“It showed me just where I stand in your life, Eve.”
Eve was silent until the elevator doors opened and Adam stepped in. “You see nothing, Adam,” she said quietly as the doors slid shut.
“Are you okay?” Lainey laid a hand on Eve’s shoulder. Eve hadn’t moved from in front of the elevator since Adam had left a few minutes earlier.
“Fine.” After another minute of silence and sadness, she took a breath and turned to Lainey with a smile. “I’m fine.”
“Eve, I know this is hurting you. Talk to me.”
Eve sighed. “Lainey, I can’t think about this right now. Adam is better off this way.” She held up her hand to stop Lainey from commenting. “Before you say anything, let me just say, I know how you feel about me, and you’re a bit biased. Look, I have to clean up the mess that my life is in right now before I can worry about my relationship with Adam.”
“Does that mess include me?”
“Of course not! You’re not a part of my problems.”
Lainey let out the breath that she was holding and relaxed. “So, to keep Adam away, you told him you were going out of town?”
“I am going out of town. I’m going to Paris tomorrow.”
“I thought that was next week.” Confused, Lainey thought back to her conversation with Eve about the auction in Paris. She was positive that it was next week.
“It was, but certain matters have come to my attention, matters I have to attend to.”
“Then I’m going with you,” Lainey said. After all Eve had told her, how could she really think Lainey would let her face her world on her own?
“No, Lainey. What I have to do there, I have to do alone.”
“Why? Why must you do everything alone? Is it that you don’t want me to go with you?”
“I do. That’s why you need to stay here. Lainey,” Eve saw the hurt in Lainey’s eyes and wished she hadn’t put it there. “Please don’t be upset. I can’t keep asking you to disrupt your life for me.”
“You’re not asking. I want to be with you, and I won’t let you keep pushing me away.” Lainey lowered her voice. “I love you, Eve.”
Eve raised a perfectly shaped eyebrow and glanced around at the people in the gallery.
“Afraid someone might hear me?” Lainey asked. Oddly enough, she wasn’t afraid or ashamed.
“Do you think I care who hears?” Eve asked with an almost proud smile. “It’s not me I’m worried about.” She gestured towards the stairs. “Come on. Let’s go to my office for some privacy.”
Eve waited for Lainey to enter the office and closed the door behind her. “I have to do this alone, Lainey,” she said.
“You’re not alone anymore, Eve,” Lainey insisted. “You’ve been through so much in your life, with no one else to help you. But now I’m here.”
The sentiment alone touched Eve. She smiled at Lainey. “I’ve been back to Paris since then, honey.”
“Not there,” Lainey said simply. Somehow, she knew where Eve was going and knew how hard it would be for her. “You’re scared.”
Eve locked eyes with Lainey. When she spoke, her voice was low and quiet. “How do you do that? How do you see what’s inside me?”
“I told you, honey. I love you.”
Eve began to pace. “Whether I’m scared or not, I have to do this by myself,” she said. “I can’t keep taking you away from your family, Lainey. Jack, Kevin and Darren need you here, and I have to stop being selfish.” She came to a stop in front of Lainey. “This is my problem, and what I have to do to fix it, I can’t involve you.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I mean just that. I can’t say much more than I’ve already told you. I’m not going to let you be implicated in anything – distasteful that I might have to do.”
“You’re starting to scare me. What are you going to do, Eve?”
“Only what has to be done,” Eve answered simply. “He knows, Lainey.”
“Knows what?”
“What I did in Paris. He knows. They’re trying to destroy me, and if I don’t take care of this now, they will.”
“Oh my God. How?”
“That’s what I need to find out. By any means possible. There’s a file on me, a file that the authorities have. Billy showed it to me.”
“Billy knows, too?” How had Eve handled it all? How had she made it through each day with all of this going on around her?
“He doesn’t believe it. He thinks they planted it as another way to bring me down. If I don’t do something about this, they’ll succeed.”
“Who are they, Eve?”
