Читать книгу Dangerous Deception - Kylie Brant - Страница 9

One Month Later

James Tremaine had not yet grown so jaded that he failed to appreciate an opportunity when one presented itself. Especially when that opportunity was the most attractively packaged eye candy he’d run across in more time than he cared to consider. Shaking the rain from his face, he cocked his head for a better view while he peeled off his gloves and, with uncharacteristic carelessness, shoved them into the pockets of his Prada raincoat.

The form balanced precariously on the ladder inside the doorway was only half-visible, but what was observable was unmistakably feminine. Denim clung to shapely hips and snugged across a curvy bottom before slicking down mile-long legs. His gaze lingered on those legs now, and hormones, too long suppressed, flickered to life. It took conscious effort to drag his eyes upward, to where the woman’s torso disappeared into the opening afforded by the missing panel in the suspended ceiling.

“You took your sweet time. I didn’t know whether you were ever coming, so I got started without you.”

Brows raising at the muffled words, James inquired, “Did you want some help?”

He wasn’t certain, but he thought he heard a rather unladylike snort. “All that’s left for you to do is to hold the ladder. I’m nearly finished here.” He moved to obey, putting himself in even closer range to those long legs.

“I think the receptacle’s shot, so you’ll have to check that out. Probably needs to be replaced. You got the ladder?” Without waiting for a reply the woman started down it. “And you, my friend, can just put in some overtime fixing it. Serves you right for taking so long getting here.”

James steadied the ladder with both arms, framing the slender form descending it. “Overtime can be expensive.” Her well-formed rear swayed tantalizingly closer with each step she took. For a moment he forgot the grim errand that had brought him here and allowed his imagination free rein. It was doubtful the woman’s face could match those incredible endless legs, but a man was entitled to hope. He was partial to blondes, so as long as this was his fantasy, he’d put his money on her being blond and blue-eyed. A rare smile crossed his lips. No, make it green eyes, and somehow he’d have to recover from the disappointment that was certain to accompany the reality.

He’d recovered from far worse disappointments in his time.

Her voice shook him from his reverie. “You can let go of the ladder. I don’t have any intention of walking over you to get off it.” When he didn’t move away, she twisted around, practically in his arms. “So help me, Howie, you’d better not be enjoying this, or…”

Her words stopped abruptly, eyes widening as she realized her mistake. Eyes that weren’t green at all, James noted. Instead they were a warm wash of colors that ranged from gray to brown, with flecks of gold in the irises to further defy description. And she wasn’t a blonde, either. Her hair hovered somewhere between blond and brown, a poorly cut tangle that reached to her shoulder blades. Her nose was straight, her mouth wide and her jaw stubborn. Her chin had a decided dip in it, right in the center. It was an intriguing face, rather than a pretty one, and James felt a flicker of interest. It had been a long time since he’d been intrigued by a woman.

He watched her swallow and search for words. “Ah…you’re not Howie.” And then felt a flicker of amusement at her wince as the inanity slipped from her mouth.

He stepped back to allow her to finish her descent. “No. Sorry. I’m looking for Rob Landry. If you can tell him I’m here?”

There was a flash of pain in those changeable eyes, before they abruptly shuttered. “I…can’t do that.” She turned away, crossed to the lone desk in the room and sank into the seat behind it.

Impatience flickering, James eyed the door in the far corner of the room emblazoned with the man’s name. “You mean he’s not in? When will he be back?”

“He won’t be.” The woman’s voice was stronger now, an obvious attempt to layer strength over grief. “He died three weeks ago.”

James froze, the words seeming to come from a distance. He was too late. If he’d begun this quest a bit sooner, if he’d tracked Landry a little more quickly, he might have answers to the questions that had reared, spawning suspicion that would burn until he could put it to rest with answers.

Answers that wouldn’t be forthcoming with Rob Landry dead.

Disappointment welled up, of a much different sort than he’d expected when he’d seen her perched on the ladder. With long practice, he pushed it aside. “I’m sorry,” he said belatedly, recognizing both the woman’s anguish and her attempt to mask it. “I understand he worked with a partner. I’d like to speak to him, if I may.”

“That would be me. I’m Tori Corbett, his daughter.” Emotion had been tucked away. The woman’s tone was brisk now, her expression professional. “What can I help you with?”

