No doubt, Dominic’s next step would be to call him, perpetuating the cycle they had fallen into years ago-Dominic made a mess and always expected Jake to clean it up. Jake didn’t deny that there was a certain pleasure to be found in bringing order to the chaos his business partner often left in his wake. Normally something like this interview would be categorized as a minor nuisance. Dominic was famous for being volatile, impulsive, and often the subject of legal inquires, certainly not a man who feared bad press, but with Corisi Enterprises having invested so much into one contract with China, the stakes were insanely high.

Jake resumed knotting his tie as he watched the rest of the video clip.

“Listen as Lil Dartley spills her true feelings about having billionaire and computer tycoon Dominic Corisi kidnap her sister. Hear her confess something that is sure to rock the Corisi camp. Think you know the whole story? You don’t know this. Don’t miss our exclusive phone interview-tonight at seven.”

Surely Dominic hadn’t been careless enough to share the one piece of information that could topple Corisi Enterprises? If so, no amount of money could stifle her interview.

Was Lil making a grab for her five minutes of fame, or something more insidious? She was a young, single mother of twenty-five. It wasn’t unimaginable that she’d think the world owed her something since her sister had hit the proverbial jackpot by snagging a billionaire.

Normally the exposure of human flaw did not elicit more than annoyance from Jake, but it was oddly disappointing to find it so soon in Dominic’s new family-Lil in particular. Not that her character, or lack of, should matter one way or another to Jake. She was, and always should have been, off limits.

A memory from the first time he’d met her came back to him with disconcerting clarity. His body tightened and warmed as if she were once again standing before him, defiantly flipping her cascade of