“There’s someone else, and I don’t know how involved he is in this with my father. Don’t ask me who,” Eve said quickly, when she saw the question form in Lainey’s eyes. “I’m not going to tell you, not yet. I don’t have any proof.” She hesitated, debating on how much to say to Lainey, then took a breath. “Just trust me, baby, when I tell you that the less you know, the better. They’re not playing by the rules, Lainey. There’s only one way this game between me and Tony is going to end. One of us will die.”
“Don’t! Don’t say that, Eve.” Lainey’s heart pounded painfully in her chest, and she started to feel light headed. Losing Eve was something that Lainey couldn’t think about. She had just found her and there was no way now that she could live without her. She dropped onto a chair and Eve fell to her knees in front of her.
“I don’t intend to lose, Lainey,” she said in a low voice.
“But what are you going to do, Eve?” Lainey demanded. “You aren’t going to kill your father, are you?”
Eve found that she was unable to look Lainey in the eye.
“Eve, you can’t!”
“What am I supposed to do, Lainey? I’ve lived looking over my shoulder my whole life, wondering who he’s hired to kill me, or destroy me. I can’t live like that anymore. If any of this gets out - what they know about Paris - I’m finished. All of this,” Eve gestured widely with her arms. “All of it will be over. My galleries, everything that I care about will be gone.”
She knew Lainey understood that she meant Adam as well.
“Then have him put back in jail, Eve. You can’t...kill him.”
“Jail doesn’t solve my problem, Lainey. He can still hire people, I’ll still be looking over my shoulder. I’ll spend every day worried that he’ll come after those I care about. I won’t do that to you or your family. I won’t let you live with that fear. Maybe it’s a curse to be loved by me.”
“Do you?” She whispered, stunned by Eve’s words. “Do you love me, Eve?”
Eve looked at Lainey in silence for a long moment. Had she really said that? And then, just as she began to speak, an angry knock sounded at the door. “Just a minute,” she called out.
“Lainey, I...”
The impatient knocking continued.
“Damn it!” She stalked to the door, wrenching it open. “What?”
Dee Cummings pushed her way through the door. Turning on her heel, she faced Eve with her hands on her hips. “I trusted you!” she said in a shrill voice.
Eve raised a brow, too confused to be furious. “Dee,” she said evenly. “What brings you here?”
“What brings me here? You sending the Feds after me is what brings me here. I trusted you, gave you information and you pay me back by sending the FBI knocking at my door?”
“Calm down. I didn’t send the FBI. Agent Donovan is a friend of mine, Dee. He’s doing me a favor, and I need you to cooperate with him.”
“Cooperate? You mean give him my sources? In this case, Eve, that means more than just journalism suicide. Do you know what these people could do to me?”
Eve glanced over at Lainey, who was listening intently to every word. “Yes. I know very well what they could do. What they will do, regardless if you give up your source or not. I can protect you, Dee.”
Dee looked at Eve. She had no doubt that Eve would do as she said. “You should have warned
me.”
“I know, I’m sorry. I spoke to him today, and I didn’t have a chance to call you. He’s working fast. Please, Dee. I need you to tell Agent Donovan what you know.”
“Why do you need me to do this? You have all of the information I have, why can’t you tell him?”
Eve looked at Dee. “I don’t have all of the information. Do I? I’m sure there are things that have been said that you didn’t write down. Besides, it’s my word against his. I’ll need you to corroborate what I’ve told Agent Donovan as the truth. Please.” Eve laid a hand on Dee’s arm. “I’m asking you to help me.”
The anger in Dee gave way to weariness. “Give me the interview you promised and I’ll tell him everything I know.”
“I will, but it can’t be now.”
“I need something, Eve. I’m putting my career, hell, my life on the line for you. I need something in return.”
Sighing, Eve walked to her desk and rested a hip on it. “Fine. I’ll answer one question for you now. Off the record.” She held up a hand when Dee started to protest. “That’s the way it has to be, Dee. I will tell you what you want to know, but you have to keep it between us until this is over.”
