Vianne choked on the mouthful of coffee, her eyes wide as she watched him stride to the front door, the newly installed condo key dangling with the car keys. She thought about what had been upper most in her mind.
“That office has a huge plate glass window open to the world,” she sputtered, scowling at the laughter from him.
Tanner turned long enough to wink and grin at her, whistling to himself on the way down the stairs to ground level and the waiting SUV. He loved the look in her eyes. Curiosity at the possibility; arousal at his game of words and just a touch of fear at the reality he’d laid before her. Perfect.
****
Vianne cleared security on the base level of the large office complex and headed for the elevator. She greeted people and listened to greetings, one palm up with a carefree wave until she left the elevator on her floor.
“Vianne!” Penny Carter came from the reception desk, short red hair flying in uneven wisps around her face and her arms up and flung around the shorter woman. “Married? You? Oh, god, you never told us about such a handsome hunk in your life! Congratulations!”
“I…thank you,” was the best she could manage, grateful when Penny returned to her desk, the smile on her face one Vianne found echoed as she made her way to her office.
Was I that single that people are in shock? She asked herself as she put her case on the stand beside her desk and began going through things left there from mail to messages to files. All of it needed to be routed and found homes for.
“You know everyone who knows you is in shock,” Hal Raleigh came around the door to her office and leaned there, voicing her thoughts aloud. He’d been her producer for several years for both the print and video and he thought he’d known everything there was to know about Vianne Summers. They’d even dated. But she hadn’t been interested in more.
“Shocked that I actually have a personal life?” Vianne shrugged and began sorting, the pile for shredding growing faster than the others.
“I guess that’s part of it. Never saw you with a guy before,” he said simply. “Some even thought…”
“You people have way too much time on your hands if my personal life is all you have to talk about,” Vianne laughed and pushed a breath between her lips. She tapped a button on her phone and waited. “I need a camera at about one-thirty, Ryan. Can you pencil me in?”
“For you, blondie, definitely,” Ryan made a note on his calendar. “Who’s the victim?”
“Valerie Vincent. We can take separate cars. I’m heading home after the interview.”
“I wondered if you’d get tangled in that one. Police reports don’t have her looking good, Vi.”
“Report from the victim doesn’t have her looking good, either. Not to mention the video footage of her actually putting an unknown drug into her daughter’s drink,” Vianne shook her head. “But there’s a little something more to the whole thing than we have information on at the moment. And I’m digging. See you at the estate, Ryan. Thanks.”
“Hey, your interviews make good bar stories,” he said with a chuckle before signing off.
“Have we met this guy?” Hal pressed once she ended the call with Ryan.
“Valerie Vincent?” Vianne looked over at him with a frown when she saw the single raised brow aimed at her. “You’re talking about Tanner.”
“Where’d you meet him?”
She leaned back and inhaled slowly. “We met through the job with the resort. I’ve been corresponding with him for the last four months.”
“Corresponding?” He repeated, zeroing in on the single curious term. “You didn’t meet in person?”
“We met a few days ago…”
“You only just met the guy?”
“What’re you? My father? Good lord, Hal, I’m thirty-five years old…coming up on thirty-six. I don’t need anyone’s permission or approval. Should we just hold a press conference so I can answer all the questions at once?” Vianne stared at him, her head shaking as he stalked off. “Good grief,” she lifted her phone and sent a quick text to Tanner letting him know she was safely at the office. She also set the finder app and sent it to him, promising to keep her phone on at all times.
She looked down at the small screen a few minutes later.
“And the sexy undies?”
She burst out laughing, fingers tapping over the keys. Obviously her husband had a one track mind. Oh, god, when had she become reconciled to the idea of being married?
“Color preference?”
“Red.”
“Now there’s a surprise,” she laughed, setting the phone down and going back to work.
It was just touching noon when she decided she’d had enough sorting and shredding for the day and collected things she wanted to take home with her. Carrying her case, she made her way to the car, setting things into the back seat. She was still shaking her head at the people who appeared genuinely stunned that she had married.
She headed toward Mercer Island, making a stop at one of her favorite shops along the way. Red, huh, she thought as she shopped. Maybe she was just as stunned as her friends and co-workers. She hadn’t told anyone they were chatting for four months.
It had begun as a business proposition between her, Logan and Tanner. Then somehow Logan had dropped out of the conversations and it was just Tanner and her. Flirting, light and a little sexy, he was sweet and polite and always made her laugh. Somewhere it had slipped into something a lot more complex. And a hundred times more frightening.
Vianne checked her watch and parked outside one of her favorite little local shops on the drive up with coastal road to Mercer Island. Red, she thought as she greeted the owner and wandered the spacious floor bursting with colors and lace and satin and all things seductive.
“Haven’t seen you around in a while,” Maggie Fletcher walked to join her from behind the counter. Monday afternoons weren’t busy sales wise and usually her time for inventory and cleaning.
“Busy exploring a new job opportunity,” Vianne answered honestly.
