I could see the concern written all over Sam’s face. But Hayden nudged her with his shoulder.
“Let’s get out of here, grandma.”
“Why do you insist on calling me that?”
“Because you wear things like this,” he said, lifting the corner of her current cardigan, a gray knit sweater with delicate pearl buttons.
“My mom made this.”
“Yes, well, your mom should probably be the one wearing it.”
She smacked his arm, and he grabbed the spot, pretending it hurt more than it probably did. Then he stumbled away, forcing her to rush to catch up with him.
I laughed as I turned and headed for my car.
Twenty minutes later, I was sitting across from Kurt Sanchez in a little, hole-in-the-wall diner.
“I’m sorry about all the subterfuge,” he said. “My company watches us very closely.”
“Why?”
“Because someone went to an old friend and told him that there were rival companies stealing his software and using it as their own.”
I opened the envelope Cole had brought to me last night and slid the pile of papers across the table to Kurt.
“Do you know what these are?”
Daddy had explained them to me, concern etching itself on his face with each line he read on each piece of paper. Peter was clearly onto something important that Daddy hadn’t even suspected.
Kurt glanced through them.
“I didn’t realize he’d gotten this far.”
“Can you tell me what they are?”
Kurt held one up. “This shows who your family’s company gave licenses to, so they could use a particular software.” He held up another. “These shows the companies Peter was able to establish have actually been using the software.”
“They don’t correlate.”
“No, they don’t. And the rest of this paperwork…there is evidence here that someone in your family’s company has been handing out copies of the software without the safeguards that are normally installed to keep just anyone from using it.”
“So someone’s been selling it illegally.”
“Basically.”
“Why would they do that?”
“Personal gain.”
Daddy had come to the same conclusion. He thought someone in Peter’s department had been selling versions of their copyrighted software to other telecommunications companies to use with their devices. Not only was it illegal, but it could ruin Bradford Telecommunications if the illegal use of the software became too widespread. Daddy was understandably concerned. When I left his office, he was on the phone with the legal department and the lady who took over the software division after Peter died.
Kurt pushed the papers back over to me.
“I run the acquisition department at TxTel. I was negotiating with a company up in Huntsville to buy one of their products. When I went up there, and they demonstrated the product, I recognized Bradford Telecommunication’s software. At first, I thought it was an official copy, but then there were little red flags. When I realized it wasn’t all on the up and up, I arranged a meeting with Peter.”
“You gave him the heads up.”
“Yeah.” He studied my face for a second. “Look, Megan, high school was a long time ago. We’ve all grown up since then.”
I waved my hand. “I just…when did you tell him this?”
“A little more than a year ago.”
That coincided with when he started showing up in Ada, according to Amber.
“Huntsville. So he was checking into a company up there?”
“Probably. That was the company I was dealing with when I saw what was happening.”
That made sense, too, since Ada was just below Huntsville.
“Why were you at Peter’s funeral?”
Kurt’s eyes fell to the table. He sighed heavily.
“I felt guilty for the way I treated him in school. Even though we’d become fairly friendly over the last few months before he died, I felt like I owed it to him to be there.”
I studied his face, trying to understand everything he was telling me.
“You told Peter someone was using Bradford Telecommunication’s software without a license. He began investigating this company, making trips up to Huntsville and stopping at this diner in Ada. He meets with an executive from that company who swears he didn’t know anything, then gives these papers to a girl he barely knew. And a week later he was dead.”
Kurt paled a little.“Who did he talk to from the place in Huntsville?”
“A bald executive. We didn’t quite catch his name.”
But Kurt’s eyes widened. “Bald. Tall. Kind of awkward?”
“You know him?”
“He owns the company up there in Huntsville.”
“Why do you think he would have met with Peter?”
“I don’t know. To get him off his ass?”
“Then six weeks ago, this same executive started following a friend of Peter’s up there in Ada. Said that Peter asked him about software code, but he didn’t know anything. And then, six weeks ago, someone came to him and started asking the same questions Peter asked.”
“Who?”
“He thought it was someone from Bradford Telecommunications.”
Kurt shook his head. “Peter told me that he hadn’t told anyone about his investigation. That he wanted to keep it under wraps until he knew what was going on.”
“Do you know what Campo is?”
Kurt suddenly tensed, but he didn’t say anything. Instead, he became intensely interested in the cup of coffee that had been growing cold in front of him.
“Did Peter mention something named Campo?”
He sighed. “I should go.”
I grabbed his arm as he tried to walk past me.
“My brother might have been murdered, Kurt. I’m going to find out what he was investigating and what happened the night he died. And if I find out that you had anything to do with it…”
“Some things never change, do they?”
Kurt walked away, slinking out the door and disappearing around the corner. A minute later, Dominic—a tall, dark, hunk of a man—slipped into Kurt’s seat across from me.
