“Donovan!” A voice outside.
I jerked up with a gasp as a knock sounded on the door.
“Donovan. Let me in.”
“In a moment.” Donovan’s fingers didn’t stop. He leaned close to breathe words in my ear: “Are you going to come for me, Lily?”
“We can’t—not with—” Oh, God, I couldn’t think. “Don’t you have to…”
“He can wait.” Donovan’s breath was coming harsh now. “Come for me. Come on my fingers.”
“I—”
“Or I could unlock that door and let him watch while I fuck you.” His fingers slid inside, slick; I had never been this wet before. “Would you like that?”
I was burning up inside, but the orgasm still caught me without warning, hitting like a tidal wave. Donovan’s hand was clamped over my mouth, his laugh low in my ears, and his fingers thrust hard into me as I shuddered around them. He didn’t let me up when he was finished.
“You like the thought of him seeing you’re mine, don’t you?”
Another knock. “Donovan.”
“Answer me, Lily.”
“Yes, sir.” I couldn’t have said anything else if I tried. I felt myself flush, and bit my lip. “Yes, sir.”
“Good girl.” He dropped a kiss on my lips and pulled away to take a seat behind the desk while I tried desperately to make it look like I hadn’t just come, bent over his desk while he threatened to fuck me in front of whoever this was. When I was at least moderately presentable, he nodded his head at the door and I opened it.
The man outside froze at the sight of me. Curly, dark blonde hair was perfectly cut, his face was, if a bit petulant, still handsome, and he wore almost as nice a suit as Donovan did. He stared at me with scarce-concealed dislike before pushing his way into the room.
“What is this?”
Donovan’s face didn’t even flicker. “Lily, if you could give us a moment.” He didn’t even look at me as I closed the door, and I hesitated at the door, confused.
“I brought your breakfast.” Colton’s voice made me jump. He was holding out a bag, looking very pleased with himself.
“Oh. Thanks.” I went to lean against his desk. “Who was that?”
“Hayden Wright.” Colton shot a look at the door that wasn’t at all friendly.
I lifted my eyebrows inquisitively and he opened his mouth before he remembered who I was, apparently. He shook his head.
“Not important.”
Blushing he might be, but he was also clearly not going to say more on the subject. I slumped back in my seat, took a mouthful of my bagel, and tried to figure out what my life had come to.
Chapter 11
Donovan
“What the hell is she doing here?” Hayden leaned over my desk.
“Take a seat.” There was a warning in my voice.
“No! I’m serious.” He pushed himself away from the desk. “What are you doing?” His voice was low, taut with fear. “Do you have any idea—”
“What would happen if I cut her loose now, after what she saw in the alley?”
He froze for a moment, and swallowed. “Exactly,” he said, his voice low. “She saw too much. You brought her back to your apartment. And now she’s here. What else might she have heard by now?” His blue eyes fixed on mine, furious.
“Are you suggesting that I told her what happened last night?” My voice was dangerous.
“On purpose? No. But Jesus, Donovan. She saw enough—”
“And I’ve persuaded her not to go to the police.” I met his eyes. “So there should be no problem.”
“How long can you keep up that up? How long until—”
“Hayden.”
He broke off, and swallowed. “How did you persuade her?”
“Not important.”
“It is important.” He leaned back over. “I think Sheng-li—”
“Sit. Down.” I waited for him to comply, murder in his eyes. “Now. What were you saying?”
“I think Sheng-li suspects the truth.” His voice was tight with fear. “I think he knows.”
“So?” I thought so, too, and felt a prickle of unease that I shoved away. I’d picked my path last night; I knew what I had done was a risk.
“So what did you tell her?” He jerked his head out to the main room. “Because it seems there’s one really simple way you could convince her not to go to the police.”
“I didn’t tell her anything.” I met his eyes.
“What did you say?” he insisted.
I sighed. “I told her that she could ruin innocent lives by going to the police. She believed me. Is that sufficient?”
