Their Seductress [The Hot Millionaires #1] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting)

by Zara Chase

  “Nope,” he said eventually, standing up, ready to leave. “We argued about it over lunch, and she tried to get me to change my position.”

  “And then Ellie died, so it became a moot point,” Isaac said, standing also and walking to the door with Mike. “Thanks for stopping by. Let’s keep things ticking over between us until after the funeral then have another chat about the future. Now that I know where you stand, I can think more coherently about my own position.”

  “If you want the job,” Mike said, “you’ve got my vote. You’re the best man to carry the agency forward.”

  “What about Lana?”

  “Fuck Lana. I’ve danced to her tune all these years. Now I’m going to think about number one.”

  “Good man.”

  Isaac returned to the den frowning, deep in thought. It was obvious to him now who’d killed Ellie. Problem was, how could she have done it if she was in a crowded restaurant with her husband at the time the crime went down?

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Well!” Paige burst into the room on Nick’s heels and flung herself on the couch, still barely able to believe what she’d just heard. “That was quite a turn up for the books.”

  “Yeah, it was,” Isaac agreed. “A jealous stepdaughter. Didn’t see that one coming?”

  “Nor me.” Nick shook his head. “I’ve worked for Ellie and Greg for ten years, and I know the kids well. Lana’s a bit standoffish sometimes, but I never once thought she had issues with Ellie. In fact, she always went out of her way to be nice to her.” He shrugged. “Just goes to show that you never can tell.”

  “I’ve met her a few times, and I didn’t realize there were problems either,” Paige said.

  Nick frowned. “If Ellie knew she would have told me, which makes me wonder if we’ve got it right. Ellie was a pretty good judge of character.”

  “No, it was definitely Lana,” Isaac said. “She must have killed Ellie. It makes perfect sense now we know how she felt about her.”

  Nick nodded. “Agreed, but how the hell did she pull it off?”

  “And what hold does she have over Mike that forced him into going for a job that he didn’t really want?” Isaac added.

  “Whatever it was, it obviously died with Ellie,” Paige pointed out, “because he doesn’t seem to be afraid of his wife anymore.”

  “It’s time to summon the cavalry.” Isaac reached for his phone.

  “Who are you calling?” Paige asked.

  “Lieutenant Weir. Now that we know who the killer is, he has the resources to concentrate on how to bring her to justice.”

  Paige and Nick remained silent whilst Isaac got patched through to Weir. Paige struggled to come to terms with a woman committing such a brutal act. Poor Ellie’s skull had been caved in with enough force to drive bone splinters into her brain. That a woman possessed enough anger to do something so vile made her stomach churn.

  “Weir will be here in half an hour.” Isaac flashed a humorless grin. “He didn’t sound that surprised to hear from me.”

  Paige nodded absently, aware that her hands were shaking and that she’d probably looked pale and drawn. “He knew we’d start digging.”

  “You all right, babe?” Isaac asked, concern in his tone.

  “I’ve had better days.”

  Isaac moved to crouch in front of her and took both of her hands in his. “It’ll be okay,” he said softly. “We’ll find a way to get her. She won’t get away with it.”

  “Which won’t bring Ellie back.”

  He dropped a gentle, chaste kiss on her lips. “Be strong, Paige. We need you to stay strong for us until this is over.”

  She nodded, just about keeping the tears at bay. “I’m okay,” she said.

  “Good girl.”

  Isaac offered her a slow smile that roused every cell in her body to a state of heightened awareness, effectively taking her mind off Ellie’s murder. Damn the man, how did he do that? She smiled in spite of herself, unable to help reacting to his quite-disgusting, totally compelling charm.

  “Go and sit down,” she said irascibly.

  “Drink, anyone?” Nick asked.

  “A man with a sensible suggestion,” Paige said, casting Isaac a caustic glance that bounced harmlessly off his amused expression.

  Nick did the honors and they all sat again, mulling over Mike’s revelations.

  “You said you’d been with Ellie and Greg for ten years,” Isaac said to Nick. “How did you come to work for them in the first place?”

