Masquerade

by Desiree Holt

  She had gotten a quick glimpse of it when the limos had brought all of them here. A limo! Stars in her eyes from that one. And from the opulent McMansion on this exclusive piece of land.

  She crouched low, moving slow so she didn’t call attention to herself. There! She was at the dock where their big boat was moored. No one knew that she had lived the first fifteen years of her life in a shack on the water on Florida’s east coast. The water had become her friend and by the age of ten she could outswim anyone around. She hoped she could still make the distance to the shores of Miami Beach, a cascade of light in the distance.

  Miami! The pinnacle of dreams. She’d thought for sure when she managed to make it there her life was about to change. She just hadn’t known the change would be far from what she’d dreamed.

  Just as she eased herself into the water, she heard a shout from the house where she’d been. The one they called Boss. She recognized his voice. Then another one, probably the bodyguard he usually had with him. Her stomach cramped, but she forced herself to remain still beneath the dock. Waiting. Would they invade their neighbor’s property to look for her? Would they knock on the door and ask them? Not if what Daisy had determined about the real purpose of this outing were true.

  She waited, shivering as much from the water as from fear, rubbing her arms to keep warm. Her fingers stroked the tattoo that the man said had attracted him to begin with.

  “Designers love body art that shows off their clothes,” he’d told her.

  Now, as she touched it, she tried to draw strength from it, a cluster of vines reaching down from her shoulder and circling one breast, with a nightingale perched on the shoulder itself.

  Please be my good luck piece.

  Suddenly lights came on at the back of the neighbor’s house, flooding the area, and Daisy had to back way up so she was hidden by the bulk of the big boat tied up there. Hugging herself, she submerged as much as possible and waited.

  The couple she guessed were the owners were out on their back patio, talking with Boss. The man kept shaking his head until at last they walked down to the dock together.

  “…not here,” the man said. “She’s not on the boat, or the alarm would have sounded. What kind of party do you have going on over there to lose one of your guests?”

  “A very friendly one,” Boss soothed. “She just had a little too much to drink and we wanted to make sure she didn’t decide to go for a late-night swim. She probably went to lie down somewhere in the house and sleep it off.” His chuckle sounded forced. “That’s what I get for building a house so big I can lose my guests. Sorry for bothering you.”

  Would these owners wonder about being questioned?

  God! Please don’t let them come way down here looking for me.

  After what seemed like an eternity, the couple were back in their house and Boss and the man with him headed back to his house.

  “Take Felix and search every area of the grounds around the house,” Boss told the man. “She’s somewhere. We’d better make fucking sure she didn’t get away.”

  “Your property is surrounded, Boss,” the other man said. “And we know she’s not down here at the water. She’s hiding somewhere. We’ll find her.”

  “We’d better or we’ll all have bigger problems to deal with.”

  Daisy waited a few minutes more, just to be sure it was safe to leave the shelter of the dock. She could see the sudden commotion at the house she’d escaped from—the girls gathered in a group—and hear the high pitch of their voices. Whatever he was saying as he herded them inside, they weren’t too happy with it.

  Good. Maybe some of them will find a way to leave, too.

  She waited longer while Boss came back outside with two other men and they searched wherever they could, checking behind the bushes and trees and down on their dock and boats. She was waterlogged and chilled by the time she determined it was safe to leave. Then, with slow, silent strokes, she began to glide through the water, heading toward the opposite shore. She hadn’t done this for a long time and wasn’t sure how her endurance would hold up. The shoreline seemed very far away and sudden fatigue gripped her.

  Did they put something in one of our drinks? Oh, god, please let me make it.

  She did her best to pace herself, propelled by the knowledge of what awaited her if she failed, and prayed that she didn’t die before she got to the far shore.

  Chapter Seven

  For the second night in a row, Lindsey had gotten very little sleep. Only this time, instead of a dead body invading her dreams, it was a naked body. John’s. The last time she’d seen it was in her shower the morning he’d left.

  “I have to fuck you one more time.” He’d sounded so desperate. “It could be days before we see each other again and I need something to hold me over.”

  She remembered it as if it had happened yesterday. The two of them in her big tile and glass shower, water from the rain showerheads sluicing down on them and making their skin slick. Their hands on each other’s bodies rubbing, caressing. His large ones palming her breasts and squeezing her nipples. Her smaller ones stroking his rock-hard cock, treating him to light little squeezes, her hand slippery with soap as she moved it up and down. His strong hands lifting her and sliding her onto his swollen shaft as she wound her arms and legs around him.

  Damn!

  At five-thirty she gave up the attempt, indulged in a less than satisfying session with her vibrator, then jumped into the shower to clear all the erotic images from her brain and try to think about the day ahead of her. She arrived at Elite, carrying another box of pastries, at the same time as Taylor and John.

  They all exchanged polite smiles, but she could feel the heat of John’s eyes boring into her as she fumbled with her keys and unlocked the big glass doors. The pulse in her sex jumped into a steady beat and she fought the need to clench her thighs together. She told herself that she had both her emotions and her hormones under control. She was a professional and needed to behave like one.

