“Like he was with Hanult?” Riley shakes his head. “Fuchs wasn’t dumb. He didn’t alienate people, but you could tell he thought of them as things to be used. He was over at Hanult’s house all the time though.”
My memory jogs at the mention of the professor’s house. “Really? Was that usual for students to go to professors’ houses?”
“Sure, for the networking opportunities,” Riley says. “The professors knew the guys you needed to know in the tech world—CEOs, VCs. Some of them liked to throw parties, show off who they knew. You’d be stupid not to take advantage. But Fuchs would go over to Hanult’s just to hang out. Like I said, part of their mentor/protégé act.”
I never got invited over to a professor’s house in college—it just wasn’t even a thing we considered. I guess none of my professors had really powerful friends they wanted to show off.
“He never had any cofounders with Corvus,” Dev says to me. “It was always him alone.”
I nod, because I see where he’s going with this, then turn back to Riley. “So the only meaningful relationship he made at Stanford was with Hanult?”
“As far as I can tell,” Riley says. “He was always a weird guy though.” He frowns, taps a knuckle against the table. “I don’t see how any of this helps with Corvus and real estate.”
No, he can’t see how it helps because he doesn’t know about the address list. I think I’ve stumbled onto something big.
I lean toward him, my expression earnest. “It actually helps a lot. Trust us.”
Riley turns on the charm. “Great. Good. Anything else you want to know?”
“No, I think that’s it,” Dev says dryly. He holds out his hand. “Thanks.”
Riley shakes his hand, then mine. “Happy to help. I owe you because of”—he glances at me—“because of the thing. So we’re even.”
“We are.”
Once he’s gone, I turn to Dev. “What thing?”
His mouth flattens, and it seems for a moment he won’t answer. When he does, the words come out stiffly. “His dad gave him some money to invest a few years ago, and Riley completely fucked it up because he actually knows nothing about finance. He came to me, begging for help. So I sorted it all out. Naturally he didn’t want anyone to know he’s not the financial wizard he pretends to be.”
I narrow my eyes. Dev’s always doing that, pulling out some tidbit he knows about someone or calling in a favor from people we’ve never met. And never showing anyone exactly how he does it.
This story about Riley might explain a lot of those instances.
“How many people owe you favors?”
“Everyone has secrets in the tech world. I happen to know a lot of those secrets.”
A bleak chill runs over my skin. He was almost robotic when he said that. “You sound like Fuchs.”
“He’s not wrong about that.” His tone is brisk, on the edge of contemptuous. “I was able to acquire his company because of favors I was owed. Secrets I know. This place runs on power, not kindness. And I wasn’t going to win against him without using some of his own tactics.”
I don’t think I’ve ever heard him so cold, so calculating before. “Tactics like hurting people?”
He sucks in a sharp, angry breath. “No,” he bites out. “I don’t do that. And you know it.”
Maybe I do and maybe I don’t. Maybe I’m only just beginning to know him. What he’s saying right now… is frightening. Not like how I thought he was.
“You hurt the Bastards,” I point out quietly. He might not have meant to hurt them, but he did.
There might be a flicker of something in his eyes, but it’s gone too fast to tell. “They’re big boys.”
“Men can have hurt feelings too.” He’s acting like everyone’s as unemotional and detached as he pretends to be. But it’s too late for him to pretend with me. “Did you have a professor like that in college?” I ask. “Or anyone you were close to?”
We’ve just heard about how even Fuchs had friends and a mentor—Dev must have something like that.
“No,” he says with more than a hint of triumph. Like he’s proved I’m wrong about men and their feelings. “I went to class, did my work, and went to my job. That’s all.”
“You don’t feel like you missed out?” I gesture at the campus surrounding us. “College is supposed to be memorable. Where you make lifelong friends.”
“Was it the best time of your life?” he shoots back.
