“Murder?”
“Murder that looks like suicide,” he confirms. “I’d bet every ounce of trust you give me on it.”
I face the window, snowflakes pummeling the glass, and that silence inside me begins to pool like oil in my gut, churning to anger. Seth steps next to me, his voice inflected with rare regret. “I should have left a man on her and I didn’t.”
“This is not on you,” I say. “This is on my brother.” I hesitate, thinking about my demand for a check to be cut this morning in Derek’s office. “Or my father.”
He turns to face me, both of us crossing our arms in front of our bodies. “You think Senior had a hand in this?”
“I demanded a check be cut to her this very morning, and not in my name. I didn’t want the connection that could be used as blackmail. My father insisted Derek put his name on it, despite his situation making him the obvious choice.”
“Interesting. Protecting his legacy or setting Derek up for a fall?”
“His motivation is more difficult to decipher now than usual.”
“Derek had a visit with someone in a black Escalade about an hour ago.”
“Adrian,” I say, that name acid on my tongue.
“It was,” Seth confirms. “We confirmed his plate.”
“Where’s Derek now?”
“His office, no doubt expecting your imminent explosion, which I’m guessing you won’t give him.”
“And my father?”
“He’s at lunch with Wit Newman.”
“The owner of the Denver Sports Center, where Mike Rogers’s team plays.” I supply. “My father wants to buy the Sports Center.”
“To control Mike,” Seth concludes.
“To control his vote,” I amend. “He wants me to sign off on it or he claims to have the resources together to do it on his own. Where was he later in the afternoon yesterday?”
“The Omni tower for about three hours, in the offices of Huffman Investments. Sounds like he might be trying to make good on that claim to use his own money to buy the Sports Center.”
“And while this is important, getting Adrian Martina the fuck out of my company comes first.”
His cell phone rings and he removes it from his pocket. “Nick,” he says, taking the call and listening before he speaks a few clipped words, and then says, “I’ll tell him and we’ll get there.” He ends the call. “Nick says he needs to see us at his facility now and we need to make sure we aren’t followed. He’s sending a car to the private garage again. It’ll be here in fifteen minutes.”
My intercom buzzes. “Emily needs to see you,” Jessica announces. “She says it’s urgent.”
“Give me a minute.” I eye Seth. “She must have heard and she’s connecting dots.”
“I’ll step outside.” He walks to the door and exits, with Emily appearing in his place, and she pulls the door shut behind her.
Her skin is pale, her eyes worried. “You know about Brody’s wife?”
“Yes,” I say, pressing my fingers to my desk, and putting it between us. I can’t have a conversation with her about this now. “I know.”
She takes several steps forward. “You’re connected to this.”
“I had nothing to do with this.”
“You’re connected to this,” she repeats.
“Emily,” I say softly. “I can’t do this right now.”
“Was she murdered? Was she?”
“Don’t do this right now.”
“That’s a yes.” She crosses to stand in front of my desk. “How bad is this for you?”
I lean on the desk and study her. “You know I’m not responsible for their deaths.”
“That doesn’t mean you won’t be blamed.”
She’s right and the idea that this could be a setup is not one I can ignore. “You need to stay out of this. Don’t talk about it. Don’t ask anyone about this. Do not touch this.”
“You have no intention of ever telling me what’s really going on, do you?”
“I told you I’d tell you everything and I will.”
“When?”
“I’m not doing this now.” My voice is sharper and harder with the pressing need to fix this before I end up in jail and take her with me. “I need you to go back to your desk and let me handle what I need to handle.”
“Go back to my desk,” she repeats. “Right. I’ll do that.” She marches toward the door, but not before I see hurt and doubt in her eyes that I’d hoped to never see directed at me. I pursue her, reaching her as her hand comes down on the doorknob, my palm flattening on the door above her, my hand at her waist.
“Don’t go like this,” I say, lowering my voice to add, “Please.”
“You told me to go.”
“Not angry. Not doubting me.”
“You all but dared me to feel those things.”
“Not by intent. I’m focused on solving problems and keeping everyone safe. The idea of you feeling either of those things will mess with my head, and I can’t have anything messing with my head right now.”
She faces me, folding her arms defensively in front of her. “So that’s what I’ve become? Someone to mess with your head? To distract you?”
“Sweetheart,” I say, my hands settling at her waist, “that is not what I said.”
“You don’t have to.” Her hands close around my wrists. “And I don’t want to be that to you. I want to be helpful. I want to be a partner.”
“You are the best damn thing that’s ever happened to me. I’m trying to make sure my family doesn’t destroy us.”
“They can’t destroy us, but secrets can. If I’m a distraction—”
“Emily—”
“You can’t end up like Brody,” she says. “If I’m a distraction, you need to send me away, even if it’s for a few weeks.”
“I’m not sending you away.”
“Then you need—”
“Tonight,” I say. “We’ll figure this out tonight, but I’ll likely be late coming home. And I need you to promise me you’ll go home right after work and stay there so I won’t worry about you, but I’m going to have security monitoring you.”
“This is that bad?”
“Do you want the real answer?”
