Searing Lies (Love, Power & Sin)

by Marie Astor

  “May I have this dance?” a male voice startled her.

  Ally turned around and saw Blaine Platt standing next to her. “It would be my pleasure,” she replied with a well-practiced Southern drawl.

  “I beg to differ,” he replied, taking her hand. “I think the pleasure will be all mine.”

  Ally willed herself not to recoil from Platt’s cool grip. His dry hand felt like that of a lizard’s. He was a good dancer, but his moves were perfunctory and mechanical in nature.

  “I couldn’t help noticing how your boyfriend abandoned you,” Platt observed. “I must say he has rather poor taste, foregoing a diamond for cubic zirconia like that.”

  “You’re too kind!”

  “Oh, no. I’m merely stating the truth.”

  “You mustn’t be so hard on poor Russell,” Ally cited Jake’s alias they’d previously agreed upon. “He’s not my boyfriend—chaperone’s more like it. You see, my daddy wants to keep tabs on me at all times and he got poor Russell here to do his bidding. When your boss tells you to take his daughter out, you take his daughter out, right? Meanwhile poor Russell’s been told to keep his hands off me under the threat of having his balls cut off. Such a chore for the poor fella.”

  “I’d hardly call it a chore, my dear. An adventure is more like it. Love isn’t for the faint of heart.”

  “Yes, but you forget that Russell isn’t in love with me.”

  “I don’t how that could be humanly possible, but that’s his loss. And what is it your father does, if I may ask?”

  “Ask away. I’ve got nothing to hide. My daddy’s in the oil business. R.J. Malone is his name. Ain’t anyone in Texas who hasn’t heard of R.J. Malone.”

  “And you are?”

  “Emily Malone,” Ally said, giving Platt the alias she’d been assigned. “But you can call me Millie. All my friends call me Millie.”

  “I wouldn’t dream of it. Emily is such a beautiful name,” Platt said, dipping her.

  Ally followed his lead, swallowing hard. Blaine Platt was nimble and unpredictable in his movements, almost snakelike. Even his tongue seemed to sliver between his lips like that of a serpent. Ally’s intuition told her that he’d be a very dangerous man to cross.

  “And what is it that you do, Emily?”

  “I just got my degree in art history. I love art. I want to work as a curator in a museum, but my daddy doesn’t approve. He wants me to settle down and marry someone who could take over the family business. I convinced him to let me come down here to see this show. He said that if I could get a job, I could stay. I was hoping I’d meet some contacts who’d help me, gave a hefty donation too. I’d rather work for the Metropolitan Museum, but any museum in New York would do for starters. So far I’ve come up flat. You’re the only person who’s talked to me all evening.”

  Platt eyed her cleavage. “I don’t believe it for a second.”

  “Believe it. Everyone here seems so stuffy and unfriendly.”

  “Don’t despair. I might be able to help. We have a lot in common. I love art too. Who’s your favorite artist?”

  “I love Italian masters—Tintoretto, Titian, Veronese, Botticelli.”

  “You make those stiffs sounds so sexy with your accent,” Platt remarked.

  “I beg your pardon?”

  “You heard me. A modern girl like you, I pictured you more as a modern art fan. Impressionism at the latest, but Renaissance? Sure, it’s played its purpose, but you can’t compare those archaic paintings to the life and beauty of modern art.”

  “I don’t agree with you. I think Titian is mesmerizing and Botticelli is breathtaking.”

  “I think that you need to step into the present. You’re at the Museum of Modern Art, after all.”

  “I have a degree in art history, remember?”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy the present. I find de Kooning, O’Keeffe, and Pollock much more stimulating.”

  “Those are unquestionably very important painters, but you can’t compare two different time periods and claim that one surpasses the other.”

  “I disagree.”

  “You’re entitled to your opinion.”

  An amused smile flickered on Platt’s thin lips. “You’re a firecracker.”

  Just then the music ended. “Thank you for a wonderful dance,” Ally said. Her head was literally spinning from juggling all the famous painters and the tango moves.

  “You’re not going to get away from me that easily. It isn’t often that I meet a woman who is both beautiful and intelligent.” Platt’s eyes flashed. “And that perfume you’re wearing is simply tantalizing,” he added, his lips almost brushing her neck.

  The love potion Rebecca had given Ally had to be working. It was either that or Ally had managed to mesmerize Platt with her conversation skills, and somehow she was inclined to attribute his fascination with her to the former. “Thank you, but I really must be getting to my table,” she said, knowing that refusal was bound to only intensify his interest.

  “Just a moment. I’d like a chance to reform you.”

  “To reform me?”

  “Yes, I’m convinced that with the right presentation you could come to appreciate modern art.”

  “What do you have in mind?”

  “How about dinner at my place? We will be chaperoned,” Platt said hurriedly. “I’ll have housekeeping staff there, so your virtue will be completely safe.”

  “For a man with such modern taste you sound pretty old-fashioned.”

  “I just didn’t want to offend your traditional Southern values, but I’m a very private man, so I’d much rather dine in my house instead of parading around in some restaurant. This way we can both be sure that our faces will not appear on the front page of some tabloid the next day.”

