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CHAPTER ONE

CALEB Wilde was doing his best to look like a ood time

No question, he should have been

He was in New York, one of his favorite cities, at a party in a SoHo club so trendy that the entrance door was unmarked

Not that trendy was the description he’d have chosen

Pretentious struck him as closer to the truth, but hey, what did he know?

Caleb smothered a yawn

His brain had gone on holiday

Not because of the noise, even though the sound level in the enormous room was somewhere in the stratosphere, but what else would it be when the DJ was so faraphs between sets?

Not because of the booze, either Caleb had been nursing the sa

And it was definitely not because the party was dull

The client he’d flown in to see was throwing it to celebrate his fortieth birthday The rooers International bankers Media litterati European royals Second-tier, but royals just the same

And, of course, the requisite scores of stunning women

The problem was, Caleb was too tired to appreciate any of it

He’d been on the go since before dawn A 7:00 a with a client in his Dallas office A 10:00 aht to New York on one of the family’s private jets Late lunch with this client, the birthday boy Drinks and dinner with an old pal froency

Caleb smothered another yawn

Tired didn’t come close He was daht hiht

Well, courtesy and curiosity

He’d celebrated his own birthday not very long ago A barbecue at the ranch with his brothers and his new sister-in-law, phone calls from his sisters, one from the General—it came two days late, but hey, when you had a world to run, you were always busy

Everything had been fun, relaxed and low-key Nothing like this

“This guy is a little long in the tooth for trendy clubs,” Caleb had told his brothers this

“Because,” Travis had said solemnly, “you certainly are”

“Well, yeah I mean, no, not exactly I mean—”

“We knohat you mean,” Jacob had said as solemnly as Travis “You’re a dinosaur”

“Absolutely We can hear your bones creak”