He leaned forward and licked his lips. "You never told me you liked to play naughty."
"Get out of my office." She pushed up from her chair, her cheeks exploding with color. "I've had it with this harassment, and if you don't leave immediately, I'll file a complaint with Norwell right now."
He laughed. She was too funny. "You're not going to tell Norwell a damn thing."
"Oh yeah?" She shot around the other side of the desk, her long legs covering the distance to the door in quick, angry strides. "You just watch me, bucko."
"Abby, Abby, Abby. Sit back down."
She snorted and reached for the door handle.
"Should I come with you? I'll bet Norwell will be very interested when I tell him how you really bagged GFI's account."
She turned back to look at him. She didn't seem so confident now. No, it was apprehension he saw in her expression, he was sure of it.
"What the hell are you talking about?" she asked, as if she didn't know, but she didn't fool him.
Harold grinned. "Why, how you offered that sweet little body to Faraday as enticement to put you in charge of his account. Like I said, you've been a very naughty girl." He tsk tsk'd. "Sex for hire, Abigail? That's not playing fair. It puts me at an obvious disadvantage."
Her mouth fell open, and she looked so stunned he almost burst out laughing. He leaned forward and patted her chair. "Now why don't you sit back down, and we'll have that talk I mentioned."
~~~
"I damn well will not!" The muscle in Gage's jaw went taut. He filled a glass with ice then poured it half full from the bottle of scotch Abby bought for when he came over. "And I don't give a shit what he thinks." He topped the drink off with water then stirred it.
"Dick told him we were sleeping together. Those are my words. Billings used a more colorful term." Abby crossed her arms over her chest, wondering how she could make Gage see reason. "I don't trust him. He's convinced I manipulated you to remove him from the Riv One account and tell Norwell to assign me. He said if he'd known you could be won over with sexual favors, he'd have hired you a couple of hookers."
Gage stared at her a moment, his eyes going dark with anger. He threw back some of the scotch. Not even when he'd thought she betrayed him had he looked so angry. Here was the lethally dangerous man she'd read about.
"I'll deal with Billings." His fingers tightened around his glass until Abby though it might break.
She went to him and put her arms around his waist. "No. This is all supposed to be my idea. He warned me that if I told you he put me up to this, I'd regret it. Besides, I don't want you dealing with him. Billings is my problem. And I've got enough to worry about right now without inviting trouble from him."
Gage's expression remained stony. "He became my problem when he tried to blackmail you into stepping down from the account. Don't be misled, sweetheart," he said with deadly calm. "Choosing you was a business decision. I believed then, as I still do, that you're the best one for the job. If you give in to Billings, I'll yank my contract with Norwell."
"You can't do that. Don't you understand? Billings can't be trusted. If he goes to Norwell, my reputation will always be in question. Who knows, he could even go to the police or say something to the press and ruin your reputation right along with mine."
Gage set his glass on the counter then took her by the shoulders. His hold, though gentle, was firm. "I don't think you understand." He brushed a knuckle over her cheek. "I'm not afraid of Billings. And it's a little late for you to worry about my reputation. Anyone who's read the articles that have been written about me knows I'm a heartless bastard who cares nothing about anyone or anything and is so lacking in moral fiber I'm sleeping with a different woman every week."
Abby leaned her head back and blew out a frustrated breath. "You're not going to give on this, are you?"
"No."
She frowned up at him. "Why did I have to fall for such a stubborn man?"
Gage chuckled and dropped a kiss on the top of her head. "What? Aren't you jealous about all those other women I'm sleeping with?"
"About as jealous as you'll be over the next couple of weeks when you read about all the men I'm having affairs with."
"I want the name of every one of them so I can challenge each to a duel and eliminate my competition."
"As soon as I read who they are, I'll let you know."
"Fair enough." He gave her a lazy grin. "And now," he said as he lifted her up in his arms, "it's late, you need to be in bed."