My heart freezes. My mouth opens, closes, nothing coming out. “It wasn’t,” I finally say. “There were good parts—great parts—but…”
I can’t finish. I can’t tell Dev what Kaleb did, not when he’s being so… so awful.
He glances at his hands, then looks fully at me. “I’m sorry.” His expression is open, honest. “I was being a jerk.”
I purse my lips. He was, and that’s usually not like him. I guess I hit a nerve, not that it excuses him. “If you want people to share their stories,” I say quietly, “you have to share some of yourself. A relationship is a two-way street.”
“You’ll share your college stories with me if I share…?” He cocks his head, puzzled. “Share what?”
“It’s not a deal or tit-for-tat kind of thing.”
He still doesn’t understand. I don’t tell him things in the hopes that he’ll tell me things. I’m not keeping score or anything. That’s not how relationships work.
But maybe he’ll never learn any better. Maybe he can’t.
“We didn’t learn anything here,” he says suddenly. He’s done with memories and personal revelations and feelings. “Everything Riley said we already knew. It’s not like Fuchs is hiding out on the campus.”
I pull in a deep breath, my eyes widening. I almost forgot. “No, we did get something.” I start to flip through the addresses I brought. “Remember how he said Fuchs was at Hanult’s house all the time?”
“Yeah. But Hanult is dead…” Realization dawns on his face. “Do you know his address?”
“Not for certain, but I remember there was a Palo Alto address in a residential area. I remember it because it stood out—why would he own a house there?” I point at one of the entries. “There. That’s the one I remember.”
Dev immediately pulls the address up on his map app. When he turns the screen to me, I see the house is right smack in the middle of a suburban development. Not exactly prime real estate for a tech company to be purchasing.
“How do we know it’s Hanult’s house?” Dev asks.
I shrug. “We don’t. But it wouldn’t hurt to go take a look.”
Dev frowns, first at the map, then at me. “But why would he be there?”
“Because that’s where he was told he could—should—take over the world. If he’s planning a comeback, he’s going to want that reassurance.”
He’s going to want to go back to the beginning, back when he was young and limitless and he thought nothing could hold him back.
Dev ponders that. “Fuchs doesn’t really operate like a normal person though.”
“Everyone likes to hear that they’re special.” I tap my finger against the page. “And it’s only fifteen minutes away.”
He grabs his keys. “Let’s do it then.”
Chapter 13
The house is dark, the windows blank when we pull up. The rest of the houses—all variations on the same pseudo-Tudor theme—have porch lights and interior lights gently, tastefully glowing, luxury cars tucked into the driveways. “We’re home and no, you can’t come in” they seem to say.
Hanult’s house looks like no one’s home, but there is a car in the driveway. A late-model Honda; practical, fuel efficient. Not at all flashy.
“I guess someone lives here,” Anjelica says as I park. “But who?”
“That’s what we’re going to find out.”
She grabs my arm. I ignore how that makes me feel. “We’re just going to knock on the door?”
“That’s what a door is for.” My
gut is telling me that Fuchs isn’t there, but someone else very important is. My gut is usually always right. “If they tell us to leave, we will.”
She releases my arm. The place where she touched continues to tingle. “If Fuchs is here, I suppose that’s the entire point.”
I nod, then open the door. “Let’s see if we really are that lucky.”
The moment I knock, an interior light switches on. Someone must have seen the car and known we were coming up the drive.
When the door swings open, revealing who is in the house, I’m stunned. Knocked-down-to-my-toes stunned.
“You… I never thought you’d be here,” I say to the woman holding the door open.
She’s not so surprised to see me. “I figured it was a matter of time before you tracked me down.”
“I’ve been trying.” Talk about hiding in plain sight…
Anjelica stabs me with a look, then holds out her hand. “I’m Anjelica. With Bastard Capital.”
“I’m Pippa.” She shakes Anjelica’s hand with a small smile. “Congratulations on the partnership.”
“Thank you.” Anjelica’s polite expression slips. “Clearly you and Dev are already acquainted.”