  “Morning, everyone. It looks like we’re all ready for an early start.”

  Taylor nodded. “That’s a fact. There’s a lot to do. Lindsey, one of the things I want to discuss with you is restructuring how the accounts are set up so you have more oversight on all of them.”

  “I never would have expected to need it,” she sighed. “But then, I didn’t expect all this, either.”

  “I don’t think any of us did.” She studied Lindsey for a moment. “This is going to mean more work for you, gathering the reins of Craig’s clients and checking to make sure there isn’t something going on somewhere else.”

  “I can do it.” She’d damn well better. She kept pushing back on the feeling that whatever was going on was somehow her fault. “Elite is an excellent agency with a great client list. If part of it is somehow damaged, I want to fix it immediately.”

  “Okay, then. Noah has some business to take care of, so he’s out for the day. But he’s going to check on both the autopsy and the lab results and see if there’s a firm date for the funeral.”

  “Good.” Lindsey jotted a reminder to herself in her Notes on her phone. “I want to make sure everyone has that information. Elite needs to make a good showing.”

  “Why don’t you set John up? Then we can all get to work.”

  “Yes, of course.” She avoided looking at him. If only she could forget the scorching heat of the kiss the previous night, or the erotic dreams it had produced that had robbed her of sleep.

  “I don’t expect you have an empty office,” John said, “so anywhere will do.”

  “We actually have an empty space—” Lindsey started to say, but Taylor broke in.

  “As a matter of fact, John, I’d like you to work in Craig’s office. You need to be able to access anything on his computer more than I do, even things not on the LAN. I noticed Craig had his hard drive partitioned so he could do both. Let’s hope if anything is password protected, we can get Aiden over here to crack it.” />
  “By the way, how is he doing with the phone?” Lindsey asked.

  Taylor grimaced. “Not as well as he’d like. He said whoever set up the codes on the SIM card is probably someone Arroyo should hire.”

  “Damn.” Lindsey rubbed her forehead. “This just keeps getting more complicated.”

  Taylor nodded. “And we don’t even have a clue as to what’s being hidden and why. We can be damn sure, however, that it’s illegal and probably involves a very large amount of money. The telephone is a good indicator.”

  “That’s kind of what I’m hoping we’ll start learning about today.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself,” John warned her. “We’ve been through this before. If someone has something to hide, most times they are either very clever about it or hire people who are.” He grinned. “Otherwise you wouldn’t need me.”

  “I have a feeling you’ll really earn your fee this time. Lindsey, were you saying you had an empty office?”

  “Yes. One of our account managers left a couple of weeks ago. Health problems. I have a workspace with all the electronics you need. I’ll set it up so you have full access to everything on the system. Will that work for you?”

  “Definitely. I’m rearranging my schedule so I can work from here for a few days, or however long it takes. I can’t in good conscience get on with my calendar until we have answers on Craig’s death and what the hell he was mixed up in.”

  “I hate that this is screwing things up for you,” Lindsey told her. “I know what kind of responsibilities you have.”

  “And an excellent staff to handle things for me. Right now, I think this is more important. I just need a desk where I can hook up remotely to my office in San Antonio.”

  “What about Noah? Will he need space also?”

  Taylor grinned. “Noah’s office is his cell phone and a tablet, a specially designed one that I think cost as much as an office building. He’s good to go. Why don’t I get Sarah to help me? I’ll be needing her to do some things for me, anyway. You can go ahead and get John set up.”

  “No problem.”

  She pushed away the vestiges of the dream with ruthless discipline. This was business and she’d keep it that way. Based on what he’d intimated, quick hookups were a pattern with him. Maybe he was just looking to get something going for the duration of this job. He hadn’t impressed her that way in the beginning, but it was pretty obvious she’d misread him.

  She was going to write the situation with John off as a lapse in judgment and let it go at that. Just pretend none of it ever happened. He could do the job he’d been brought in for and find another playmate on his own time.

  The look he gave her was strange, as if he was trying to get a fix on her attitude. Too bad. She wasn’t going to let personal feelings interfere again. One mistake was enough and that wasn’t who she was, anyway. In all the years she’d been working, she’d never had an office romance or a relationship with any of the other people she worked with. Maybe his not calling her was a blessing, a lesson learned.

  “John, would you like me to have Leda fix a cup of coffee for you?”

  One corner of his mouth tilted up. “I can get my own coffee, Lindsey.” His voice was low and soft. “Thanks for the offer, but I don’t expect to be waited on.”

  He still had that quizzical look on his face, but now it was colored by something flashing in his eyes that she couldn’t exactly name. No problem. She’d just put it out of her mind.

  Right.

  “Who handles your accounting on a regular basis?” he asked while he filled his mug.

  “We have an in-house bookkeeper who handles the day-to-day financial activities. An accounting firm does the quarterlies and year-end reports and tax returns. With twelve client account managers at Elite, you can imagine there’s a lot going on involving money.” She pasted on another of her professional smiles. “But I’m sure you’re familiar with procedures in marketing firms. Anyway, I’ll have Leda get you the information.”

