by Lexi Blake
Hatch pointed Drew’s way. “I told you so. I told you the minute he started walking her way that this was his knight-in-shining-armor syndrome.” Hatch turned to Bran. “She’s not a damsel in distress. She works for one of the evilest women I’ve ever met. Patricia Cain could give Satan a run for his money. Do you honestly think she’s got some angel working for her?”
He already knew more about Carly than they did. Likely they wouldn’t have even attempted to scratch her surface. This was why he’d done what he did. Because Drew and Hatch would have used her and not ever figured out if she deserved it. “I told you, she hates her boss.”
“Then she should quit,” Drew stated as though the world was a simple place where every choice was an easy one.
He should know better. “Cain’s got leverage over her. I told you I thought she had something on the girl. Turns out that when Carly’s ex-husband was caught with his hand in the cookie jar, he tried to drag her sister into it, too. He’d used her to hide some cash. Cain found out and used it as leverage to force Carly to do that interview.”
Drew sighed and hopped up on the barstool. “Damn it. The interview she had to do because we’d outed her Asian operations. Get me a beer. It seems like I’m going to need it.”
“Beer? We’re going to need Scotch. I’m sure Taggart keeps the good stuff hidden somewhere.” Hatch walked off in search of hooch.
Bran grabbed a couple of bottles of beer. “He might be disappointed. I know Taggart gave us the keys to this place, but it’s owned by his partner. McKay’s straighter an arrow than Big Tag. Speaking of Taggart, Carly thinks Cain will go for switching security companies under the right circumstances. She believes she’ll choose McKay-Taggart because of the publicity from the film.”
Bran flipped off the cap and handed it to Drew, keeping the other for himself. Although he’d ordered wine with Carly, he wasn’t a wine guy. In the last decade he’d been exposed to some of the world’s finest restaurants, but no one had managed to turn him into a foodie.
He’d loved watching Carly eat. He loved how her eyes had closed as though she savored every delicious bite. He wondered if she fucked the way she ate. With gusto, with purpose, with passion.
“You laid out the plan?” There was no way to miss the testy tone of Drew’s voice.
He hadn’t meant to, but she’d been interested. He shrugged as though it was no big deal. “I needed to let her know what she’s getting into. I didn’t go over everything, obviously. Just the general plan.”
Drew’s beer bottle hit the bar with a small crash. “And did it once occur to you that she might take what you said and walk back to her boss and inform her of our plans? Have you heard of the term element of surprise? Because we lost that.”
“I don’t think so.” Bran stayed calm. He’d been there. He’d been the one to meet Carly and make the assessment. “Like I said, she’s got zero love for Cain.”
“Or she’s a good actress.”
“No, she’s not at all.” He would bet she was a horrible actress.
Drew leaned forward, his eyes lasering in. “Bran, you cannot rescue every woman you meet.”
He was saved from having to answer that statement by Hatch walking back in, a bottle of amber liquid in his hand. Apparently McKay wasn’t as sober as he seemed.
“Thank God. This Scotch can vote,” Hatch said, striding to the cupboard and retrieving a glass. “We have to figure out what the hell we’re going to do now that Bran has completely blown our plan.”
He tightened his grip on his beer. “I didn’t blow it. I saved it. She was planning on telling Drew she’d changed her mind. If I hadn’t walked up to her, she would have been gone five minutes later.”
Drew frowned. “Why would she turn me away? She agreed to the date. Was she going to turn me down because of the picture? But I looked good in that picture. Mia had a photographer friend take it. I was wearing perfectly respectable clothes. Ellie picked them out.”
“I made him take the pocket protector out and everything,” Hatch quipped with a smirk.
Drew held up his middle finger for his business partner before returning his attention to Bran. “Seriously, I looked good in that picture. My face was symmetrical. The lighting wasn’t harsh. I smiled in a way that Riley said wasn’t predatory.”
Drew always looked like he was ready to take someone apart. There was a darkness about his brother that seemed to send many women running. Of course, it also brought in the more adventurous ones. From what Bran could tell, Drew’s sex life involved a series of not-too-frequent one-night stands and a single long-term relationship that could only be called sexual for all its chilly practicality. He was a hot nerd who often lost himself in code and business.
Another reason it wouldn’t have worked with Carly. She would have been able to sense his chill. Carly needed some warmth in her life.
“She thought you were too attractive for her.” If he didn’t put a stop to this they would end up discussing Drew’s haircut or his posture. His brother would analyze the rejection to death and they wouldn’t get to the real heart of the matter.
“That is disheartening. I don’t usually lose a woman until I open my mouth.” Drew made the statement with absolutely no irony. It was a simple fact in his brother’s mind.
“Then you drop a whole lot of them,” Hatch agreed.
Drew ignored him. “Why would she think I was too attractive?”
“She didn’t think you were a good match.”
Drew was quiet for a second as though trying to make sense of that statement. “Technically, I ensured that we were a match on every level. Actually, we were a fairly good match to begin with. We have practical notions about love and sex. I simply changed a few facts about myself. I said I was interested in architecture to suit her love for design. I wasn’t lying. I do find architecture fascinating simply in terms of software architecture and not buildings. I also said I was interested in something called flea market finds. I don’t really know what that means, but it was the thing that put me over the edge and paired us.”
