Net of Lies (19 page)

‘
Sorry about that. I just didn’t really know what to do, Josh,’ she managed, amazed how sincere she actually sounded. Maybe she wasn’t such a mediocre actress, after all. ‘But you were brilliant.’ She thought stroking his ego couldn’t hurt, as she watched him smile, placated with her compliment. ‘How do you do it?’

‘Well, find some weak point and explore from there.’ He was obviously in a generous mood
, ready for some sharing. ‘Every person has their weakness, especially the old and lonely. This one here, though, seems difficult.’ He started the car, then drove off, the tires screeching as they sped down the road. ‘For this type, you have to come across as more decisive and knowledgeable than an average veg, Kate.’

‘Veg?’ she asked innocently, having a pretty good idea what he meant and dying to catch it
on tape. ‘What do you mean?’

‘
Well, old people and all.’ He shrugged and took another curve much too fast for her liking. Involuntarily, she thought back to Raoul’s calm and considerate handling of the steering wheel. ‘Most of them have no clue whatsoever what they have on their hands. They are forgetful, silly, and greedy to make some cash before they die, which could happen at any time, really. So they’re eager to sell, as long as they see some money coming into their hands as soon as possible. Old age makes us stupid, I guess.’ He laughed derisively, and the ugly sound made Kate positively sick.

If she had any doubts about what
she was doing to expose Marc, they were gone.
Irrevocably so,
she mulled angrily, as his offensive attitude touched her more than she’d ever believed possible. Every person was someone’s granddaughter or grandson, and for her, respect for people who had made it possible for her generation to exist in the first place was something that went without saying.

‘I guess it
’s time for lunch now.’ Josh looked at her expectantly, and when she shook her head in refusal, he shrugged his shoulders. ‘Suit yourself, then. I’m going to have a bit to eat in the restaurant downstairs. Our Spanish client is paying for everything anyway, so we might as well enjoy it. Are you sure you don’t want to tag along?’ With unmistakable interest, his eyes went over her dark dress that clung to her full breasts and tiny waist. His leering expression made her want to take a shower and scrub herself clean of his sleazy appraisal. Maybe his previous lack of interest had also been a lie, exactly like the rest of his pretend personality. Maybe he’d decided that since they were doing the job together, he didn’t feel he needed to play the role of a respectful, reserved colleague any longer.

‘
No thanks,’ she managed, barely listening as he planned to pick her up to visit Rosa again. She knew it wouldn’t happen, not after she put the tape—the proof he needed—safely in Raoul’s hands. Josh wouldn’t be making a second visit or phoning Marc to take care of the transaction.

Once safely in her room, she locked the door with flying hands. Her palms were sweaty
, and she felt a faint sheen of perspiration on her forehead and her back.
It wasn’t easy to be a convincing liar,
she thought sullenly as she turned off the device and rewound it a few minutes, then played it, just to make sure it was all right. She’d captured each sentence of Josh’s remarkable speech as if he were standing right next to her. She carefully returned it to her purse.

She ran her fingers through her hair,
carelessly loosening it from the bun. Walking over to the bathroom, she unbuttoned her dress, then pulled off her stockings. Her clammy skin begged for a shower. She had agreed to call Raoul once she was done with Josh, but she didn’t see anything wrong with having a few minutes of privacy before that. She would rather die than admit that she was stalling, dreading having to look into his face again. After the night before, everything had changed. It had all seemed so easy and seamless as they’d discussed the steps with his aunt, before hell broke loose and she decided to challenge fate and demand something that wasn’t hers to keep.

She turned the shower tap to very hot, hoping to exorcise her inner coldness with the steady stream of steamy water, almost burning her skin in the process. Thousands of tiny needles pounded her skin mercilessly
. She kept her eyes closed, enjoying the sensation of warmth spreading all over her body. She didn’t want to think about anything, be it the past or the future, and concentrated on the delicious pain that allowed her to forget anything but the feeling of being alive and able to feel.

