She was lying.
Even if years of interrogating criminals hadn’t taught me to sniff out lies like a bloodhound, I’d still have known it in a second. Even if the words hadn’t tumbled out of her mouth just a little too quickly or her back hadn’t straightened too much. It was something innate, something deep inside me on a cellular level that could sense the fact that Nina wasn’t telling the truth.
I knew this woman instinctually.
Just like, I suspected, she probably knew me.
“I suppose you want to know why I was at Envy that night,” Nina said as we started walking again. Something. Finally.
I shrugged. “Only if you want to share.” Tell me every fuckin’ detail.
Nina opened her mouth a few times. She did that when she was thinking, like the wheels churning in her head controlled her jaw too. It was cute. Another sign I was cracking that carefully wrought facade of hers.
Up through the trees, lights flashed from the cars making their way across the park. I slowed my steps a bit more. She didn’t seem to notice.
“Well, you know about what happened to Jane and Eric…” Nina gave a wistful smile. “I was trying to stay vague that night, but now I see I could have just told you everything.”
I nodded. Now that I thought about it, January’s events started to line up and make sense.
“We met, what, a couple of days after New Year’s?” I asked. “Eric was in jail…”
Nina nodded. “Yes. I was at the party where he was arrested.”
“You were damn upset, I remember that. Even then, I could tell it was about more than just your friend messing up their wedding, but I didn’t know…I didn’t want to press…”
Now I was the one holding back. Because to be honest, if I had known then what I knew now, I would have been forced to walk away or risk compromising my entire career. I don’t think it’s a choice I could have made. God help me, I’d have sold more than my soul for that night with Nina. Even if it was the only night I was ever going to get.
Something else was bothering me, though. Something else was missing. Not from that night, but from the morning. Before she left…
“Oh, Matthew,” she said softly. “What am I going to do?”
“Why don’t you tell me what happened? You never know. Maybe I can help.”
She watched me for a moment. “It’s my cousin’s wife. The one I told you about. She’s—well, she's done something very unwise. And he’s not available to deal with it, so I have to.”
“The next morning.” I looked up to the skyline with sudden awareness. “That was when Jane left for Korea, wasn’t it? That’s why you left in such a hurry.”
“That’s right.” Nina nodded again. “I was staying with her at the time, while Eric was at Rikers. Sometimes I think if I had been there…I could have convinced her to stay. And she…well, she wouldn’t have lost the baby.”
Everything about her sudden escape that morning made much more sense. As did her apparent guilt. The atrocities that Jane had suffered as Carson’s captive in Korea weren’t easy to swallow. It was by the grace of God that Eric had been able to get to her. That she had lived at all.
“Is that why you offered Jane the gala thing?”
Nina’s glance grew knife-sharp. “What do you mean?”
Now it was my turn to stop. I turned her toward me. I wanted to read her face clearly.
“Nina, we didn’t have a lot of time together, but I remember one thing. You like fashion. You like clothes. Enough that you could pick out the vintage Armani suit I was wearing in a crowded bar with just a glance.”
She didn’t reply, but the shadow of guilt across her face told me I was on the right track. So I rattled on.
“And if this event is as big as you say it is…well, let me ask you this: Of the two of you, one a lifelong socialite who probably organizes these kinds of things with her eyes closed, the other brand-new to this world and recovering from a traumatic kidnapping to boot, who is going to be more qualified—or welcome on the committee, for that matter—to put this shindig together?”
The shadow darkened. Nina bit back a smile. Bingo.
“She’s been sad,” Nina said as she started walking again. “Eric’s been worried about her. She’s been sitting in that apartment alone all day, every day, for almost two months. Most of the event is already planned anyway, and it seemed…it just seemed like the least I could do.”
I knew it. She was doing this out of guilt. I knew something about that. It’s hard to forgive yourself for things when you think you might have been able to fix them. It’s even harder when you know you were responsible.
“You sure you’re not Catholic, baby?” I joked.
As we arrived at the traverse, Nina turned with a woeful smile and raised her hand for a cab. “Maybe in another life.”
Before I could answer, a taxi pulled over. I surprised Nina by piling inside the car with her. Suddenly, I was engulfed by her scent as it filled the backseat. Roses. She still smelled like roses.
“What are you doing?” she asked as I shut the door behind me.
“I need to get the train on the east side,” I lied. “You wouldn’t make me walk in the rain, would you? Don’t forget, doll, I wear vintage.”
“From your sister’s shop, right?”
I grinned. “Good memory, I see.”
Nina peered out her window. The ground was still wet, but there were no more drops threatening. When she turned back to me, her mouth twitched with a hidden smile.
“Incorrigible,” she mouthed at me before turning to the driver. “Ninety-Second and Lexington, please. The west side of the street.”
The cab took off into the night, and for a few minutes, we sat quietly as the park raced by, the lit buildings of the Upper East Side beckoning us forward. I stared at Nina’s lap, where her hands were folded together, the diamond on the left flashing with every passing streetlamp.
