“And if it’s not?” Ian asked.
A savage smile crossed Kyle’s face. “Then she’ll find out I’m good at other things.”
MaeBe sent Kyle a nasty stare. “Don’t you threaten that poor girl.”
“Why would she be looking into you?” It was one of the things he couldn’t figure out. He knew damn well she wasn’t interested in Kyle in a romantic fashion. So why was her friend investigating him?
The door opened, and the receptionist poked her head in. Yasmin Tahan was in her mid-twenties. She’d been with the firm for less than a year, one of the new hires who made him wonder if he’d ever been that young. “Mr. Malone, you have a call.”
He’d stopped trying to get her to call him Michael. “Please take a message and I’ll call him back.”
She nodded and strode away.
“I don’t know,” Kyle replied. “Unless she’s not what she seems and she’s working for another group.”
“She’s a kid,” MaeBe argued. “She thinks she’s invincible. I know exactly where she is and how she thinks because I used to be her. Can we stop the feds from going after her?”
“That is above my pay grade. The feds do what the feds do.” Ian pulled his cell out of his pocket. “Let’s not jump to conclusions. Maybe they won’t visit her.” He looked down at the screen. “I’ve got to take this. Michael, did you get Phoebe’s report?”
He’d gotten it and practically jumped up and down. That report meant the last of the walls between them had been smashed. “Dani’s hiding money from Julian. She bought the mortgage on her sister’s house. Sister was in arrears, and the bank was about to foreclose.”
Ian held his cell up. “Yeah, I get to tell Julian all about that. Your girl’s clean on the money front. That doesn’t answer all my questions, though. Figure out why she’s got a hard-on for Kyle here and you can wrap this up.” He put the phone to his ear, starting for the conference room door. “Julian, I’ve got good news and I’ve got bad news.”
“So Vanessa didn’t take the money.” MaeBe nodded as though she’d always known it.
“I suspect she’s been helping Dani hide it from Julian.” That had been Phoebe’s opinion, and it was his, too. “I need to go down and talk to Julian. I need him to call off the investigation so I can start protecting Vanessa.” Michael stood. He needed to head over to Lodge Corp. Deke walked in as Michael picked up his tablet. “Hey, we’re going to get the report from Hutch in a few hours and wrap this case up. I’m going to talk to Julian if you want to come with me.”
“It’s about time,” Deke said. “I’ll take care of the PI, and you sit her down for a long talk. Be careful with her. You’ve got to ask her what she’s afraid of because I think this all comes down to fear. I think that’s why she’s been looking into members of The Club. It probably has something to do with her sister since she was a member before she died. She might want to make sure her sister wasn’t abused. You know how outsiders can see us sometimes. She was probably shocked her sister was involved in the lifestyle.”
Michael started out of the conference room. She might have been shocked in the beginning, but she’d taken to the lifestyle beautifully. He wasn’t a twenty-four seven top, but he deeply enjoyed the nightly rituals they’d fallen into. He liked picking her up and making sure she was safe, enjoyed helping her cook dinner and cleaning up afterward.
God, he loved the fact that he was going to be with her.
He had a lot to do if he was going to talk to Vanessa tonight, and it started with going over and talking to Julian. His boss would fill the client in on what was happening with the money, but it was up to Michael to convince Julian to drop the investigation entirely.
“Whatever reason she has, it’s not to hurt someone.” MaeBe followed him and Deke out. “She’s a good person.”
Kyle was frowning as they made it to the lobby. “Why would she have a hard-on for me? I barely know the chick.”
“I thought you killed my sister, but it turns out a brain tumor did it.”
He stopped because he knew that voice. He turned, and Vanessa stood in the corner, her hair wet and plastered around her shoulders, her mascara ruined. She held her purse in both hands, and he could see from the empty look in her eyes that something had gone terribly wrong.
“Hey, sweetheart.” He started to move toward her, his hands coming out to reach for her. “What’s going on? Are you okay?”
“Don’t touch me.” Her eyes shifted to where MaeBe stood. “I should have guessed that. The funny thing was I was about to call you to see if I could stay at your place for the night.”