by Addison Fox
Capable.
Those attributes and so many more.
Charlie had stayed still, somehow sensing the humans needed a moment, but the waiting finally got to him. The combination of active puppy and a body that was going limp from Donovan’s sexy ministrations got the better of her and Bellamy stepped back from the kiss before she lost her hold on Charlie.
“Whoa there. Hang on.” Donovan took him easily, transferring the bundle of energy into his arms and holding the dog as if he weighed nothing. He lifted him up and stared him in the eye but kept his voice gentle. “Way to ruin the mood, little man.”
Charlie only wagged his tail even harder, his tongue lapping into the air as his little body wiggled from his excitement.
“He looks very remorseful.” Bellamy giggled, the small, wiggly body too cute to resist.
“I think we may also be getting the universal signal to go outside. I’ll be right back. There’s something I want to show you anyway.”
Bellamy watched Donovan go, struck once again by his gentle nature with animals. Even at the risk of wearing puppy pee or something even less desirable, he had a soothing way about him and kept Charlie close.
She stood there for a few moments, absorbing what had just happened. The intensity of the kiss. And the pure joy of being in Donovan’s arms. Even the solicitous way he’d worried over her parents.
The computer screen still had all the information on her parents’ accident and Bellamy scanned it again, doing her level best to read it with detachment. She knew the case well, but read through Donovan’s impressions of the night and what he’d contributed to the report. His description of the scene matched the final crime report. So did the on-scene reconstruction.
“You sure you’re okay with that?”
“I’m good.” Bellamy glanced back over her shoulder, pleased to see Donovan was still dry. “No accidents before you got him outside?”
“It was close but Charlie showed admirable control. He also ran off to play with the big guys after doing his business so I’ll leave it to Alex to keep an eye on him for a while.”
“Alex is good with other dogs.”
“He is. The socializing is good for him and so’s the time outside. We’re lucky to have pretty decent winter months here in Austin but I never take them fully for granted. Every opportunity to get him out here is time well spent for him.”
The time at the K-9 facility obviously did Donovan good, too. He was more relaxed here. More at ease. Was that because this was his professional home or was it because he wasn’t comfortable in Whisperwood? His earlier comments about his family still lingered, but Bellamy chickened out before she could ask him about them.
There was a sweet vibe between them for the moment, a by-product of the kiss and the puppy, and she was loath to mar that in any way.
“Was there something you wanted to show me?”
“What do you know about Sutton Taylor?”
“The CEO of LSP?”
Donovan dragged over a chair from a nearby desk and pulled it up next to her and took a seat. “The same.”
“I know him peripherally. Once a year all the departments present to him. Given how long I’ve been at LSP, he knows my name. I’ve had a few encounters with him at annual meetings and at the company picnic and I had to take him through a financial file once all on my own.”
“What were your impressions of him?”
“He’s incredibly well respected. He built LSP from the ground up, using some seed money he’d made early on in pharmaceutical sales. He’s grown the business from there.”
“That’s good.” Donovan nodded. “But what are your impressions of him, who he is as a person?”
“Oh. Well, I’m not sure I ever thought about it.” She stopped as one of those rare meetings came back to her. “That’s not entirely true. I remember this one time. We were waiting for a meeting to start and several of us were in line to get coffee and breakfast.”
Donovan’s attention never wavered at what she felt was a silly story. “Go on.”
“So we’re in line and because I had fiddled with a few pages of my presentation I was at the back of it. And I could see how Sutton admired one of my colleagues. I know men look at women. Heck, women look at men. It’s natural. But most people aren’t so—” She did break off then. “Most people aren’t so obvious about it. And all I could think was that this was the founder of the company and he was ogling this woman like he was a fifteen-year-old boy.”
“Do you think others noticed?”
“If they did, no one said anything. But there was just this quality about it all that I found disappointing. Like he should be above that somehow.”
“Do you think he’s behind the supply management and price-fixing?”
Bellamy wanted to dismiss it but gave the question her attention. “Why would he do that?”
“One of the two greatest motivators in the world. Money.”
“What’s the other?” The question was out before she could check it and his answer came winging back on a wry grin.
“Sex.”
“Of course.”
“Which brings me to my other question about Mr. Sutton Taylor. Take a look at these.” Donovan clicked through several browser windows he’d opened, pointing out various elements that had caught his attention on each page with the mouse. “See here and here and here. All suggest, either in a veiled manner or in the case of that blog right out in the open, what a ladies’ man he is. All reinforce the story you just shared.”
Bellamy considered the assessment, weighing her answer. “I guess others have seen what I have.”
“You’re not ruining his reputation to answer honestly. Especially not if it will help us get to the bottom of what’s going on.”
It still felt like a betrayal of some sort, but Bellamy knew he was right. More, she was in the middle of this now whether she liked it or not and she had a right to take care of herself.
