The Gold Digger Gambit: A Honeytrap Inc. Romance

by Tabitha A Lane

  “You stepped into Charles’ trap.” He’s not for standing down.

  If anything, my response seems to coax Montgomery into more belligerence.

  “He picked a man for you to fall for, and you fell right into his hands.”

  “That’s ridiculous.” I shut him down, but part of me is questioning the truth of his words. I wanted Marco from the first time I saw him. I rebuffed his first advances in the gym, but after that I more or less threw myself at him. I can tell Montgomery and Stephen that I had some sort of plan but truth is, I didn’t. I wanted him, I had him. End of.

  Somewhere along the line, things shifted. We worked together as a unit. As a partnership. Us against them. But it was never real. He’s been calling, but right now I don’t know how I feel. I’m confused. There’s so much I don’t understand: who attacked Sebastian, who wants Montgomery dead, and why? The questions that have plagued me since I started this operation are still unanswered, and it’s driving me crazy. I have to leave, but I can’t let it go. Can’t walk away until I hold at least some of the answers.

  Once before I let myself be swept along by emotion, and checked logic at the door, but not this time. I don’t want to be forced into making a decision about the next phase of my life while the current phase is unravelling faster than I can catch it.

  Amber storms in, Montgomery’s bedroom door hits the wall. “Daddy, I just heard.” She strides up and slaps me across the face. Hard. “You tramp!” Fury blazes from her eyes. I get ready to grab her if she tries to assault me again. I’ll let her have one shot because she’s shocked, but only one.

  I stare into her face. “What did you hear?”

  “That you’ve been screwing the chauffeur.” She glances at her father. “I’m sorry, Dad, but it’s true. I’ve seen pictures of her kissing him.”

  “Your father has seen them too.” I rub the stinging skin on the side of my face. “And we’re not married. Tell her, Montgomery.”

  Amber’s mouth gapes, and it’s not a good look. She’d obviously been ready for me to deny her accusations, not tell her that everything she thought was true was a lie.

  “Kristie is a bodyguard. She’s been working undercover.”

  “What?” Her eyes are wide; she really can’t believe what she’s hearing. “Why on earth would you need someone working undercover? I don’t understand.”

  “Someone attacked me. In my room. And no one broke in, so it was an inside job.” Montgomery speaks slowly and distinctly so there can be no misunderstanding.

  “You thought—” She gulps. “You think I’m trying to kill you? Or Charles, or Felicity? You really don’t trust your own family?” She sinks onto the bed. “What possible benefit could your death be to me? I want you to release my trust fund so I can finance a movie starring my husband. If you die, my money will be tied in probate for months.” As if realizing her words are harsh, she backtracks and starts again. “I can’t believe you would think either of us would want you dead. I love you, Daddy. Life would be awful without you.”

  I’m not the only one to see the first statement she made was the truth and the second the suck-up. Montgomery looks out of the window and stays silent.

  “I’m a grown woman, Dad. I need access to the remainder of my money. You don’t have the right to keep it from me.”

  “I was trying to save you from yourself. To save you from making a terrible mistake.” He looks at her now, and there’s pity in his gaze. “You’ve always chosen the wrong man, Amber. Jerry wants to be with you for what you can give him. If he loved you, really loved you, he’d stay with you even if you couldn’t give him the career he wants.”

  Amber’s laugh is cold and bitter. “There’s no such thing as love, everyone wants something. I haven’t worked out what Felicity wanted from Sebastian, but...”

  “I encouraged Sebastian to woo her,” Montgomery says. “I was impressed with his business, and when I agreed to come on board as an investor, I made it clear that I would be greatly pleased if he became a member of the family. Felicity was flattered by his attentions and before long they were engaged. I presumed they’d grown apart, in the way that some couples do, but I never dreamed the real reason.”

  Amber frowns. “Real reason?”