  “You must be very famous. My daddy is well-known in Texas, so the local papers are always speculating as to who it is I’m seeing, but in New York no one knows me.”

  “I wish I had your luxury. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.”

  “You seem to manage. But now I really must be going or Russell will tell my father, and I won’t be able to make that dinner date with you.”

  “Saturday, seven o’clock?”

  “That works.”

  “My chauffeur will pick you up. Where are you staying?”

  “That won’t be necessary. I’ll get a cab. It’ll be less conspicuous this way. We don’t want to alarm Russell.”

  “I thought he is only your chaperone, not your boyfriend?”

  “For someone who just met me you’re asking a whole lot of questions. You’re going to take all the newness out of it.” Noticing the irked expression on Platt’s face, Ally added, “Yes, he is only my chaperone, nothing else.”

  “Good. I don’t like sharing. Here’s my card. It has the address.” Platt took her hand and pressed it to his lips. “Until Saturday then. I have some business to attend to, so I won’t be able to stay for the rest of evening.”

  “Looking forward to it.”

  Calmly, Ally headed to her seat. Inside she was shivering with excitement. She did it; she actually carried it off and now she had a date with Platt.

  ***

  Once the evening was finally over (even though Platt had left, Ally and Jake had stayed for the entire event for appearances’ sake) and they were in their limo, Ally shot Jake an excited glace. “That went pretty well, don’t you think?”

  He moved further away from her on the seat. “I think you took too many risks. It was way too dangerous. You’re not actually thinking of following through with it?”

  “Of course I’m going to follow through with it. Wasn’t that our mission? To get close to Platt? Well I did it. I got close to him.”

  “You talked about art and flirted. You didn’t talk at all about his business.”

  “Excuse me! I just met the man. I didn’t want to scare him off. Give it time. I’ll get it out of him.”

  “Do you really think
that Platt has invited you to his place for a nice chat over dinner?”

  “I’m sure he’ll be the perfect gentleman, which is a whole lot more than I could say about you right now. The least you could do is tell me that I did a good job.”

  “Great job, Ally. I hope you’ll enjoy sleeping with him too.”

  Ally felt her face burn. “What makes you think that I’m going to sleep with him?”

  “What do you think he expects? I heard the entire conversation. He’s invited you to his house for dinner. Alone. Do you think he wants to play Monopoly with you?”

  Ally wondered if Jake was jealous. Could it be that he cared? That the thought of her being with another man was torture for him? She felt instant guilt realizing that the possibility of it being true pleased her. There wasn’t anything to be pleased about. Jake was right. She was in a whole lot of hot water, but that didn’t mean that she was going to admit it. “I’m not going to sleep with Platt, Jake. I’ll find other ways to get him to talk. I’ll play the Southern belle card—it’s bound to buy me a couple of nights—”

  “You mean you plan to see him more than once?”

  “I plan to do whatever it takes to complete this assignment.”

  His face darkened. “If that’s what you want, I won’t be in your way.”

  “I’ll tell you what I want. I want to nail the bastard who ruined my father—that’s what I want more than anything. But what I want is irrelevant. I’ve been put on this assignment and I promised Marion that I’d do my best to complete it and that’s what I intend to do. If it doesn’t agree with your moral compass, I’m sorry, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

  “I’m sure Marion will love to hear that. You’ve turned out to be the perfect pupil. I just hope that you didn’t bite off more than you can swallow. If you would’ve just held your horses, I could’ve gotten close to one of his girls. We could’ve gotten the information that way.”

  “Wait a minute, so it’s okay for you to use your charms on a woman, but it’s not okay for me to do the same thing with a man?”

  “Damn right it is. I’m a guy. I’m not as vulnerable—”

  “Vulnerable? Is that what you think of me? I’ll have you know that I’m a lot less vulnerable than you think. I wouldn’t have made it through this year if I was vulnerable. Now my objective is to successfully complete this assignment, and I hope that as my partner you’ll support me.”

  Chapter 20

  The next morning at work, Ally sat at her desk with a terrible headache. Being out late last night and fighting with Jake afterwards didn’t do much for her disposition or looks. She felt cranky and irritable, with dark circles under her eyes to complete the picture. Today was Thursday, which left her very little time to prepare for her date with Blaine Platt. The prospect of spending the evening with him alone was terrifying to say the least, but she’d made her bed and now she might literally have to lie in it. Right now she really wished she could talk things over with her partner, but she wasn’t about to go over and apologize to Jake.

  Just then her phone rang. Her heart jumped. Could it be Jake? Instead it was Doug Cleary’s name on the caller ID. Her heart jumped again, but this time for a different reason.

  “Hey there, Doug.”

  “Hey,” Doug’s voice was serious. “I’ve got some very interesting news for you. Can you stop by the lab?”

  “Can’t you tell me over the phone?”

  “It’ll be more interesting if I can show you.”

  “I’ll be right there.”

  Ally hurried to the elevator bank, impatient to hear Doug’s news.

  A few minutes later she reached her destination. “Hi,” she greeted Doug breathlessly, her gaze burrowing into him for clues.