“I still don’t understand,” I said. “The night I met you, you said it was your fault. But I know this case, Nina. I know it like the back of my hand. John Carson is a fuckin’ monster. And Jane and Eric are two of the most stubborn people I’ve ever met. I don’t really see how you could have caused anything that happened to them. But you were upset. You kept saying something about how it was your fault. Even before she was taken.”
Nina tensed visibly, but didn’t look up. Nor did she answer. I was quickly realizing she had that strange ability people with power possessed to control a conversation simply by pretending it hadn’t occurred. It happened on the witness stand a lot. I’d ask a question, and the rich assholes or kingpins would give an answer to a completely different one. Or sometimes they would act like I hadn’t said anything.
But it was for that reason that I’d also learned to drill down until I got the answer to the actual question.
“Nina,” I said again, watching her face very carefully. “Did you feel personally responsible for what happened to Jane and Eric in January?”
She blinked. “I didn’t have anything to do with Eric going to jail. Or with Jane going to Korea, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“That’s not my question. I asked if you felt personally responsible.”
“I—” She shook her head back and forth. “I don’t know how to answer that.”
“It’s a yes or no question, baby.”
“It’s not that simple!”
The car turned up Madison, barreling past the patrician apartments and posh storefronts that were mostly closed for the evening. I had no problem imagining Nina wiling away her days here. Pointing her elegant finger at shop girls. Sipping on a cappuccino before starting her day.
It was a wonder, really, that I hadn’t run into her all the times I’d walked around. Something in me knew from the start she belonged here.
But honestly, I had no idea what Nina de Vries did with her days. Whether she was a vapid socialite who shopped and spent money, or if she had a real job, even if it was one that didn’t pay any
thing. I didn’t know who she was at all.
The guilt etched across her face told me I needed to find out.
“Listen,” I said as the cab took a right onto Ninety-Second. I only had a few seconds. Then who knew when I was going to see her again? “If you have any additional information about what happened with Jane and Eric, anything at all, I need to know about it. They don’t have to know we talked, but, Nina, if I’m going to have any chance at putting this asshole behind bars, we do need to go over this. You want to do right by your cousin? Make up for whatever part you think you played? Tell me what you know. I can help. Right now, I’m the only one.”
The car stopped at the corner of Ninety-Second and Lex, in front of an old, impeccably maintained brick building that was partially sheltered by restoration scaffolding.
“This all right?” the cabbie asked in a thick accent.
Nina looked between me and the driver. “I…oh, this is fine, thank you.” Her eyes widened, but she didn’t move. She seemed stuck in place. “I…do you need the car?”
“Here.” I slipped the cabbie a twenty through the plastic barrier, then nodded for Nina to get out.
I followed her across the empty street until we were standing under the awning of what I assumed was her building. Through shining, brass-trimmed doors, a doorman looked at us curiously. Nina waved at him and maintained a careful distance from me. Much too far for my preference.
“Well?” I asked. “You know I’m not going anywhere until I get my answer.”
“You must be very good at your job.”
I just tipped my head. “Nina. Come on.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a voice interrupted us as the door to her building opened.
“Mommy?”
Nina’s eyes widened, and she turned. “Oh! Hello, darling. What are you doing up?”
I stared at a small blonde girl who was yanking on the arm of a very tired-looking middle-aged woman.
“Patricia said we could come down and wait for you after you texted, Mommy. We thought you’d be home forever ago!”
I watched, dumbfounded as Nina carefully embraced the girl, whose head rose approximately to her rib cage. She was slim and delicate, with ribbons of wavy blonde hair that reached her shoulders. I wouldn’t have noticed much else about her until she set her eyes on me. Those eyes. They were wide and curious. Completely familiar. Completely mesmerizing.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
I started to reach out, but Nina gently turned her away.
“I’m glad you came out to greet me,” she said, “and I’m sorry I’m late. But it’s really time for bed, my love.”
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Gardner. She really wanted to see you tonight,” said the older woman with a curious glance my way.
“That’s perfectly fine. We don’t get to see enough of each other as it is.” Nina stroked the girl’s hair away from her face with a tenderness that made my chest ache. “Go with Patricia, darling. I’ll be up to kiss you good night.”
“Okay, Mommy.”
Mother and daughter hugged again, blonde touched blonde before Nina set a kiss to the little girl’s forehead. The girl scampered back to her nanny, and it wasn’t until the doorman ushered them both inside that I finally found my voice again.
“Who—who was that?”
Nina turned back to me, those bright gray eyes shining again, wide and without guile. “I should think that clear from the way she addressed me. That was my daughter.”
“Your…”
Suddenly, it all made sense.
Her caginess. Her guilt. Her insistence that she was happy when she clearly wasn’t.
Nina wasn’t just married.
She had a daughter. A family.
And the little girl was absolutely perfect. Just like her mother.
Guilt shot through my chest, and at first, I didn’t understand it. After all, I wasn’t the most upstanding guy. Considering my track record, it’s not like I’d never been with any moms. Caitlyn Calvert, for instance, had two children herself.
But in those situations, the kids were an idea. A theory, at best. This one was very, very real.
I watched the girl disappear into an elevator, then looked back at Nina, whose gaze hadn’t wavered. Something had changed. She wasn’t scared of me anymore.