  Montgomery shakes his head from side to side. “Oh my dear, it appears as though you’re woefully uninformed. Charles is sleeping with Sebastian. Marco is a private investigator, as is my pretend wife, and your sister’s husband has been the victim of an attack by who knows who. Is that it? Are there any other family scandals we haven’t covered?”

  Amber stands. “What about Robert?”

  Chapter Forty-One

  Kristie

  “Robert?” Montgomery was pale before Amber’s question, but now he’s positively translucent. “What about Robert?” His throat moves in a soundless swallow.

  “I’ve always known that Charles is gay, Dad, much as he’s tried to hide it. Just as I’ve always known that Robert was having an affair with my mother.” She strolls to the window and gazes out over the lawn. “You must have known too. She made no secret of the affection she lavished on him. When we read her will, I couldn’t believe she’d left him nothing.” She turns back and stares at her father with challenge in her eyes. “That must have been your doing, I’m guessing. You laid down the law and made sure he was excluded?” She purses her lips. “That was petty. He made her happy, gave her something you never did—pure, unconditional love.”

  “He was not her lover.” Montgomery’s wizened hands curl around the arms of his chair, gripping tight like talons. “Don’t say such things about your mother.”

  “There are too many things hidden in this family!” Amber’s voice rises to a shout. “You’re a bully, keeping us in line by not allowing us access to our money. Sebastian was stressed beyond belief running his company because he had to beg you to back his investments... You don’t trust any of us to—”

  “That’s enough.” Montgomery’s voice is cold. “Get out.”

  “No.” Amber stalks up to her father and stands before his chair. “You asked if there were other secrets. Robert is one. And here’s another. I’m bloody good at my job, but I’m through playing the role of dutiful daughter so you will give me access to the money left to me by my grandmother. I’ve had enough. If you won’t give me what I want, I’ll mount a legal challenge to get control of it.”

  Montgomery looks down at the carpet, and his hands shake. I feel sorry for him, but it’s not my role to intercede. Not any more.

  “Robert was way too young for Mother, but even I could see he made her happy. I could put aside my feelings and accept their relationship, even if you couldn’t.”

  “He wasn’t her lover.” Montgomery says again, this time quietly. He looks up and holds his daughter’s gaze. “Robert is your mother’s son.”

  For a long couple of seconds, it looks like Amber is in suspended animation—neglecting to breathe. And I experience a fraction of the shock she’s feeling. Robert is Sarah’s son? How the hell did we miss that?

  “I want to be left alone. I’m tired.” Montgomery passes a hand across his face.

  “I want more—”

  “You heard the man. You’ve had enough for now.” I take Amber by the arm and hurry her to the door. Montgomery may not be my husband, but that doesn’t mean I can’t show the old guy some compassion. I close the door firmly and return to him. “Why don’t you get into bed and rest for a while?”

  He nods, and allows me to help him from the chair. I can feel his bones through the soft wool of his cardigan, making me acutely aware of his age and fragility.

  “I want Robert to come home.”

  I pull back the coverlet, and take off his shoes.

  “I need him here.”

  “I’ll tell Stephen. He’ll arrange it. Can I ask: wasn’t Robert upset that his mother didn’t leave him anything in her will?”

  Montgomery raises rheumy eyes to me. “I asked her not to. I didn’t w
ant the others to know. Didn’t want them to judge Sarah for her mistake.” He rubs a shaking hand over his head. “He’ll get his fair share when I die.”

  I pull the bedclothes up over him, and he closes his eyes and turns away from me.

  When I meet up with Stephen in the security shack, we both have a lot to tell each other. The news of Robert’s parentage comes as a shock to him too. We pull Robert’s employee file, and discover he first started working for the family when he was in his thirties. He provided only one reference. From a priest.

  “He returned from the cruise a few days ago, and is staying with friends nearby,” Stephen says. “I’ll call him.”

  It’s a conversation I’m intrigued to listen in on, but it isn’t my place, so I leave him to it. I have research to do.