  Paige nodded. “Yes, I’ve been wondering about that. The three of us were obviously special cases, otherwise she wouldn’t have made such a generous will in our favor. I was a lame duck with hang-ups that stopped me from being myself. Ellie saw that without me really saying anything, mainly because I didn’t know it myself, and took it upon herself to get me sorted.” She turned and smiled at Nick, seated beside her, and ran a finger tenderly down his cheek. “What about you, handsome? Were you broken and in need of rescuing, too?”

  “I guess you could say that.” Nick laughed. “Greg and Ellie put into a marina in Fort Lauderdale where I was doing whatever work I could pick up on a casual basis. I didn’t graduate high school, you see. No one in my family was big on education, but I was born with the sea in my blood and was tinkering with boat engines almost before I could walk.”

  “Your father was into boats?” Paige asked.

  Nick shrugged. “No idea. Never had the pleasure.”

  “Shit,” Isaac muttered.

  “Yeah well, what you’ve never had you don’t miss. I was brought up in a poor neighborhood in Georgia by a caring mom who did the best she could for us kids. She had a live-in guy for a while who worked the shrimp boats. A hard life but the best introduction to boating anyone could have.” He chuckled. “I certainly never grew up with any romantic notions about the sea.”

  “The reality doesn’t live up to people’s expectations, I’m told,” Isaac said. “Same with most things.”

  “Yeah well, I spent a lot of time on those old tubs when Mom was out working. I guess I kinda absorbed the life in the same way the boats attract osmosis.”

  Isaac stretched his long legs in front of him and grinned across at Nick. “I take it you never took to fishing boats as an adult?”

  “No, by the time Mom’s guy moved on I’d already figured out what a tough life it was. I drifted down to Florida when I quit school, knowing there was more money floating about the marinas down that way so more likelihood of making a decent living.”

  “Sport fishers?”

  “Yeah, they’re ten a penny. I picked up crewing jobs on a few but was still a drifter at heart. It was so fucking frustrating,” Nick added, thumping his thigh with his fist. “I was only in my early twenties when Greg and Ellie came on the scene, but I already knew a damned sight more about maintaining boats than some of the guys with fancy qualifications who were coining it in.”

  Isaac nodded. “But because you had no track record, you couldn’t get a permanent job?”

  “Right. The guys established there got to know me, realized I could turn my hand to just about anything, and was reliable. They used me when they were shorthanded or for the shitty jobs no one else wanted to take on.” He paused to take a swig of beer. “Ellie and Greg had problems with their generator. It was a specialist job, and a new part was needed. There was some sort of fuckup, and it didn’t arrive. They couldn’t afford to wait, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t necessary to delay them because a part wasn’t actually needed. I was polishing the hull for them while they waited and said I’d have a look, see if I could do a temporary repair. I thought they’d just laugh, but Ellie looked at me in that assessing way of hers and told me to knock myself out.”

  “And let me guess,” Paige said, smiling. “You fixed the problem…er, no problem!”

  “Yeah, I got lucky.”

  “Aw, now don’t start getting all modest on me. It doesn’t suit you. And it sounds to me as thoug
h the specialists were trying to get one over on Ellie and Greg.”

  “I think that, too. They saw a big boat with a professional skipper and owners with more money than sense.”

  “Didn’t using your initiative like that drop you in it with the specialists at the marina?” Isaac asked.

  “It would have done, but Ellie saved the day.”

  “And offered you a job?”

  “Not right then, but the following morning, just before they were due to leave, I went back to their boat. I’d left some of my tools in the engine room. The skipper was nowhere in sight, so I just slipped through the salon, thinking I could get to the engine room without disturbing anyone. But something made me peer round the door to the master cabin. It was open, and it sounded like someone was being tortured.”

  “Ellie and Greg playing their games?” Isaac said, grinning.

