The Other Man (Rose Gold Book 1)

by Nicole French

  Elation flooded through me. It wasn’t a conviction. It wasn’t even close to everything we needed to lock up these assholes and throw away the key.

  But it was a very, very big step.

  “Can you describe Jude and Carson for us, Roscoe?” Derek was asking, though I could see him doing his best to hold back his own thrill of victory along with mine.

  “Get him to sign,” I said as Roscoe continued to talk, pouring forth more details like a faucet that had just been turned on while Cliff scribbled furiously on another notepad. “I’ll be back tomorrow morning for the full confession before I head to City Hall. Grand jury, here we come.”

  Derek’s face didn’t move while he listened, but his head nodded imperceptibly. Things were on their way. Fuckin’ finally.

  “Great job, buddy,” I told him as I picked my jacket off the chair. I pulled out my earpiece and set it on the desk. I had some news to deliver to two people who really needed to hear it.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Damn,” I remarked after draining the rest of my wine. “That was really good, Jane. Best way to cap off the day.”

  Jane smiled smugly as she walked the empty bottle of Margaux to the kitchen. “It’s my secret revenge when Eric’s late. Drink the rest of his favorite wine.”

  “Doesn’t he usually prefer vodka?”

  For no reason that I could see, Jane’s cheeks pinked at the word “vodka.” “He does,” she said carefully. “But usually we have wine with dinner.”

  I had schlepped to the Upper West Side to give Jane and Eric the latest news about the case (well, so far as I was able). But since Eric was late on his way back from work, Jane and I were left to shoot the shit.

  “So,” I said, trying for nonchalant but failing miserably. “How’s Nina?”

  Jane’s sharp eyes darted toward me as she popped open another bottle in the kitchen. “Good, I think. To be honest, we don’t see her that much. She tends to keep to herself, and she stepped off the committee after I joined. But you already knew that, my fine Italian friend.”

  I studied the sheepskin rug. “I was just curious.”

  Jane returned and refilled my glass. “Have a bit of a crush, do we?”

  I frowned. I should have kept my mouth shut, but I couldn’t help it. “We’re just friends. Or friendly. Or, I don’t know, were.”

  Was that true? Not anymore. I had promised her I’d stay away, and so far, I’d kept my word. I hadn’t texted. Hadn’t shown up on her street. Well, at least not anywhere she could see me.

  “I’m surprised the two of you haven’t seen each other at more ‘fundraisers.”’

  I frowned. “Come again?”

  Jane rolled her eyes. “Didn’t you meet at one?”

  “Oh. Right.” I sighed. There wasn’t really much that got past Jane. I shouldn’t have been surprised. Like me, she was trained to zero in on bullshit. Before moving to New York for Eric and getting into fashion design, Jane was an assistant prosecutor in Chicago. From what I knew, she was pretty good at her old job. To the point that, not long ago, I’d offered her a job with me.

  “Zola.”

  I looked up. “What?”

  I hated the pity shining through Jane’s thick cat-eye lenses. I’d seen that look before. First, when I got back from Iraq and my girlfriend was shacked up with another guy. Then all Sunday afternoon, while my sisters watched me interact awkwardly with Tino’s niece.

  I fuckin’ hated it.

  “Look, I get it,” Jane said as she sank onto the couch. “Eric said you took her to the opera a few weeks ago. Which was a nice…favor. But let’s be honest, the two of you practically fried our apartment with electricity when you ran into each other.”

  I swallowed about half my glass of wine. I wasn’t saying anything.

  “But, Zola…you do remember she’s married, right?”

  I snorted. Did I remember Nina was married? Did I remember the flash of the baseball-sized diamond on her finger? Or the scent of her neck when she was panting with desire?

  The taste of her mouth, desperate on the street.

  Yeah. I remembered Nina de Vries was married. Every. Mother. Fucking. Day.

  “You don’t need to worry,” I replied. “The opera was just a favor, like you said, and I haven’t seen her since. I was just wondering because of the case, tying up loose ends before the arrest. We really can’t chance any liabilities. You know how it goes.”

