Satisfaction

by Lexi Blake

  He needed it to last forever.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Carly took a look around the elegant ballroom. Not many people had a ballroom in their home, but this Pacific Palisades estate was Patricia’s version of Versailles. Every single detail of the six-thousand-square-foot mansion overlooking the Pacific had been painstakingly selected, from the Italian marble floors to the crown molding to the swimming pool and fountain. Today the house was open to two hundred of Patricia’s closest friends.

  “Can you hear me all right?” a masculine voice asked in her ear.

  And a few interlopers Patricia didn’t know about. Carly wasn’t used to all the spy stuff. Luckily she was definitely used to having a Bluetooth device in her ear. This one was simply on a different frequency. One of Drew Lawless’s choosing. “I can hear you.”

  No one would think twice about her talking. She was constantly putting out fires and trying to make things go smoothly at a party like this.

  “And I can see through the camera. It looks good for now.” Drew’s voice was steady in her ear.

  She was wearing a small pin on her cocktail dress. It looked like a star with a diamond, but it was actually more spy stuff. It let Drew and the crew outside the house see what was going on from her perspective. Well, her left boob’s perspective, to be more accurate.

  She glanced down at the floor below. Guests were flowing in and out of the ballroom, the doors having been swept back and opened to the backyard and its spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean. Tuxedoed servers made their way through the crowd offering champagne and appetizers. There was a string quartet playing, and Carly had arranged for the Met’s most popular soprano to sing later.

  Carly had organized this party for the last five years and she’d never once been so nervous. Her hands had a fine tremble to them that wouldn’t seem to go away.

  This was it. If Bran found what they were looking for, they would be over. Well, she would have a decision to make. She got the feeling Bran wouldn’t mind hanging out a bit longer. He’d even joked about the two of them taking a vacation. He’d offered to take her somewhere sunny for a few weeks.

  She wondered if that was his way of saying good-bye. Or if it was his way of setting up their new relationship.

  She’d slept with him every night for a week. He would come in late and make love to her. In the morning he would do it all over again. When he made love to her, she felt like she was necessary to him.

  But when she tried to talk about anything serious, he found a way to make himself scarce.

  What kind of future did she have with a man who wouldn’t talk to her about his past? Who wouldn’t even acknowledge he had a problem? She couldn’t build a real life with him. She would always be waiting for him to explode and wreak havoc on everything they’d built.

  She watched as he stepped inside. For now he was sticking close to Patricia’s side, but in a few minutes there would be an emergency he had to attend to. It was all perfectly set up. They’d gone over and over the entire operation at least a hundred times.

  The night before, Bran had managed to steal the keycard to Patricia’s private office. He’d had Case standing by to duplicate the card and get it back to her before she knew it was gone. Drew had hacked into the house’s smart functions. He would cover the code that would report that the door had been opened. Bran had a device in his pocket that would download all her computer systems and one that would connect Drew to the safe on the inside. It was electronic and therefore completely vulnerable to Drew’s particular brand of evil genius. Bran would shuffle through her desk, the closet, and anything else in the inner sanctum.

  As far as Carly knew, he would be the only person besides Patricia herself who had been in that room since the mansion had been built. She called it her sanctuary, her private haven. Carly had never even seen the inside.

  “Is that who I think it is?” Drew’s voice was a low growl over the headset.

  Carly looked down and gasped slightly.

  Shelby Gates strode into the ballroom like she owned the place. She was wearing a designer gown that showed off her killer curves, and she looked like a woman on a mission.

  Her mission might derail theirs, and that would be a disaster.

  “I’m going to head her off. Tell Case to wait until I’m in position before he starts the game. Again, keep the football out of play. Do you read me?” Carly started for the stairs.

  “I hear you. I can’t read you at all. I think you’ve watched far too many spy movies. You know, the term football typically refers to nuclear codes the president has.” Drew was always so logical.

  Sue her for sleeping through Air Force One. “You understand what I’m telling you?”

  “Yes, Carly. I’ve already informed Case that we have a slight issue. If you don’t get that woman out of here, I’m going to ensure she never bothers me again. I can have her shipped off to any number of deserted islands where she can’t cause trouble. I own several.”

  She didn’t doubt it. She’d learned Drew Lawless never joked about revenge. Of course, the man rarely joked about anything at all.

  “What is she wearing?” Drew sounded even more irritated than before. “Is that even a skirt? It looks more like she wrapped a Band-Aid around her ass.”

  “It’s a Herve Leger,” she said irritably. Shelby looked gorgeous in the yellow dress. “It’s perfectly respectable.”

  “Maybe it is on some supermodel who’s never had a cheeseburger in her life. On that woman it should be a crime.” He sounded awfully prim for a man who looked like sin when he took off his shirt.

  She’d walked in on him and Bran and Case during one of their hot, sweaty workout things. There had been lots of high-tech equipment and all she’d seen were incredibly attractive male chests. While he wasn’t as hot as Bran, Drew was definitely not a slouch in the muscle department. No man who spoke geek that well should look like that without his shirt on.

  “I will be sure to tell her you disapprove.”

