One of his hands came up to grasp hers, his fingers tightening when she attempted to pull away.

James had the feeling that if he let her, she would try to soothe away his imagined hurts, the way a mother did with a child.

But Tori’s touch had just the opposite effect. It threatened to unleash the emotions crashing inside him.

“I don’t require stroking, Tori. At least, not that kind.”

He watched the storms gather in her eyes, and the sight called to something primitive inside him. He had two decades’ experience keeping that core carefully controlled. A man led by his emotions would be ruined by them.

But right now, in this instant, temptation was beckoning, and he couldn’t summon up a single reason to avoid it.

Using his grip on her hand, he tugged her closer.

Dangerous Deception
Kylie Brant

www.millsandboon.co.uk

KYLIE BRANT

lives with her husband and children. Besides being a writer, this mother of five works full-time teaching learning-disabled students. Much of her free time is spent in her role as professional spectator at her kids’ sporting events.

An avid reader, Kylie enjoys stories of love, mystery and suspense—and she insists on happy endings. She claims she was inspired to write by all the wonderful authors she’s read over the years. Now most weekends and all summer she can be found at the computer, spinning her own tales of romance and happily-ever-afters.

She invites readers to check out her online read in the reading room at eHarlequin.com. Readers can write to Kylie at P.O. Box 231, Charles City, IA 50616, or e-mail her at kyliebrant@hotmail.com. Her Web site address is www.kyliebrant.com.

For Jason, our budding lawyer.

Good luck on the bar—we’re so proud of you!

Love always,

Mom

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Because I have so little expertise of my own, I rely on experts to get the facts straight in my stories. Special thanks to Jim Harris, of Harris Technical Services, and to Michael Varat, KEVA Engineering, LLC, for your patience with my endless questions about accident reconstruction. Your assistance was impressive in its scope and ingenuity! And another thank-you is owed to Norman Koren, for sharing your wealth of experience in photography. Your kindness was appreciated more than you can know! Any mistakes in accuracy are the sole responsibility of the author.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Prologue

Voices from the grave swirled around him, haunting whispers of murder.

James Tremaine stared sightlessly at the scraps of paper laid across the desk before him and reflected that it was an appropriate enough night for ghosts. The wind shrieked through the sky, shaking the windows of the centuries-old estate with demented fists. The dark clouds shot needlelike shards of rain to stab the parched Louisiana ground, to machine-gun against the house. The single lit lamp in the room had flickered more than a few times in the last hour, but its uncertain illumination wasn’t necessary. He didn’t need the dim spill of light to read the words typed on the bits of paper on the desk. They’d been emblazoned on his mind.

You’ve got a target on your back.

This project will be your last.

The threats were easily dismissed. It wasn’t unusual for competition to rise to a dangerous level in his line of work. But it was the third one, the most recent, that commanded attention. Your parents’ deaths weren’t accidents. Yours won’t be either.

The electricity finally gave up its struggle with the ferocious wind, and the room fell into darkness. James didn’t notice. He was too busy fighting an internal battle of his own. He hadn’t successfully grown a family business into a global security corporation by being easily manipulated. Not even his siblings, especially not his siblings, could realize the degree of treachery that lurked beneath every apparently civil contact in his world. As technology exploded daily with new advances, the race to stay ahead of his rivals was a careening, hair-raising ride.

He’d had far more creative schemes than this thrown his way by a competitor intent on beating him to a potential contract: he’d thwarted sabotage at his headquarters; he’d survived two attempts on his life to remove him from competition permanently; but nothing else had felt quite as personal as the words printed on the last note before him.

With cool logic he considered the possibilities, pushing aside for the moment the emotion churning and boiling inside him. The most likely explanation was business, of course. Dredging up his family’s tragedy from two decades earlier would distract him from the deadlines imposed by the government contract currently occupying the majority of their manpower. Failure to deliver the newest encryption/decryption package for the Pentagon would remove his company from consideration for the next job, which promised to be even more challenging. Even more lucrative.

With his index finger he traced the edge of the message in the center. Money was another possible motive, he supposed. His family was no stranger to the lengths others would go in order to reap profit by inflicting pain. What was the sender hoping for? To whet his interest for a payoff? But for what? To call off a potential assassin, or by promising decades old information in return?

The messages could just as easily come from a crackpot operating for reasons known only to himself. God knew, there were enough of them around these parts. He didn’t need the police to tell him the futility of trying to trace the notes, and with the Pentagon contracts hanging in the balance, just now he could ill afford the resulting publicity.