Abby smiled. "But I'm not tired yet."
His eyes gleamed wickedly. "Did you hear me say anything about sleep?" He held her close against his chest as he carried her across the room.
"Aren't you worried you'll ruin yourself for all those other women the way you're always lifting me up and carrying me around?"
He started up the stairs. "No." The finality in his tone made her swallow. Gage had been the prince charming of her youthful dreams, and she'd been Abby Sheridan, chicken girl.
As much as she wanted to believe in the fairy tale, a part of her kept waiting for the day, the moment, he'd look at her with disenchanted eyes, and she'd know the spell had been broken.
She laid her head against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Once everything began running the way he wanted with River Place One, Gage would return to Chicago. Until then, she would enjoy whatever they had for as long as it lasted. When he walked out of her life, she'd pick up the pieces of her broken heart and find a way to put them back together again. Right now he was here, and she needed him.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Late Monday morning Gage sat at his desk rolling his pen between his fingers as Brett and Mel Shields, GFI's Chief Legal Counsel, updated him on the State Attorney General's investigation.
"They're calling off the probe," Mel said. "When they couldn't provide substantive proof of wrongdoing, we accused them of initiating a witch hunt under pressure from Carpenter. For some reason the Attorney General took serious offense to that."
"I'll just bet he did," Gage said dryly, conjuring up an image of the stiff, humorless Forrester in his head. Glue had more personality, but to his credit, the AG was known for his integrity and exacting standards. He wouldn't appreciate having them questioned.
Brett leaned back and crossed his ankle over his knee. "It got the desired result. Forrester decided to look into things for himself. All he could find was a letter from someone in our finance department claiming we'd misrepresented income."
Gage's eyes narrowed. "One of our people has been in on this?"
Mel sat forward. "It looked that way. Forrester wouldn't show us the letter or tell us who. He claimed he had an obligation to protect the whistleblower. Fortunately, we created enough doubt in his mind to spark some action."
"So what was it?" Gage asked. "Was the guy working for Carpenter, or did he have a personal gripe?"
"Neither. When Forrester tried to contact the employee, he found out the guy didn't exist. The good AG called the investigator and demanded an explanation about where the letter came from."
Gage glanced at Brett. "Let me guess. The guy admitted he'd been bribed by Carpenter."
Brett chuckled and looked at Mel. "The woman," Brett said, "admitted forging the letter in order to initiate a probe."
Gage tapped his pen against the edge of the desk as he studied the expressions on the two men's faces. "The woman was Carpenter's lover." It wasn't a question.
Brett nodded. "The things people do for love."
"Yeah," Gage said, thinking it was a good thing somebody else had gotten to Carpenter before he had. "Let Forrester know we'll be releasing a press statement that GFI was found to be in complete compliance. Tell him I'd like our file and all information connected to the probe to remain confidential. If the press makes any inquiries to his office, ask that they only respond that the allegations were unsubstantiated and no wrongdoing occurred."
Firm in his decision Gage glanced at Mel. "I'm sure he'd just as
soon not have to deal with anyone raising questions about the possibility of other tainted investigations." He had no doubt there'd be an internal investigation, but Forrester would be doing it his way, and if he had to guess, Gage would predict the atmosphere at the AG's office was going to be very tense over the next several months.
Mel frowned. "It's your call, but Carpenter's little affair can't hurt GFI."
"Just make sure nothing gets leaked about the woman and Carpenter." Gage looked up through shuttered eyes. "The guy's dead, and the woman will be going to jail. Dredging up all the sleazy details serves no purpose. The only thing I care about is clearing the company's name."
Brett studied him with assessing eyes. It would be more in character if he'd told them he wanted the parties involved made an example of. In this case, though, he'd do everything in his power to keep the details behind the probe from coming out.
Abby didn't need the humiliation of seeing another one of Dick Carpenter's affairs sensationalized in the papers. The bastard had hurt her enough when he was alive. And Gage hadn't spent the last week introducing her to her passion to risk anything stirring up her doubts again.