“He’s very highly regarded for all he’s built LSP into, but if I’m being honest, people do talk about his wilder side. Apparently he’s had a wandering eye for decades now. His wife passed a little over a year ago, but rumor has been that she always turned a blind eye.”
“Behavior like that might be enough to piss someone off.”
“And give them access to our drug supply chain?” She shook her head, the notion simply not possible. “No way. There are too many people involved. Too many steps in the process. The sheer amount of government reporting we do on the various drugs we produce makes that virtually impossible.”
“So we’re back to the email as a way to ruin corporate reputation, not as fact.”
She held up a hand. “Wait a minute. There’s an easy way to find out if this is reputation or reality. Hang on.”
Fifteen minutes later, Bellamy hung up the phone and tapped the notepad she’d scribbled onto. After five calls to pharmacy chains she knew LSP provided flu vaccine for, all confirmed they were out of it.
“Five for five?”
“Yep.” She tapped the pad. “No one has the vaccine. Once they got past their initial supplies in September and October, all were asked to pay highway robbery to reorder. And I know there’s plenty of vaccine. Our supply is manufactured to ensure it.”
“And no one at work has mentioned this?”
Bellamy considered Donovan’s question, reviewing it through the new lens uncovered by the calls. “The office has been on a lighter schedule because of the holiday and I didn’t give it much thought, but one of my colleagues was complaining in the lunch line a few weeks ago. He mentioned how he’d fielded several calls from field reps complaining about problems with orders. Only when he went back to look at the manifests, everything appeared to have delivered in full.”
“So where’s the gap?”
“Exactly.”
Her gaze drifted back to the computer screen and a small link at the bottom of the article currently facing them from Donovan’s screen. “What does that say?” She pointed to the link before reaching for the mouse to click on it.
A new window popped open out of the existing one, a small blurb on the blog they were already looking at.
Sutton Taylor in hospital with mysterious illness. Family worried the Hill Country’s most powerful CEO is at death’s door.
“Death’s door? What?” Bellamy scanned the article quickly, trying to decipher through the gossip and the innuendo to see what she could discover. “It says here he’s been ill for some time until being checked into a private facility between Whisperwood and Austin earlier this month.”
“This site is known for stretching the truth. Has he been seen at work? Or has anything been mentioned about an illness?”
“Not at all. Last I heard his son was boasting that his father was headed out on a well-deserved Mediterranean vacation for the holidays.”
“Could be a cover-up.”
“But why hide that from the employees?”
“Maybe they don’t want anyone to panic or get upset? Or feel they can get away with anything if the boss is ill.”
Bellamy stilled at Donovan’s theories. While all were sound, they seemed so foreign.
So at odds with the company she’d known and loved for the past thirteen years.
“Did you remember something?”
“No, it’s just that this doesn’t seem possible. I’ve worked there for so many years. Maybe my loyalty to them has blinded me to their possible faults, but what we’re talking about...corporate price-fixing? Putting millions of lives at risk? How could I possibly have worked for a company who saw that as a way to turn a profit?”
“I’m sorry, Bellamy. Really, I am. You’ve lost a lot and this is only adding to that burden.”
While she appreciated the sympathy more than she could say, it was way more than a burden. Had she truly spent nearly all of her adult life working for a company that was so profit driven they’d violated the core tenets of their business—to make people well?
“It’s a lot to digest, that’s all.”
“Then why don’t we do something to take your mind off of it? Staring at these articles isn’t going to bring any answers. Maybe something fun and different would be a better idea.”
“Like what?”
“There’s a neighborhood down off Lake Travis full of big beautiful homes that’s known for their Christmas decorations. They’re also known for their friendly neighborhood competition of putting holiday inflatables on the front lawn.”
“Sounds classy.”
“Apparently it started as a prank from one house to another and morphed into a neighborhood joke. Now that they get over twenty thousand visitors a season, everyone decided to get in the act. Especially when they started charging admission for a local charity.”
She hadn’t been full of a single drop of holiday cheer this season, but something about the promise of goofy inflatable lawn decorations and bright, shiny lights felt like the right idea.
“Can Alex come along?”
“As if I’d leave him behind. Though I have to warn you, he’s a bit of a spoilsport.”
“Oh?”
“With all the running around he’s done today, he’s going to be asleep before we leave the K-9 training center.”
“Poor baby. He’ll miss all the fun.”
Donovan leaned forward, a grin on his face as he whispered in a conspiratorial tone. “Shh. It’s probably for the best. There’s one house with a decoration of a dog dressed like one of Santa’s reindeer that will give him nightmares for a month.”
“Then it’s good I’m along. I can make sure his eyes are covered from the horror of lawn decorations gone awry.”
Chapter Nine
It was good she was along. Even better, Donovan thought, it was nice to see a broad smile on Bellamy’s face as they drove slowly past the brightly decorated houses and the laughable lawn decorations.
“That is not a pig in angel’s wings.”