  “Yeah, tell her if I ever catch her trying to hack my personal system again, it won’t be a desert island I send her to,” Drew shot back. “It will be jail.”

  She had to smile at the outrage in his voice. It was nice to see that someone in the world could get Drew’s goat. “She got on your personal system?”

  “She got lucky.”

  Carly wished she’d been there. “I told you she was good. Now will you stop bitching long enough for me to find out why she’s here?”

  “She’s here to cause trouble.”

  Carly worked her way through the crowd. She’d seen Patricia walking out toward the pool area, where several of her biggest financial backers had settled in around a station offering Scotch and bourbon tastings.

  Shelby craned her neck trying to see over the crowd. Even in her sky-high heels she seemed to be struggling.

  “She’s going to fall in those heels.” Drew was like Eeyore in her ear. “Like she needs to make her legs longer.”

  Carly managed to catch her friend. “What a surprise to see you!”

  Shelby’s eyes flared but she played along, leaning over for a hug. “I’m so happy to see you, too.”

  Carly embraced her, getting close to her ear. “What the hell are you doing here, you criminal?”

  “That’s the way to tell her,” Drew said, approval making his voice rich.

  Shelby frowned. “I’m not a criminal.”

  Carly took her by the elbow and started to lead her to a place where they could talk without drawing attention. “Trespassing is a crime and that’s what you’ll be charged with if Patricia catches you here. How did you get in?”

  “My name was on the invitation list,” she replied, still frowning as Carly forced her to the edge of the ballroom.

  “I approved that list myself.” She led Shelby down to the hall that took them to t
he residence section of the house. A security guard was standing close, but luckily he was a McKay-Taggart man and simply nodded them through. “You weren’t on it.”

  She hauled Shelby into the nearest room. It happened to be a parlor. There were several throughout the estate. This particular one was Patricia’s more personal parlor. The furnishings were fairly comfortable and the walls were decorated with artwork she’d collected and books she’d likely never once read.

  The reality of what Shelby had to have done in order to get her name on that list hit Carly. “You hacked into my computer?”

  Maybe Drew had a point.

  Shelby turned, crossing her arms over her well-endowed chest. “I’m going to confront her, Carly. I have real questions I want to ask her. I’m not going to let you talk me out of it this time.”

  Carly took a long breath. “Sweetie, I know you think this is a good idea, but it’s a bad time. I need you to walk away.”

  She shook her head. “I can’t. I can’t prove that she killed my brother, but I can still bring her empire down. I want to know what she did with Francine Wells. The woman has fallen off the face of the earth and I think Patricia killed her.”

  “Does she know about Francine Wells?” Drew’s voice had gone almost to a whisper.

  It was still too much. She ignored him. There would be time later to deal with the mystery woman who had supposedly been Carly before Carly was Carly. “Do you have any proof at all?”

  Shelby’s jaw went tight. “I have a lot of coincidences. I need to stand in front of her and see how she reacts.”

  “She’s going to react by throwing you in jail, Shelby. She’s going to discredit you and tear you down. I need you to back off from this one.”

  “After everything she did to you? After what she threatened to do to your sister? You would deny me my one chance to look her straight in the eye and tell her I know what she did?”

  She reached out and put her hand over Shelby’s. “I know what she did. I promise when we can prove it, I’ll let you go at her.”

  “Ask her about Francine Wells,” Drew said.

  For a person who’d told her to keep the mission secret, he was awfully chatty. How was she supposed to do that without explaining to Shelby that she had a Lawless in her ear?

  “I’ll never be able to prove what she did to my brother, but I might be able to do something more.” Shelby leaned forward, whispering, “I think this is bigger than I imagined, Carly. When my brother started looking into her business practices, he found something else. Something that goes back twenty years. I’m worried about you. Someone’s been working hard to ensure I can’t investigate.”

  Ah, something finally went right. “Are you talking about Francine? Is she the thing that goes back twenty years?”

  Shelby nodded. “It’s weird, but ever since you told me about her, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it. She’s a ghost, but she wasn’t always. She was very visible up until about twenty years ago. Then she seems to have vanished off the face of the earth.”

  “Keep her talking,” Drew ordered. “I want to know everything she knows about Francine Wells. I think I’ve missed something. Bran mentioned her before, but I’ve been thinking a lot about her lately. If she is who I think she is, she was close to my father.”

  “You think Patricia had something to do with her going missing? From what I understand, she was helping Patricia out up to a couple of years back. She was kind of the brains behind the business.”

  Shelby took a step back and started to pace. “But the records of her are so sketchy. She disappeared from Dallas the day after Benedict and Iris Lawless died. And she worked for the same company. I find it odd that she cleared out her apartment and left without any kind of notice. She didn’t even contact any of her friends. Eighteen months later she shows up on the payroll of a start-up company called StratCast. She disappeared from there and that’s when it gets even weirder. Right about the time Patricia sold her shares of StratCast, Francine shows up in Florida, but there are no public records of her owning any property or leasing any space here. She wasn’t employed by any company, but apparently Patricia gave her cash.”