He was beginning to doubt that she could help him at all, but he reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and withdrew a business card. “James Tremaine.” He handed her it to her but knew from the look on her face that it was unnecessary. She recognized the name and that of his family’s company on the card. He expected no less, since he’d worked for nearly two decades to promote both.

Rejecting the position of the chairs facing her desk, he dragged one around to sit beside her. “Your father did some work for mine a little over twenty years ago. After my parents’ deaths, his services were again retained. You would have been just a child then, of course, but maybe he mentioned the investigations to you in the time since.”

The shock on her face was its own answer, and the disappointment he felt this time had a bitter taste. “Perhaps he had another partner then? Someone who worked with him when he was running Landry Investigations at that time?”

Her gaze fell to her desktop. “No, Dad always believed in a one-man shop until me. I was the first partner he ever had.” Her words sounded as though they’d been difficult for her to say. Certainly they were difficult for James to hear.

“He must have left records. I’d like to look through them, with your permission of course.” He was a man accustomed to getting what he wanted, and equally adept at applying finesse to get it. But his fabled charm was difficult to summon. He was too close to discovering the answers he sought. Too damn anxious about what they might reveal.

“Our files are confidential.” Tori—what kind of name was that for a woman?—swung her chair around to face him more fully. “If you tell me what you’re after, though, I could…” Her sentence abruptly halted. “I’m sorry,” she amended. “The files you’d want are what? Twenty years old?” James nodded. “I don’t have anything that goes back that far.”

He felt his blood cool, his stomach tighten. He withdrew his wallet and extracted several bills. Rising, he leaned forward and dropped them on her desk in front of her. “Why don’t you check?” he urged evenly. “I’ll wait.”

She didn’t even glance at the money. And her voice, when it came, had chilled by several degrees. “I don’t have to look. My father’s building was destroyed by a fire around that time. Shortly after, we moved to Minnesota. He didn’t reopen an investigating business until we moved back here, three years later.”

This line of questioning was a dead end. James hadn’t gotten to his position without knowing when to cut his losses. There would be another way. There always was. It would require regrouping, a new strategy. This wouldn’t be the first obstacle he’d encountered in his search for the truth. And it wasn’t going prevent him from finding it.

He rose. “Thank you for your time. And my condolences again for the loss of your father.” She was staring at him, her varied-colored eyes wide, her mouth half-open in protest. And with a vague sense of regret, one that had nothing to do with the outcome of this meeting, he turned and walked out of her office.

Tori Corbett nosed her car up the long driveway leading to Tremaine Technologies and tried to ignore the nerves dancing along her spine. What she was about to do required bravado and guts, both of which her dad had always said she possessed in spades. But the plan that had seemed so logical three nights ago, hours after James Tremaine had left her office, suddenly seemed a little…well, ballsy. Not that she had anything against the quality normally.

But if she was going to continue to run the business she’d learned from her dad, she was going to have to actively pursue prospective clients. And the balance of her bank accounts were stark reminders that work meant continuing to eat. Though they never showed up on her lean frame, she’d always been fond of regular meals.

It wasn’t as if Tremaine didn’t need her. Although he’d been short on details when he’d visited, she was pretty good at piecing things together. They’d both benefit if he accepted her pitch.

The persuasive arguments she’d rehearsed had seemed perfectly rational on the drive over from New Orleans. And even most of the way through Tangipahoa Parish. It wasn’t until she’d hit the first set of security gates surrounding these grounds that the first wave of anxiety had hit. It had grown progressively worse each time she’d been stopped by yet another guard and required to go through another clearance.

Okay, she admitted, as she slowly drove toward the sprawling complex of office buildings. So her idea of surprising Tremaine by showing up here had been a bit naive. She hadn’t taken into account the level of security surrounding his business. Hadn’t considered the fact that the only possible way she’d get through each of the successive security checks was by announcing her identity, having it called in to Tremaine himself.

She had ended up being the one surprised, though, because he had obviously cleared her through each of the stops. And maybe that was what had her stomach churning. She couldn’t imagine why he’d agreed to see her, unannounced and refusing to state a purpose for being here. While she’d like to believe that it boded well for the proposition she’d come to offer, she couldn’t shake the feeling that this meeting was going to end up far differently than she’d planned.