Lightning lit up the sky outside his den, throwing the interior of the room into momentary relief. A moment later thunder boomed, close enough to shake the graceful antebellum home. But the storm outside paled in comparison to the storm within.

Because there was a still a part of him, a part he was struggling to suppress, that wondered if it could be true.

Your parents’ deaths weren’t accidents.

He’d read the police reports. Made the identification. He could remember far too well what the battered, mangled bodies had looked like once extracted from the twisted wreckage of the automobile. A vicious memory of the wild, unchecked grief whipped through him, stunning in its power to inflict fresh pain. The twenty-year-old wound throbbed anew, stirring all the old questions that accompany the bitterness of loss. In the end, it was emotion that made the decision for him. Specters from the past tugged at strings of guilt, love and regret.

But it was stirrings of a far different feeling that had him opening the center desk drawer, smoothing the tip of his finger down the smooth barrel of the snub-nosed .38 inside.

A thirst for vengeance.

Chapter 1

One Month Later

James Tremaine had not yet grown so jaded that he failed to appreciate an opportunity when one presented itself. Especially when that opportunity was the most attractively packaged eye candy he’d run across in more time than he cared to consider. Shaking the rain from his face, he cocked his head for a better view while he peeled off his gloves and, with uncharacteristic carelessness, shoved them into the pockets of his Prada raincoat.

The form balanced precariously on the ladder inside the doorway was only half-visible, but what was observable was unmistakably feminine. Denim clung to shapely hips and snugged across a curvy bottom before slicking down mile-long legs. His gaze lingered on those legs now, and hormones, too long suppressed, flickered to life. It took conscious effort to drag his eyes upward, to where the woman’s torso disappeared into the opening afforded by the missing panel in the suspended ceiling.

“You took your sweet time. I didn’t know whether you were ever coming, so I got started without you.”

Brows raising at the muffled words, James inquired, “Did you want some help?”

He wasn’t certain, but he thought he heard a rather unladylike snort. “All that’s left for you to do is to hold the ladder. I’m nearly finished here.” He moved to obey, putting himself in even closer range to those long legs.

“I think the receptacle’s shot, so you’ll have to check that out. Probably needs to be replaced. You got the ladder?” Without waiting for a reply the woman started down it. “And you, my friend, can just put in some overtime fixing it. Serves you right for taking so long getting here.”

James steadied the ladder with both arms, framing the slender form descending it. “Overtime can be expensive.” Her well-formed rear swayed tantalizingly closer with each step she took. For a moment he forgot the grim errand that had brought him here and allowed his imagination free rein. It was doubtful the woman’s face could match those incredible endless legs, but a man was entitled to hope. He was partial to blondes, so as long as this was his fantasy, he’d put his money on her being blond and blue-eyed. A rare smile crossed his lips. No, make it green eyes, and somehow he’d have to recover from the disappointment that was certain to accompany the reality.

He’d recovered from far worse disappointments in his time.

Her voice shook him from his reverie. “You can let go of the ladder. I don’t have any intention of walking over you to get off it.” When he didn’t move away, she twisted around, practically in his arms. “So help me, Howie, you’d better not be enjoying this, or…”

Her words stopped abruptly, eyes widening as she realized her mistake. Eyes that weren’t green at all, James noted. Instead they were a warm wash of colors that ranged from gray to brown, with flecks of gold in the irises to further defy description. And she wasn’t a blonde, either. Her hair hovered somewhere between blond and brown, a poorly cut tangle that reached to her shoulder blades. Her nose was straight, her mouth wide and her jaw stubborn. Her chin had a decided dip in it, right in the center. It was an intriguing face, rather than a pretty one, and James felt a flicker of interest. It had been a long time since he’d been intrigued by a woman.

He watched her swallow and search for words. “Ah…you’re not Howie.” And then felt a flicker of amusement at her wince as the inanity slipped from her mouth.

He stepped back to allow her to finish her descent. “No. Sorry. I’m looking for Rob Landry. If you can tell him I’m here?”

There was a flash of pain in those changeable eyes, before they abruptly shuttered. “I…can’t do that.” She turned away, crossed to the lone desk in the room and sank into the seat behind it.

Impatience flickering, James eyed the door in the far corner of the room emblazoned with the man’s name. “You mean he’s not in? When will he be back?”