“There were two men in a white panel van listening to your conversation.”
“Do you know who they were?”
“Nope. But my guess is CIA.”
“Why would they be interested in a conversation I was having with a telecommunications executive?”
Dominic slid a file folder across the table to me. I opened it and found myself looking at pictures of Kurt Sanchez that were clearly taken without his knowledge. Pictures of him talking to people I didn’t know, of him coming and going out of the same building on multiple occasions, pictures of him…was that Peter?
“Where did you get these?”
“From the van after I knocked out the two guys.”
I had to smile at the innocent smile on Dominic’s face when he said it. He was always doing things that were on the edge of illegal and then shrugging them off as if they meant nothing when, in reality, they almost always meant a lot. It usually meant me calling the police and convincing them not to come arrest him because his actions had led, or would lead, to the arrest of someone they’d been trying to get for months or even years.
“So Kurt Sanchez is under investigation by the FBI or the CIA or some federal agency? That means he’s done something on a terrorist level. Does that have anything to do with our case?”
“This is a case now?”
I shrugged. “I suppose so.”
Dominic smiled. “Cool. Code name?”
“Phoenix.”
“Like…coming out of the ashes, phoenix?”
“Exactly.”
“I like it.”
He stood and touched my shoulder as he started to walk past me.
“Where are you going?”
“To get more information out of our federal friends.”
I
groaned. “Please don’t get yourself sent to prison.”
But he was already gone.
Chapter 17
Amber
I stood under the spray of the shower, my mind wandering from one thing to another, not really sticking on a single thing. My body ached, but it was a good ache. I kept hearing Cole’s voice, those sweet words spilling from his lips last night. No one had ever said anything like that to me before. Not even the jerks at the diner who were desperate to get into my pants.
When the baby woke, I thought he’d ask me to go back to my own bed. Instead, he laid the baby on the mattress between us and studied him as if he was a great work of art. He picked up his hands and studied his fingers. He ran his finger down his belly, then lifted his little feet and held them in the palm of his hand. He probably would have played with each toe individually if they weren’t covered by his little blue sleeper. I watched, amazed with how much love radiated from him. He clearly loved my little boy. And that meant almost more to me than the words he’d said to me.
Almost.
I’d already washed up. I was just loving the way the water beat against my shoulders. The bathroom in the hallway was nice, but this shower had three showerheads, and each one was more powerful than the one in the other bathroom. It was like having someone massage every inch of my body all at once. I wouldn’t have come in here, but Cole told me to make myself at home.
He was so kind. Kind in a different way from Peter, but still kind. The way he looked at me made me feel like I could be someone different. He made me feel like it didn’t matter who my mother was. He made me feel like I could wash the dust of Ada off my boots and become someone else. He made me believe in myself with just a look.
I was just about to turn the water off, wondering how PJ was doing. But when I turned, Cole was standing there, leaning against the wall, watching me.
“You’re beautiful,” he said.
I blushed. “I almost believe you.”
“You should.”
He crossed to me and pushed me up against the cool tiles of the shower wall. We kissed like last night had just been a taste of what was to come. I wrapped my arms around his neck and let him lift me up so that we were eye to eye. His hands moved over my body, his touch like silk sliding off the back of a leather chair, smooth and almost not there. It wasn’t like the groping touch of the men at the diner, like the touches I saw men offer my mom. It wasn’t like the smacks on the ass my fellow students offered me in high school. It was kind. Affectionate. Personal.
Intimate. That’s what it really was. Intimate. Nobody’s business but ours.
A part of me wrapped itself around this, around the idea that Cole could be mine. Just mine. But a larger part of me warned that this was temporary. Happiness like this could never last.
He touched me everywhere, his hands not content to just rest on the curves of my hips or the angle of my ribs. He didn’t just want to touch my breasts, my nipples hard against his palms, or my cunt, my labia spread to his probing fingers. He didn’t just want to tease my clit or stroke that tender spot at the small of my back. He wanted everything; he wanted to touch every inch. And then his mouth got in on it, moving over my throat, my shoulder. Some of the sounds that came out of my mouth were so foreign to me that I didn’t even recognize them.
When his cock filled me, I closed my eyes and simply went for the ride. But then I felt the heat of his breath against my throat and I needed to see his face. I pushed him back and watched his face as pleasure washed over it. He watched me, too, our eyes meeting in the heat of passion, connecting on a deep-in-the-soul level. It was almost spiritual until I simply couldn’t do it anymore. The pleasure was too much. I had to close my eyes, had to give myself completely to it. A ripple of excitement rushed through me, tearing through my body until it reached my lips and came out on a scream. I felt him shudder as he, too, rocked to his climax, holding me so tight that I thought I might suffocate from the intensity of it all. But then he loosened his hold and cradled me against his body.
“You feel so good,” he whispered against my throat.
“Do I?”
“Like heaven.”
