The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (45 page)

“He says it has something to do with your
wife.”

A paralyzing chill zipped down Adam’s spine.
His body dropped like lead on to his desk. He grabbed his chest as
his ribcage tightened around his heart.

“Mr. Andreas?”

“What—what did you tell him about—about her?”
He forced the words through his constricted lungs.

“Nothing, sir.”

Trust no one
. “Did—did he give you
his—”

“Sir. No.” Pause. “Sir—you— you
can’t—sir—”

“Adam?”

A roller coaster of emotions careened through
Adam: shock, relief, confusion, joy. His hand holding the receiver
was shaking so hard, he had to use his other to steady it.

“Paul?”

“Yes, it’s me, buddy. We need to talk, so
stop whatever you’re doing. I’m on my way to your office.”

Adam took a few seconds to recover after the
line went dead. He scampered to his feet, and recalling where he
was, he forced composure into his system and walked in an unhurried
yet confident gait back to the conference table. “Gentlemen,” he
said, “I’m sorry, but I have to cut this meeting short. A family
emergency has arisen.”

“Again, Andreas? Come on. This is the second
time,” Herr Schneider, the owner of a sinking German hotel chain
who’d offered Adam the first option of a buyout said in a voice
ripe with contempt. The others voiced their opinions about his
unprofessional behavior and about seeking out other revenue.

Adam understood their frustrations. He’d
canceled their first
vis-à-vis
meeting a month ago to take
care of Tashi, and here he was blowing them off again for her.
“Herr Schneider, I realize you may have other investors in mind,
and if that’s the way you think you should go, then do what you
think is best for your company. My assistant will be in touch with
you shortly, and if you’re still interested in doing business with
Andreas International, we will renegotiate the financial aspect, in
your favor, the next time we meet.
Guten Tag, meine Herren.”
Adam ended the meeting.

He walked over to the door and watched the
six-foot, two-inch, muscular figure of a man dressed in tan slacks
and a striped chambray shirt, and carrying a Mountainview Café
coffee cup in his hand, limp—though slightly—toward his office.
Adam’s eyes narrowed.
Limping.
Paul never used to have a
limp, but after the tale Tashi had told him about that night, Adam
surmised it must be a result of the shootout. It was the only thing
that was different about him, he thought, surveying the
clean-shaven dark face, wide forehead, and identifying scar on the
right cheek, as he got closer. There was no doubt that the man he
was about to entertain was Paul Dawson.

Adam yanked the door open just as Paul raised
his hand to knock. In the next second, they were hugging and
thumping each other’s back with lots of enthusiasm.

“Paul, you have no idea how good it is to see
you,” he said, stepping back.

“Nor I you,” Paul responded with a deep
chuckle. He followed Adam into the office and closed the door.

Adam looked him over, from his short crop of
salt-and-pepper hair, to his brown Cole Haan shoes. “We thought you
were dead,” he said, in a voice mixed with underlying
accusation.

Paul flashed him a broad white smile and his
brown eyes almost disappeared completely between the deep cleft of
his sockets and the heavy bags beneath them. “Not yet, my friend. I
don’t die easily. Almost did in the gunfire that night. Took a
couple in the thigh and one in the shoulder.” He tapped his right
thigh and shoulder, respectively. “I lost a lot of blood, and my
memory for a short while. Was unconscious, then in a wheelchair for
months, but I was determined to make a complete recovery. Kept the
limp for posterity.”

“So that’s why Tashi never heard from you,”
Adam said, pointing toward the sitting area. There was no need to
beat around the bush. He followed Paul, and once they were facing
each other across the coffee table, he continued. “She’s been going
crazy with guilt about your presumed death.” He glanced at the
coffee cup, and warm memories of his first meeting with Tashi and
that glorious night of dancing a week ago surged through him. “She
was a mess, Paul, scared and suspicious of everyone.” His voice
cracked. “She didn’t know the identity of the man you’d sent her
to.”

Deep wrinkles appeared in Paul’s forehead.
“The fact that she might not have heard your name over the gunfire
had been haunting me, Adam. I knew she’d made it here when the
marked bills I gave her began to circulate. But I thought it best
not to contact either of you to keep her whereabouts hidden.”