Pippa laughs and I clear my throat. “This is…” I stumble on the word to describe her. “Pippa was Arne’s housekeeper.”
“Among other things.”
My gaze snaps to Pippa in surprise. That she was much more than Arne’s housekeeper was a closely held secret. One that I discovered and used against Arne.
Pippa shrugs at my look. “He’s gone. I don’t owe him any more silence.”
That answers the question of whether Fuchs is hiding out here. Damn it. I guess we weren’t that lucky.
Anjelica is wide-eyed, shocked, but trying to hide it. “I… It’s nice to meet you.” That comes out with a weak wobble.
Pippa steps back into the entryway. “You should probably come in. We need to talk.”
“Thanks.” As Anjelica passes me, she glances up, her jaw tight, her skin pale. She’s not happy with me.
Is she jealous? Or annoyed at the reveal of another of my secrets? I’m hoping it’s jealousy—that’d be a promising development—but hope’s never gotten me very far in life.
The interior of the house is very professor-modern—lots of books, a few heavy pieces of furniture, and art so tasteful it’s right on the edge of shocking. Or at least eyebrow-raising.
“Is this all the original furniture?” I ask as Pippa leads us into a sitting room.
She’s got an almost ageless face where you can’t tell if she’s in her twenties, thirties, or even forties. At first glance she’s not particularly striking, but there’s some mystery lurking in her gray eyes that makes you look again. I suppose that mystery is what snared Fuchs. That and her profession.
“Yep.” She folds herself into a chair, tucking her legs under her. “He was very insistent that everything remain as Professor Hanult left it.”
“You live here?” Anjelica’s perched on the edge of her chair.
Pippa shrugs. “It’s a nice house. I wasn’t going to turn it down, not in this real estate market.”
Anjelica and I exchange a glance. Pippa perhaps doesn’t know that I control this house now, not Arne.
“You heard about the takeover?” I ask.
“Of course.” Pippa tips her chin up. “Why, have you come to evict me?”
Mockery rides lightly under her tone. She’s not exactly shaking in her shoes. That was the appeal for Fuchs, I think. A woman who wasn’t awed by him, who’d make him get on his knees. And since he was paying her, he could put her aside whenever he liked. No messy emotions to deal with.
“No.” My own voice is soft. Pippa’s being brave, but the prospect of losing your home would worry anyone. “I’ll be signing over the title to you. Free and clear.”
For a moment her mask drops and she lets herself be both shocked and delighted. “Oh. Wow.”
“You’ve earned it.”
Anjelica clears her throat, edging even farther out on the chair. “Have you seen Fuchs lately? We’re… We need to get in touch with him.”
“No.” Pippa’s mask of amused boredom is back. “I’m surprised you didn’t ask me sooner though.”
“I didn’t know you were here,” I say. “His main house is completely empty. No one’s taking care of it.”
“He dismissed everyone once the news was public.” She tilts her head. “Actually, he told us all to get out and not come back.”
The spot above my eye begins to throb. Right. There’re all those employees to take care of too. “Could you make a list of all the household employees and their information? I’ll take care of back pay and references.”
“So you were really his housekeeper?” Anjelica asks.
Pippa smiles. “I was. I was an executive before I became a domme, and running a household like that wasn’t much different than running a department. He paid me well, so I was content.”
Anjelica looks like she has a million more questions, all of them stuck in her throat.
“When did he put you in this house?” I ask.
She thinks about it. “Two years ago. I think it was empty before that.”
“Did he ever come here?”
“Oh yeah. Not to… well, you know.” She lifts her brows. “But just to see the place, walk through it. Make sure I hadn’t moved anything. We’d sometimes have dinner together, but he’d never stay the night.”
“Did he talk about any other houses he had like this? Secret places he liked to visit?” Anjelica asks.