  Jane examined me a bit more before taking a sip of her wine. “Did you know that Nina stayed with me? Before I went to Korea?”

  I frowned. “No, I didn’t.”

  Jane shrugged. “She had some kind of fight with Calvin. This was in January, right after New Year’s. She wouldn’t talk about it, but I think it had something to do with Eric’s arrest. Anyway, yeah, she and Olivia stayed here until Liv went back to school. And you know, Livy didn’t say a word about her father. He never came to see her once.”

  The idea made my blood boil. God, I hated that guy. Anyone who would neglect that little girl that way…not to mention her one-in-a-billion mother…fuck.

  “Look, she married him.” I should have won an Oscar for my even tone by itself. “I’m sure it was just because they were fighting or whatever. He’s probably a good guy.”

  “Right. Just like I’m probably going to turn into Mother Theresa,” Jane said.

  I raised a brow. “You don’t like him either?”

  She wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know. Calvin’s always rubbed me the wrong way. I still don’t understand why he and Nina got married in the first place. They don’t seem very happy.”

  “What do you mean?”

  She arched a brow while she swirled her wine. “The day before I went to Korea, she sent Olivia back to school. And then she came back here, locked herself in the guest room, and didn’t come out for several hours. I swear I heard something like crying in there, but she’s very quiet. Discreet.”

  I swallowed. Yeah, if I knew Nina, she wouldn’t have let anyone see her break down. I could easily imagine it too. I had a feeling she cried every time she had to send her daughter away.

  Nina toyed with the stem of her empty wineglass, then looked back at me with eyes that, I finally noticed, were slightly pink around the lash line. At some point today, Nina had been crying. Hard.

  A pang shot through my chest, and without even thinking twice about it, I wanted to punch whoever had done it in the face. I wanted to find the bastard and wring his fuckin’ neck. Shove him to his knees and make him beg for her forgiveness before I taught him some proper respect.

  Whoa. That was zero to sixty in about two seconds. I swallowed hard, and this time, I did tug at my collar. I needed to calm the fuck down. Maybe I needed to walk away altogether.

  “Matthew,” Nina said. “I would—I would like to sit with you, I think. But I just don’t have patience for any more small talk tonight. My reserve is simply gone, and I feel I would be very bad company. For anyone.”

  I set my hand on hers, and we both started like we had been shocked. To be honest, I’m not a hundred percent sure we weren’t. A current of something flew through my fingers when they touched Nina’s cool skin. Something addictive. Something dangerous.

  “Nina,” I said slowly. “We can just sit here if you want. I don’t mind, really. I was having that kind of night myself.”

  Her face softened. “Were you?” she wondered softly, almost to herself.

  I nodded. “Something just wasn’t right.”

  “No,” Nina agreed, her voice quavering. “It wasn’t.”

  “Matthew?”

  I blinked, shaken out of my memory. Yet another from that first night together. Even then, I’d known that something was terribly wrong, hadn’t I?

  “Sorry,” I said. “You were saying?”

  “Well, just when I was about to ask if she was okay, she went out. And she didn’t come back the entire night.” Jane twisted her bright red mouth around. “I happen to know she
did not go home to Calvin that night either. I don’t know where she ended up. But I have wondered if you do.”

  I stared at my glass, studying the way the wine dribbled down the sides of the bowl as I tipped it back and forth. Ironic, really. The day I finished one interrogation, I faced another from the people I was trying to help.

  “Why are you telling me this?” I wasn’t going to say a fuckin’ word, of course, as much to protect Nina as myself. Better to turn it back on Jane.

  “Sometimes I wonder if I’m a glutton for chaos.” Jane tapped her nail on the rim of her glass. The sound called like a bell. “Honestly? I’m not sure. Nina wouldn’t like it.”

  I didn’t have to ask why. Nina was, if anything, an intensely private person. For reasons I was only starting to understand.

  “Now, I’ve only been in this family for a few months,” Jane continued. “But one thing I’ve learned is that things are never as they seem. There’s a strong sense of martyrdom in the de Vries DNA. Considering how entitled this family is to the best things in life, Nina seems awfully willing to…settle. And I just think it’s strange, that’s all.”