“He won’t be.” The woman’s voice was stronger now, an obvious attempt to layer strength over grief. “He died three weeks ago.”

James froze, the words seeming to come from a distance. He was too late. If he’d begun this quest a bit sooner, if he’d tracked Landry a little more quickly, he might have answers to the questions that had reared, spawning suspicion that would burn until he could put it to rest with answers.

Answers that wouldn’t be forthcoming with Rob Landry dead.

Disappointment welled up, of a much different sort than he’d expected when he’d seen her perched on the ladder. With long practice, he pushed it aside. “I’m sorry,” he said belatedly, recognizing both the woman’s anguish and her attempt to mask it. “I understand he worked with a partner. I’d like to speak to him, if I may.”

“That would be me. I’m Tori Corbett, his daughter.” Emotion had been tucked away. The woman’s tone was brisk now, her expression professional. “What can I help you with?”

He was beginning to doubt that she could help him at all, but he reached into the inside pocket of his suit jacket and withdrew a business card. “James Tremaine.” He handed her it to her but knew from the look on her face that it was unnecessary. She recognized the name and that of his family’s company on the card. He expected no less, since he’d worked for nearly two decades to promote both.

Rejecting the position of the chairs facing her desk, he dragged one around to sit beside her. “Your father did some work for mine a little over twenty years ago. After my parents’ deaths, his services were again retained. You would have been just a child then, of course, but maybe he mentioned the investigations to you in the time since.”

The shock on her face was its own answer, and the disappointment he felt this time had a bitter taste. “Perhaps he had another partner then? Someone who worked with him when he was running Landry Investigations at that time?”

Her gaze fell to her desktop. “No, Dad always believed in a one-man shop until me. I was the first partner he ever had.” Her words sounded as though they’d been difficult for her to say. Certainly they were difficult for James to hear.

“He must have left records. I’d like to look through them, with your permission of course.” He was a man accustomed to getting what he wanted, and equally adept at applying finesse to get it. But his fabled charm was difficult to summon. He was too close to discovering the answers he sought. Too damn anxious about what they might reveal.

“Our files are confidential.” Tori—what kind of name was that for a woman?—swung her chair around to face him more fully. “If you tell me what you’re after, though, I could…” Her sentence abruptly halted. “I’m sorry,” she amended. “The files you’d want are what? Twenty years old?” James nodded. “I don’t have anything that goes back that far.”

He felt his blood cool, his stomach tighten. He withdrew his wallet and extracted several bills. Rising, he leaned forward and dropped them on her desk in front of her. “Why don’t you check?” he urged evenly. “I’ll wait.”

She didn’t even glance at the money. And her voice, when it came, had chilled by several degrees. “I don’t have to look. My father’s building was destroyed by a fire around that time. Shortly after, we moved to Minnesota. He didn’t reopen an investigating business until we moved back here, three years later.”

This line of questioning was a dead end. James hadn’t gotten to his position without knowing when to cut his losses. There would be another way. There always was. It would require regrouping, a new strategy. This wouldn’t be the first obstacle he’d encountered in his search for the truth. And it wasn’t going prevent him from finding it.

He rose. “Thank you for your time. And my condolences again for the loss of your father.” She was staring at him, her varied-colored eyes wide, her mouth half-open in protest. And with a vague sense of regret, one that had nothing to do with the outcome of this meeting, he turned and walked out of her office.

Tori Corbett nosed her car up the long driveway leading to Tremaine Technologies and tried to ignore the nerves dancing along her spine. What she was about to do required bravado and guts, both of which her dad had always said she possessed in spades. But the plan that had seemed so logical three nights ago, hours after James Tremaine had left her office, suddenly seemed a little…well, ballsy. Not that she had anything against the quality normally.

But if she was going to continue to run the business she’d learned from her dad, she was going to have to actively pursue prospective clients. And the balance of her bank accounts were stark reminders that work meant continuing to eat. Though they never showed up on her lean frame, she’d always been fond of regular meals.

It wasn’t as if Tremaine didn’t need her. Although he’d been short on details when he’d visited, she was pretty good at piecing things together. They’d both benefit if he accepted her pitch.

The persuasive arguments she’d rehearsed had seemed perfectly rational on the drive over from New Orleans. And even most of the way through Tangipahoa Parish. It wasn’t until she’d hit the first set of security gates surrounding these grounds that the first wave of anxiety had hit. It had grown progressively worse each time she’d been stopped by yet another guard and required to go through another clearance.

