Tempting the Artist (22 page)

Luke glanced up and noticed his friend
had walked in and was scanning the small restaurant. Luke waved him
over.

“
Hey, baby, Mike just
walked in. Let me give you a call back a little later.”

“
Okay. I love
you.”

“
I love you too.” Luke
pocketed his cell phone and stood.

“
Well, well, well, if it
isn’t the prodigal son returning home.” Michael grinned and stuck
out his hand. He pulled Luke in for a one-arm hug and clapped him
on the back of his shoulder.

“
Only for a couple of days.
So don’t get used to seeing me.”

Luke gave his longtime friend a once
over. Often mistaken for Nick Cannon, he garnered attention
wherever he went. He and Mike were about the same height, but Mike
had at least twenty pounds on him, all muscle. A work out
aficionado, it appeared his friend still hit the gym
regularly.

“
You’re looking good, man.”
Luke gestured for him to have a seat across from him in one of the
clunky wood chairs that had seen better days.

“
It appears you’ve stepped
up your workout unless you intentionally bought that T-shirt a size
too small. Your arms are almost bigger than mine now.”

Luke laughed glancing down at his navy
blue Tee and bent his arm making his bicep pop. “Yeah, I’ve been
doing a little somethin’ somethin’ now that I’m not working eighty
hour weeks. I told you before, when I grow up I want to look like
you. I figured I had better get started.”

They talked and clowned for a few
minutes before the server came over to take their order.

“
I’m still trippin’ you
left all of this,” Michael spread out his arms, “to live in the
Midwest
and
you’re
still there. I thought, for sure, you would’ve moved back by now.
So I guess the town is treating you well.”

“
Yeah, what can I say? My
life is in Cincinnati now.” The longer Luke lived in Ohio, the less
he thought about New York. The relocation started out a little
rocky, but he couldn’t leave now. Not unless Christina was willing
to go with him, and he was pretty sure she wouldn’t move anywhere
that was too far from her family.

“
So who is she?”

“
Who is who?”

“
The woman you’re in love
with?”

Momentarily caught off guard, a slow
smile covered Luke’s lips. He lifted his beer bottle to his mouth
and took a long drag from his beer, casting a glance across the
table at his friend. No sense in denying anything. Michael was so
good at what he did, he probably knew what Luke had for
breakfast.

“
Somehow I think you
already know.” Luke set his beer on the table.

Michael grinned without admitting
anything.

“
When I sent you a photo
and asked that you look into the Chicago incident with the
photographer—”

“
I couldn’t help myself.”
He shrugged. “I was curious. She’s a beautiful woman.”

“
I agree, but how did you
know that she and I were together?”

“
I didn’t.” Luke narrowed
his eyes. “At least not until you just admitted to it.”

Luke shook his head and laughed. “I
guess that’s why you’re the best P.I on the east coast.”

Michael placed his hand over his
heart. “Just the east coast? Man, you wound me. You calling me
instead of using someone else to dig up information for you must
mean that I’m the best in the country.”

“
You’re right. You’re
absolutely right. You’re the best.”

The server came over with their
extra-large cheese and Italian sausage pizza. “Okay, here you go.”
The steam rising from the pie carried the pungent scent of roasted
garlic, basil, sun-dried tomatoes, and jalapeno peppers that had
Luke longing for a taste.

“
Can I get you two anything
else?”

“
Maybe extra napkins,” Mike
said. They both dug into their meal the moment the server left the
table.

“
So what did you find?”
Luke knew his friend. Michael Cutter never came back empty
handed.

Michael opened his mouth to speak but
stopped when the server returned with napkins. He waited until
after she left before saying anything.

“
According to my sources,
the camera man took pictures of your woman during a show in New
York.”

“
New York?”

Michael nodded. “Supposedly his boss
found out about this artist who was on the verge of blowing up, but
no one knew who she really was, and they started
digging.”

“
Wait. When we saw him in
Chicago, he mentioned that he knew who she was because of a
reliable source. Any idea of who that might be?” Luke grabbed
another slice of pizza. He had eaten the first slice so fast he
barely remembered swallowing.

“
Her agent, Valerie
Cook.”

Luke’s hand stopped mid-air, the pizza
slice an inch from his lips. “You’re shittin’ me.”

“
Nope. Valerie sent an
anonymous email from a dummy account and apparently the magazine’s
tech department was able to trace it back to the source and found
out the email came from her office.”

Damn
.

Luke knew the woman was up to no good,
but he had no idea she would betray a client’s trust this way. Now
he had to break the news to Christina and wondered what she would
do with the information.

“
I appreciate you looking
into this for me.”

“
Anything for you,
man.”

“
What about that other
situation?”

“
Gary Rouse. Let me first
start by saying that it looks as if someone else is investigating
him.”

Again, Luke was caught off guard, but
then again, maybe he shouldn’t be too surprised. Gary was a
low-down, pompous jerk. Nothing should surprise Luke when it came
to the guy. He had a feeling Gary probably had more enemies than
friends.

“
I haven’t been able to
find out yet who exactly is digging into his background, but my
first guess would be a government agency, probably the FBI or CIA.
They’re digging deep.”

“
So were you able to find
anything?”

“
Yeah, he used to work for
another law firm in Cleveland before he suddenly went to work for
dear ol’ dad.”

“
Really?”

Luke had never considered that Gary
might have worked for any other firm than Atwater, Rouse &
Stevenson, his father’s firm.