He hesitated, and I saw the internal war taking place in his head.
“Is that sufficient?” My voice was soft, deadly.
He sank his head into his hand for a moment, and I saw the bitter twist of his mouth.
“Why couldn’t you just let it be, Donovan?”
“You’re actually asking me that?”
“Every one of our people knew what this was. What they were getting into. Going against Sheng-li could make everything—”
“It won’t. At the worst, he’ll find out. And then what? At best, it’ll distract him.”
“It’s not only yourself you’re getting in trouble! You brought fucking Colton in on this. How long until he cracks? Jesus, Donovan, you always have to be the knight in white armor, but that isn’t how this works. If Sheng-li finds out that you took—”
“Shut. Up.” I spoke carefully. I jerked my head at the main room. “If you don’t want her to find out, don’t say it out loud.” You stupid bastard. “And while we’re on the subject, Hayden…what did you say to Sheng-li about her?”
He paled. “Nothing much.”
“Well, I’m glad it was nothing much. Because he showed up at Columbia Law this morning to threaten her, and I’d hate to think you’d been the cause of that.”
He paled. “If he’s after her—”
“I will deal with it.” My voice brooked no argument, and I sighed. Men like Hayden took careful management, and I abhorred the whole song and dance I was about to go through with him. Next time I did this, I would pick my own colleagues. I forced a smile onto my lips and gestured expansively. “You’re clearly worried about the rest of it, however. What are your suggestions?”
Hayden swallowed down his resentment. He wanted to hate me, but his pride always got the better of him. He sighed and leaned back in the chair as if he owned the office, and I sat back, my eyes half closed, waiting lazily to see what he would say.
Chapter 12
Lily
Half an hour later, the bagel was long gone and I was starting to get fidgety. Every person who came in gave me a once over that was both faintly reproving and intrigued, and one or two of the men gave a speculative look at Donovan’s office door, as if they knew exactly why I was there. My cheeks heated, and Colton saw it.
“This is my cousin,” he said, gesturing at me and smiling. “Lily.”
“Ah.” A man with salt and pepper hair unbent fractionally, his unfriendly look clearing into something more neutral. “Kevin O’Dell.” He gave a curious look at Colton, as if wondering why the boy would bring his flip-flop clad cousin into Donovan White’s private sanctum, and left without another word.
Colton shook his head as soon as both sets of heavy doors had thudded closed. “I’m sorry about that. He can be unpleasant.”
“Who is he?” I tucked my legs under myself, curious. The other men had looked almost approving at the thought of Donovan bringing me here, but Kevin had looked manifestly unfriendly.
“The CFO.” Colton shook his head. “He’s always been…protective.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means, after Evan—” Colton broke off, a faint flush staining his cheeks. “Never mind. Not important. He just thinks every woman near Donovan is after his money. And really, he hasn’t been wrong.” He flushed. “Not that I’m saying you—”
I shrugged, my bad mood returning with a vengeance. “I get it. There’s probably a lot of them.”
“Yeah. When you’re a billionaire…” He shrugged, as if that said it all.
“A billionaire?” I squeaked.
“You…really didn’t know?”
“He had a nice suit! I thought—” I broke off, waving my hands. “No, I didn’t know. Seriously?”
“You seem surprised. He’s always on the Fortune 500 list.”
I started to laugh. “You remember me saying I’m in law school to become a public defender, right? I don’t pay much attention to the Fortune 500 list.”
The corner of Colton’s mouth twitched and he shot me a grin. “I forget how this world can be,” he admitted. “Everyone knows everyone. A lot of these people went to school together. Kevin—the guy who was just here—went to school with Donovan’s father. They’re always competing to see who’s on top.”
“I suppose any community is like that.” Then I frowned, remembering. “Wait, but most of them…”
Colton looked at me quizzically.
Most of them aren’t in the mob, right? I struggled to find a good way to say it.