“I need the real answer.”
“Then yes. It’s that bad.”
She studies me for several long beats. “You really expect me to just walk out of here in the dark, don’t you?”
“Yes, because you’re smart enough to know that this isn’t the right time or place to have this conversation.”
“No. It’s not. The right time and place would have existed before right now, but bottom line, I’m in the dark, which means I’m flying blind when it comes to evaluating what’s important, therefore, I have to tell you something I found out about Mike Rogers today.” She hesitates. “And I really didn’t want to share it like this.”
“That doesn’t sound good but I need to know.”
“This is not how I wanted to tell you this,” she repeats, which only sets me more on edge.
“Tell me.”
“Fine. Tell you. Right.”
“Emily—”
“Your mother and Mike are having an affair.”
I feel those words like a punch in the chest, the idea of my mother being the one sane person in my family I’ve clung to, is shattering moment by moment. “How do you know?”
“He showed up at the restaurant, and it was pretty obvious between them but I wasn’t going to jump to conclusions. But then, your mother went to take a call, and I went to the bathroom. I rounded the corner and they were very intimate, his hands on her, the things they were saying—”
“I don’t want to know,” I say roughly. “Did they see you?”
“No. They did not.”
I release her waist and press my hands to the door above her head, my lashes lowering. My mind races and lands on the Sports Center, which takes on a new twist. Maybe my father wants to ruin Mike, not just control h
is vote. “Can my family get any more fucked-up?”
“Shane, I’m sorry,” Emily says, her hand flattening on my chest, over my racing heart. “Maybe your father’s cheating hurt her or maybe she’s coping with him dying.”
I open my eyes. “Or maybe she’s trying to control the vote.”
“Is that in your favor?”
“I have no idea anymore.” My hand covers hers. “Thank you. I needed to know. It pieces things together that now make sense.”
“What things?”
“Emily—”
“You aren’t going to tell me.”
“I need to do damage control. When it’s done—”
“Right. Because why would we do this together.” She turns for the door.
My hand flattens on her belly, my body arching around hers, and I press my cheek to her cheek. “Emily,” I say, and this time her name is roughened with the torment I feel over shutting her out and keeping her close at the same time that I know can’t continue. “I’m asking you to give me until tonight. Please. Just give me until tonight.”
She doesn’t immediately respond, and the seconds tick by until she finally says, “Just come home safely, Shane.”
I hold her for several more beats, looking for an answer, but there isn’t one I can give. I push off the door and she waits for me to speak, willing me to say what she wants to hear, what I don’t give her. She abruptly moves, opening the door and leaving without the promise that I will come home safely. Because that might not happen and I will not ever lie to her.
* * *
An hour later, I’m back at Nick’s warehouse, in the conference room with Nick and Seth on either side of me.
“Do I believe Brody and his wife were murdered?” Nick asks. “Yes. Is there proof?” He pauses, sipping from the black FBI mug he’s holding that matches his black FBI shirt, which is too much fucking FBI to suit me right now. As if he doesn’t agree, he decides to give me a little more. “So far, no, but the FBI is looking into it. This case is on their radar.”
“I don’t believe there is any way they will connect the dots to you at this point,” Seth says.
“The wife was the one connecting point,” Nick says, “and we can assume Adrian, and your brother, came to that same conclusion.”
“Or my father,” I say. “He knew about Brody’s wife, and not long after finding out—I’m paraphrasing here—he told me neither Mike, nor Martina, are going to control his company.”
“You think he had Brody’s wife killed?” Nick asks.
“No,” I say. “The only thing my father likes dirty is his money. Never his hands. I think he might have urged my brother to make the problem disappear. How Derek did it is on Derek. He also wants to buy the Sports Center Mike’s team plays in, and I don’t think it’s just about controlling Mike’s vote. Emily went to lunch with my mother today, and Mike showed up. She believes they’re sleeping together, and if my father knows, this just got personal for him.”
“Emily’s right,” Seth confirms. “We’ve been watching them. She visits frequently under the guise of redecorating for him.”
I cut him a look. “You knew it was more and didn’t tell me?”
“Apparently Mike and Maggie have suddenly gotten careless,” Nick supplies. “It tends to happen when people go undetected for a while, and feel invincible.” He slides a folder to me. “Those are photos we took of them early this morning. She stayed at his house last night, which has not been the case, in the past.”
I don’t even think about opening that folder. It’s enough to have to see my father’s mistress in my own building. “Other than pictures, what do you have for me?”
“We still can’t tell you whose side he’s on,” Seth says. “His only connection is your father.”
“My father is a man of many double standards. He might fuck around on my mother, but he doesn’t want her fucking around on him. Or maybe he does and she does. I have no clue, but Mike and my father have a long history, and that changes everything.” My teeth grind together. “Whoever’s side Mike is on, my father is against it.”
Seth narrows his eyes on me. “What are you thinking?”
“The same thing I’m sure my father is thinking. That my mother is far more of an opportunist than I gave her credit for being. She sees Mike and/or Derek running the company in the future, and she wants to be right there with them.”
“That puts your father on your side, and you at the head of the table.”
