Knights of the Boardroom (23 page)

He wanted to laugh when he saw her chin lift in defiance, “I don’t lie.”

“Princess, you’ve lied twice since I walked in the room and I just got here—so you’d be well advised to quit while you’re ahead.”

“Indeed,
mon
cher
, because quite frankly you aren’t
that
far ahead.”

Parker smiled in a way he was certain she wouldn’t doubt he was anything but pleased. “True enough. The way I see it, sweet cheeks here has stormed into a private club demanding information about a woman she claims is her sister. She hasn’t provided any verification of their relationship or given us a valid reason to believe the woman she is looking for is here.”

“And even if she did, I wouldn’t be able to confirm said individual’s membership status or presence on the property—we’re quite serious about privacy, you know.” Tristan wasn’t prone to mocking, but it was obvious he was enjoying himself immensely.

Carli spun around once again, narrowing her eyes at Tristan, “Are you serious? You’re going to throw me out? Oh shit, are you going to call the police? Because trust me when I tell you, they don’t like me much already—they’d probably love to drop kick me to Sing-Sing.”

Carli had no more than spoken than both men went from playing smoke and mirrors with her to completely focused fury. Parker knew her bullshit meter had been red-lining, and he’d appreciated the fact she’d played along enough that he’d been able to see she actually did have a sense of humor buried beneath that beautiful exterior. But her comment about the police not liking her had him switching from casual teasing to hyper-alert in the blink of an eye. Parker had actually felt everything inside him shift from the relaxed posture of a man who was enjoying a bit of mild flirting with a hot woman straight to overprotective alpha male in the time it had taken her to draw her next breath.

“
Mon cher
, explain yourself.” Tristan’s tone had left no question that he’d fully stepped into Dom-mode, and his friend’s body posture shift was just as obvious.

“Yeah, princess—start talking. Right now. All of it.”
What the fuck does she think her agency hired me to do? Play goddamned tiddly-winks? There shouldn’t be anything happening that involved the police that I wasn’t notified about.

Putting her hands up in surrender, Carli spoke quickly, “Whoa, I didn’t say it was recently. Wow, lighten up on the caveman switch-a-roo.”
I swear if she doesn’t stop talking shit I’m going to give the Ice Princess a crash course in over-the-knee punishment.
“It’s been several weeks since I’ve talked to the police.”
Several weeks? Jesus, Joseph, and Mary, her agency hired me almost four months ago.
“But honestly, the detectives I talked to didn’t seem like dudes who would forget a
dis
after a couple of wake-ups.”

“What the hell did she just say?” Parker wanted to laugh at Tristan’s confusion—American slang was so fluid, the man had given up mastering it years ago.

“Junior high school age gang-banger speak for disrespecting someone and expecting them to get over it in a couple of days. Princess, that sort of slang doesn’t suit you. You have far too much class to speak that way. I don’t know where you’re picking that up, but it needs to stop.” Parker was surprised to see her gaze drop to the floor, and Tristan’s raised brow showed he was surprised by the clear sign of submission as well.

Tristan nodded once before turning his attention to Carli, “Revise and start again,
mon cher.
” Parker saw her shoulders drop slightly letting him know she’d backed away from her earlier defensiveness.

“I’ve only had a couple of calls since my agency hired you.” Parker knew her words were directed at him, but she still hadn’t looked up from the floor. “I’m not sure why, but I’d guess it means my problem was someone close to me and now they don’t want to deal with you. The asshole wasn’t afraid of the police—but then who would be, they weren’t at all interested in helping me. They had the same opinion so many other people share, they think if you are a celebrity you have somehow
asked for it
. I never aspired to become famous—that isn’t why I started modeling.” Parker knew Tristan almost as well as he knew himself and gave a quick shake of his head when he saw the shift in his posture, the one he knew signaled he planned to alleviate the uncomfortable silence that now filled the room.

When neither of them spoke, Carli took a deep breath and continued, “My sister thinks I started modeling so I could fund my graduate studies, but that isn’t actually true—and I don’t want her to ever know the truth. Promise me you won’t tell her what I’m going to share—or I won’t. I’ll walk away from here and never look back. I’ll find my sister and we’ll disappear.” The hair on the back of Parker’s neck was standing straight up, not because of Carli’s insolent attitude or the threat she’d just made, but the pain and sincerity in her voice tore something loose in his soul and the surge of protectiveness he suddenly felt for Carli almost took him to his knees.

Parker stepped closer to Carli forcing her to look up to make eye contact, “Princess, you can trust us—always, to do the right thing. The only reason we’d divulge a confidence would be when it involved your safety and by extension, your sister’s. From what I’ve seen, your younger sister is bright and insightful, is it possible you are underestimating her ability to deal with whatever you’re about to say?”

Carli rubbed her hand absently along the back of her neck and for the first time he noticed the dark shadows beneath her pretty green eyes. There were also fine lines of muscle strain bracketing her eyes and mouth, from the way she was massaging the back of her neck he assumed she was battling a headache as well. “Maybe, I don’t really know anymore. I’m sorry, I’m just really tired. I got your messages and then that weird one and I just panicked and hopped the first flight home I could get after we finished the shoot. Without having tickets in advance I had to be really creative with transportation—I won’t be riding in the back of a truck hauling chickens again for a long while I promise you that.”

“What weird message? And what makes you think Cressida is here?” Tristan had stepped around Carli and gently moved her fingers aside to massage her neck and shoulders. For a few seconds her eyes lost focus and Parker thought his cock was going to burst when she groaned in pleasure.

“I track her phone. Hell, I think everybody and their dog is tracking her fucking phone. And I got a message from some guy saying Cressi was stalking him but he wouldn’t go to the police if I’d encourage her to stop.” Parker felt like someone had flooded his veins with ice water.

