by Lexi Blake
“She would go for that,” Ellie allowed. “But she gets bored easily and she loves attention. I saw that she gave an interview yesterday defending me. I was surprised at that. Oh, she talked about how I would never survive in prison because I wasn’t pretty enough, but she seemed genuinely concerned.”
“Not a problem. It’s a private island. I’ll cut cell access and she won’t have a boat,” Drew explained. “She’ll be out of our hair. Should I send the boyfriend with her?”
“Let Castalano have him.” He didn’t want that fucker to get a nice vacation. “We’ll let Castalano torture him. It’ll give the asshole something to do.”
Ellie merely nodded Drew’s way. “Yes, please. Maybe after a month of being alone together they’ll see if they’re really suited. I’d love to see how they do without Internet. It’s its own form of torture for those two. Well, that’s one problem settled. According to Garrison, I don’t have to deal with appearing in court for a while, so I can focus on trying to figure out where my father might have stored that source code. My only other worry is my friend Lily.”
“She won’t want to come out.” He’d talked to Lily several times. Not since Castalano had started threatening people, but he doubted that would change her mind. Lily Gallo wasn’t the kind of woman who wilted in the heat.
Ellie looked over at Case.
“And you can’t have her kidnapped.” What the hell was going on with his wife? “Is that your go-to now?”
Ellie shrugged him off. “It seems like an easy solution. I’ll call her in a while. But if it gets really dangerous, I’m having her yanked. I’m not allowing that man to kill someone I care about. So has anyone figured out how Castalano managed to frame me? I still don’t understand all of that.”
“The holding companies were in your name.” Drew set down his beer. “It’s easy enough to do. All they needed was to register the LLCs to you and have someone forge your signature.”
“I’ve got the auditor’s name. StratCast would have gone through several audits that should have caught something,” Case explained.
Bran shook his head. “It was a nice, sneaky thing. I’ve gone through some of it. Corporations as big as StratCast make large purchases. It’s inevitable. He kept most of them under ten grand, and I suspect some of them were viable purchases. They simply overpaid for the materials and the money kicked back to Castalano.”
“How can I prove it wasn’t me?” Ellie asked.
“We open your personal books.” He’d been thinking this through all day. He intended to go over her defense with Garrison with a fine-tooth comb. He wouldn’t leave any stone unturned. He didn’t want this to go to trial. He would find a way to get it thrown out before then. “I’m going to start looking at the dates of the purchase orders to prove that you weren’t even working at StratCast at the time.”
“They’ll blame my father and say I took over for him.” Ellie easily figured that out.
“We find the accounts. He’s likely using offshore accounts, but he’s got to get that money laundered somewhere. And someone’s been filing tax returns for the shell companies. We figure out who that is and maybe we have some leverage.” He’d already put Case’s team on that. “The good news is, he didn’t pull this off alone. Someone’s helping him, and we’ll figure out who it is. Once we’ve got a name, we’ll apply pressure and see what happens.”
“I’ve got some thoughts on it, too.” Hatch began a spirited debate about how they were going to save Ellie from the big house.
—
Three hours later he stood in front of the room he’d slept in every time he came to New York. He’d given it up to her. He liked the idea that her clothes were in his closet. Even when his were no longer there.
He wanted to take her down to Austin. He had his own place there. He’d bought the three-bedroom house because Drew had told him it was a good investment. He wanted to share it with Ellie.
Or they could find their own place here.
“Is the room all right? I don’t have an apartment in the city because it always seemed easier to stay with Drew when we were up here.”
“It’s fine.” Her hand was on the doorknob.
He was standing in front of her like an idiot, hoping he could get so much as a good-night smile from his wife. “If there’s anything I can do to make it better . . .”
She stopped with her hand on the door. “Riley, you can’t seriously expect me to sleep with you tonight. Tell me that’s not why you’re here and not going to your own room. You do have a room, right?”
“No. Of course not.” Although a man could hope. “I wanted to make sure you have everything you need.”
She stared at him, her eyes meeting his. “You know I do. You were thorough about stocking the bathroom and the closet.”
“I tried to make sure of it. I tried to remember the things you like.”
“Did you search my apartment?”
He’d promised her he wouldn’t lie. Damn, but he wished she hadn’t gone there. “Yes.”
She turned to him, leaning against the closed door. “All right. I suspected that. Oh, not when it would have done me any good, but when I was in jail I had a lot of time to think, and I realized you had very likely used the time after I went to sleep to search my place.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It was a waste of your time and talents. Unless you wanted to find my stash of sadly underused sex toys and discover that I have a hidden love of tabloid rags, you were likely disappointed.”
“I’m still sorry. It was a violation of your trust.”
Her face was a careful blank. “Would you do it again?”
He knew the answer to that question. Not that she would likely believe him. “No. I would come to you and ask you to help me, but I didn’t know you then.”