  Isabel is in the kitchen. The table is dusted with flour and she’s furiously kneading dough as though her life depends on it. She glances up, then down at the tabletop when I enter.

  I grab a cup of coffee from the coffee machine and slide onto the seat opposite her.

  She’s been here for decades. If anyone knows this family’s secrets, it’s her. And maybe now she’ll be prepared to share what she knows.

  “You know I’m not really his wife.”

  She nods. “I heard.”

  “I’m an investigator. Stephen brought me in as extra security when Montgomery was attacked in his bedroom.”

  With a gasp, she looks up and her hands still on the dough.

  “We’ve been keeping him safe while trying to find out who tried to kill him. Because the attacker was a member of the family.”

  “Who?”

  I don’t have the answer to that question, so misdirect. “Do you know Robert is Sarah’s son?”

  She concentrates on the bread again, pushing the ball away with the heel of her palm, then folding it back towards her. There’s no shock, no surprise. She knew.

  “I’ve known for decades. She told me.” She drops the dough into a prepared tin and drapes a tea-towel over it. Then she sits down and gives me all her attention. “Sarah became pregnant when she was a teenager. She had the baby and gave him up for adoption. Years later, she met and married Montgomery. She never told him; never thought she’d have to tell anyone. Having her baby was in the past. Her own private business. Not something she had to share.”

  I nod, not wanting to break the flow of her explanation.

  “Robert tracked her down. Just turned up here one day, and asked to see her.” There’s a wistful smile on her lips. “When he left, she couldn’t hold the secret in any longer. We were the only people in the house and she told me, poured out the long years of thinking about him in a couple of hours. I tried to counsel her—she was a rich woman with a lot to lose. The perfect blackmail target. But she brushed that all away, told me she trusted Robert and that now she’d found him again, there was no way she could go back to not having him in her life.”

  “She told her husband?”

  Isabel shook her head. “Not then. Mr. Patten cares about appearances. He would never have allowed her to acknowledge Robert publicly, never welcomed a stranger into the family. Robert had been brought up in California, and traveled to New York on a one way ticket. Mrs. Patten cooked up a scheme to get him into the house by saying she needed a driver, and that a old friend of hers, a priest, had asked her to employ Robert as a favour.”

  “Montgomery went for that?” It sounds at odds with the man I’ve spent the past weeks married to.

  “He’d do anything for her,” Isabel says, simply. “A couple of years later they told him the truth. And by then, Robert had become such a part of the household, throwing him out would have been unthinkable.”

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Marco

  I finally track down Kristie in the kitchen where she’s having a heart-to-heart with Isabel. “I need to talk to you.”

  She nods, and follows me out of the house into the sunshine.

  “Isabel knows?” We walk around the house to the teak bench, and sit.

  “Isabel knows everything, it seems. Even stuff I’ve only just discovered.” She brushes back her hair from her face and blows out a breath, “Robert is Sarah’s son.”

  “What the fuck?”

  She looks up and her mouth twists in a wry smile. “Shocker, eh? We were so busy looking at all the family we neglected to investigate the one person who isn’t here. Apparently, he came to work for the family because he wanted to be near his birth mother. Wanted to get to know her. She kept it a secret for a couple of years and then told Montgomery.”

  “No one else knew?”

  “Just Isabel. Montgomery’s just confessed it to Amber, so I guess she’s running around telling the rest of them now.”

  “But she left him nothing in her will.”

  “Montgomery didn’t want the secret to come out. He’s included Robert in his will, which I guess gives Robert a motive.”

  A motive, but Robert’s opportunities for ending Montgomery’s life had been limited, considering he was taken out of the picture. “He could have left the car in that state, knowing it would be used when you returned to Casa Nostra in the helicopter...”

  “But who planted the bug? Did you know about Charles and Sebastian?”

  “What about them?”

  “They’be been having an affair. They’re in love, apparently.”