"What do you want to—"
Gage's intercom buzzed, and he held up a finger to Brett. Grace would only interrupt him for an urgent business matter or if Abby was calling. He picked up the phone. "What is it?"
"I've got a woman on hold who demands to talk to you. When I asked her what it was about, she said she couldn't tell me but that you would want to talk to her."
"It's probably another reporter. Tell her if she doesn't want to give you a message, she can leave a number, and I'll try to get back to her." He hung up and turned back to Brett and Mel.
"Mel, get in touch with Forrester and tell him I'd like to see the—" He frowned when the intercom went off again. "What?" he said, tamping down his impatience. He relied on Grace to handle these kinds of situations without bothering him.
"She won't leave a message, but said to tell you her name's Rachael Gooding and that it's urgent."
"I'll take it." The phone rang through, and he grabbed the handset. "What's wrong?"
"The cops have Abby. We were supposed to meet for lunch, but she called to cancel. Baker showed up at her office and said they wanted her to come in to the station."
"Why? What happened?" Gage was already standing, putting on his suit jacket.
"I don't know. She just said she had to cancel lunch because the police needed to talk to her. They're going to try to pin Dick's murder on her, Gage. I know it. You've got to do something."
"All right, listen. I'm going to get down there and find out what's going on. And don't worry. I won't let anything happen to her." He hung up and shot around the side of the desk.
"Something's come up. I've got to go. Mel, get the name of the best defense attorney in the country and set up a meeting for later today. Do whatever has to be done to arrange it. Tell him I'll handle all his expenses. You can reach me on my cell if you need to, but make it happen."
"Who am I supposed to tell them they're meeting with?" Mel called after him.
Gage turned in the doorway. "Me. Oh, and tell them they've got to come to Philadelphia. The cops have asked me not to leave town."
"What the hell!" Brett's explosive curse rang out as Gage ran for the elevator. He didn't have time for explanations. Abby needed him.
~~~
"In a subsequent search of your husband's house, we found some very interesting evidence," Detective Baker informed Abby a few minutes after she'd been escorted into the interview room to meet with him and Detective Simms.
"What evidence?" She glanced nervously between the detectives.
"We'll get to that in a couple of minutes." Simms's gaze darted toward his partner, almost in silent reprimand. "Do you mind if I record this interview?" he asked politely.
The request set off her internal alarms. She searched the detective's face looking for the trap. Maybe it was just standard practice, she thought, and tried for a calm she didn't feel. If she refused, they might think she had something to hide. She didn't. She relaxed a little. She was overreacting to something that was no doubt department procedure.
Abby folded her hands in her lap and nodded her assent.
Simms pressed a button on the recorder he'd placed near the center of the table. "We only brought you in to ask some clarifying questions. When we're done, you're free to leave."
She nodded. "Okay."
"Your divorce was finalized about a month ago. How long were you separated before that?"
"A little over a year." Surely they'd seen some of the articles that had chronicled the whole humiliating affair.
"Why did you separate?"
Abby lifted her chin a notch but kept her eyes down. "Is this really necessary?"
"I believe it is," Simms suggested, and she thought she might have heard sympathy in his tone. She glanced at him again but failed to see anything in his expression to clue her into his attitude one way or another.
"All right," Abby agreed softly, "you'll find out anyway, if you don't already know. I discovered Dick had been unfaithful. It was a character flaw I wasn't willing to overlook." She heard Baker snort.
Simms crossed his arms over his chest and watched her closely. "And yet the two of you were on the verge of reconciling right before he was murdered."
"That's not true," Abby denied without pause. "I don't know where you got that idea, but the last thing I wanted or would have agreed to was reconciliation."
"Didn't your ex-husband visit your office several weeks ago and call you out of a staff meeting to ask you to dinner in order to work out your differences?"