  “Yep. Gave me a hell of a shock. Ellie was dressed head to foot in PVC, had four-inch stilettos on her feet and a long-tailed whip in her hand. Greg had his hands tied to the headboard and his bare ass sticking in the air. His face was flushed, his dick rigid, and he was literally begging Ellie to whack him harder.”

  “What did she do when she saw you?” Paige asked.

  “She didn’t bat an eyelid. If memory serves, she said something like, ‘Ah, there you are, Nick. We’ve been expecting you. Come and play with us.’”

  “Blimey!” Paige said.

  “Turns out she’d sent the crew ashore for a couple of hours but didn’t seem to mind that I’d interrupted them. She told me afterward that she’d always sensed I’d be sympathetic to their persuasions.” Nick smiled at some private memory. “Anyway, they offered me a job as a deckhand after that. I made myself useful to them, was always discreet and totally loyal. Two years later their captain quit, and they offered me his job, which is why you find me here.”

  “Did you join them, as a matter of interest?” Isaac asked.

  “Yeah.” He shrugged. “I’m not into being whipped myself but—”

  “You don’t know what you’re missing,” Paige said smugly.

  “Oh, I do, darling. I believe in trying everything once, but that’s not for me.”

  “Go on,” Isaac said. “Tell us what you did with Greg and Ellie that first time.”

  “Not a lot to tell. Greg wanted me to fuck Ellie while he watched.” Nick shrugged. “Who was I to object?”

  “You became more than just an employee, buddy,” Isaac said. “I happen to know that Ellie valued you as a special and trusted friend.”

  “I like to think so. I’m the keeper of some of her most intimate secrets, and they’ll go with me to the grave.”

  “Well,” Paige said, sliding onto Nick’s knee and wrapping her arms round his neck, “Ellie was pretty good at summing people up. She must be, otherwise how did she finish up with us three?”

  Nick laughed. “There is that.” He dropped his head and kissed Paige, hard and deep. “She loved us all, just like I’m falling in love with you,” he said when he finally broke the kiss.

  Paige offered him a seductive smile. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  “Stick around, babe. I ain’t even started yet.”

  “Your turn, Isaac,” Paige said. “How did Ellie come to adopt you and Doug?”

  “It’s not pretty.” He shot her a significant glance. “Sure you wanna know?”

  “Of course we do.”

  The doorbell sounded.

  “Guess my story will have to wait,” Isaac said, looking pleased to be let off.

  “I’ll get it,” Paige said, sliding off Nick’s lap and heading for the door, wondering what it was in Isaac’s past that made him look so uncharacteristically reserved. She had never seen her handsome alpha male anything other than one-hundred-percent self-assured. Well, he wasn’t off the hook. She would remember that he owed them an explanation, even if he tried to wangle out of it.

  She returned moments later with Lieutenant Weir in tow. This time he had another detective with him, a burly black guy who he introduced as Detective Archer.

  Once they were all seated, Isaac took charge, explaining that Melanie Crowther did indeed have an alibi.

  “We need to know the woman’s name and the place where they met,” Weir said, after he’d heard Isaac out without interruption.

  Paige noticed Detective Archer summing them all up—especially her—without trying to pretend otherwise. He was a young guy, well built, nice looking. Their gazes clashed, and something briefly passed between them. Paige wasn’t precisely sure what it was. It didn’t really matter anyway. She returned her attention to Isaac’s conversation with Weir.

  “We’ll tell you that if you still think you need to know,” Isaac said. “There’s more yet.”

  “I’m listening.”

  And Detective Archer was taking notes. Unlike last time, this meeting was obviously on the record.

  “I’d stake my reputation on Talbot’s story being true. So would the others.”

  Paige and Nick dutifully nodded. “He had no reason to kill Ellie that we’ve been able to unearth,” Paige confirmed.

  “Motives,” the lieutenant said with a martyred sigh. “The bane of my life.”

  Nick laughed. “Kinda goes with the territory, I guess.”

  “True. Problem is, despite what the moviemakers would have you believe, people are seldom motivated by anything as obvious as jealousy or ambition. You wouldn’t believe some of the justifications I’ve heard from murderers during the course of my not-so-illustrious career. Sometimes people have just looked at them the wrong way and that’s enough for them to lose their lives.” Weir shook his head. “Sorry, I interrupted you.”