Okay, she admitted, as she slowly drove toward the sprawling complex of office buildings. So her idea of surprising Tremaine by showing up here had been a bit naive. She hadn’t taken into account the level of security surrounding his business. Hadn’t considered the fact that the only possible way she’d get through each of the successive security checks was by announcing her identity, having it called in to Tremaine himself.

She had ended up being the one surprised, though, because he had obviously cleared her through each of the stops. And maybe that was what had her stomach churning. She couldn’t imagine why he’d agreed to see her, unannounced and refusing to state a purpose for being here. While she’d like to believe that it boded well for the proposition she’d come to offer, she couldn’t shake the feeling that this meeting was going to end up far differently than she’d planned.

Her battered compact looked jarringly out of place among the sleek luxury vehicles in the parking lot next to the Tremaine Technologies offices. Grabbing her briefcase, she took a deep breath and got out of the car, not bothering to lock it. The class of the others made it highly doubtful anyone would lower themselves to bother with hers. Jogging up the walk, she worked on calming her nerves with a mental rehearsal for the upcoming meeting.

But thoughts of businesslike persuasion were erased when she stepped into the marbled halls of the headquarters for Tremaine Technologies. It took effort for Tori to state her name matter-of-factly for the man at the desk inside the door, and even more to keep quiet as he led her to an elevator and accompanied her upstairs. Obviously, uninvited guests couldn’t be trusted to wander around inside on their own. Or maybe, she considered ruefully, glancing at her plain cotton shirt and khakis, her appearance didn’t exactly inspire confidence. Even the man’s dark-blue uniform looked as if it had cost more than her entire outfit, briefcase included.

The elevator doors opened, and the guard led her into an office area roughly the size of her entire house. The floor was polished mahogany, the ceiling vaulted and the woman behind the desk reigning over the area appeared formidable enough to face down intruders with a single look.

“Ms. Corbett,” the guard at her side said to announce her, and then backed away, leaving Tori alone with the female staring expressionlessly at her. Of an indeterminate age, the woman wore her brown hair smoothed back from her face like two soft wings, framing a face that was aging with grace and gentility. “Mr. Tremaine is expecting you. He has quite a busy schedule today, however, so if you could keep your meeting brief?” The way she said the words sounded more like a command than a suggestion, and Tori nodded mutely as the woman stabbed one long-nailed finger at a button on the intercom resting upon her desk. “Ms. Corbett has arrived.”

A door on the other end of the room opened and James Tremaine filled it, his appearance too sudden for Tori to steel herself against reaction. As it was, she was ambushed by the exact same response she’d had when she’d turned to find herself practically in his arms three days ago.

Ohmygod, it’s James Bond. The fanciful thought recurred, only to be firmly pushed away. Okay, there might be a passing resemblance, she conceded. His blue eyes were the color of the South Pacific and framed with a fringe of black lashes that matched his meticulously combed hair. Tall and lean, his body hinted at strength even clad as it was in impeccable Armani. But the sheen of danger lurking just beneath his polished surface must certainly be a product of her imagination. High-tech CEOs would hardly be likely to radiate an aura of menace, unless the afternoon golf games at the exclusive clubs he no doubt belonged to were a lot more savage than she’d realized.

“Tori.” His use of her first name jolted her almost as much as the undisguised warmth in his voice. He opened his door wider in an unmistakable invitation. “I hadn’t expected to see you again so soon.”

So soon? She threw an uncertain look at his secretary, but the woman had returned to her computer, as if oblivious to the scene being played out between them. Turning back to Bond—Tremaine—she summoned a vivid smile and approached him. In her line of work, it paid to be a quick study. “I decided I couldn’t wait to see you again.” There was a flicker of amusement on his face as she played along with his opening gambit, adopting an openly flirtatious sway to her hips as she walked into his office, not stopping until she was standing square in its center.

She paused then to assess. His office was furnished in an eclectic style that mixed eighteenth century furniture with the functionality of the present. She had an impression of understated elegance with an edge of ruthless practicality. A bank of computers covered part of one wall, with the rest of the area utilized as a work space. His desk sat facing a huge row of windows overlooking massive oaks draped with Spanish moss encircling a small pond. There was a sitting area across the room, with wing chairs arranged in front of an ornate fireplace of polished walnut. Elegance, style and purpose. The room reflected all of that. She thought it was an equally accurate description of the man who occupied it.