  Calvin’s melted-cheese face appeared in my head. It was everything I could do not to scowl like he was there in front of me.

  Discretion. I needed to remain discreet. Just like the woman we were talking about. For her sake alone.

  “What does Eric say?” I wondered. “About her and Calvin?”

  Fuck. I really couldn’t help myself, could I?

  Jane shrugged. “That we should stay out of it. But he thinks they’re a little weird, yeah. Who wouldn’t?” She sipped her wine, then set the glass on the coffee table. “Look, there are plenty of women in this weird little world who marry assholes for their bank accounts. But the rich women? It’s either gold-digging fuckboys who look good by the pool, or else even older, richer men.” She shrugged. “But who’s richer than the de Vrieses, huh? Unless Nina walked down the aisle with Bill Gates circa now, I really can’t imagine what the hell was in it for her with the moldy meatball she ended up with.”

  I almost spit out my wine at the way too apt description. “Jesus, Jane. That’s quite an image.”

  She smiled. “Thanks. It’s a special talent.”

  Before I could offer one of my own, the front door opened, and Eric strode in, looking like he was shaking the weight of the world off his designer-clad shoulders.

  “Oh, hey,” he said, frowning slightly at the way I’d made myself at home next to their fire with his favorite vino. “You’re here.”

  “Just checking in,” I said. “We made some progress today. You can blame the wine pilfering on your wife.”

  “Guilty!” Jane cheered.

  Eric nodded. “Just as well. Look who I found loitering on the stairs.”

  “I wasn’t loitering, Eric,” chided a familiar voice that sucked every bit of hard-won ease out of my bones.

  Nina followed her cousin into the apartment, shucking a sleek white coat in the process, which she hung on the rack by the door.

  “Jane, I was in the neighborhood, so I thought maybe we could do a fitting now for the gala. I know we’re two weeks off, but does that wor—”

  Nina froze. So did I. And so did Jane, with a curiously satisfied smile.

  Every ache I’d managed to tamp down since I’d last seen Nina sprang up like I’d been bounced off a trampoline. She looked like spring in a form-fitting dress the color of a robin’s egg, vibrant enough that it made her gray eyes seem almost blue across the room. Her hair, shiny and gold, was pinned on the side like a 1940s film siren, revealing the slash of red on her lips I’d dreamed about multiple times since that night at the opera.

  “Hello, Matthew,” she said softly.

  I could barely raise my hand. “Nina.”

  “God, I am loving that color on you,” Jane said, pointing to Nina’s mouth as she got up to get her and Eric some wine. “Where did you get it?”

  Nina’s hand floated over her lips. Her gaze darted back to me, then back to Jane. “Oh, I—it’s just something I picked up at Bergdorf’s some time ago.”

  Because of me? I wanted to ask. But I had a feeling I already knew the answer. The real question was why.

  Nina took a seat on the chair opposite me, crossing one long leg over the other, then readjusting again, as if sitting were slightly uncomfortable.

  I frowned. “Still taking tumbles in the park?”

  Nina’s brow crinkled in confusion. “What?”

  I gestured at a bruise on her knee.

  She immediately yanked the material of her skirt. “No, I dropped a weight on it.”

  “Your trainer wasn’t spotting you?” Eric called from the kitchen.

  Nina shook her head. “I was playing Wonder Woman while he was in the bathroom. Stupid, really.”

  Eric shook his head. “You have to be careful.”

  Jane didn’t say anything as she returned, just narrowed her eyes at the now-covered spot. I was pretty sure I was looking at it the same way.

  “Thank you. I will try.”

  Nina accepted a glass of wine from Eric who then took a seat on the couch next to Jane.

  “Well, I guess it’s good you’re here. Zola has news,” Jane said. “Why don’t you and Eric talk while Nina and I do the fitting? Nina, they sent the dress here last week. It’s in my studio.”

  “You sure?” Eric wondered, clearly not wanting his wife to leave.