“Princess, I need to see your phone—right fucking now.”

Lawton leaned against the marble mantle of Tristan’s fireplace, letting his fingers skim over the cool surface enjoying the natural cut of the stone. Tristan’s condo occupied the top floor of the building that housed The Knight’s Club and the décor of the main sitting room was so reminiscent of a medieval castle Lawton had wondered more than once if his friend wasn’t actually a time traveler. He’d just spent several hours down in the club’s security office refining his hacking skills as he traced the information from Carli Walker’s phone. Thankfully, Dale Roberts hadn’t made much of an attempt to elude detection, which that alone was part of Brodie’s argument they were being set up.

“I don’t give a flying fuck if he let us find him, we still have to follow it up. And if he’s done what I think he has, we don’t dare involve the police.” Parker paced as he spoke and Law was sure it was the only thing keeping the man from blowing a gasket.

“Tell me again why you think the police will believe a man who has made computer hacking a lifelong career as opposed to a young woman who would stand to gain nothing by incriminating him.”

“And they might believe Cressida—eventually, but by then her reputation and self-esteem will have taken far too big of a hit. You can shield her from a lot, Brodie, but you can’t shield her from public opinion, hell, the fact she is involved with two men is reason enough for most of the law enforcement community to look at her differently and you know it.”

Lawton knew Parker Daniel’s well enough to see his frustration was building, but the man was rock solid and even though he was obviously interested in Carli, Law didn’t think that was enough to skew his judgement about her sister’s safety. Parker finally turned to him, “Goddammit, Lawton, say something. I’m not getting anywhere here, we need to plan this carefully. Dale Roberts is a wild card, his psychological workup kept him out of the club—hell, he didn’t even make it all the way through the first interview before it was clear he didn’t belong here. Christ, him believing he is a member scares the hell out of me. Personally, I don’t think he belongs in any club and the fact he’s managed to get up a pretty decent following in that chatroom is a testament to how easily people can be misled when it comes to BDSM. Hell, the conversations we’ve seen in that room make me shudder and I didn’t think there was anything left that could surprise me.”

Lawton was in complete agreement on that point, some of the threads he’d read had been downright disgusting while others were so blatantly inaccurate he wondered how many of the submissives had ended up in emergency rooms around the city because they’d been misinformed.

“I think you are wasting time debating something you both know we’re going to do no matter what the consequences. I don’t want to hit all the rungs on the legal ladder just because it will take too damned long.” Turning to Brodie, Law lifted a brow, “If you don’t want to go out to the man’s estate, stay here with Cressida and Carli. I understand your concern that we might compromise any future prosecution of this asshat, but frankly, I have to agree with Parker. I’m worried Roberts has set Cressida up so well, she’s the one who is going to end up smeared.”

“I just don’t want to approach him without knowing we’ll be able to pursue every avenue available to us after we get the information we’re seeking. You’re talking about a very calculating and extremely intelligent man who has become focused on a woman he’s never even actually met. That sort of individual is dangerous on a good day, and opening the door to us isn’t going to count as a good day for Dale Roberts.”

Lawton understood Brodie’s concerns, but the bottom line was—time was their enemy. The longer they waited, the more time Roberts had to shift the burden onto Cressida and the more time she had to live in fear—something that had ratcheted up exponentially last night.

The minute she’d seen her sister, she’d known something was terribly wrong and she’d been right. He hated the way her evening had ended because everything else about her first visit to The Knight’s Club had been positively spectacular.

Their first scene had taken place just after she’d come into the main room, he’d known the instant she stepped through the door they’d made the right call—there had been too much fear etched into her pretty face. But her expression had been the only thing that didn’t look spectacular—the woman was made for the outfit they’d purchased for her. He’d heard men
and women
all around him suck in their breaths when they saw her. The black shelf corset was threaded with a pale gold to match the highlights in her hair and the sexy garment presented her full breasts perfectly, the garters, stockings, and heels made her legs look a mile long.

Her hair cascaded over her shoulders and down her back in dark waves that, even at a distance, reminded him of silk sheets pushed aside by the restless moves of a lover lost in passion. The myriad of colors in her hair fascinated him and each individual hue seemed to reflect the candelabra lighting in the club made her glow even brighter. The two years they’d worked with Cressida had been torture in some ways, there had been times when keeping his hands off her had been almost impossible. But it had also given them plenty of time to get to know the woman inside, what most people didn’t realize was the sparkle and glow they were attracted to came from the inside. The outer shell was just a lovely bow on a beautiful gift the Universe had given the world, the real gift was the joy she brought into the lives of everyone around her. He’d seen her charm everyone from the doorman at her building to the unruly children sitting next to them in a restaurant one evening.

A few months after she’d started working for T.E.G., he and Brodie had taken her to a small nearby café after they’d kept her late finalizing the contract revisions on a bid they’d recently won. He’d watched in fascination as she’d carefully divided the huge meal she’d ordered into two sections—one far larger than the other. She’d eaten the smaller portion and then asked that the remainder to be boxed to go. He’d assumed she was taking it home to reheat for dinner the next night until she’d requested plastic utensils and a covered cup of coffee. As they walked back to the Templar building, he’d looked on as she turned toward a man huddled over a grate and instinctively put his hand on her arm to stay her.

Cressida had looked up at him and smiled, “It’s okay, Leon won’t hurt me.” She’d visited with the man for several minutes as he and Brodie stood to the side, needlessly watching over her. It was more than obvious the two weren’t strangers and after the three of them left the man to enjoy his dinner, he’d asked her about him. The story she shared about how Leon had helped her fend off a mugger one night not long after she moved to New York City stunned them. She’d never mentioned the incident or the fact she’d been looking out for her destitute defender as best she could since that night.