Wire (Pierce Securities Book 2) (14 page)

“Was it just a coincidence then that we met the night you took over Pat-Tek, or is there more to that?”

She shook her head, her green eyes wide. “Oh, that was the best night of my life, and a total coincidence. I had no idea I would meet you that night. But as soon as I realized who you were, I had to, you know?”

He did know. Because the moment he’s seen her, he’d had to have her, too. Evan heard her tears in her throat, and moved to comfort her, knowing as he did it was a mistake.

As soon as he took her in his arms, her soft warmth made his stomach flip over, but he restrained himself from kissing her senseless. Instead, he lowered his nose to the top of her head and inhaled. Her clean woman scent, devoid of perfumes, calmed his need to throttle a dead man for hurting her. He would take that.

He inhaled a cleansing breath and re-seated himself on the barstool, remembering why he was here.

“Okay, that’s one. Tell me about Patton.”

She sighed. “Roger was always a little weird and very competitive. Everything with him was a competition. He never could do as well as he wanted, though. He was seriously goal-oriented, and his main goal was to beat Dale at everything. He wasn’t nearly as good looking as Dale, though, so he overcompensated with everything else. His programs were supposed to be better, his company bigger, you know.”

Evan scoffed. “Pat-Tek’s games were nothing compared to yours.”

“Yeah, and it killed him. He hated being second-best. Hated that Dale and I moved on without him. When Dale died, the lawsuits started.” She wiped a tear away from her cheek. “It was, like, losing my best friend wasn’t enough. He wanted me to be completely ruined.” She sniffed. “So I fought back.”

“Why in the hell didn’t you tell me about Dale from the beginning?” He tried to disguise the hurt, but it came out anyway, and Paige’s eyes widened.

“It wasn’t intentional, Evan. Honestly. This whole thing has just been so intense, I didn’t know which way was up half the time. I’m way over my head here, and I really thought you could help. But having you around has made me incredibly stupid.” Evan nearly choked on her honesty. Her eyes beseeched him, and he believed her. Lord knows he hadn’t been thinking straight around her, either.

“So why don’t you believe Patton could be a suspect here? I don’t get it. It seems like with his history, he’d be at the top of your list.” He needed the truth, needed to know what she knew.

She shook her head. “He’s a humanitarian. He wouldn’t hurt these innocents.”

He would leave that for now. Moving on to the real topic of his visit, he decided it was time to focus on Koen, since Paige was finally opening up to him.

“I need to know about Koen, now.”

She looked at him with surprise. Genuine surprise. Evan marveled at her naiveté. Could one person really be so trusting? He supposed he used to be that way.

“You really think he could have something to do with this?” She reached for another piece of cheese and a cracker, and Evan watched as she took a bite and washed it down with a sip of the wine.

“He could.” Evan’s voice was firm. “I need to rule him out if nothing else.”

“He doesn’t have the skill set for something like this. He’s a lawyer, for crying out loud.”

“He’s a lawyer for a software company,” Evan pointed out. “Have you been to his office, met his co-workers? Any of his friends?”

She thought before she answered. “We did go out with some of his friends once, to a movie, then we went to dinner separately.”

“So you didn’t really interact with them?”

“Well, no. But they all seemed to get along just fine.” She was so fucking naïve. How had this woman climbed to the top?

Jesus. He could have just asked random people to let him pretend to be their friend, or paid them for the privilege. It wasn’t unheard of, and if he was desperate, anything was possible.

“Where did you say you met him?”

“He was at Bar Night. Not with our office, of course, but that’s where I met him. At Stella’s.”

“Has he done anything suspicious? Asked personal questions? Made inappropriate moves on you? Anything?”

She shook her head. “No, nothing at all like that. He’s really a nice guy, Evan. We’re just friends.”

“Friends don’t just show up at work, acting all possessive and growling at co-workers,” Evan replied. She was so real, here in her kitchen, all casual elegance, wearing yoga pants and her tank top, sitting on her granite countertops.

But her innocence shone as she scoffed. “He doesn’t do that.”

Evan could no longer hide his frustration at her insistence on seeing the good in people who were obviously out to get her. “Your problem is, you’re blind, Paige. You’re surrounded by suspects, but you don’t see any of them for who they really are. You don’t know this guy. His background is just as fake as he is, and you’ve eaten it all up. He’s using you for something, but I just can’t figure it out.”

“So, just because I live my life choosing to see the good in people, I’m at fault here?” Her fucking green eyes shone widely at him, and he had to contain his own scoff at her foolishness.

“When your safety is at stake, yes.”

“My safety isn’t at stake. It’s The Crimson Lady you need to worry about. This isn’t personal.”

“What happens when The Crimson Lady escalates to killing people, Paige? Because that’s next. What will happen to you when your reputation is ruined, your business is bankrupt, and you have nothing left? What about that isn’t personal?” He stood. “Get a grip on reality.” Her blind trust in everybody was probably a good trait to her, but to someone in Evan’s line of work, it was stupidity. “I mean, honestly, Paige. You spend all your time thinking the best of others when you should really worry about yourself more. When was the last time you did something for yourself? Huh?”

He knew he was rambling, could hear the words tumbling out of his mouth rather quickly, way before he thought about any of them. But they were all true. Here she was, at nine o’clock on a weeknight, still working on her laptop, probably something easily delegated to someone else.