His brother always went for the logical explanation. “She thought she wasn’t hot enough for you.”
Drew frowned. “She’s very appealing sexually. Her waist to hip ratio is almost perfect and she has a lovely set of breasts. I found her face quite symmetrical.”
“This is why they run, brother.” In Bran’s opinion, Drew had spent way too much time in the pursuit of power and not nearly enough chasing women. Power meant nothing without women. “She’s hot. She’s sexy. Women don’t like being called symmetrical.”
Drew opened his mouth to argue.
Bran shut that shit down. “I don’t want to hear a lecture on the biological imperatives that make us choose a mate. The truth is Carly has a hot body but she works in an industry where everyone worships unhealthy ideals. She’s never going to be a stick and she’s insecure about it, which is precisely why she was going to turn you down. How would you have handled that?”
“I don’t know,” Drew admitted. “I hadn’t accounted for that possibility. This was why I sent Riley in the first time. Riley’s the one with the charm. You don’t suppose . . .”
Bran groaned. Only Drew would even suggest that. “No, I don’t suppose Riley’s wife wants him trolling chicks so we can have our revenge.”
Drew wasn’t giving up. “Ellie is quite reasonable. I have a meeting with her in a couple of hours. I could talk to her about it.”
“No woman is that reasonable,” Hatch pointed out. “Trust me. Bran’s right on this. You ask Ellie if Riley can flirt with Cain’s assistant to get close to her and she will twist your balls right off your body. And don’t ask for Case, either. Mia’s not letting her husband play around, not even in the name of revenge.”
“See, this is why I don’t get married. All of your options are taken away and apparently your balls ge
t attached to your wife’s handbag or something.” Drew shook his head.
“We’re not calling in anyone.” Had they not been listening to him at all? This was how it always seemed to go. He was the invisible one. Drew was the genius. Riley was the charmer. Mia had the drive, and Bran . . . Bran was the fuckup everyone had to clean up after. Not this time. “I’ve got this handled. I’ll deal with Carly. I’ve already got a relationship with her.”
“A relationship?” Drew’s eyes were suddenly hawkish and staring right through him.
“I meant I’ve made contact and she has my number.”
Hatch shook his head. “Nah, that’s not what you meant. You’re already invested in this woman and we know next to nothing about her.”
“We know a ton about her. We’ve got a fat file on her. She’s not the bad guy.”
“The fact that you can say that with a straight face is reason to send you back to Austin today,” Drew said with a frown.
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Drew’s eyes narrowed. “You will if I tell you to.”
Hatch put up a hand. “Stop it, both of you. Bran fucked up but he might have a point. You wouldn’t have had any idea how to handle a woman rejecting you. You wouldn’t have figured out the reason and you would have put her on her guard. Bran, do you honestly believe she’s not going straight to Patricia and telling her everything?”
That was not the feeling he got. “I don’t believe she’ll do that.”
Drew’s blue eyes rolled. “This coming from the dude who always believes the strippers are really just innocent young women trying to put themselves through school.”
“Hey,” Hatch said. “Do I need to separate the two of you? You’re acting like five-year-olds. We’ve got a change of situation and we need to adapt. Bran’s the one with the relationship with the mark.”
“She’s not the mark.” He didn’t like hearing her talked about that way.
“See?” Drew said pointedly.
“Fine, she’s a lovely woman who we’re hoping will work with us,” Hatch said before ruining the words with an eye roll. “There’s nothing to do except wait. I take it you gave her some time to think it over.”
“Yes, it’s a big decision.” It wasn’t like he could force her to say yes then and there. She was a cautious woman after everything she’d been through.
“It’s not her decision to make.” Drew slammed the bottle down on the bar. “I would have kept her out of it. I’m not some kind of monster. And I would have figured a way to bring her back in. I’ve got half a brain. I would have done all of it and not gotten attached to her. You watch. He’s going to pull his gallant routine and it’ll all go to hell.”
Before Bran could defend himself, Drew stalked off toward one of the back bedrooms. “Let him go,” Hatch said. “And you know he’s right about you. You don’t think straight when it comes to women.”
“Well, Drew doesn’t feel anything for them at all.” Sometimes his brother seemed to be more robot than man. “After what happened with Ellie, I couldn’t stand there and let it happen all over again. It’s wrong.”
“I don’t know about that, but I do understand your point. Now you see his. He already had to watch one brother be put in a dangerous situation. He wasn’t going in himself because he didn’t think you couldn’t do the job. He did it because he didn’t want you in harm’s way.”
“I doubt that.” His brother often thought he was the weak link.
“That’s your issue, not Drew’s. He’s given you a lot of responsibility in the company and he trusts you. You’re the one who thinks you aren’t good enough. He’s trying to protect you. He couldn’t do it when he was a kid and now he’s overdoing it. It’s how Drew deals with things. So he’s worried and upset that you’re going to be the one to walk into the lion’s den. If she calls.”