She stared at him, amazed he knew about Dick pulling her out of any meeting, but more so that he'd jump to the erroneous conclusion it was to patch things up.
"He pulled me out of a meeting," she said with more emotion than intended, "to say he wanted a piece of property I owned. He promised if I gave it to him, he'd sign off on the divorce papers."
"That would be the Florida property you inherited from your grandmother?" Simms asked.
"Yes, that's correct," she said, surprised again. "I agreed to his demand. I didn't even care why he wanted it. I'd had all I could stand of property battles and delays, and I'd only been to the place a couple of times when I was a child, so I didn't have an emotional tie to it."
She wrung her hands, uncomfortable at having to confide anything so personal to virtual strangers. "Truthfully, though, I probably would have agreed to almost anything at that point to get my life back. I had my lawyer draw up the paperwork the next day, signed it, and then forgot about it. Dick stopped fighting me, and the divorce went through with amazing speed considering how long it had dragged out up to then. Everyone got what they wanted."
"You just forgot about it?" Baker asked with what sounded like sarcasm. "It's hard to believe you just forgot about a twelve million dollar property."
"Twelve million!" Abby burst out laughing at the ridiculous notion. "Believe me, Detective, if that property were even worth one million, I'd still be fighting with Dick over the divorce. It's just a small summer cottage on a few acres of land. I doubt if it's even worth a couple of hundred thousand." She shook her head. "Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you're relying on whatever sources you've gotten your information from so far, you might want to look for some new ones. They're not very good."
Like a hawk stalking its prey, Simms kept his attention focused squarely on her. "Are you saying you weren't aware a developer approached your husband a couple of months ago when he was vacationing there and offered to buy the property for that amount?"
Abby's mouth fell open in stunned surprise. "N-no, I didn't know about any offers." She frowned, her brow wrinkling with confusion. "And I'm sure Dick hadn't been out of town in the last few months. Even if he were to have gone on vacation, which I'm positive he didn't, it wouldn't have been there. He didn't even like the place. That's why I was surprised w
hen he said he wanted it." She shook her head. "No, this can't be right. Someone's given you erroneous information."
"Very nice performance," Baker said from beside her. "But according to the developer, he approached your husband while he was there, and they discussed the sale. Either you or the developer is lying. In case you weren't aware, once the final deed transferring the property from you to your ex was filed, you lost any claim to it."
"Son of a—" Simms threw his tablet on the table. "Would you excuse Detective Baker and me for a minute?" He got up and stalked away from the table, glancing at Abby as he held the door and waited for his partner to precede him out of the room.
Apprehension clutched her in a firm grip when the door closed behind them. They had to be mistaken. It wasn't that she couldn't believe Dick capable of swindling her out of her inheritance if he discovered the property was worth so much money. He'd been capable of that and more. Still, she knew he hadn't been to Florida because for the last year she'd had to put up with his taunting and tricks on a weekly basis. She would have known if he'd been away for more than a couple of days.
It didn't make sense. Something wasn't right about their claim. But why would they make up such a crazy story if it weren't true? Could they be trying to trick her somehow?
She closed her eyes and pushed her hands through her hair. Baker thought she was guilty of killing Dick. She knew it. Not only that, she had begun to sense Simms didn't believe her, either. He wasn't as obvious as his partner, but she'd seen the way he studied her, as if sifting truth from lies.
The door swung open again, and the detectives came back into the room, a definite tension entering with them. Once seated, Detective Simms addressed her. "Ms. Carpenter, I apologize if my partner became a little overzealous in his questioning." His gaze rested momentarily on Baker, whose expression did nothing to mask his displeasure at being called to task.
"For all our sakes," Simms went on, "I hope you'll allow us to proceed, with your permission?" He raised his eyes in question.
"Yes. I want to continue." More than wanting to continue, she needed to know what they had that made them so suspicious of her. How could she hope to defend herself if she didn't? "Go ahead, Detective."
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