“I hear congratulations are in order. He’s a cutie,” Maggie teased, recalling the story on the local news channel. She looked at the ring on her friend’s hand. “Wow…nice rock.”
“He is cute and…” Vianne lifted the hand to look at the matching ring and bracelet. “And confident. Show me something in do-me red that’ll make him drool,” she requested with a gleam in her eyes.
“Well, you’re in the middle between Valentines and Christmas, so I’ve got some really nice things,” Maggie led her to the far corner. “How about something with some black ribbons and lace…it’ll go great with your skin.”
Thirty minutes later, Vianne carried the tissue paper wrapped items in the pink shopping bag and returned to her car before guiding her car to the highway and her interview.
She was relieved to see Ryan a few cars behind her as she maneuvered along the winding drive to the secluded and gated house on the exclusive community island in the middle of Lake Washington. Once they cleared the guard, she parked beneath the overhang, checked the mirror to make sure most everything was neatly in place and stepped onto the concrete.
Vianne sent a quick text to Tanner before turning the phone to vibrate and sliding it into the pocket on her slacks. The comfortable flats she wore crunched on the loose gravel as she walked to van with the letters of the station blazing across the sides.
“We’re being watched from the windows,” Ryan said casually, ostensibly checking his camera before stepping to the gravel and walking with her to the concrete walkway.
“Oh, I’m sure we’re being watched from more than one window. I asked for an interview from Neil Vincent and was hung up on,” she said with a low chuckle. “But somehow I’m sure he’s very aware his wife is going to speak with me. I bet she’s practicing her cry even as we speak.”
“You’re such a cynical little liberal,” he chuckled, glancing at her hand. “Nice bling. Is he a good guy? Stupid question,” he laughed without waitin
g for an answer. “You wouldn’t have anything to do with him if he wasn’t. Never knew a woman with such solid instincts before,” he complimented warmly. “I’ll miss working with you.”
“Get me your resume. We need a camera and photo shoot person,” she told him, nodding at the surprised expression on his face. “A chance to work for the resort. You’d also be shared with PR, though.”
“You’ll have it by morning,” he assured her without hesitating. “I’m in need of a few changes.”
Vianne frowned at the buzzing in her pocket and pulled the phone out, slid it open and laughed. Definitely a one track mind on that man, she thought, looking at the single word text. “Red?”
“Love texts?” Ryan teased.
Vianne took a deep breath. “I might have stirred up a few politicians,” she said quietly, her hand out and pressing the pearl round button. Chimes sounded throughout the large house. “And someone followed us yesterday on the way back from an interview with Melody Richardson.”
Ryan just nodded.
“So Tanner is a little concerned…and unhappy at how I baited them.”
“Smart man,” Ryan said, slipping easily into the silent, invisible camera man when the door was pulled wide.
The older woman looked put out and not happy they were there at all. She stepped to the side and gestured them inside, her lips pursed and eyes suspicious.
“Vianne Summers to speak with Mrs. Vincent,” she said with a smile. Nothing new there, she thought, hostile work environments were a typical part of her job.
“Wait here, please,” the woman said and turned away, striding down a hall where all the doors were closed, making it dark and ominous.
“Hmm…I get the feeling we’re not liked,” Ryan chuckled, his camera up and ready on his shoulder.
Vianne kept the smile in place as the elegant looking mother of her best friend came along the dark hall. Not a hair out of place, she thought, extending her palm.
“Mrs. Vincent, thank you so much for talking to me today.”
Valerie Vincent placed her hand in the one offered with a brief shake, her head tipped and eyes sad.
“It’s been over a year since you’ve been here, Vianne,” she gestured to a closed set of double doors. “We can speak in the library.”
“I’ve lunched with Erika but she’s been so excited and busy working on her masters and then all the licensing and testing for her new position has just kept us both occupied,” Vianne responded with her best interview face. “I was sorry to hear about the falling out between you two. You always seemed so close,” she lied with a straight face. She’d watched Erika almost ignored most of her life because she wanted to work in a field her parents didn’t grasp. But now the woman sported the most hurt look on her face that it almost made Vianne end the interview and walk away.
Almost.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Erika has changed so much since all this schooling,” Valerie Vincent turned away from Vianne and the camera, walking to one of the comfortable winged back chairs and sinking down, a hanky in one hand. “Can I offer you coffee? Or something else?”
“I’m fine, thank you,” Vianne took the opposite chair and knew Ryan would position himself to capture them both in the picture. He was good at his job, she thought fleetingly, turning her attention back to Valerie. “Erika’s always loved school. Her and I spent a lot of time together from high school through college. I don’t remember her being interested in much else but learning. My information says you have a college degree, Mrs. Vincent. Surely you can understand the drive Erika has for the field she’s chosen.”
“There’s college and there’s excess,” came the slightly sharp answer, her persona dropped for a moment before it was grasped around her like a cloak. “The influence of school simply seemed to take away the sweet, gentle personality that was my daughter. I would have hoped for grandchildren by now. She is over thirty.”
“I understand you and your husband introduced her to Adam Wayne?”