Adam crossed his left leg over his right
knee. His mind was swimming with a surplus of questions for this
man and there was no order to how he would post them. “Why wasn’t
there any news about the incident, except for the man she
shot?”

Paul passed his hand over his short crop of
hair. “I promise I’ll answer all your questions Adam, but right now
I’d like to know how she is. How’s Tashi?” he asked, his eyes
softening as he said her name.

“She’s well,” Adam responded with an eager
smile. “Safe and well.”

Paul reached over and placed a hand on Adam’s
knee. “Thank you, buddy. I knew you could protect her. I knew that
as long as she had the Andreas name, she would be safe.”

Adam dropped his left hand over the back of
his chair, as if hiding his wedding band from Paul’s view could
erase the events of the past two weeks, and most profoundly of last
night. “She’s not just a job is she, Paul? She’s special to
you.”

Paul’s eyes pierced his, and his voice
trembled as though touched by some raw emotion. “Yes, she’s very
special to me,” he replied, catching his lower lip between his
teeth, just like Tashi.

Adam blinked.
Dear God
. How could he
not have picked up on that telling trait? “As in niece or
daughter?”

Paul’s chest heaved on a deep sigh. “Tashi is
my daughter, Adam, and since you ordered a copy of her birth
certificate, you’re aware that she doesn’t know who her father
is.”

Adam unfolded his leg, and leaning forward,
he planted his elbows on his knees, causing the diamonds on his
wedding band to sparkle in the morning light. “You’re not the kind
of man who’d turn his back on his child, Paul. So why are you
recorded as
Unknown
?”

Paul closed his eyes and pressed his lips
together for a brief instant. “I didn’t know about Tashi until a
month before that awful night.” A faraway look settled in his eyes
as he stroked the scar on his cheek with his thumb. “And again,
that’s something we’ll discuss later.”

Fair enough. “Our marriage is not in name,
only, Paul.” He might as well get it out in the open. “Tashi and
I—”

Paul shut him up with a swipe of his hand.
“Is she happy?”

Adam’s heart jumped. He sat back abruptly.
“Yes. We both are. It’s only been a few weeks, and you may think
it’s crazy, but we love each other very deeply. I would die for
her.” Adam held his father-in-law’s inquisitive gaze.

Paul’s lips ruffled on a smile of approval.
“Those are the words every father wants to hear from the man who
married his daughter. Your patience, gentleness, and deep sense of
spirituality are exactly what Tashi needs. I’ve always admired
those qualities in you. If it were up to me to choose a husband for
her, you’d be it, Adam.” He took a sip of coffee.

Adam smiled with relief and respect. “Well
you did choose me when you asked me to marry her—temporarily.”

“I was giving you a way out,” Paul said, with
a glint of humor in his eyes.

“There was no need. I fell for Tashi the
moment I laid eyes on her. To be truthful, I was a bit scared you’d
think I took advantage of her.”

Paul chuckled. “If it was Massimo, I’d
probably be bashing his face in right now. I love that rascal, but
I wouldn’t have left a bird in his care. He would have swallowed
Tashi alive.”

Adam laughed. He’d harbored the same thoughts
about his cousin. “He’s married you know, and has a baby girl.”

“Yeah, I know. He made an honest woman of the
virgin schoolteacher from Brooklyn he had me investigate last
year.”

Adam’s eyebrows raised in surprise. He hadn’t
known Shaina was a virgin. Good for her. Now he could tease Massimo
about really not deserving her. “You should be happy to know that
your daughter was also—untouched, Paul.” He refrained from telling
him that she wasn’t at the actual time they exchanged their vows.
“She’s a good girl.”

A proud smile lit Paul’s face. “When and how
did you and Tashi meet?”

Adam’s face broke into a huge grin. “A month
ago at Mountainview Café.” He inclined his head toward the cup at
Paul’s lips.

The older man chuckled and lowered the cup.
“Hmm, best coffee shop in town.”

Adam went on to give him a short version of
the events from that first collision to the day he and Tashi got
married—well, not everything, especially not the garden scenes.

“That poor kid,” Paul said, wiping tears from
his cheeks when Adam was finished with his story. “She’s been
through hell for the past year and a half. All I want to do is hold
her in my arms, tell her I’m her daddy, that I love her, would have
been there for her if I’d known.”