Her battered compact looked jarringly out of place among the sleek luxury vehicles in the parking lot next to the Tremaine Technologies offices. Grabbing her briefcase, she took a deep breath and got out of the car, not bothering to lock it. The class of the others made it highly doubtful anyone would lower themselves to bother with hers. Jogging up the walk, she worked on calming her nerves with a mental rehearsal for the upcoming meeting.

But thoughts of businesslike persuasion were erased when she stepped into the marbled halls of the headquarters for Tremaine Technologies. It took effort for Tori to state her name matter-of-factly for the man at the desk inside the door, and even more to keep quiet as he led her to an elevator and accompanied her upstairs. Obviously, uninvited guests couldn’t be trusted to wander around inside on their own. Or maybe, she considered ruefully, glancing at her plain cotton shirt and khakis, her appearance didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Even the man’s dark-blue uniform looked as if it had cost more than her entire outfit, briefcase included.

The elevator doors opened, and the guard led her into an office area roughly the size of her entire house. The floor was polished mahogany, the ceiling vaulted and the woman behind the desk reigning over the area appeared formidable enough to face down intruders with a single look.

“Ms. Corbett,” the guard at her side said to announce her, and then backed away, leaving Tori alone with the female staring expressionlessly at her. Of an indeterminate age, the woman wore her brown hair smoothed back from her face like two soft wings, framing a face that was aging with grace and gentility. “Mr. Tremaine is expecting you. He has quite a busy schedule today, however, so if you could keep your meeting brief?” The way she said the words sounded more like a command than a suggestion, and Tori nodded mutely as the woman stabbed one long-nailed finger at a button on the intercom resting upon her desk. “Ms. Corbett has arrived.”

A door on the other end of the room opened and James Tremaine filled it, his appearance too sudden for Tori to steel herself against reaction. As it was, she was ambushed by the exact same response she’d had when she’d turned to find herself practically in his arms three days ago.

Ohmygod, it’s James Bond. The fanciful thought recurred, only to be firmly pushed away. Okay, there might be a passing resemblance, she conceded. His blue eyes were the color of the South Pacific and framed with a fringe of black lashes that matched his meticulously combed hair. Tall and lean, his body hinted at strength even clad as it was in impeccable Armani. But the sheen of danger lurking just beneath his polished surface must certainly be a product of her imagination. High-tech CEOs would hardly be likely to radiate an aura of menace, unless the afternoon golf games at the exclusive clubs he no doubt belonged to were a lot more savage than she’d realized.

“Tori.” His use of her first name jolted her almost as much as the undisguised warmth in his voice. He opened his door wider in an unmistakable invitation. “I hadn’t expected to see you again so soon.”

So soon? She threw an uncertain look at his secretary, but the woman had returned to her computer, as if oblivious to the scene being played out between them. Turning back to Bond—Tremaine—she summoned a vivid smile and approached him. In her line of work, it paid to be a quick study. “I decided I couldn’t wait to see you again.” There was a flicker of amusement on his face as she played along with his opening gambit, adopting an openly flirtatious sway to her hips as she walked into his office, not stopping until she was standing square in its center.

She paused then to assess. His office was furnished in an eclectic style that mixed eighteenth century furniture with the functionality of the present. She had an impression of understated elegance with an edge of ruthless practicality. A bank of computers covered part of one wall, with the rest of the area utilized as a work space. His desk sat facing a huge row of windows overlooking massive oaks draped with Spanish moss encircling a small pond. There was a sitting area across the room, with wing chairs arranged in front of an ornate fireplace of polished walnut. Elegance, style and purpose. The room reflected all of that. She thought it was an equally accurate description of the man who occupied it.

The walls were covered in art that even her untrained eye recognized as genuine. During the short course of her marriage, she’d been dragged to enough museums and art showings to have acquired a modicum of knowledge. She recognized the small Degas hanging side by side with a painting of the French Quarter done by a local New Orleans artist. The next one, a surrealistic seascape was reminiscent of the Impressionist period. And hanging amidst them all, matted and framed with the same care, were three pictures obviously done by a child’s hand, with the name Ana scrawled in the corner of each. The detail was the only unexpected note in the space, but she was given no time to dwell on it.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Corbett?” With the door shut behind her, the warmth had vanished from his voice, to be replaced by polite interest. It didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t invite her to sit.