  But she nodded her head. I had a feeling Jane didn’t actually want to be involved with all things John Carson. While Eric nursed enough of a grudge for both of them, she tended to check out of these updates more and more.

  “We’ll be back in a few. You can catch me up later.” After delivering Eric a brief kiss, she disappeared into another room with Nina in tow.

  I watched them go until the door closed. I legitimately wondered if there would ever be a time when Nina’s legs didn’t hypnotize me into a stupor.

  “So,” Eric said, jerking me out of my gaze. “News?”

  I cleared my throat. “So. Yeah. Ah, I can’t go into the details, but I thought you’d like to know we got corroboration. Substantial corroboration. Enough to move forward with our plans.”

  Without giving away too much of what Roscoe had revealed, I proceeded to outline the basics of what had happened. Eric was a former lawyer himself—he understood the grand jury process enough to appreciate the effort it took to get everything to this stage, even if I didn’t explicitly say that was happening.

  “My detective—you’ll meet him at the museum—is organizing the whole thing with a special NYPD unit,” I finished. “It’s still pretty hush-hush, so I don’t think Carson will find out.”

  Again, I had my doubts about that, but Eric looked like he needed to hear it.

  “Well, there’s some good news, at least,” Jane said, though her voice didn’t sound like it.

  Eric and I both turned to where she and Nina stood. Jane’s face, normally so expressive, was a blank slate at the prospect of seeing her biological father again. I couldn’t blame her. Last time, the man had drugged and abducted her, killed her unborn child, then left her to die. I wouldn’t be too excited about his return either.

  “It will be all right,” Nina murmured, rubbing her cousin-in-law’s shoulder. “Matthew is taking care of everything.”

  I straightened a bit. I was proud, honestly, that Nina had that kind of faith in me. “Jane, she’s right. Nothing’s going to happen to you or Eric. You do know that, right?”

  “I wish I did,” she said bitterly. “But sadly, you don’t get kidnapped by Daddy Dearest without developing some pretty fucked-up trust issues.”

  Well. She had me there.

  “The entire museum is going to be surrounded by NYPD,” I said. “Plus, if I know Eric, he’s already hired a platoon of extra security. You’ll be fine.”

  Jane sniffed. “Eric keeps saying that pride comes before the fall. He sounds like his grandmother, may she rest i
n peace, but he’s probably right.”

  “He is right,” I said. “But Jane, you used to do this too. The waiting is the hardest part, but every criminal has their weak spot. Hubris gets them in the end. Carson is no different.”

  I wished I could have told her more. But there was only so much I could say at this stage of the game. And as much as I had my doubts about its plausibility, this big party was looking more and more like the place we’d have to finish things. For better or for worse. I had a feeling that if John Carson slipped out of our grasp there, we’d lose him for good.

  “Anything else?” Eric asked.

  I finished my wine and reached for my hat on the coffee table. “No, that’s about it. I’ll need to stop by the museum later next week for a walk-through with Derek.”

  “Just let me know when,” Jane said. “I’ll be there every day. I can show you around.”

  I nodded. “Sounds good. I have my tux ready.” I picked up my hat and put it on. “Thanks for the drinks, guys. I’m off.”

  “Hot date?” Jane joked.

  I glanced at Nina, who was watching me sharply. “Ah, no, actually. I just told my sister I’d babysit so she could have a night out.”

  Nina’s shoulders relaxed visibly.

  “You’re not taking Annie out?” Jane persisted as she gave me a hug.

  And there they went, right back up again.

  Jane wasn’t kidding about the chaos thing. I had told her a little about Annie earlier when we were chatting, a fact I now regretted. A lot.

  “No, not tonight. She’s a nice girl, though,” I said, hoping Nina would think I was only talking about a casual acquaintance.

  No such luck.

  “His family set him up with this sweet Italian girl,” Jane informed Nina in a sisterly fashion. “Don’t hate me, Zola, but I looked her up on Facebook. She’s super cute! Where are you taking her next?”

  “Ah, I really haven’t decided. Maybe something after Mass this weekend. She wants American food, so we could hit up a diner or something.”