Progress, I thought. But toward what? This woman was as off-limits as it got. Not only was she a daughter of one of the most powerful families in the city, she was married. She was a mother. And she was now part of an investigation.
Chasing this one was a suicide mission, plain and simple.
“Nina.” I still didn’t completely know what to say.
Mild surprise played across her porcelain features. “Yes?” Was she…entertained by this?
“I—”
I was struggling. Floundering. I should have just said good night and walked away. Let her remain on the periphery of my life where she belonged.
But I couldn’t.
“Dinner.” The word fell out of my mouth like a bouncing ball.
Her brows knit together with confusion. “I’m sorry?”
I pulled at the knot of my tie. Get yourself together, Zola. “I’d like to have dinner. Tomorrow, if you’re available.”
She stepped toward her building with regret. “Oh, Matthew, I don’t think—”
But I shook away her excuses. “No, no, not like that. Look, there’s a lot more to discuss, like I said. About the gala, the plan, everything. You said you wanted to help Jane and Eric. This is the way to do it, all right?”
I was chattering—who was I kidding? I had questions, so many more now that this angel-faced bombshell had been dropped in my lap. But I wasn’t lying. If Nina could help at all with this case, I needed that too. There was some kind of involvement she was leaving out, and I needed to know what it was.
“Look,” I said. “I’m doing my best, but I could use all the help I can get. Would you be willing? Dinner. Tomorrow night.”
She inhaled deeply, then exhaled, long and low, glancing from side to side. She was nervous. Of course. Any idiot could sense the tension between us.
“All right,” she said. “But not tomorrow. Next Friday. I’ll meet you at—”
“Farina,” I interrupted, and then with a smirk: “In Chelsea. I promised you Italian the next time, didn’t I?”
“Matthew…”
I held my hands up. “Jokes, baby, just jokes. It’s pasta, not sex.”
“Matthew!”
“Sorry, sorry. I’ll be the perfect gentleman, I promise.”
I took off my hat and put it back on, tipped slightly to the side, just the way Nonno used to wear it. Nina watched the movement with her bottom lip clenched between her teeth. Shit. I really needed to get out of here. Remind myself why I really did need to keep things purely professional with this one.
“All right,” she said slowly, still staring at my hat. “Seven?”
I smiled. “Seven…would be heaven.” Then I winked. Like the corny bastard I suddenly was, I winked.
Nina laughed. And every worry I had evaporated into the night. How in the fuck had I forgotten the sound of that laugh? Like the fuckin’ bells of heaven.
“Seven at Farina,” she agreed. “I’ll see you then. Good night, Matthew.”
“Night, doll.”
I watched her disappear into the lobby, waiting until she’d entered the same elevator as her daughter. Then, as I started toward the nearest subway, I pulled out my phone and, against my better judgement, googled Nina and her husband, under the correct names this time. And immediately felt like a fool.
Nina Astor had turned up nothing for months, but Nina de Vries had been making Page Six since she was a teenager. Nina Gardner even more. There she was at Eric and Jane’s big engagement party last year. Again at their splashy society wedding. She always wore a lot of white, silver, and very light blues. Colors that almost weren’t colors. And yet she stood out on every page, of
ten on the arm of a short, melon-shaped man who looked at least twenty years older than her.
I expanded a picture of the two of them at the New Year’s party where Eric had been arrested. Nina stood by while Eric was carted away, delicate hand covering her shock-opened mouth. God, she was beautiful. Even in distress, even in the harsh glare of a paparazzi picture, fuckin’ stunning. Her hair was pulled up in some kind of twist, while the ice-blue gown she was wearing made her eyes glow.
Calvin Gardner, however, looked like a mushy cantaloupe in a bad tux. I squinted. He was watching with a pinched face, but he didn’t look particularly surprised to see his cousin-in-law being taken away by the FBI. Or even that upset. Actually, he even looked a little…satisfied.
Immediately, I dialed Derek.
“What up, Zola? Tell me you’re not still at the office.”
“Nah, D. I happen to be out. How’s your Friday night, man?”
“Well, I was planning to go out in a bit until you called.”
“Liar. You’re at home watching the Knicks, aren’t you?”
“It’s a good game tonight. Did you read that file Ramirez sent over?”
“I glanced through it, yeah.”
“Heavy shit, but looks like some solid leads. You want me to look into Letour’s businesses?”
I worried my mouth a minute, pausing outside the entrance to the subway. “Yeah, I do. But first…I have another name for you.”
“Shoot.”
I turned around to look up at Nina’s building. I wondered which of the lit windows were hers. If her husband was there now, lying through his teeth. It was just a hunch. I had no real official lead on the guy. But everything in my gut said he was involved in this. And I had been doing this too long not to trust my gut.
She wouldn’t like it. She wouldn’t want me to get involved.
Fuck it. I said I’d be a gentleman. But I never promised to be a saint.
“Remember Calvin Gardner?” I asked. “Eric’s cousin’s husband?”
“Yeah. But you said that was a no-go, so I never looked into him.”
“I was wrong. And I have an address. 9211 Lexington. He’s connected to all this shit. I know it.”
The Other Man (Rose Gold Book 1) Page 7