“She’ll call.” God, he hoped she called.
“How can you be sure?”
“She was interested. In more than my story.” He knew damn well when a woman was interested in what he could do for her. There was something in the way she’d looked at him, leaned toward him. He’d spent years studying the way women responded both intimately and in their everyday lives. It told him how he could please them, what made them happy and what turned them chilly.
Carly Fisher might deny it, but she wanted a man who would be a true partner, who would help her. She was alone and the man who convinced her she didn’t have to be would win her over. She would be loyal to that man, follow him wherever he went.
He couldn’t be that man, but he could find a mutual satisfaction between them. He could help her. She could help him and then they would go their separate ways, better for having known each other.
At least that was the way it would work in theory. It was the way all his relationships worked. He usually fell into them. He’d find himself in bed with a lovely lady and then he would try to find a way to fix the things she needed help with. He’d gotten one out of a bad work situation by finding her a job at one of 4L’s subsidiaries. He’d helped one deal with a customer who got a bit too obsessed with her work as an exotic dancer. He’d helped others in ways that ranged from loans to helping them move, but he always found a way to make them happy they’d been involved.
He would do the same with Carly. He would protect her. He would help her. If she let him, he would sleep with her and give her as much pleasure as she could handle. He would show her not all men were assholes, and when the time came to leave, she would be ready to find her one.
There was no one for Bran. He’d known that for a long time.
“You honestly think you can handle this and not get in too deep with that woman?” Hatch asked, sounding perfectly afraid of the answer.
“I know I can. Despite what everyone believes, I’m never too deep. I know the score.”
Hatch nodded. “All right, then. I guess we wait.”
Bran took a long swig of his beer and prayed Carly didn’t make them wait too long.
—
Carly stared at the screen of her laptop, hating the way her heart clenched when she thought of that gorgeous man as a young child ripped from the only home he’d ever known. One day Brandon Lawless had been the beloved child, and the next he’d been alone and adrift in a world he couldn’t have understood. She hadn’t had the greatest childhood. Her dad had cheated on her mom and married his coworker. He’d done the weekend-dad thing for a while but then his new wife had a baby and the visits became rare. The last time she’d seen her father had been years before. But at least she’d had her sister. Brandon had no one.
Sure enough, it was all out there on the Internet for her to find. She’d even found an article where Patricia Cain had been interviewed about the loss of Benedict Lawless and his brilliant mind. The words had turned Carly’s stomach because she could see her boss scripting them.
The loss of Benedict will impact the tech world for years to come. His genius was only matched by his madness. We should have seen it. He had a variety of anger issues, but I’m afraid we chalked it up to having an artistic temperament. We never imagined he would kill his sweet wife and attempt to murder his own children. While I will mourn his lost genius, I can’t help but be angry at what he did. I will never be able to forgive myself for not seeing what he was capable of.
Bullshit. Patricia didn’t care about people enough to truly mourn them. With a singular exception. And she’d never known the woman to feel a moment’s guilt.
She’d spent the afternoon staring at her computer and wondering if she was actually going to call the number on that card Bran had left her with. How could she consider it? It was ridiculous. She wasn’t some kind of spy.
Carly sat back, sighing. The smart play would be to do her time. She had two years left before her sister was safe. Why should she help some family she didn’t know? From what she understoo
d about Bran’s family now, they didn’t need a ton of help. They were wretchedly wealthy, having formed one of the world’s largest software companies. Everyone used the 4L firewall.
She wondered what Patricia would think of the Lawless children growing up to be so powerful.
There was a reason they now went under different last names. Brandon Lang was Bran’s legal name. They’d all taken the different surname. She was certain if anyone asked, Bran would say they’d done it to put their pasts behind them. She thought they’d done it for a completely different reason. They’d done it to hide in plain sight. They’d done it so their enemies wouldn’t hear the Lawless name and put up their guards.
What was she supposed to do?
Her eyes caught on the sight of her cell phone, not the professional one that Patricia paid for. Naturally she was forced to have two. One for her personal calls and one strictly for Patricia. It was the newest, most technologically advanced phone on the market and it tended to ring incessantly. This was the one night out of the month that it was quiet because it was the evening Patricia spent with her husband. Their monthly dinners were sacred and not to be disturbed. One night of the whole month that she spent with her beloved. Yeah, that was how hot they were for each other.
Her own phone was fairly cheap since it didn’t get a ton of use. Only two people ever called it. Carly was careful to leave it behind much of the time and it was safeguarded with a passcode.
Besides her sister, there was one person she talked to on a regular basis, and it wouldn’t do to let Patricia know that tidbit of information.
Shelby Gates, journalist and activist and currently writing an unauthorized biography of one Patricia Cain.
Carly had refused to help her the first few times she’d called, and only gave her the barest of hints of where to look eventually because she happened to know Patricia was up to her old tricks exploiting the Third World manufacturing system, though more quietly this time. She had plausible deniability since she now worked through other companies for labor. The fact that she was still getting away with it had led her to answer Shelby’s call and to give her the name of a particularly disgruntled employee of Cain Corp.