  A chill went down her spine. No wonder Drew was interested in Francine. “I never met her, you understand. I’ve only heard some stories about her. She never came to the offices, but Patricia would go and visit her often. I got the impression Francine spent time wherever Patricia would go, so I would bet Patricia was paying for her house or apartment or wherever she was living. A lot of people who work for Cain Corp believe she was the creative brain behind the company. Patricia was the face and Francine was the woman with the ideas.”

  “Why did she leave? She disappeared completely around four years ago. And Patricia wasn’t paying for her place. I found some correspondence between Francine and a lawyer. I looked up the address she used. It was owned by a woman named Leah Walker. Leah was killed in a car accident roughly the same time Francine disappeared.”

  Carly’s stomach sank at the implications. How many deaths was Patricia responsible for? “I thought Francine had probably been an older lady. I thought maybe she’d passed on.”

  “She was the same age as my father. She worked for him,” Drew said. “I didn’t remember the name until Hatch jogged my memory. She worked directly under my father. She was quite intelligent and loved to write code. He taught her a lot. What she didn’t do was cook. Hatch remembered the time she tried to bring a birthday cake for my dad up to the office. She’d mixed up salt and sugar. I find it difficult to believe that she was the brains behind Patricia’s Paradise.”

  How did he know that? He’d been fourteen at the time. She couldn’t imagine he’d been very close with his father’s coworkers, but then, he was Drew. He’d been serious about code at a young age. He’d also been obsessed with his parents’ murders, so he’d likely done a lot of investigating on everyone around them.

  “I’ve got a bunch of records on her,” Shelby explained. “She was a year younger than Patricia herself and there’s no death certificate on her. I’ve been looking into Jane Does in the St. Augustine and LA areas but it looks like a dead end. What I do know is she disappeared after the murders and it seems like she was given safety by Patricia Cain. I believe she’s the woman who entered Steven Castalano’s hospital room before he died. He must have had something on her or Patricia that they wanted to hide. So I want to find her, but I think they’re onto me. When I get enough proof, I’m going to the one man they won’t be able to buy off.”

  Oh God. Don’t say Drew Lawless. Don’t say Drew Lawless. “Who’s that?”

  Shelby’s shoulders squared. “His name is Andrew Lawless. He’s the son of Benedict and once I can prove that his parents were murdered, I’m going to him. He’s out there and he believes what the police told him. He thinks his father killed his mother. He has no idea there was a conspiracy.”

  “Fuck,” Drew said.

  Carly turned away and muttered under her breath because it was good to be right about at least one damn thing. “I told you.”

  Shelby was busy talking about her plan. “I’ve been careful. I’ve talked to some people on the dark web about this, but I haven’t told anyone what I’m trying to do. There’s this man I’m working with. I’m going to tell him soon and I think he’ll be able to help me, but I have to be sure. I need to look her in the eyes.”

  “I’m the man she’s been talking to, damn it,” Drew admitted. “Don’t you tell her that. That’s my confession to make. But we have to bring her in. You need to tell her who you’re working for and then get your ass back out there. Patricia’s on the move. If she calls for dinner early, we’ll be fucked.”

  She breathed a sigh of relief. “Shelby, I’m working for Drew Lawless. He’s actually an asshole and he won’t stop talking in my ear and we’re working this party in order to find something called a burn file that we b
elieve will lead us to information on how Patricia, Steven Castalano, and Phillip Stratton conspired to kill Benedict and Iris Lawless. Believe me, he knows.”

  Shelby stopped, staring at her for a moment. “You’re kidding, right?”

  “Nope, he’s also put a video camera on me so he’s likely staring at your boobs right now,” she confessed.

  “Carly!”

  She ignored him entirely.

  “You are working for Andrew Lawless?” Shelby asked, her voice hopeful this time. “Don’t fuck with me.”

  “I’m not messing with you. That’s why I need you to not cause trouble today. We’ve got one real shot at finding the information we need and that’s right now. After today, it will be at least a year before we have this kind of access. She throws one huge party like this a year.”

  Shelby nodded. “All right. I’ll do whatever you want me to.”

  Drew’s voice was a frustrated growl in her ear. “Tell her we’ll contact her soon. Hatch wants to talk to her. He knew Francine pretty well. He’s surprised she would be involved with Patricia at all. We want to see everything Shelby has. She can fly out to Austin with us tomorrow.”

  She was so going to be in on that meeting. If only to be able to say she told him so another million times. “Drew says you can go with us back to Austin in the morning.”

  Hope lit Shelby’s eyes. “I’ll do it. I’ll bring everything I have. How can I help tonight?”

  “Stay out of sight as you leave.” Carly looked over at the clock. They were running late. She needed to get back to her place. This whole thing was a row of dominoes. It wouldn’t work if the first one wasn’t properly placed. “Just go back out and make sure Patricia doesn’t see you.”

  Shelby hugged her. “I will. I promise. Good luck, Carly.”

  She hurried out the door.

  “You are going to have to tell her you’re the man she’s been flirting with online,” Carly said. It would go poorly if Shelby found out, and Shelby would find out. There was no question of that in her mind. Drew could save himself a lot of trouble if he just owned up. Shelby understood the need for undercover work.