“
He probably would have
still been there if he hadn’t gotten himself into a little trouble.
Well allegedly got himself into trouble. Years ago, he was
investigated for stealing from client trust accounts and using the
funds for personal use. The case never made it to trial. His father
had hooked him up with a big shot attorney who poked holes in the
case. Shortly after he was cleared, Gary joined Atwater, Rouse
& Stevenson.”

Luke would bet his life’s savings that
Gary had been guilty. “Anything else?”

Michael shook his head. “Not really.
About two years ago, there was some chatter about him taking money
from clients, promising to perform legal services, but delivering
nothing. I’ll have to do a little more digging. It looks as if he’s
covering his tracks pretty good these days.”

Luke sat back in his seat, twisting
the now empty glass of water back and forth, dissecting all that
Michael had told him. He didn’t trust Gary, and he was glad to find
out his suspicions weren’t off.

“
Does Gary have a law
degree?”

Michael narrowed his eyes and folded
his arms. “Why do you ask?”

Luke hesitated, wondering
if he had hit on something. “The files he keeps on his cases look
as if he doesn’t know what he’s doing. Most are incomplete. The
ones that are complete are done either by one of the paralegals or
a junior attorney.”
Or by
me
, Luke thought but didn’t voice his
thought. “So, does he have one?”

“
Yeah, he has one. Although
it took him three times to pass the bar.”

“
I see.” Luke finished off
his second slice of pizza and called the server over for more
water.

“
So, what are you going to
do with this information?”

“
I’m not sure yet. I might
sit on it for a while since you’re thinking he’s currently being
investigated. I’m a true believer that if you do wrong long enough,
it’ll come back to you in one way or another. I have a feeling
Gary’s going to get what’s coming to him.”

“
I’m sure you’re right.”
Michael pushed his plate aside and placed his used napkins on the
table. “I’m surprised you haven’t asked about that other
situation.”

“
I figured if there were
something to tell, you would’ve told me by now.”

“
You’re right. I would
have.” He leaned forward and folded his hands on the table. “Right
now, all is quiet with the Donati family. There’s nothing that
leads me to believe that they know you’re related to Scott. If they
do know, they don’t see you as a threat. Of course, if anything
comes up, you know I’ll contact you.”

Luke nodded. Now he had more than just
his safety to consider. Christina was his number one priority, and
he would never want any of his baggage to affect her. Ever! It gave
him comfort in knowing that if the Donati family thought he knew
anything, they would have acted immediately.

“
Thanks, man. I appreciate
everything you’ve done.”

“
We’ll see if you’ll be
thanking me when you get my bill.”

Luke laughed. “After all the info
you’ve come up with, you have earned every single penny you’re
going to charge me. But can you give me the family
discount?”

They both laughed, and Luke felt lucky
to have some great people in his life. His biological family might
be gone, but his longtime friends, the Jenkins family, and most
importantly Christina, were all the family he needed.

*

John Legend’s song, “All of Me,”
pumped through the conference room speakers where Christina was
painting. The gentle melody washed over her like a lover’s caress.
The lyrics described what she was feeling these days perfectly. As
a matter of fact, her life was perfect. The family finally knew
about Sasha Knight, which was a weight off of her shoulders, giving
her peace she hadn’t felt in a long time. Her life with Luke was
better than she could have ever imagined. In three weeks, they
would be heading to St. Lucia for a much needed two-week vacation,
and she could hardly wait.

Happiness whirled inside of her. Oh
yeah, life couldn’t get any better.

A smile crept across her lips. She
couldn’t go a few minutes without thinking about Luke and their
last few months together. Phenomenal would be the best word to
describe their relationship.

“
You’re starting to freak
me out with that stupid grin on your face,” her cousin Ben Jr.
a.k.a. BJ said from the top of the six-foot ladder next to her. “So
I take it things are good.”

Christina stuck her paint roller in
the pan on the floor and lapped up the taupe color paint. “Better
than good. All is well in my world. What about you? How’s that
cutie-pie son of yours?” She used long strokes to spread the paint
evenly over the walls, careful not to miss a spot.

“
He is the coolest kid.”
Pride radiated from Ben and Christina could have sworn his chest
stuck out more. “Fourteen months old and he’s the smartest baby
you’ll ever meet. Every day it seems he does something that makes
me wonder if he’s a genius.”

Christina laughed. “I heard you were
like that when you were little too.”

“
Yeah, he’s a chip off the
old block.”

“
What about his
mother?”

“
What about
her?”

“
When are you going to
marry her? You guys have been dating almost three years
now.”

Until recently, after Toni and Jada
married, Christina hadn’t thought much about getting married. But
seeing how happy they were with their mates, she wanted to know
what that felt like. One day.

“
I’m not sure she’s the
one,” BJ said, interrupting Christina’s thoughts.

Christina halted the roller
and lowered her pole to stare at her cousin. “Three years together
and you two have a baby. How can you say she’s not the right one?
Why are you with her if she’s not
the
one?”

“
I thought she was the one,
but now I’m not so sure. She’s trying too hard to become a part of
the Jenkins clan that it makes me wonder whether … Never mind about
me. What about you? What’s up with old boy, the thug
lawyer?”

“
Don’t call him that!” She
tried hiding her smile and started back painting. Some of her
family, especially her male cousins thought Luke was
too cool
to be a
lawyer.

“
Speaking of lawyers. I’m
surprised you weren’t at the family meeting Thursday night. My dad
announced that Leroy Jones is going through with the lawsuit
against Jenkins & Sons.”