Still, she couldn’t hide in the shower forever.
She had things to do and promises to keep. She turned off the water and grabbed a fluffy, oversized towel. She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. Her pale face was framed with dark, wet hair that hung down her back in long, heavy strands, making her look ghostly. She would deal with her appearance later, she decided, eager to dress and call Raoul.

She walked into the bedroom, almost tripping over her bag
on her way to the bed. For a second, she wondered what it was doing there, because she remembered quite well putting it away into the closet, along with her coat and other things. How it had managed to come back right next to her bed was beyond her understanding, and upset with her own clumsiness, she mumbled a soft expletive to herself. The whole trip was driving her insane, she decided unhappily as she plopped onto the bed. Her skin still glowed from the warmth of the water, and the soft caress of the silk coverlet felt sensual against her heated flesh. She sighed and closed her eyes, reluctant to do anything but snuggle deeper into the divine softness, all her senses lulled into a state of blissful oblivion.

Only it didn’t last much longer…
She stretched, and the towel slipped lower, exposing one of her breasts to the cool air. She reached down lazily, to pull it right back up, some unspoken sense of prudency not allowing her to let go of her inhibitions.

‘You shouldn’t actually do it, Kate.’ Amused and controlled, a male voice cut through the silence
, and she shot up to a sitting position, her widened eyes going to the direction of his voice. Raoul was sitting in the armchair by the window. His relaxed pose and indulgent smile made her gasp for air to fill her suddenly suffocated lungs.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked, her hoarse voice almost a yell. ‘How the hell did you get in here in the first place? I locked the door behind me
. I’m positive.’

‘So you
did,’ he admitted pleasantly, his dark eyes traveling over her nearly naked body. ‘It looks good on you like that.’ He smiled as she looked down and realized that the damned towel had actually slid right back down when she’d moved. Tugging at the knot, she tightened it with shaking fingers, unwilling to admit her sudden embarrassment.

‘So what did you do?’ she attacked instead, cursing her own lack of attention. But th
en again, he was sitting in the darkest corner of the room, easily overlooked, and she hadn’t expected him to show up in the first place. ‘Did you pay for getting the door open for you? Do they offer services like that to their most valuable customers?’

He
didn’t appear offended in the least by her derisive comment. Instead, he laughed, shaking his dark head in denial. ‘Nope, nothing that drastic, Kate. I don’t believe I could bribe the personnel here to do it, even if I tried, to be honest. But I’m quite capable of picking a lock myself, my dear.’ He looked smug.

S
he weighed her options. He was already there, and no amount of fury would get him out.

‘Usually people knock if they want to be let in, you know
,’ she said acidly, forcing herself to remain calm. ‘And they wait to be invited in, for that matter. What you did is called trespassing, as far as I’m concerned.’

‘I did knock, repeatedly
.’ He shrugged his broad shoulders, the tan leather jacket he was wearing only emphasizing their muscular beauty. ‘And I called your phone before that. Since you didn’t answer, I figured I would wait for you inside.’

‘I was in the shower
,’ she answered, exasperated with his impatient attitude. ‘I would have called you afterward, just as we had agreed before, remember? I can’t believe that a few minutes here and there could make such a difference.’

‘But they do, Kate
.’ He was still smiling at her indulgently, but a certain edge of hardness crept into his voice as he continued. ‘Josh had the brilliant and unexpected idea to visit my aunt once again, just after dropping you off at the hotel. Did he mention that to you at all?’

‘No
,’ she gasped in surprise, aware of the implications of the other man’s actions. ‘He just told me he wanted to go for lunch, even asked me if I wanted to come with him. I should have accepted after all…’

She bit her lower lip in chagrin and saw his eyes soften, surprising her with his understanding.
‘No, I think it was actually wise of you to decline, Kate. What he did can only speed up the whole process, since my aunt called me just a moment ago, asking what to do. Apparently, he let her know he was coming, with an excuse of having left some of his notes on her hallway table. I’m pretty sure he knew exactly what he was doing leaving them there, and it isn’t the first time he’s used it to make a second dramatic entrance with the people he tried to harass.’