“I need a story, Eve.”
“And, you will get one. That’s the deal, Dee. I can’t go public with any of this yet. Too many people are watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake.”
Eve glanced over at Lainey again. There was too much for her to lose.
“I won’t make a mistake. Ask me what you want to know, and keep it to yourself until I tell you otherwise.”
Curiosity won over and Dee reluctantly agreed. There was something she wanted to know, and if these were the terms, she’d abide by them. “Very well. Do you know where Katherine Bushnell is, Eve?”
Eve’s eyes darted to Lainey, then back at Dee. “Yes.” She heard Lainey’s soft, surprised intake of breath. “She’s safe. That’s all I can tell you.”
Dee considered pressing more on the issue, but decided against it. For now. Instead, she was going to try her luck with one more question, even though Eve had only agreed to one.
“And Meredith Lansky?” She watched as Eve’s eyes clouded over and became unreadable.
“I said one question.”
“I’m a reporter, Eve, you had to expect that I would press you for more information. I think I deserve at least this much. I can start building my story. Do you know where Meredith is, as well?”
Eve glanced at Lainey who stood beside her now. She didn’t want to say this in front of her, but at the same time, she deserved to know the whole story. “No,” Eve said quietly. “I don’t know where she is.”
The part of her that was trained to read people told Dee that Eve knew more than what she was revealing. The regret in Eve’s voice put Dee on alert. “Do you think she’s dead?”
“I don’t know.”
“If you had to guess, knowing what you know, do you think she’s dead?”
Damn it! The woman was persistent, and Eve couldn’t ignore the question or her instinct. “Yes.”
“Oh my God,” Lainey gasped.
“Meredith refused to work with me,” Eve said softly. “She thought she was more important in this game than the main players did. She wasn’t. I tried to help her, but she wouldn’t let me.”
Eve might feel responsible for what had happened to Meredith but it was clear to Dee that she was sorry for the woman.
“It’s not your fault.”
“That’s it,” Eve said crisply. “No more questions. Now, keep your end of the deal and tell Agent Donovan what you know. After that, I suggest you take a vacation.”
“I’m not running, Eve.” She snorted which surprisingly only added to the woman’s charm. “I’m a reporter, remember? We get more death threats daily than anyone else I know of.”
“Not from someone like this.” The urgency in Eve’s voice caught Dee’s attention as she meant it to. “I don’t know the fate of one person who refused my help; don’t make me worry about another. Take a vacation.”
“I am due for one.” Dee bit her lip and then capitulated. “I’ll put in for one tomorrow.”
“Thank you. I’ll make the arrangements,” Eve told her. “Someone will be at your home to pick you up tomorrow evening.”
Dee was starting to understand why Eve was so successful. Who could argue with her? “Fine,” she said. “Let me write down my address for you.”
“I know where you live,” Eve interrupted, and smiled at Dee’s surprise. “You’re not the only one that can do research, Ms. Cummings. Watch yourself.”
When Dee was gone, Lainey took charge, locking the office door and leading Eve to the couch. This time, it was Lainey who got down on her knees in front of Eve. “I don’t know how you live with this every day. No.” She placed a finger on Eve’s lips to stop her from speaking. “I don’t want you to think about it right now. I’ll stay here while you fight your demons in Paris, even though I wish you would let me go with you. I’m going to miss you.”
“I’ll call you.” Eve’s heart beat faster and she itched to take Lainey in her arms.
“You better. When you wake up, before you go to bed and any time in between when you have a chance. For now, we’re going to make up for a little bit of the time we’re going to lose together.” Lainey feathered her fingers over Eve’s bare thighs, pushing them apart, placing herself in between them.
“Lainey?”
“Shh. No thinking, no talking. Just feel me.” Lainey got to the hem of Eve’s skirt and paused. With a sly smile, Lainey bent her head and ran her tongue just underneath that hem. She heard Eve moan, and her smile broadened.