“Well you were, Paul. You were there when she
needed you most. I suppose that’s why you’re here. Jake gave you my
message.”

“Yeah, I got that message. Whose bowwow is
that anyway?”

“He belongs to Massimo.” Adam ginned. “He’s
not bad. He found Jake.”

Paul expelled a sarcastic chuckle. “I’m Jake
Fletcher, Adam.”

Adam jumped back, his eyes popping wide.
“You’re Jake? You told us he was your partner.”

Paul caught his bottom lip between his teeth
again. “He’s one of my doubles. Paul dies when they are in play.
Jake is my current. I even grew a beard for him. Thinking of Paul
as dead is the best way to fully assume my undercover
identities.”

Adam rushed his hand through his hair as he
tried to absorb the news, but then wariness crept along his spine
as the words,
Won’t be long
, flashed across his mind. Could
it be that it was over, that Paul had caught the people who were
after Tashi? “So, you’re in Granite Falls because….”

Paul pushed out of the chair and taking his
coffee with him, he moved over to the wall overlooking the
town.

Adam followed him. “Paul, tell me you have
this son of bitch. That Tashi is safe.”

Paul rubbed at his right shoulder blade. “I
wish, Adam. I wanted to take him down before he found out where she
is.”

Adam swallowed as a knot lodged in his
throat. “Are you saying he’s here in Granite Falls?”

“No, but his men are. Got here around
midnight last night.”

“Oh dear Lord.” Adam reached into his pocket
for his phone. “Tashi is out having brunch with a friend. I have to
alert her guards to secure her immediately.”

“No need to call her. She’s still relatively
safe since I’m one of the two men sent to kidnap her and hand her
over to Boris Sokolov.”

“Boris Sokolov.” Adam said the name once and
vowed never to repeat it again as both men dropped down on the
window seat.

“He’s a man without a face,” Paul said.
“Nobody, but his most trusted guards knows who he is. He wants
Tashi badly enough to come get her himself. She cost him a lot of
money, plus a lot of manpower. I took out eight of his relatives
that night. He had to cease his operation for a year and a half.
He’s smart. He stays small and deals only in high-end human
trafficking. He has a ritual, though. After the girls are drugged,
and just before they’re placed on the private jets supplied by his
clients, he has them taken to this hotel near Kennedy airport, just
so they could see his face and know he’s the one who sold them. The
sick bastard!” Jake spat out the last words with a vehement shake
of his head.

“Was the FBI staking out his organization? Is
that how you found out that Tashi was involved?”

Paul glanced out the window for a long time
before facing Adam again. “When I found out that Tashi was my
daughter, I began watching her, trying to figure out the best way
to approach her, when this kid—”

“Scottie.” Adam said his name with the utmost
contempt.

“Yeah. He began showing an interest in her.”
He shrugged. “I thought it was cute that she had a boyfriend. Of
course I ran a background check on him. I wouldn’t be a good father
if I hadn’t. He was a struggling photographer like Tashi, trying to
make his way in the world.” He shook his head solemnly. “But there
was something about him that just didn’t sit right with me.”

“It’s your training.”

“I guess. Anyway, one day after he dropped
Tashi off at her apartment, I followed him.” He shivered visibly.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when the kid drove up to this mansion
in upper Manhattan. Then two limos of shady looking characters
carrying barely concealed weapons drove up after him and went into
the house. I took some pictures and ran facial recognition on some
of the men. Needless to say, most were criminals and ex-cons. A
couple had done time for various crimes, including sexual
assault.”

“Oh my God.” Adam’s hands tightened into
fists.

“I waited until the others left, then I
nabbed that little jerk and beat the truth out of him. Just in time
since they were shipping out Tashi and three other girls that same
night.” He swallowed. “There was no time to involve the agency. I
had to go rogue to ensure her escape and survival. In my haste to
save her, I forgot to secure Scottie and he alerted Boris’s men.
Well, you know the rest.”

Adam dropped his head in his hands as he
fought back the nausea. Paul’s voice was a distant hum in his ears
as a thousand different ways that scene could have played out
flashed across his mind. Tashi could have been hurt, badly.
Killed.