‘Then why not take me with him?’ she asked, leaning closer as she searched for a plausible explanation. ‘Wouldn’t it make more sense, since we are supposed to work on it together?’

‘I think that you proved yourself too soft to be of any use for the kind of persuasion he has in mind.’ Raoul eyed her wryly, his eyes wreaking havoc to her senses. ‘After your visit today, he must have realized that you weren’t exactly approving of his techniques and was relieved to do the next part solo.’

‘So what now?’
He gave her a curious expression that she didn’t fully understand. It was as if she meant something to him and had brought back distant memories of their time together. ‘Shouldn’t you be on your way to help your aunt, Raoul?’

‘Not if you have all the proof we need
.’ He looked at her expectantly, his smile deepening as she nodded in confirmation. ‘I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to do something rash and irreparable before knowing that we had it all on tape.’

‘We do
.’ She felt an urgent need to do something, thinking about Rosa all alone with the conman who scared her with his cold bloodedness and cruelty. ‘You should put the stop to whatever he is planning as soon as possible. I’m worried about your aunt.’

She couldn’t have cared less what she looked like when she walked over to her purse and fished out the tape recorder. It didn’t matter at th
at moment. She was relieved to find him totally engrossed in the device, barely noticing her bare flesh.

She slipped away to the bathroom, gathering clothes on her way there. Once inside
, she sat down on the edge of bathtub, realizing her legs were shaking with stress she had to suppress whenever she was in his presence. She took a deep, steadying breath; her tightened chest ached in the process. Things were starting to move to the final stage of their operation. She didn’t want to think about it and pushed aside the little stubborn voice that kept repeating that it couldn’t be all over, no matter what, that there must be something more waiting for her than a polite thank you from Raoul when everything had unraveled accordingly to his plan.

She dressed with shaking hands, eyeing herself critically in the merciless mirror. She was wearing the same black dress as
she’d had on before. Her urge to escape Raoul and his visible ministration hadn’t allowed her the time to go through her other clothes she’d packed for the trip. The dress would have to do, she mused stubbornly as she zipped it up again. The quiet whoosh of the zipper broke the total silence, but the solid, thick bathroom door muffled any noise she might make—or the noise Raoul was making.
Which is great. I’m not eager at all to find out what he’s been up to while I’ve been in here.

Her hair was still wet and limp, and she spent another
fifteen minutes blow-drying it, fighting the urge to rush. There was nothing for her to do anyway; everything Raoul needed was in his hands. The recording spoke for itself, and she wasn’t obstructing anything by taking her time.

Though she understood better why he
had decided to take such drastic measures and barge into her hotel room uninvited, it didn’t change the fact that he had acted like his usual overpowering self, leaving her zero choice but to accept whatever he had in store for her.

When she finally emerged from the bathroom, her glossy hair cascading down her shoulders in unruly waves, he was still there, standing at the window. For a split second
, her eyes clung to his broad back and narrow hips, admiring his effortless masculinity. But then he turned to her, surprising her with a smile that belied the unpleasant task of listening to the recording that he must have finished just a moment ago.

‘How is it? Is it worth anything?’ she couldn’t help asking, her impatience eating away
at her reservations. ‘Did you manage to come up with a plan what to do next?’

‘Of course
.’ Not even a hint of hesitation lingered in his voice as he nodded and pointed to the recorder. ‘I checked most of the conversation. It’s excellent. Thank you. I have also advised my aunt not to answer her door when Josh arrives. He might be bullish and confrontational, but he certainly won’t try his luck breaking in. That should send him back to the hotel in about’—he glanced at his watch—‘an hour, I’d say.’