Reaching into her purse, she extracted an envelope. “I came to return something of yours.” When he made no move toward her, she approached him, took his hand and pressed it into his palm. Her gaze fixed on his, she curled his fingers around the packet, and tried to ignore the warmth that transferred at the touch. “I don’t keep money I haven’t earned.”

He glanced down, his expression blank for a moment. “Ah. I’d forgotten.” He tucked the envelope in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

“I can’t remember ever being so careless with five hundred dollars, but I guess you had a lot on your mind.”

“I did, yes,” he replied.

Sensing that now-or-never time had arrived, Tori drew in a deep breath and barreled on. “Your visit got me a little curious.” Okay, it had gotten her a lot curious, but it seemed wise to gloss over that fact. “I couldn’t help wondering what could have been so important about a twenty-year-old case that would have had you looking up my dad again.”

He lifted an elegantly clad shoulder, the casual gesture at odds with his aristocratic bearing. “Nothing to wonder about, really. Just tying up some loose ends.”

He was, she decided studying him, lying through his perfectly even teeth. Running the tip of her tongue over the incisor she’d chipped slightly on Ralphie Lowell’s head in sixth grade, she considered how to proceed. Although she was something of an expert in the art of bluff and parry, he didn’t seem to be the type of man to appreciate such tactics. In the end she thought a straight forward approach would serve best.

“A man like you doesn’t check on ‘loose ends’ himself unless it’s a matter of some importance.” She found it a bit disconcerting to meet his expressionless regard but kept her own gaze steady. “You could have called, or had any number of your employees dispatched to make the inquiry. That you came in person tells me the nature of your visit was personal. Two decades ago you would have been what? Eighteen?” Her words brought a frost to his eyes that dispelled any pretense of civility. He wouldn’t appreciate that she’d researched him before coming here, although certainly he should have expected it.

She moved away from him, trailing her fingers over the back of a chair covered in midnight-blue leather with the texture of melted butter. “I’ve drawn some conclusions about what my dad might have been working on for your father. You never really said that day in the office.”

“I didn’t, did I? Most would consider that to mean I wasn’t interested in discussing it with you.”

His expression, she noted with a detached sort of amusement, had gone from frosty to glacial. She was certain she was supposed to be cowering before it. But she’d always had more courage than sense. “It occurred to me that you didn’t get what you’d come for on your visit.”

A sudden stillness came over him. “You mean you found the files after all?”

With no little regret, she shook her head. “The fire that destroyed Dad’s office wiped out an entire city block. No, I mean you came for answers but you didn’t find them.” Circling the chair, she dropped into it, tilted her chin toward him. “I’m offering to help you get them.”

His smile was somehow more insulting than his earlier dismissiveness. “An intriguing proposition from an equally fascinating woman. However, I’m not in need of the services you’re offering.”

“I think you are.” She doubted he was used to being disputed. A man didn’t rise to the level he had in the corporate world without encountering his share of yes-men. “Whatever brought you to my office was something you want to keep private, or you wouldn’t have come yourself. I can’t get you the files you’re seeking, but I think I could reconstruct the information that was in them.”

Reaching down for her battered briefcase, she placed it on her lap and snapped the locks open. “You said your father had hired mine. Given the time period you mentioned, I figured this might have been what Dad was investigating.” She handed him the stack of newspaper clippings, the headline of the one on top proclaiming, Tremaine Tot Returned Safely. The others in the pile were no less attention grabbing. Kidnapping Plot Foiled. Teenage Boy Local Hero. It wouldn’t do for Tori to admit to the curiosity that had kicked in as she’d started researching the Tremaine family. Growing up in Louisiana there was no way she could have avoided hearing the occasional talk about the tragedies that had dogged the prominent family all those years ago.

But immersing herself in the stories, she’d soon grown fascinated by the details. The passage of time didn’t lessen the horror felt at the thought of a three-year-old child being snatched out of her bed in the middle of the night; hadn’t dimmed the tragedy of the girl’s parents being killed in a car accident less than six months after her safe return.