She smiled, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “You didn’t have an opportunity to search my place until after we slept together, Riley. That was the majority of our relationship. You didn’t know me by then? Because I thought I knew you. It’s why I went to bed with you. I thought I’d finally found the guy who got me. The guy who wouldn’t be scared off by my long hours. The one who understood the business but didn’t think I was an idiot for what I wanted to do. You did get me. You got me good.”
He hated the cynicism in her voice. Of all the things he could have done, turning her hard and jaded seemed like the worst thing he could do. Ellie viewed the world differently. It was made brighter by her beliefs. “I made a mistake, Ellie. I made a horrible mistake and I should have trusted you. I should have told you everything, but I wasn’t programmed for this. This is completely new to me. Growing up I was taught one thing and one thing only. I could trust my siblings. No one else. They were all I had and we had one thing in life we needed to do.”
“Get revenge on my father.”
How could he make her understand? “Justice. If the courts wouldn’t give it to us, then we had to take it. We had to completely rebuild our world and we had to do it from nothing. I couldn’t take the chance that you would go to Castalano. I thought you wouldn’t, but I owed it to my parents to do anything I could to bring him down. Hell, Ellie, can’t you see what we were doing was for the best? Look at what’s happened. He would have done this whether or not I’d been here.”
“He wouldn’t have been able to tank the stock without you,” she pointed out.
“But he would have put you in jail and taken the company, and no one would have been here to save you.” That had to get him some points with her.
“That’s true, and yes, I would have been in a horrible position. I would have gone to your brother for help and we would have met. And you wouldn’t have given me a second look.”
How could she possibly believe that? “That’s not true.”
She stared at him, her eyes so focused. “Have you ever gone out w
ith a woman like me, Riley?”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means I looked you up. I found some pictures in the Austin social pages.”
Shit. He’d had a thing for tall blondes. He’d dated a few models. None of it mattered. “I’ve never felt this way about another woman. I’ve never told a woman I loved her. Not once. Only you.”
“It won’t last,” she said sadly. “I think what you’re feeling right now is guilt. Things didn’t go as you planned and you didn’t expect to feel such guilt over how it worked out for me. So let that go. We’ll work together and we’ll do whatever we can to make it right. But you don’t love me. I would have done it, by the way. I would have done anything you asked of me because I did love you. You think I got the good end of everything, but I didn’t have siblings I could count on. I don’t have any memory of my parents loving me. I even knew deep down that it wouldn’t work with Colin. I never opened myself up to him. Not really. It’s why I can’t leave him to Castalano any more than I would my sister. I didn’t have anyone I could trust. Anyone except you. Good night, Riley. We’ll get to work in the morning.”
She opened the door and it closed between them. He heard the small snick of the lock bolting him out and realized he might have lost her forever.
Thirteen
Ellie walked as softly as she could through the hallway. She couldn’t sleep. The clock beside her bed read three forty-five, but it seemed so much later.
Which room was Riley staying in? The penthouse was massive. It seemed to have entire wings. She kind of wanted to explore, but the day had been taken up with marriage and threats and all the juicy parts of a really good novel. Well, with the exception of sex, because she wasn’t going to do that anymore. Sex got her in trouble.
She glanced at the door to her right. Riley could be anywhere.
Not that it mattered. She kept telling herself that, but when she closed her eyes all she could see was Riley with his gorgeous eyes and that square jaw that softened when she made him smile. She would have sworn as she lay there that she could still feel his hands on her, sliding along her skin as he kissed every inch of her. The man always seemed so hungry, so ready to devour her.
How could she already miss him?
She’d only had a few weeks with him. How could so little time have left such an ache in her body?
She moved toward the kitchen, intent on grabbing a bottle of water.
It was quite ridiculous that she couldn’t sleep because she couldn’t get her mind off Riley. She had so many other lovely things to worry about. Prison time for crimes she didn’t commit. The potential murders of her friends and family. The fact that she’d lost her company and reputation and might never get either back.
But what was she thinking about? She was thinking about how Riley made her feel in bed and how much she was going to miss him. Her girl parts were apparently way more important than her dignity or financial status.
At least one of her problems was leaving. Her sister was heading to Drew’s place in the islands tomorrow afternoon. She’d been more than happy to accept the vacation from her new in-laws.
She stopped at the sight of the city at night. The massive bank of windows made a magnificent mural of light and dark.
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
She gasped and turned. Bran was on the sofa, his head resting on his hand, his body lying on his side. Despite what they’d said this morning at breakfast, Bran actually had quite a bit of muscle on him, as evidenced by the very cut chest he had on display. It looked like he had a sheet wrapped around his lean waist and nothing more.
“Tell me you’re not naked under there. And why are you on the couch?”
Bran sat straight up. “Hey, no nudity. It’s not that kind of place. PJ bottoms.” He flashed flannel bottoms. “As for why I’m out here, I like the view. It feels like I’m the only person in the world and this show is all for me. Us now, since you’re here and I’m no longer the only person in the world. I would actually hate that, by the way. I know the shrinks will all tell you that I have several personality disorders, but I quite like most people. I’m simply very active about the ones I don’t like. I think that makes me honest. They like to use words like anger issues. We agree to disagree.”