I ran my hand over the top of his head. “Thank you.”
He chuckled softly, pulling back to look me in the eye. “Thank you? I don’t think I’ve ever gotten that response to such a comment.”
“Then what should I say?”
“That I feel good, too? That you’ve never had anyone better?”
“Well, since I’ve only ever been with you and Peter, I think saying I’ve never had anyone better would be insulting to you on one level or another.”
He frowned. “Is that true?”
“I think so. And you don’t take offense well.”
“No, I mean about your experience.”
I blushed, wanting to turn away so that he couldn’t really see it. But there wasn’t a whole lot of room to turn away.
“Amber…?”
He brushed wet hair from my face and kissed the tip of my nose. I leaned up a little and kissed his lips, loving the way he almost instantly asked to come inside, to taste me the way I loved to taste him.
“Did you think that I slept with all those clowns in the diner?” I asked after a moment.
“No. But you’re not exactly a kid.”
“Not exactly the girl the decent boys of Ada wanted to be associated with either. If I wasn’t willing to sneak behind the bleachers at the high school, they didn’t want anything to do with me.”
He was quiet for a second, but I could see this muscle jumping in his jaw. It was an expression I’d come to recognize as his angry look.
“What they must have put you through…”
“Don’t feel sorry for me.”
“No, babe…” He touched my face again. “I don’t feel sorry for you. I admire you for surviving all the bullshit they put you through.”
No one had ever admired me before. If I didn’t stop listening to Cole, he was going to give me such a big head that I wouldn’t be able to fit through his doorways anymore.
He reached over and shut off the water, then carried me out into the bathroom. He wrapped me up in a heavy white towel, rubbing my skin lightly to dry it. He even dried my hair a little, rubbing it between the corners of the towel. Then he lifted me up and carried me into the bedroom.
“You don’t have to do this.”
“Someone needs to treat you like the lady you are.”
I took his arm before he could move away again and kissed him. He pulled me into his arms, and we touched again, exploring each other. When he made love to me this time, it was slow. Intimate. Sexy. Everything it was supposed to be and so much more.
Chapter 18
Cole
“He was doing what?”
“He was investigating the illegal sale of software from Bradford Telecommunications.”
I studied Megan’s face. “Are you sure?”
“Why?”
I pushed away from the wall where I was standing and moved closer to Megan’s desk.
“I…the bald guy said it was about something more than that. I mean, he implied it. And then the guy at the mall—did you ever figure out what he was up to?”
“No. He wouldn’t talk, and we ended up just turning him over to the cops.”
“Why would someone send a man with a gun after Amber if all this was about was some illegally sold software?”
“I don’t know.”
She looked worried, as she played with a pen that sat on her desk.
“What?”
She took a deep breath, then looked up at me. “There’s something else, something I’m not sure has anything to do with anything. But it might…”
“What?”
“Kurt Sanchez is under investigation by the CIA.”
“For what?”
“Acts of terror.”
“What?” I crossed my arms, trying to imagine pimple-faced Kurt Sanchez blowing up a foreign embassy o
r something. “I thought the CIA couldn’t investigate American citizens.”
“They can if they suspect them of being part of a foreign-planned act of terror.”
“They actually think Kurt Sanchez might be part of some sort of terrorist attack?”
“Of planning one. Dominic caught two CIA agents following Kurt. He talked to them, and they told him that Kurt has friends in Afghanistan that they suspect of planning a terror attack.”
“What does that have to do with Peter?”
“I don’t know.”
“Well, what did Kurt tell you?”
“That he had reason to believe that a company out of Huntsville was using an unlicensed version of Bradford Telecommunication software.”
“Huntsville?”
“Yeah. Bald guy’s company.”
“How do you—?”
“I described him to Kurt, and he said that guy owns the company up in Huntsville.” She looked a little apologetic. “He probably lied to you to get you to let him go.”
“Then why was he following Amber, really?”
“I don’t know. But I thought maybe the three of us should take a ride up there, have another talk with that guy.”
“I’m not sure I want to drag Amber into any more of this. She’s got the baby to think about.”
“Yeah, well, she’s the only one who saw Peter during this time. She’s the one that this guy was after the night you scared him off. It all revolves around her whether you like it or not.”
I didn’t like it. Amber had already suggested that she give the baby up. I didn’t want to do anything to put more thoughts like that in her head. But Megan was right…Amber was pretty much the only person who might have an inkling of what Peter was really doing up there.
“Let me go get her. Let me explain what we want.”
Megan studied my face for a second, a knowing frown on her pouty lips.
“Are you getting in over your head, little brother?”
“I’m doing the job you asked me to do.”
“Yeah, well, you delivered her baby, and you’ve had her living in your house for weeks. It would be surprising if you didn’t develop feelings for her.”
“Are you asking me if I’m falling in love with the mother of our brother’s son?”
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