  “Talbot went to the restaurant alone, hoping to see a woman who always eats there,” Isaac said.

  “Only that particular day she was in a hotel with Crowther,” Paige added, giggling.

  Weir elevated his brows. “Busy lady.”

  “We’re about to disprove your popular motive theory by telling you we’re pretty sure Ellie was killed by her stepdaughter,” Isaac said, almost casually.

  When the lieutenant exchanged a loaded glance with Archer but didn’t say anything, Paige broke the silence. “You don’t seem very surprised,” she said.

  “We had wondered about her, as it happens. The family are always the first suspects in cases like this. We just couldn’t find anyone with evidence of anything other than peace and love between the two women.”

  Isaac chuckled. “Which immediately made you suspicious.”

  “When something’s too good to be true, it almost always is.”

  “Right.”

  Isaac filled the lieutenant in on his chat with Mike.

  “Well,” Weir said, scratching his head. “That does rather make her look guilty.”

  “But how did she do it if she was in that restaurant?” Paige asked.

  “The restaurant is literally across the street from Carter Promotions. You can be from one place to the other, three minutes tops. We know because we’ve tested it out.”

  “Three minutes to leave the restaurant, go through the parking lot in the office building, make it up to the sixth floor and reach Ellie’s office?” Isaac’s expression was skeptical. “Seems tight, but if you say it can be done, I’ll take your word for it.”

  Isaac ran one arm along the back of his chair, shifted his weight sideways, and leaned casually back as he waited for the lieutenant to say more. Paige couldn’t take her eyes off Isaac, drawn to him even more powerfully than when they were having sex. His rugged good looks, the way his eyes darkened when he was thinking or aroused, amused even, compelled her. Hell, what was it with her? She emphatically did not want to get emotionally involved with Isaac Drake.

  “Lowell told us he took a call from a client during his lunch with his wife,” Weir said.

  Isaac nodded. “He told me that, too. And I know he did because the two of us had a meeting with that client just
yesterday, and the guy referred to their discussion.”

  Archer referred to his notes. “Someone called Forster from out of town?”

  “That’s him. He’s an up-and-coming pop star we’re trying to cultivate.”

  “Good luck with that,” Weir said, shuddering.

  “We got a warrant for Lowell’s cell-phone records. The call did take place, and it lasted for fifteen minutes.”

  Isaac shrugged. “So?”

  “We also got the CCTV footage from that restaurant. Lowell and his wife were arguing before the call came through. Several other diners remembered them because of that and remarked that they were loud enough to disturb them. Lowell took the call, and his wife went to the restroom almost immediately.” He paused, presumably for effect. “When she came back Lowell was just wrapping up his call. The CCTV confirms what time she left and when she came back, so there’s no disputing that.”

  “She was in the john for fifteen minutes?” Nick grimaced. “That’s stretching it a bit, even for a woman.”

  “That’s what interested us.” The lieutenant cleared his throat. “You see, the corridor that leads to the restrooms also leads to the back door of the restaurant. A door which is even closer to the Carter office building than the main one.”

  “Ah!” Isaac and Paige spoke together. “So she could have done it like that.”

  “Yeah, but we had no motive, nothing more than speculation to back up our theory—until now.”

  “Is there a camera in that corridor to the restrooms?” Nick asked.

  Weir shook his head. “That would be too much to hope for.”

  “So,” Isaac said, “you now have a whole pile of circumstantial evidence. Motive, means, and opportunity but no actual witnesses.”

  “Precisely.”

  A gloomy silence settled over the room.

  “Ellie’s body has been released,” Paige said slowly.

  Weir nodded. “We know.”

  “She made specific provisions for her funeral and wake in her will. The wake is to be held here, her body is to be—” Paige gulped against the need to cry and continued. “She’s to be cremated and her ashes scattered by the three of us off the dock.”