“The stuff that happened in Chinatown last night,” I finally said, delicately. “Are all of them—” I broke off. Something had slammed down behind Colton’s eyes, and he looked halfway between resolute and completely panicked. “Colton?”
“It would be best,” he said carefully, “if you didn’t mention that. At all. Ever.”
I swallowed. “Do people not know, then?”
“Don’t mention it again.” He almost sounded like he was pleading with me. “I mean it, Lily. This isn’t safe. Even Donovan…” He trailed away, his voice miserable, and dropped his head into his hands.
“Hey.” I uncurled from my chair to crouch down at his side. “It’s okay. I’m sorry. I’m really sorry. I didn’t realize how worried you were about him.”
He picked his head up and managed a ghost of a smile.
“It’s not—none of it is your fault. I’d have questions, too. But I can’t answer them, Lily. I’m sorry.”
Disappointment and fear tangled in my head. “It’s okay.” Of course, it definitely wasn’t, and some part of me wanted to push Colton for the information now. I knew he’d break where Donovan wouldn’t.
I was still trying to decide what to say when the doors opened and two policemen came in. Colton was on his feet in a second, and I pushed myself up from my crouch, eyes wide.
Both men looked me over, impersonal. One was Chinese, I saw, his hair cut bristle-short, his frame stocky and strong. The other was white—short, with bright, inquisitive brown eyes and an untidy mop of brown curls.
“I’m Officer Preston,” he said, giving us both a perfunctory smile. “This is officer Moua. We’re here to see Donovan White.”
“Of course.” Colton’s face might have gone pale, but he sank down into his seat and pressed the call button on his phone with admirable aplomb. “Sir, there are two police officers here to see you.”
“Thank you, Colton.” Donovan’s voice was level, entirely at odds with Colton’s pallor and my thudding heart. He opened the door to his office and strode out without a look at either me or his assistant. “I’m Donovan White. What can I help you with?”
“We’re here to investigate the disappearance of Chun-mei Ko,” Officer Preston said. He looked vaguely apologetic. “We were given a tip-off that you might know something about her whereabouts.”
My blood seemed to turn to ice. You don’t know what you saw, Donovan had told me, but a body was a body—and now someone was missing.
Donovan, for his part, looked supremely unconcerned.
“I’m afraid I don’t know anything at all about…what did you say the name was?” He almost smiled.
“Chun-mei Ko.” Officer Moua was the one who spoke, his eyes fixed on Donovan’s face. Where Officer Preston looked apologetic, Officer Moua was clearly furious. “She’s been missing since yesterday afternoon, and she was last seen at Lucky’s. We happen to know that you were there last night.”
I tried to remember how to breathe, but I wasn’t doing a very good job of it. Any hope I’d had that this was unrelated to last night was vanishing swiftly.
“I see. And who told you that I might know more?”
“We don’t—” Officer Moua began heatedly.
Officer Preston cut him off. “We’re not at liberty to divulge that information,” he told Donovan apologetically. “If you could just come down to the station and answer a few questions.”
“Why? Am I under suspicion?” Donovan raised his perfect brows and stared them both down.
Yes, Officer Moua’s expression said unambiguously.
“No one is under suspicion at this time,” Officer Preston said.
“Ah.” The word was light. Donovan tilted his head and stared at them, and I held my breath. “Very well.”
I managed to bite back an exclamation, as well as the ridiculous urge to tell him that he didn’t need to do this. Something on Donovan’s face told me that he knew exactly what was going on, and he knew his rights, too.
Then, with a sinking feeling, I remembered his question earlier: Do you know which cops are bought and which aren’t?
He wasn’t afraid at all, I was torn between wanting to tell him that Officer Moua clearly had it out for him, and wanting to shake him and yell at him not to look so damned smug, a woman was missing—and he’d carried her body out of a building himself. I turned away before I could help myself, and felt every eye in the room focus on me.