Lainey made love to Eve there in her office, making it last as long as she possibly could. Eve would think of her every minute they were apart. Lainey made sure of that.
Eve stepped out of her car onto the sidewalk in front of her apartment building. As always, Henry was there to greet her.
“Good evening, Miss Eve. Long day today?” Henry smiled warmly at Eve, but behind the smile was concern. She looked tired and on edge.
“Does it show?” Eve smiled and patted Henry on the arm. “Nothing a good night’s sleep won’t help.” An idea came to her as she started through the door that Henry held open for her.
“Henry,” she said. “When was the last time you, Trudy and Stevie had a vacation?”
“Um, well, ma’am, funds have been kind of tight.”
“I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to pry,” Eve apologized when she heard Henry’s discomfort. “I’m going out of town for the next couple of days, and it had me thinking. What if I could arrange for you and your family...”
“Ma’am, you’ve done way too much for us already. I can’t be accepting a vacation from you. The missus would kill me.”
“Please, Henry. I was supposed to go to Jamaica with a couple of friends,” she lied. “But unfortunately this business deal came up and I have to make that trip instead. So, I thought that you and your family could go instead and have a real vacation.”
Tears came to Henry’s eyes. “That’s very generous of you, Miss Eve, but what about your friends? Aren’t they still going to go?”
“No. We’ve all decided to postpone it until later. The hotel is paid for. Everything is paid for. Why let it all go to waste? Say you’ll go, Henry. Go home tonight and surprise your wife with an all expense paid trip to Jamaica.”
“She’s always wanted to go there,” Henry said thoughtfully. “I would never know how to repay you.”
“Just have fun,” Eve said with a smile. “You’ll leave tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow? But, I have to arrange for time off.”
“I’ll arrange it. All you need to worry about is going home and telling your wife that you’re off for a wonderful vacation tomorrow. I’ll have a car to pick you up tomorrow morning and everything will be set. Don’t forget to pack a bathing suit.”
“I don’t know what to say. You are truly an a
mazing young woman.”
Eve looked away. If only he knew the truth of why she wanted him to leave, he would feel differently.
“You deserve the best, Henry,” she said briskly. “Have a good time for me, okay?”
Standing on her tip toes, she kissed him gently on the cheek. “Good night,” she whispered and disappeared through the doors.
She was so unbelievably tired. After her beautiful time with Lainey that afternoon, Eve’s evening had gone straight downhill. She had spoken to Billy again, gathering more information from him. Thankfully, Dee had kept her word and told Billy everything she knew. Then Eve had had a meeting with those working with her against Tony, and the news was not good. Those people closest to her were in more danger than she suspected, and it was her responsibility to keep them safe. Adam had also been mentioned in this meeting. Apparently Tony didn’t like the fact that his daughter was sleeping with the man, and wanted him taken out of the picture. Eve would die before she let anything happen to Adam, and she made it very clear that if any harm were to come to him, she would deal with all of them personally. But, Eve knew that she had to do her part to keep Adam safe, as well. If that meant losing him forever, then it was a sacrifice she would have to make.
Eve had convinced Lainey to stay home, and not go into work, while she was in Paris, a task which had proven to be extremely difficult and had involved making Lainey countless promises, one of which included taking Lainey to Paris when this was all over. Eve intended to keep all of her promises. She simply could not lose this game.
Weary, she drug a hand through her hair and was grateful when the elevator doors slid open on her floor. Just a few more steps and she would be inside her apartment and could lock the world away. She stopped cold in her tracks when she saw Adam standing at her door. He was wearing Levis and an old New York Yankees t-shirt, and his hair was disheveled as though he had run his hands through it repeatedly. Not now, she thought. She just didn’t have the strength to deal with this at this moment.
“Adam? What are you doing here?”
“What did you mean when you said I see nothing?”
Something About Eve (An Eve Sumptor Book 1) Page 36