Tremaine made no move to take the stack of articles, and his voice when it came was more than a little disparaging. “If you were half as careful with your research as you’d like me to believe, you’d have discovered that I’m no fan of tabloidism.”

Tori dropped the clippings back in the open briefcase. “And your family’s no stranger to it. I got that. But a good investigator uses every tool at her disposal, and newspapers are a great place to start.” Looking up again, she caught his gaze on her. “Do you have the name of the person who hired my Dad after your parents’ accident?”

He didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. She saw the answer on his face, in the deliberately blank mask that he’d drawn over his features. She sat back, a bit stunned. “It was you, wasn’t it? But you were barely more than a kid yourself at the time.”

“I’ve always felt that need dictates maturity more reliably than does age.”

She could wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Even at twenty-eight her husband wouldn’t have approached anyone’s definition of mature. Which was only one of the many reasons he’d become her ex.

Thoughts of Kevin Stephen Corbett III were delegated to a particularly shadowy corner of her mind, where she preferred to keep them. “So you hired my dad to investigate your parents’ accident?” She didn’t need his answer to be certain she was on the right track. Which was fortunate, because he didn’t appear disposed to give her one.

“Ms. Corbett…” It was clear Tremaine had reached the end of his patience.

“Earlier you called me Tori,” she reminded him.

He drew in a breath, expelled it slowly. “Tori.” She decided her name had sounded better on his lips when it wasn’t uttered from a tightly clenched jaw. “The only help I was interested in you cannot provide. You can’t produce the files and, unfortunately for us both, your father can’t answer my questions.” He headed for the door, a not-so-subtle indication that the meeting was over. “Thank you for returning the money. I hadn’t expected it.”

“Then you must be used to dealing with a different caliber of people.”

He turned, his lips curving just slightly. “I think we can both be assured of that.”

“So if you’re the one who hired my dad after your parents’ accident, you’d have your own file on that investigation. He wouldn’t have kept anything of interest in his that he hadn’t shared with you.” She ignored his stoic gaze, cocked her head, mind still racing furiously. “And why now? I mean, what would suddenly make you start looking for information that’s more than twenty years old?”

There was a definite un-Bond-like muscle twitching in his cheek. “I just happen to have some spare time on my hands and thought I’d check into a few things I’d been wondering about.”

Tori shook her head, slouched more comfortably in her chair. “Now you’re not even trying. If you’re going to lie, make it believable.”

His eyes narrowed. Again she was given an impression of danger lurking just beneath his polished exterior. “Are you sitting in my office calling me a liar?” The lethal tone suggested that she backpedal, fast.

It was a suggestion she chose to ignore. “A not-very-good liar,” she corrected. “I’d think it was lack of practice, but given your experience in the corporate world, you must have plenty of that. So I figure it’s just me. You don’t know me, so you don’t respect me enough to expend the energy necessary for a really good story.” She waved a hand, indicating she wasn’t going to take offense. He appeared less than impressed with her forbearance. “I’ve given this some thought and I figure something had to have happened to torch your curiosity about those events.”

“You have an overactive imagination.”

She refused to take offense. “Uh-uh, just an ability to connect the dots. The FBI never did catch whoever kidnapped your sister when she was a toddler, but she was found safe and sound before your family paid a ransom. So it’s doubtful that you’re interested in that particular investigation. That leaves the one you hired my Dad for. Since you’ve waited this long, something must have happened recently to convince you there was more to the story.”

His face was impassive. “Are you finished?”

“Almost.” Something about his still air had a chill skittering down her spine. She’d trailed unsavory characters through the back alleys of New Orleans and never experienced this level of unease. Shaking off the reaction, she went on with more confidence than she felt, “You may not have gotten what you came for when you stopped by my office, but I can get it for you.” When he started to speak, she held up a hand to stop him. “I understand you’ve got a brother who has made a name for himself as a detective for the NOPD. He’s probably capable of acquiring certain types of information, as well, but it occurred to me that had you wanted to involve him, he would have been the one to show up at Landry Investigations, instead of you.”

She reached into her briefcase again, surprised to see her hands trembling, just a bit. Handing him a file folder, she said, “You came to me looking for answers of some kind, Mr. Tremaine. Whether you know it or not, you need me if you hope to find them.”