And she was pissed at him. Her cheeks flushed red, her eyes filled with a dazzling fire, and her slender fingers clenched into iron fists perched on her hips.

“I’ll have you know, I fucking love my life. There’s not a single thing about it I would change, except to have The Crimson Lady gone.” She bit the inside of her cheek, and Evan wondered what she’d left out, because it was obvious she wasn’t saying something.

He softened in the face of her vehemence, mostly because the fire in her eyes and the flush to her cheeks was one of the biggest turn-ons he’d ever seen.

“I know you do.” His finger trailed down her cheek, feeling the warmth of her flesh. “Do me a favor, though. Stop hanging out with Koen.” Her eyes danced with anger at him again. “At least until I get this all sorted out.”

“I won’t. He’s a friend. I don’t know if you’ve noticed or not, but I don’t have a lot of those just lying around.”

“You have the people at the office, they worship you. I don’t trust him, and until I know he’s not behind this, I don’t want you to see him.”

“Or else?”

“What?”

“That sounded an awful lot like an ultimatum.”

She was madder than he’d ever imagined her, but dammit, she didn’t seem to realize the danger she was putting herself in. He’d listed the suspects for her, and she’d dismissed them all out of hand. As far as he was concerned, Koen was one of the top three, and she was going to just continue on with whatever relationship she imagined she had with him. Friends, whatever. Koen wanted between her thighs so badly, and it was obvious to anyone who saw them together. Why she couldn’t see it was beyond him.

“It was. You have to understand, you’re in danger here. If you don’t see it, I’m sorry, but this is my business. You hired me to do a job, and part of that job is keeping you safe.” Because her safety had become his biggest priority. “And until I figure out who is behind The Crimson Lady, you have to hold Koen at arm’s length. I have to insist.”

“Insist? You insist?” She was standing and yelling at him now, and Evan needed to shut her up. So he kissed her. He’d thought of little else in his spare time besides her warm flesh under his body. At night, when he tried to shut off his brain for sleep, she was there, moaning and writhing. During his workouts—when he punished his body to get her out of his mind—she was there. Her pliability, her responsiveness, her generosity, offering herself to him with complete and total abandon.

All of those memories came rushing back to him when his lips touched hers. He couldn’t control himself. He’d only meant to shut her up, but when she whimpered into his mouth as she opened to his seeking tongue, all he could think about was sinking into her hot depths once more.

Another reaction. Why couldn’t he kiss her under normal circumstances? After a little romance? Why was it always in response to his own snapping control?

He moaned as his hands gripped her waist, hauling her body against his. The crush of her breasts against his chest, the pounding of her heart next to his, the feel of her soft warmth against him—all served to completely unravel his control.

When her phone rang, the tones broke through his lusty haze.

“Don’t answer it. Please,” he groaned against her mouth.

“I have to at least check it. It might be about work.” She broke away from him to look at her phone sitting next to them. Koen’s picture flashed across the screen, and she looked at him, guilt-filled eyes, biting her lip.

“Don’t. Please, Paige.” He sounded so weak, and hated it, but if she answered this phone call, she was making a choice. As soon as she leaned away from him, he knew exactly what her choice was.

“He’s my friend, Evan,” she whispered. Then she answered.

He left.

I watched the silver Audi as the hooker struck up the conversation with her John, knowing this would probably be their last deed, whether good or not. Hope they enjoyed it. Through the binoculars, I watched the kid with the red backpack approach the car. Right on time.

Swiveling my focus over to the hooker, I watched her lick her John up before sucking his dick fully into her mouth. I was hard already, just at the idea of what was about to happen, but watching her fat lips wrap around that guy’s cock did something. Then I imagined the herpes she just gave him and shriveled a little.

The John’s head was thrown back, eyes closed, and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him, resorting to this disease-riddled woman for his pleasure. His mouth made the ‘O’ of a silent scream of pleasure. Did his wife not give him any at home? Was he spurned, like me?

Signaling the youth with my phone, I watched the kid walk up to the car and toss in the water bottle filled with gas and then spark the lighter before dropping his marbles and walking away.

Nice. I watched the flames lick to life, then gleefully smiled as they jumped out of the car, screaming.

My own dynamic duo would be sweating soon, then they would be my final ones. I couldn’t wait.

Paige’s PA entered her office, already speaking, with no knock, as was usual for the energetic young woman. She stifled her sigh and lowered her laptop screen, vowing to return to today’s extraction attempt of The Crimson Lady as soon as she left.

“Cake or cupcakes for Presley’s baby shower?”

Paige had almost forgotten. The baby shower the office was hosting for Presley was this week, and she had said she wanted to plan the damn thing… Like she really had the time.

“Cupcakes. That way we can get different flavors. And call the deli across the street for a sandwich tray. Should we do soup?”

“Do you want to bring a bunch of soup bowls?”

“Not really, but I want it to be nice for Presley.”

Mandy flashed her a sympathetic smile. “It will be. Nobody will miss soup if you don’t have it.”

“Okay. See if they have something else nice to serve that wouldn’t require a bunch of extra utensils. Like maybe…”

“I’ll get it done, Paige. You go back to what you were doing.” She left with a breeze of fruity scents, and Paige smiled to herself. Mandy was always trying to take care of her, and she appreciated the effort, but sometimes it was hard to relinquish control of things.