  “Have a seat.” Doug motioned at a chair next to his desk.

  She plopped into the chair impatiently. “How did the test results come out?” Right after Ally had been put on Platt’s assignment, she’d gone to Marion and come clean about her suspicions. Marion had authorized Ally’s request to reach out to all the impacted Pollux plants for unused equipment parts that had remained from Roberts Enterprises’ maintenance project and have the parts tested for deficiencies. Ally had received the parts last week and had given them to Doug to test. She hadn’t told Jake about any of this. First she wanted to make sure that her theory held water.

  “I was working around the clock. Thankfully I was given two interns to help with spectrographic analysis.”

  “Two interns? I thought you were going to keep this confidential.”

  “This is confidential. I went through official channels to request additional staff and my request was granted. I have a life too, you know. I was here twelve hours a day all of last week. You didn’t exactly volunteer to help.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m just worried about this leaking out.”

  “Don’t worry. All the interns did was go through the motions—they didn’t know where the parts came from or what the analysis was for.”

  “So what did you find?”

  “I was about to get to that point,” Doug snapped, “but you keep interrupting me.”

  “Sorry.”

  “You did it again.”

  This time Ally held her mouth shut. The wait was excruciating.

  “We x-rayed all the spare parts. With the exception of radiation hardened chips, all the equipment tested was in compliance with required specs.”

  “So the radiation hardened chips were faulty? All of them?”

  “Would you let me finish? We performed a spectrographic analysis on the radiation hardened chips and found that just as with the previous sample, the alloy used was subpar and would not withstand the radiation levels the equipment was meant to endure.”

  Ally closed her eyes. Why couldn’t this have been discovered during her father’s trial? All those lawyers who’d billed hundreds of thousands of dollars for their useless services while they failed to save her father.

  “Ally, are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” She got up from her chair and gave Doug a hug. “Thank you. I wish we had you on my dad’s defense team. He might still be alive.”

  Doug shrugged. “This is pretty technical stuff. Most lawyers wouldn’t know about this.”

  “But they claimed they hired the best possible industry experts to help with technical matters. When I told them to keep looking, they wouldn’t listen to me. They thought I was just a child, a spoiled brat.”

  “You’re anything but a brat, Ally, and you’re not a child. Most people would’ve given up by now, but you followed through on your gut feelings and you got the answer you were looking for.”

  “A partial answer. We still need more proof. The manufacturer for these parts was Zigger Solutions. My dad had been dealing with them for years. They were a pretty small-sized operation, but it was part of the reason my dad liked them. He felt he got more dedicated service that way. The owner, Sam Zigger, came to our house for dinner—I remember meeting him. He was such a nice man . . . He retired about five years ago and his son Kyle took over. There weren’t any problems until now. This just doesn’t add up. Are you sure that this couldn’t have been a mistake?”

  Doug shook his head. “I doubt it. The specs are standardized. In order to manufacture these chips, a different type of alloy was used on purpose.”

  “How would Zigger profit by taking down my dad? He was their biggest client; unless someone asked them to manufacture these chips. Someone who stood to gain a great deal from it. It’d had to have been an astronomical amount of money for Zigger to agree, considering the risk.”

  “I guess you’ll have a chance to question him soon enough,” Doug offered. “I’d say you have enough evidence here to send an official inquiry to Zigger and examine his manufacturing facilities.”

  Ally shook her head. “Not yet. I don’t want to tip them off.”

  “Whom?”

  “Whoever it was that asked Zigger to make these chips. I don’t wa
nt to give them time to prepare. I need to get more information first.”

  “You know where to find me if you need my help.”

  “Thanks Doug. I’ll be sure to tell Marion about the amazing job that you did.”

  Doug whistled. “Marion’s involved in this?”

  “Yes. I can’t tell you more, but hopefully soon I’ll have the whole picture.”

  “Good luck. Hope you’ll find the answers you’re looking for.”

  ***

  Back at her desk, Ally brooded over her recent discovery. The agency had a state of the art background search system. One of the first things she did when she returned from training was run numerous background searches on Sam and Kyle Zigger. She’d been looking for links between Zigger and her dad’s competitors, but she didn’t find anything. The initial test results that Doug had run for her told her that the search might have been incomplete and now she was sure of it. Somewhere, somehow there had to be a connection.

  She logged into the database and started a new search on Kyle Zigger.

  “Hello, Ally.”

  Ally slowly turned around at the sound of the familiar voice. “Hi, Jake.”

  He stepped inside her cubicle and leaned against the file cabinet next to her desk. “I figured you could use a cup.” He held up a cardboard tray with two cups of coffee and handed her one. “Would you like a beignet?” he offered, pointing at the sugary sweets on the tray.

  “I see you discovered my favorite snack place.”

  “You got me addicted.”

  Ally took a doughnut. “Thanks. I’m beat. I don’t understand why they decided to have a benefit on a weeknight. Don’t they realize that people have to work the next day?”

  “The majority of people who were there don’t have to worry about what time they show up at the office.”

  “You got a point there.” She took a sip of her coffee and bit into the doughnut. “This is heaven.”