  She led John out of her office and into what had been Craig’s. In her best executive manner, she made sure he had everything he needed, including all the passwords to access protected files.

  “We may have to get Aiden in to decipher Craig’s password for the stand-alone part of his drive. Just let me know. If you need anything at all, press seven on the phone. That connects you to Leda, my admin. She can get you whatever you need.”

  She started to leave the office, but he closed his hand around her wrist, holding her in place.

  “And if what I want is you? Can she get me that or are you going to spend the day avoiding me?”

  “John,” she began. She wasn’t going there. Uh-uh. She still had lingering feelings of rejection from the last time.

  “That kiss last night,” he interrupted. “I didn’t imagine how affected we both were by it.”

  “That kiss was a mistake. I’m past it.”

  When she tugged her hand, he released his hold on her, but she could still feel the press of his fingers as if they were burned into her skin.

  “I’m not. We both know this isn’t the time or place to discuss it, but trust me, we will, and sooner rather than later.” A muscle twitched in his jaw. “I made a big mistake four years ago, Lindsey. I used the work as an excuse for not calling you, when the truth was I didn’t want more than what we had. Never did. Permanent relationships were messy and time-consuming, or so I’d always told myself. I was actually glad the job took so long, but I plan to rectify my mistake.”

  “Don’t say anything you’ll regret.” She paused. “I’m sure Taylor will check with you about lunch.”

  Lindsey was proud of herself for keeping it together. When she walked out of John’s office, no one would have known that inside her emotions were like the Atlantic Ocean in a perfect storm. How on earth was she going to get through whatever time he was here for? Four years ago, she’d been stupid, mesmerized by him. Now she was paying for it and it was a lot harder than she’d expected.

  She thanked god for her hard-earned discipline that allowed her to focus on her work all morning. The business of Elite could not grind to a halt, despite Craig’s death. She had deadlines to review, ad layouts to approve, photo shoots to check on. She had a conference call with one of the modeling agencies they used who insisted they were being shut out of some of the best assignments. It took several minutes to soothe them and assure them they were mistaken. She even promised to scout the particular site chosen for this shoot herself and make sure everything was in order. She’d double-check the date and location they’d given her and get back to them.

  Taylor buzzed her late morning to ask if she was available and also to say she was thinking about ordering lunch to be delivered.

  “I could go for that,” Lindsey told her. “I’d rather spend the time in my office than a restaurant. I can do that on my own time.”

  “Good. How about asking Leda to take everyone’s orders? You pick the best place.”

  “There’s a great deli in the next block that delivers. I’ll have her email each of you the menu.” She paused. Swallowed. “What about John?”

  “Of course. Have her find out what he wants. Arroyo will pick up the tab. No arguments, please.”

  Lindsey had been creating an outline of the promotional activities scheduled, the clients affected by them and which agent was handling them. She was putting the finishing touches on it to discuss with Taylor when Leda buzzed her to say Jerry Ortiz wanted a word with her.

  “Sure. Send him in.” She had an idea of what he wanted and had some questions of her own. Two events were highlighted on Craig’s online calendar. She had mentioned them to Taylor and voiced her concerns.

  “You handle it,” Taylor had said. “I’ll be backup if you need it.”

  “Knock knock.”

  She looked up to see Jerry in her doorway.

  “Leda said this was a good time.”

  “Sure. Come on in. I wanted to chat with you,
anyway.”

  Lindsey leaned back in her chair and waved Jerry in. As he sat in the chair in front of her desk, she studied him. Medium height, good-looking in a Latin-lover way with thick dark hair and a slightly olive complexion—she could see why he’d fit in with the Caribbean environment. Was that why Craig had chosen him to assist on these assignments?

  “Oh? About what?”

  “Since I’ll be taking over the reins of Elite, I’ll also be moving Craig’s clients to my desk. I’ll want to discuss with you exactly what you did for him and with which clients, and evaluate the situation.”

  Was it her imagination or did his face pale a degree or so? There was a definite twitch in a muscle in his cheek.

  Hmmmm.

  “Anyway,” she continued, “we’ll set some time aside for that in a day or so. But what’s on your mind?”

  “I guess this goes along with what you just said. Did you actually cancel the next two shoots or did I misread the memo from you?”

  Lindsey nodded. “I did. I haven’t studied the full list yet, but I wanted to give myself some breathing room.”

  “You mentioned touching base on them, but I didn’t think you’d cancel any without talking to me. I worked with him on all of those and I don’t think canceling them is the right thing to do.”

  “Trust me when I say we need some space here with these.” She looked down at her notes. “I see there’s one about to start right now. Please get hold of them and have them bring everyone back to Miami. Now,” she snapped when he frowned.

  Jerry looked as if he’d swallowed something bitter. “I don’t think I can do that. The photographers and models just arrived and the host is all set up for them. Everyone will be pissed off if I do this, including the client. And before you ask, the guys we use are the best in the business. But they know it and like to throw their weight around.”