“It most certainly is.”
Bellamy’s laughter filled the car, a soothing balm to what they’d shared earlier. Even with the difficult discussion of her parents at the K-9 center, she’d kept her equilibrium, but he hadn’t heard her laugh. The sound was enticing. Sweet.
And thoroughly enchanting.
Is that what the kids were calling it nowadays, Colton?
Bellamy Reeves might be enchanting, but she was also sexy as hell, a fighter and a woman who had come to occupy far too many of his thoughts in far too short a time.
Had she ever fully left?
That notion had dogged him on and off, taking root fully when he reviewed the case file on her parents. He had thought about her over the years. He’d be a liar if he said it was a strong, desperate sort of yearning, but he hadn’t forgotten her.
He’d also remembered the easy conversation and sexy chemistry from the night they’d met with a certain sort of fondness. It was a sweet memory and he’d enjoyed pulling it out every so often, polishing it off and reflecting in the glow.
But seeing her again was something else entirely.
She was a beautiful woman and despite the understanding that her life was in tremendous turmoil, he couldn’t keep denying his interest.
“There’s a Santa decorating a tree in his boxer shorts. And over there is another pig but this one is in reindeer antlers. What is with this neighborhood?”
“I think it’s a combination of fierce competition and a lot of money to burn. A lot of these lawn decorations are custom-made. This is one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Austin.”
“It sure is fun.” She hesitated for a moment, and he might not have realized it if he weren’t stopped behind a line of cars that had already slowed in front of them. “And I don’t know. It’s frivolous but they’re obviously excited to share it with others. I think if you have money it’s not so bad if you’re willing to share it.”
“Not everyone feels that way.”
“No, I suppose they don’t,” she mused. “I’m certainly not wealthy. My parents got by at best and the only reason I have my house is because my parents’ insurance settlement paid for it for me. But it seems that if you are fortunate enough to end up provided for, it’s only right to share what you have. I love that all this fun also contributes to charity.”
They drove on in quiet contemplation, occasionally pointing out a certain house or a specific decoration, but otherwise not speaking. Donovan appreciated that they could spend time together silently, but also wondered what she was thinking.
He waited until they’d cleared the traffic and pulled out onto the road that would lead them back to Whisperwood before speaking again. “I know it’s not much, but maybe it is a little burst of Christmas cheer.”
“Thanks for that. It was nice to forget for a little while.”
“Is that all?” A small shot burrowed beneath his breastbone. He’d hoped to do more than just allow her to forget for a while. Donovan had been intent on helping her make a new memory—something to hold close to her heart—even if the rest of her life still had more holes than she’d ever imagined.
“You know, your life’s not over.”
“Excuse me?”
“Your life. Your opportunity at happiness. It’s not over because your parents died.”
The warm moments they’d experienced on the drive through the pretty neighborhood vanished, melting away like ice on a summer Texas afternoon. In its place was a layer of cool that would give that same ice a run for its money.
“Are you actually lecturing me on grief?”
“I’m suggesting you
have a right to live. Is that wrong?”
“Not at all. In fact, I think it makes perfect sense coming from you.”
Donovan heard the warning signs. They all but leaped out at him, yet he pressed on. “Why’s that?”
“Do you honestly think I’d take advice on grief and the loss of my parents, at the holidays no less, from a man who can’t be bothered to spend time with his own?”
“My family is my business.”
“Yes, they are your business. They’re also alive and well and interested in sharing your life, yet you hold them at arm’s length.”
Again, Donovan saw the red flag waving boldly in front of him and he barreled right on through, heedless of the consequences. “Like your relationship with your sister?”
“Maggie abandoned us.”
“I was abandoned!”
The words slipped out, harsh and violent in the closed cabin of his SUV. Up to that moment, Alex had lay sleeping in the back seat, but he sat up at the rising tenor of their words. But it was the harsh emotion that ripped from somewhere around Donovan’s stomach that had Alex nosing forward, poking at his triceps where Donovan had his arm resting on the console.
“Shh, buddy. Go back to sleep.”
Alex was undeterred and sat straight and tall in the back seat, unwilling to lay down.
Neither he nor Bellamy said a word as he drove steadily on toward Whisperwood, and it was only when they neared the city limits that she finally spoke. “I’m not suggesting your feelings aren’t legitimate. You’ve lived with the knowledge of being left by your biological parents. But what I don’t understand is why you punish the family who loves you. They’re a gift. And there will come a day when you can’t take any of it back. When they won’t be here any longer.”
“They took me in out of duty.”
“Isn’t duty a form of love?”
The framing of that caught him up short. Duty as love? “It sounds like a chore.”
“Caring for Alex is a duty. Yet you love him and you do it willingly. My parents were infirm and it was my duty to help them. Yet I did it with love. Helping others, taking them in, seeing them through the things that are hard—they’re the duties we take on for the people we love.”