“Unless Mike plans a hostile takeover, which could come at us framed in any number of ways.”
“And you think your mother knows about it?” Seth asks, though it’s more of a statement of understanding.
My lips thin. “Like I said. She’s an opportunist and my eyes are open to the problems he could represent. If he’s in with Derek, he’s after control. If he’s not, he could use Derek’s stupidity to force that hostile takeover. Whatever the case, while I was trying to prove Mike was dirty, my father was just looking for the juggler, proving he’s a brilliant bastard, and controlling that sports stadium is exactly what we have to do.”
“Are you willing to trust your father with that kind of control?”
“Never,” I say, “which is why I need to insert myself into the negotiations now, today, and ensure I personally become a key stockholder, which translates to me getting well funded just as quickly.”
Seth gives me a deadpan look that I know as his version of Are you fucking crazy? before saying, “That’s a big undertaking for a small window of time.”
“New York is a river of money I know well and I plan to take a deep, dark swim. In the meantime, I need to simplify my problems to a place that the Sports Center solves everything.” I look between both men. “Do the raid tonight,” I say. “If I have to pay extra, I’ll pay it. I want to look in Adrian’s eyes and know this is over.” I look at Seth. “Get on a plane and go to Boulder now.”
“That’s fast,” Seth warns. “We need time to plan this out.”
“I’m going to disagree, Seth,” Nick says. “I think tonight is the right move. It presents the heat level from the FBI as high.”
“Exactly my thought,” I say. “And since my brother went to Adrian the minute he heard about me paying off Brody’s wife, you can bet he’ll go straight to him when he finds out about this. I want them together. I want Derek to know he has no moves left. And I want to be the one to deliver the news to him about the raid.”
“Understood,” Nick confirms.
“I’m the voice of reason here obviously,” Seth interjects. “Making this happen and doing it right are two different things. Can we do it right?”
“We can and we will,” Nick says. “I’ve already talked to Ted about making it happen.” He looks at me. “No extra charge. The sooner we exit the alignment with Martina, the safer the exit, for all of us.”
My respect for Nick is officially given freely. “What time?”
“Ten o’clock,” Nick says. “We’ve already started preliminary arrangements, and preparing for this we simply need to expedite it. We’ll report to you on your brother’s location by nine and we’ll have men watching you; blink for assistance if needed.”
“I wish like hell one of those men was me,” Seth says.
“We’ll take good care of everyone,” Nick assures him, glancing at his watch. “But it’s five o’clock and I have a lot of prep work to pull this together.”
“And I have a flight to arrange,” Seth says, eyeing me. “Are you staying here or going back to the office?”
“I’ll stay here and make sure I avoid any collision with Derek that could throw off our plan, but I’ll need to borrow a car or to get a ride to mine at some point.”
“I’ll have a driver take you to your car,” Nick offers. “You’ll want to appear as normal tonight as possible, and that means your own car.”
“Normal,” I say. “There’s a concept I barely comprehend.” I dismiss my own words, and add, “Emily will d
rive my car home tonight, so I’ll need that ride to be to the Four Seasons.”
“Not a problem,” Nick says, and both men head for the door, but while Nick disappears, Seth pauses in the archway. “I don’t like you going to see Martina without me.”
“He won’t kill me,” I say. “He needs me. You’re another story. I’ll see you on the other side of this.”
Respect and friendship I value from this man more than any other, perhaps because he gives it rarely, fills his eyes. “Be safe, Shane,” he orders, giving me a mock salute before disappearing. I stare at the empty space he no longer occupies, my mind choosing to be just as empty, a brief, but needed, reprieve from the black sludge my brother has created for me. The problem is, he’s in it too, and doesn’t even see it, and I’ve accepted he can’t be saved. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Shaking myself, I immediately remove my phone from my jacket and dial my father, who answers quickly and gets right to the point. “Unless this is about the deal we discussed—”
“It is. How much is it going to cost?”
“Four hundred and fifty million.”
“And you have the cash.”
“I’m short two hundred, but close to getting it.”
“I’ll give you the cash and the signature you need, but I’ll have terms.”
“You wouldn’t be my son if you didn’t, but I wouldn’t be your father if I just accepted them. And Shane. Make it fast. I’m on a deadline.” He ends the call and I suck in a bitter breath on the words referencing his death. The one thing worse than a lie. Only with Emily … I find myself worried about the truth.
* * *
I spend hours in Nick’s conference room, working to put together a group of interested investors I can use to buy into the Sports Center, and while I have interest, I also have a long list of questions I need to answer for them, and me. By nine o’clock, Derek’s location is revealed and it’s almost comical to discover he’s at Martina’s sister’s house, fucking himself into a jail cell or a grave, whichever comes first. Nick ends up loaning me a car, and I head in that direction, stopping at the private garage of the Four Seasons and parking next to the Bentley. Wasting no time switching cars, I climb inside my vehicle, my senses instantly filled with the sweet scent of Emily that’s permeated the car. The smell softens a part of me I know has become hard, reminding me of everything right about holding her in my arms, that Adrian Martina makes wrong.