“I’ll walk out with you.” Donovan commanded everyone’s attention back to himself easily. “I’ll need to contact my lawyer to meet us there, of course.”
“Of course.” Officer Preston nodded, looking relieved that Donovan wasn’t going to throw a fit. He almost ran to hold the door open, and waited for Donovan and Officer Moua to walk through.
“I’ll be there in a minute.” Officer Moua’s face was stony.
I thought I saw the faintest hesitation on Donovan’s part, but he left without a backward glance.
I swallowed when the officer’s eyes fixed on me.
“Who are you?” he asked.
“She’s my—” Colton began.
I cut him off. “I’m Lily Harris.” I couldn’t let Colton lie for me—in the mood this officer was in, Colton could end up in a world of trouble for that.
“And how do you know Donovan White?”
Luckily, this exact scene had been playing in my head since the moment they walked in. “I just met him.”
“I see. And Miss Harris, if we should have any questions for you…”
“Let me know.” I raised my chin fractionally. Offer nothing the police don’t ask for, we’d been advised. They used silence as a weapon, waiting until people were nervous enough to fill the empty space with admissions of guilt. I kept a smile on my face, trying not to look too perky, until Officer Moua gave a perfunctory nod and stormed out.
Colton blew out his breath in a whoosh.
“I have…some calls I need to make.”
I looked at him, and decided not to press him for now. He looked abjectly miserable, and he knew as well as I did that he was in over his head. He watched, swallowing slightly as Hayden walked out with a last, unfriendly look at both of us, and then he clenched his hands and began dialing as I slunk away to sit in the corner of the room.
Sit, and figure out what the hell I was supposed to do next.
Chapter 13
Donovan
“Get your head in the game,” Wallace hissed at me. He shook his head at me, leaning close as the two officers stared us down from across the table. “What the hell is going on with you?”
I gave him a look. Wallace Blake was my lawyer, competent and businesslike enough that we worked well together. I respected his expertise and his discretion, and he handled the increasingly complicated state of my legal situation without panickin
g. Right now, however, he was not amused.
“It’s nothing,” I said simply.
He shot me a glare. He clearly didn’t believe me, and frankly, I wouldn’t have, either.
He hadn’t seen her, though. He hadn’t seen Lily turn away, hiding her face from everyone when she thought I had gotten hauled up on murder charges, and there had been no way to find out what she thought before I left. To look at her would have been too risky; to ask her how she was doing would have been a mistake, especially with Moua watching me like a hawk. That Sheng-li had sent him to try to force me into admitting the truth, I had no doubt at all.
He wasn’t going to succeed. I pushed thoughts of Lily away with a surge of anger and gave a nod at Wallace.
“I’m fine,” I said simply. I would deal with Lily later. I looked back across the table. “You were saying?”
“We were saying that you were one of the last people to see Miss Ko.” Officer Mou’s face was unfriendly in the extreme.
I nodded wordlessly. It wasn’t a question, and I didn’t have to answer it. I could, in fact, leave at any time I chose. But I was too curious—and I wanted to see all of the tools at Sheng-li’s disposal. I needed to know what the man was planning.
“Mr. White, do you have any statement to make?”
“Nothing in particular, no.” I raised my eyebrows and watched his flush deepen. I could only feel satisfaction at his fury. He’d been sent to break me, and he wasn’t going to succeed. None of them ever succeeded.
Frankly, it was a bit surprising that Sheng-li hadn’t chosen better.
“Mr. White.” Officer Moua leaned forward. His accent was getting stronger, proof of a sort that he was angry. “If evidence should come out implicating you in the murder of Miss Ko, it would be very bad for you if we found out that you had lied.”
“I’m aware of that.” And I had not lied once. I had been very, very careful not to lie. I stood, with a smile, and buttoned my coat. “And I’m leaving.”
Dark Lust: An Alpha Billionaire Romance (Books 1-5) Page 6