  “Jesus.” I rub the back of my neck. “No, I didn’t know about that.”

  “Sebastian was coming from their love nest above the stables when he was attacked. They must have been watching him, just waiting for an opportunity.”

  Despite myself, I can’t resist reaching for her hand and smoothing my thumb over her fingers. “Let’s go to the hospital.”

  On our way to the car, we meet Stephen and share our suspicions.

  “Robert seemed shocked to hear about Sebastian. And desperate to come home and see Montgomery. He’s on his way, and should be here soon.”

  “He could be involved,” Kristie says. “Do we even know for sure that he went on the cruise? If he’d been staying somewhere nearby...”

  “I saw him onto the ship myself, and picked him up when it docked. You don’t know him, but he’s the most mild-mannered, gentle man I’ve ever met. I can’t believe he’d be involved in this. I just can’t.”

  “Keep an open mind. People can surprise you.”

  The memory of the photograph Brian shared, of Kristie in the arms of a married man, come back to haunt me. “Damn right.”

  A visit to the hospital reveals Sebastian has regained consciousness. The guard at the door won’t let us in until Kristie calls Casa Nostra and talks to the detectives. Apparently, he hasn’t been talking, but they allow us to take a shot.

  His head is swathed in bandages, and he looks like hell.

  “Sebastian.”

  He looks up at Kristie’s soft tones.

  “How are you feeling?” She sits down next to him and takes his hand, and right then and there I know from the way his eyes well up that if anyone can get this guy to spill his secrets, she can. “You’re looking better than you did when I found you.”

  “You found me?”

  “You were wet and cold. You must have been lying out there for hours.”

  I lean against the wall, not wanting to break the fragile spell she’s weaving over him.

  “Who did this to you, Sebastian? And why? What can you possibly have done to deserve this?”

  He looks down at the crisp white sheet. At her hand holding his.

  “You can’t stay silent any more. You need to tell me.”

  “I owe money.” The words are dragged out of him. “I tried to persuade Montgomery to release funds for the company to replace what I’d—” He clears his throat. His gaze flicks from their hands to her face. To me. Then he takes a deep breath. “I have a gambling problem and I couldn’t pay my debts. The men who attacked me were sent by the people I owe.”

  “You took money fro
m the company.”

  He nods. “I took what I could without it being noticed, but it wasn’t enough. I needed free rein, needed to pay them off.” His eyes flash with barely banked anger. “You don’t know what it’s like, being so afraid all the time. If he’d just taken a back seat like he was supposed to, I could have settled my debts. Could have replaced the money before it was noticed.”

  “With what?” I push away from the wall and make my presence known. “If you didn’t have the money to pay off those gorillas, how were you going to replace the money you took from the company?”

  His eyes screw up tight.

  “Felicity’s inheritance? When her father died?”

  His eyes fly open, and a shocked gasp issues from his mouth.

  “You tried to kill him.” I advance to the bed. “You held a pillow over the old guy’s face, and tried to kill him, didn’t you?”

  “I didn’t want to kill him.” He’s gasping now, desperate to catch a breath. The fear in his eyes is obvious for all to see. “All I needed was a little time to make things right. A chance to put the money back before it was discovered. I thought if he told the family someone had attacked him, they’d question his sanity, suspect he was becoming senile. They could bring pressure to make him step down. Get out of my company. I never wanted to kill him. But then he went and got married instead.” He pulls his hand away from Kristie’s and blasts her with an accusatory glance. “I don’t know how you managed to make him think you loved him. Sex, I guess.”

  He looks at me. “Charles and I brought you in to expose her as a gold digger. Once that happened, everyone would understand that he was going senile and couldn’t possibly be trusted with the funds of a large company.”

  “I know about Marco. I’ve known for a long time.” Kristie crosses her arms. “Does Charles know that you put a pillow over his father’s sleeping face? That you terrorised an old man to get what you want?”