Scandal Never Sleeps (The Perfect Gentlemen 1)

“Not officially, though we did discuss work. The first time he showed up at my loft, he claimed he wanted to go over my plans to convert to a new cybersecurity system. But after a few minutes, he changed the subject and we ended up talking about other things. We were just friends.” She wasn’t sure how else to put it.

“Mad didn’t have female friends. He had lovers and employees.”

Frustration threatened to boil her blood. “Before our weekend together, I hadn’t been to bed with anyone in a year and a half. Maddox and I didn’t have anything romantic or sexual going. When he started coming to my place, he seemed . . . lonely. Sad.”

“He always came to your place? Sorry, I didn’t realize Mad knew how to get to Brooklyn.”

Everly grinned. Sometimes he’d been a terrible snob. “Apparently he learned. His driver dropped him off. He certainly didn’t take the subway.”

“So you’re trying to tell me you’ve never been here before?”

“Not once.” He’d never invited her here and she’d never asked. He’d seemed to like her cozy loft.

“Did he ever spend the night?”

Maddox had been quite the night owl. He would often keep her talking until two or three in the morning, but he’d usually gone back to Manhattan. “Only once. He was drunk and he showed up at my place without calling. When he rang the buzzer to come up, I could tell that he wasn’t himself. He kept talking about some woman. I worried about him that night.”

“Do you remember the name of the girl he talked about?”

“He never mentioned it. I didn’t pry. He only said he loved her and he’d lost her.”

“How long ago was this?”

“A couple of months ago.” She tried to remember an exact date, but couldn’t. “Anyway, all I did that night was put him to bed. I slept on the couch. The next morning, he apologized for any inconvenience and swore he’d take the couch next time. I asked him if there would be a next time and he gave me one of his wry smiles and a shrug. Do you think he was upset about your sister?”

Gabriel was quiet for a moment. “The timing fits. If he felt guilty about what he’d done to Sara, he had good reason. But I seriously doubt Mad ever loved her. He couldn’t have and still treated her the way he did. Honestly, I don’t think Mad knew how to love just one woman. How did you come to work for Crawford? Who recruited you?”

That was another mystery, too. “A headhunter contacted me and hired me away from my former employer. I was working as an IT department team leader in a company of about a hundred—much smaller than Crawford—when the guy called. He offered me a job on the spot. It took me a few days to actually wrap my head around the fact that the offer was genuine.”

“You weren’t an executive at your last job?”

She shook her head. “Hardly. I’d recently been moved up to project manager. I was on an executive fast track, but it still would have taken years to reach the level I’m at now. I got lucky.”

“That seems like a whole lot of luck,” Gabriel remarked. “And this headhunter represented Crawford? Would you recognize his name?”

“Of course.” She couldn’t forget the name of the man who had effectively changed her life. Her father had passed a few weeks before she’d gotten that call. She’d been depressed, and this had been an open door to a brighter future at a time she’d needed it.

He nodded toward the laptop. “Hack into Mad’s e-mail and look for any messages he wrote the headhunter about you.”

“Why?” What did this have to do with solving Maddox’s murder?

“Because I don’t think your new job at Crawford had anything to do with luck. Mad never used headhunters. He had a solid HR department and preferred to promote from within every chance he could.”

“He wouldn’t have dealt with the headhunter directly, I’m sure. As you said, he had an HR department. Maybe they couldn’t find a candidate with the right skill set in their own organization, so they went outside.”

“Indulge me. I have a hunch and I’d like to see if I’m right.”

Was he trying to prove that Maddox had hired her in order to sleep with her? She knew it wasn’t true, but she was worried about giving Gabriel anything that he could twist. “What makes you think Maddox would be so invested in hiring a security project manager? That’s the position I was initially hired for. A month later, a new, even larger team was being formed around international cybersecurity threats. The team needed a director, which was a perfect position for my skill set. Five months after, the previous VP of cybersecurity retired, and I was promoted into his job.”

“No doubt, other people in the department had worked for Crawford longer and were just as qualified.”

She could think of a few. “Maybe Maddox wanted someone younger, more versed in electronic means of security than my predecessor and his cronies.”

“Even so, an executive position like that should have taken you years to attain . . . unless a very powerful person handpicked you for the role.”

Gabriel was wrong. He had to be. There was zero reason for Maddox Crawford to have taken an interest in her before they’d even met. “That doesn’t make sense.”

“I know how Mad’s mind worked. Please check.” He pointed to Maddox’s laptop.

“I’ve been through his business e-mail already. We’re lucky the IT folks hadn’t nuked the account yet. I didn’t see anything like that.”

That made Gabriel pause. “What about his personal e-mail? Did you look through that?”

Everly sighed and reached for the computer. He was like a dog with a bone. “I’ll do it now.”

She opened her former boss’s private e-mail but found it password protected. She could get around that, but the first and easiest solution was to figure out the password. A truly smart person selected a random set of numbers and letters, but most people picked something personal. What would Maddox choose? He didn’t seem like the kind to get sentimental or obsessive about anything—with a singular exception. The night he’d come to her loft shitfaced he’d been absolutely focused on one subject.

“What’s your sister’s name?”

“Sara.” Gabriel spelled it for her.

&n

bsp; She typed the name in, and Maddox’s e-mail popped up. “I’m in.”

Gabriel sat forward. “Sara was his password?”

“Yeah. I know you think otherwise, but she must be the woman he talked about loving and losing that night. You know, he never seemed the same again. He hung around me a lot more, but he still seemed awfully alone.”

Gabriel raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t understand. He broke things off with Sara. They were happy—at least I thought so.” He huffed. “Bastard. Sara had dolled herself up to go to a reception with him. They’d been planning to take their relationship public. While she was waiting for him to pick her up, he sent her a kiss-off text. How could he care about Sara and treat her like that?”

Everly had no idea.

She stared at the computer screen, clicking her cursor into the search field to type in the headhunter’s name. It popped up immediately, displaying a few messages. That surprised her. “You’re right about the e-mails. But why would a man as powerful as Maddox Crawford deal directly with a headhunter?”

“What do you see? Was he looking for a specific set of skills?”