“I believe they’re so perfectly matched,” she declared enthusiastically. “He’s so professional and there’s no place for him to go but up. He’s very smart and good at his job and my husband is quite impressed with his work ethic.”
“He works in the contracts department for foreign development and business,” Vianne said as casually as she could. “Very lucrative position since many governments want the technology to defend and explore, and your husband’s firm develops and shares that. For a price.”
“I…yes, I suppose that’s an accurate assessment,” Valerie said simply.
“Don’t you believe that a marriage should be based on mutual admiration as well as friendship? Erika doesn’t like him,” Vianne said flatly. “She not only doesn’t like him, she suspects he has no sexual interest in her. Doesn’t it trouble you that a man you want your daughter to marry…the man you’re hoping would produce grandchildren with her…shows no physical interest in her at all? Erika told me he’s never offered more than a kiss on her cheek.”
“That’s…you’re very wrong. Where did you get an insane idea like that? He’s madly in love with my daughter! She’s beautiful and intelligent. Of course he’s attracted to her.” She informed Vianne with stiffened shoulders and narrowed eyes.
“I got the idea from Erika,” Vianne answered honestly. “She admits she was a little more than distracted with all the state and federal exams and she’s very sorry if she led Adam Wayne on in any way. But she doesn’t love him. She’s not sure she even likes him. He’s never kissed her, other than a peck on the head. How can you call that attraction? If he were a normal, red-blooded male, of course, who preferred women,” Vianne sat back and watched the blood first drain and then flood the perfectly made up cheeks.
“How dare you…”
“You knew Adam Wayne was gay since you introduced them, didn’t you, Mrs. Vincent? I think you also know that’s why Erika ran. She found him with his male lover in your garden. And she left him and you a note calling off the wedding,” Vianne gestured to Ryan to make certain he followed the woman when she surged from the chair and paced the room.
“I don’t know where you’ve gotten these lies…”
“Research, mainly,” Vianne answered with a little shrug. “The complicated part is how does Erika fit into this scheme and why would you want her married to someone who didn’t love her?”
“Marriage is not about love, it’s about obligation! To one’s family and the business empire her father…” She stopped and drew in a long, shuddering breath. “This interview is finished.”
“We haven’t discussed why you drugged your own daughter yet, Mrs. Vincent. I’m sure the public would love an explanation to that one,” Vianne didn’t move from her seat when the older woman turned to glare at her. “Not normal mother-daughter behavior, to be sure. I’ve seen the video and there’s no doubt you dropped a powdery drug into her drink. I’ve also seen the report from the hospital lab identifying the drug, a sedative you have a prescription for to help you sleep,” Vianne flipped through her notebook. “Then we have the international flight reservations for you, your husband, Adam Wayne and Erika. Erika had no idea she was going overseas, though, as she has big plans to begin her new job with the resort health center.”
Valerie walked to the desk and pressed a button, the double doors opened almost immediately by the housekeeper. One of the guards stood just outside the room, waiting.
“Escort these people from our property. I have nothing to say to you, Miss Summers. Good day,” Valerie tossed a glare from one to the other before storming from the room and not looking back.
“That didn’t take near as long as I thought it would,” Vianne murmured to herself as she joined Ryan and walked to their cars.
“Interesting story, Summers,” Ryan shook his head. “Politics and family…I’ll get this footage to your desk by tomorrow morning for you.”
“Thanks, Ryan and good night. See you tomorrow and don’t fo
rget that resume,” Vianne reminded him, closing her door and heading out on to the driveway. She pulled off to the side once she was cleared of the gates and pulled her phone out. She’d made him a promise and meant to keep it.
Interview over. Flustered Mrs. Vincent and on my way home. I’ll fix dinner. V.
She sent the text and wasn’t surprised that there was an answer almost immediately.
Thank you. How about black?
Vianne closed the phone and laughed, chuckling now and then on the drive down the highway to the condo. She made it inside with her purchases, started the simple, light dinner and took her special package into the bedroom once the chicken was done, the lettuce chopped and croutons tossed on top. She had the Caesar dressing waiting on the table by the plates.
She stood in front of the mirror ten minutes later and pushed a very long breath between her lips. She could honestly say that was an image of her she never expected to see outside of a dream after a very long assignment. Slim fingers shook just a little as she gathered the blond hair into a small bundle at the back of her head, loose tendrils curling around her face.
Maggie had been right about the black and red together. Definitely an eye catcher. Vianne was standing beside the bed, bent in half and adjusting her toes in one of the black heels when his voice echoed through the condo.
“Vianne? Damn that smells good,” Tanner tossed his briefcase to the sofa and continued toward the back. “I think you’ll really like the new office…”
And every single word in the four languages he knew came slamming down and were instantly erased from his brain. His mouth opened and closed. Twice. Hands rose and gripped the edge of the door frame. He could still swallow, he noted and did so a couple times before closing his eyes and opening them more slowly.
WindSwept Narrows: #22 Erika & Vianne Page 27