makes sense, since I’ve been informed she no longer lives there, and the landline number is for the same property and appears to have been changed. The cell phone number I have is no longer in service, so yes, I’m trying to contact her through the company.”

“Well, ma’am, perhaps you should take a hint. It seems pretty clear to me that Ms. Knightley didn’t want to maintain your so-called friendship. Just give it up.”

Trinity could sense the woman was about to hang up on her. “Look, this is important,” she snapped. “You don’t need to provide me with any personal details. All I’m asking is that you pass my name and number on to Krista. I’m sure she can decide for herself whether she wants to get in touch. But since this is a family matter., which concerns her directly, I really don’t think it’s your call to make.” She didn’t give the woman time to argue. Instead, she rattled off her name and number, then repeated it. “Did you get that, or do I need to repeat it again?”

“Of course I got it.”

Trinity wasn’t convinced the woman wasn't agreeing just to get rid of her, but she could hardly call her a liar.

Well, she could, but it certainly wouldn’t help her cause.

“Great, thanks. But Krista has my number. It hasn’t changed. She just needs to call.”

Sighing, she rang off and slumped back in her chair, rubbing at her stomach which was feeling unsettled after the conversation.

After allowing herself a moment, Trinity reached into a drawer and found a pen and paper. When you came to a dead end on one avenue, it was time to explore another.

Trinity kept the letter brief. It wasn’t like she needed to remind Krista who she was. If Christian’s mother truly didn’t remember her, then this really was all one great waste of time.

She didn’t believe that, of course. It was just hard. Trinity knew why Krista might want to avoid her… although the reasons for that were long past and no longer relevant. But try as she might, she couldn’t fathom why the woman would cut off her son— not in the way she had. Not when Trinity had cut ties with Krista so she wouldn’t risk losing him in the first instance.

And even if she’d been angry at the situation, at Christian’s then-wife, Bianca, she must surely know they were no longer married. Krista was the president of the company Christian ran, after all. She might have managed to avoid her son and put a gagging order on everyone to stop them from giving him her contact details, but she surely must have kept up to date with his life.

Under any other circumstance, Trinity may have questioned whether Krista was still alive, but one thing was certain… Christian would have been informed of her death, if nothing else. Even if she’d cut him out of her will, he was still her next of kin.

Folding the letter asking the woman who would be her mother-in-law to get in touch, Trinity wrote another, identical note, and addressed one to the company, and the second to the address of the family estate where Christian had grown up, and where Trinity had spent so much time herself. Christian had told her the property was sold, that other people lived there now. But maybe they’d have a forwarding address.

It was a long shot after almost six years, but for the price of a postage stamp, it was no big loss if it proved to be another dead end.

And it was the least Trinity could do. Time was no longer on her side. Her pregnancy might be in its early weeks, but with Christian wanting his mother present at the wedding, and Trinity wanting a ring on her finger before the baby was born… and preferably before she resembled a beached whale, there was no time to waste, and every avenue needed to be explored.