Her new brother-in-law was odd, but likable. “You like to sleep on the couch?”
Bran ran his hand over his head. He looked slightly younger than his twenty-eight years, with thick hair and all-American good looks. Like his brothers, he could have been on the cover of a magazine. “I like this couch better than the one in the game room. The media room chairs all lie back, but without a movie or something playing, it’s got a tomblike vibe and that’s kind of Riley’s thing, not mine. When Mia and Chase head back to Texas, he’ll move into their room.”
“He took your room?” She sighed and sat on the chair across from him. “I take it I’m in his.”
“I don’t mind. Riley needs a room. I don’t. I could bunk with Hatch or Drew, but Drew snores and Hatch talks in his sleep. He says some weird shit. I have no idea what goes on in his dream world, but it’s crazy. So I came out here. It looks so peaceful at this time of night.”
“The city? Yes, it’s lovely at night. Of course, it helps to be forty stories up. It’s a little different on the ground.”
“It’s still beautiful in its way. That’s what I’ve really learned. It’s all about how you look at things. We often choose to make something ugly or beautiful.”
She couldn’t see anything good in her current situation, but she didn’t want to talk about that now. She knew she should get her water and go, but she found herself curious. “Why would he take your room? I understand that I’m in his, but shouldn’t he be the one out here on the couch?”
“He can’t sleep in an unlocked room.” Bran turned to her, his skin lit by the city lights. “I thought he told you.”
“All he ever said was he couldn’t sleep with another person in the room.” If Bran was willing to talk, she would count this early-morning session as a win.
Despite the fact that she knew there was nothing between her and Riley now, she still found herself hungry for information about him.
“He got the shit kicked out of him once,” Bran explained with a shrug, as though that was something that happened every day. “It was bad. A couple of broken ribs and one of his legs. He got a trip to the hospital. They jumped him in his bed one night. He was in the hospital for a while and then in rehab for the broken leg and then Drew got custody of him because he’d managed to sober Hatch up, and they’d gotten a place to live. Still, Riley can’t sleep with anyone else in the room and he really needs the door locked. I worry that something will happen to him and we’ll have to break the damn door down because I’m fairly certain that he puts a chair under the door handle, too.”
He’d been a boy. Alone. Scared. How bad must the incident have been that he still felt the need to protect himself to this day? “I was surprised when he told me he wouldn’t sleep with me.”
But he’d been so earnest about it, she hadn’t thought to be offended. He’d looked sad, as though he wanted so badly to be normal.
There’s no such thing as normal, she’d told him.
“I wondered how you would take that. I totally offered to seduce you, by the way,” he said with a grin. “I thought I was the better choice. I would have stayed in bed with you all night. I’m a cuddler.”
He was a charmer. Unfortunately, she’d already been caught by one Lawless. She wasn’t falling for another. “I don’t think that would have worked unless you’re a lawyer.”
“Nope. MBA.”
“You don’t look like an MBA to me.” She’d hired many an MBA. They tended to be type A personalities. All buttoned up and straitlaced. Bran Lawless looked like he should be hanging out on a movie set.
“I did it fo
r 4L,” he admitted.
“For 4L or for The Plan?” She’d come to think of the Lawless siblings’ revenge plots as The Plan. It seemed to need that extra-special capitalization since according to what she’d heard and seen, it had been something they’d worked toward most of their lives. They’d plotted revenge with the single-mindedness most people used on seducing their beloveds.
“Both, I guess. It’s hard to think about other things when there’s a hole inside you. I’m not as sure as Drew and Riley that it can be filled with some magical vengeance, but they need it.”
“You don’t?” That wasn’t how he’d sounded this morning.
“No, I do. I need to know that the people who killed my parents can’t do it to anyone else. I do owe them that justice. But Drew and Riley rarely think past it. I wonder what any of us is going to have left when we’re done. Will we still be this close? Will we find out the thing that was missing all along was something different?”
“See, MBAs don’t tend to think like that.”
He smiled, an open, happy expression that dialed his charm way up. “I have a minor in psychology. I would have likely tried to be a therapist or a social worker if I hadn’t needed the MBA. But if I’d been the one going into StratCast, I would have been a good hire. I was going to try for one of the project management jobs. And then I would have romanced the boss.”
She was glad to get back to the issue at hand. Getting to know Bran was a bit unsettling. Still, it was hard to get mad at him when he looked so damn cute. “Then we wouldn’t have worked in the same department, and I have to say that proximity really helped your brother. Despite what I’m sure he believed would happen, I didn’t fall into bed with him the first day I met him. I suppose he won the Ellie lottery because of his law degree.”
Bran sat back. “Drew could have done it. He offered to hire on in R&D. After looking at the way my brother works, you would have hired him in a heartbeat. We discussed all the possible scenarios. Riley insisted on taking the job and I think that was more about you than he’ll even admit to himself. We all studied up on you, read the reports. Riley got a bit obsessed. He read all the articles about you.”