Pippa studies her. “No, but Arne wasn’t like that. I wasn’t there to… to talk with him. I was there to listen, when we weren’t doing a scene. He came to this house to tell me about Professor Hanult and how he believed in Arne and thought Arne should be doing this and that, how Arne should be remaking the world. It wasn’t anything like a relationship.”
“And you were okay with that?” Anjelica asks.
Pippa gives a short laugh. “Okay? It was a job and a good one. I’ll never have to work again thanks to what I’ve saved. Arne is the one you should feel sorry for. I was probably the person he was closest to after Minerva, and I can’t say I miss him. I can go live my life now. What’s he going to do?”
Ideally, he’ll go to prison. But that doesn’t seem likely. I don’t say anything to Pippa though, because I don’t know how much she knows about Fuchs’s illegal activities.
“Did you and Minerva talk a lot?” Anjelica asks.
“No, not at all. She was his work wife—he kept all that very separate from me.” Her smile goes cold. “He’s probably hiding out with her somewhere. Does anyone know where she is?”
Anjelica and I very carefully do not look at each other since we know exactly where Minerva is. And she’s not with Fuchs.
“She’s in hiding too,” I say, which is true. I make myself as blank as I possibly can. “So that’s no help.”
“Too bad.” Pippa sinks back into her chair. “I wish I could help you since you helped me. If I see him, I’ll call you. But I doubt he’s coming back.” Her mouth purses. “If you didn’t know I was living here, how did you know to come by?”
“We have a listing of all the real estate owned by Corvus,” Anjelica says smoothly. “This address stood out.”
Pippa frowns. “He didn’t own it personally?”
I shake my head. “Who knows why he did it that way, but he did.”
“Probably to hide the fact that it meant something to him,” Pippa says. “If it’s held by some made-up company, no one can trace it to him. No one can use it against him.”
I can’t blame him for that. I used his relationship with Pippa against him myself. For a good cause, but I still took advantage.
Guilt isn’t what I’m feeling, because I don’t regret what I did, but my chest is tight. I don’t understand that, because I’m also glad I can give Pippa this house to repay her for what she did for me and everythi
ng she went through with Fuchs. It’s confusing and I hate it.
“If you see him or hear from him or anyone else who might know where he is, would you call us?” Anjelica rises, signaling the end of the interview. “We really appreciate your talking to us, and I’m sorry we interrupted your evening.”
“Yeah,” I echo, because Anjelica said everything I wanted to.
Pippa hugs each of us in turn, which is surprising. She never struck me as a hugger before. “I was glad to help.” She straightens up, juts out her jaw. “I’m going to sell the house once you sign it over to me. And the furniture. And then I’ll be gone. I don’t want him to find me again.”
“Of course. If you need help disappearing…”
Pippa’s smile is small but true. “I know where to find you.”
Once we’re back in the car, I don’t drive off right away. I have to process what we heard, along with the hug. I didn’t even think Pippa liked me, but she hugged me. The imprint of her arms around my shoulders still lingers. Not in the way Anjelica’s kiss did on my mouth, but I can’t shake this sensation either.
“You were looking for her?” Anjelica asks quietly.
What is Anjelica thinking? I could ask her, but I’m not sure I want to hear. There’s disappointment in the slump of her shoulders, regret in the line of her mouth. For me, I’d bet.
“I was. It never occurred to me she’d be in a Corvus-owned house.”
“You can’t just have a company give her a house,” Anjelica says. “Even if you do control the board.”
Corporate governance? That can’t be what she’s really worried about. “I’m going to buy the house from Corvus, then give it to her.”
Anjelica draws in a long breath through her nose, her chest rising. “What did she mean that you helped her?”
I don’t hesitate to answer. Not with Anjelica—we’re past that even if my subconscious twinges a hair in alarm. I ignore it. “She’d been planning to leave Fuchs for a while. She came to me to ask for help.”
“Why you?” Her tone is as sharp and short as the words.
“I knew what was really going on between them.”
Private Disclosures Page 9