The walls were covered in art that even her untrained eye recognized as genuine. During the short course of her marriage, she’d been dragged to enough museums and art showings to have acquired a modicum of knowledge. She recognized the small Degas hanging side by side with a painting of the French Quarter done by a local New Orleans artist. The next one, a surrealistic seascape was reminiscent of the Impressionist period. And hanging amidst them all, matted and framed with the same care, were three pictures obviously done by a child’s hand, with the name Ana scrawled in the corner of each. The detail was the only unexpected note in the space, but she was given no time to dwell on it.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Ms. Corbett?” With the door shut behind her, the warmth had vanished from his voice, to be replaced by polite interest. It didn’t escape her notice that he didn’t invite her to sit.

Reaching into her purse, she extracted an envelope. “I came to return something of yours.” When he made no move toward her, she approached him, took his hand and pressed it into his palm. Her gaze fixed on his, she curled his fingers around the packet, and tried to ignore the warmth that transferred at the touch. “I don’t keep money I haven’t earned.”

He glanced down, his expression blank for a moment. “Ah. I’d forgotten.” He tucked the envelope in the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

“I can’t remember ever being so careless with five hundred dollars, but I guess you had a lot on your mind.”

“I did, yes,” he replied.

Sensing that now-or-never time had arrived, Tori drew in a deep breath and barreled on. “Your visit got me a little curious.” Okay, it had gotten her a lot curious, but it seemed wise to gloss over that fact. “I couldn’t help wondering what could have been so important about a twenty-year-old case that would have had you looking up my dad again.”

He lifted an elegantly clad shoulder, the casual gesture at odds with his aristocratic bearing. “Nothing to wonder about, really. Just tying up some loose ends.”

He was, she decided studying him, lying through his perfectly even teeth. Running the tip of her tongue over the incisor she’d chipped slightly on Ralphie Lowell’s head in sixth grade, she considered how to proceed. Although she was something of an expert in the art of bluff and parry, he didn’t seem to be the type of man to appreciate such tactics. In the end she thought a straight forward approach would serve best.

“A man like you doesn’t check on ‘loose ends’ himself unless it’s a matter of some importance.” She found it a bit disconcerting to meet his expressionless regard but kept her own gaze steady. “You could have called, or had any number of your employees dispatched to make the inquiry. That you came in person tells me the nature of your visit was personal. Two decades ago you would have been what? Eighteen?” Her words brought a frost to his eyes that dispelled any pretense of civility. He wouldn’t appreciate that she’d researched him before coming here, although certainly he should have expected it.

She moved away from him, trailing her fingers over the back of a chair covered in midnight-blue leather with the texture of melted butter. “I’ve drawn some conclusions about what my dad might have been working on for your father. You never really said that day in the office.”

“I didn’t, did I? Most would consider that to mean I wasn’t interested in discussing it with you.”

His expression, she noted with a detached sort of amusement, had gone from frosty to glacial. She was certain she was supposed to be cowering before it. But she’d always had more courage than sense. “It occurred to me that you didn’t get what you’d come for on your visit.”

A sudden stillness came over him. “You mean you found the files after all?”

With no little regret, she shook her head. “The fire that destroyed Dad’s office wiped out an entire city block. No, I mean you came for answers but you didn’t find them.” Circling the chair, she dropped into it, tilted her chin toward him. “I’m offering to help you get them.”

His smile was somehow more insulting than his earlier dismissiveness. “An intriguing proposition from an equally fascinating woman. However, I’m not in need of the services you’re offering.”

“I think you are.” She doubted he was used to being disputed. A man didn’t rise to the level he had in the corporate world without encountering his share of yes-men. “Whatever brought you to my office was something you want to keep private, or you wouldn’t have come yourself. I can’t get you the files you’re seeking, but I think I could reconstruct the information that was in them.”

Reaching down for her battered briefcase, she placed it on her lap and snapped the locks open. “You said your father had hired mine. Given the time period you mentioned, I figured this might have been what Dad was investigating.” She handed him the stack of newspaper clippings, the headline of the one on top proclaiming, Tremaine Tot Returned Safely. The others in the pile were no less attention grabbing. Kidnapping Plot Foiled. Teenage Boy Local Hero. It wouldn’t do for Tori to admit to the curiosity that had kicked in as she’d started researching the Tremaine family. Growing up in Louisiana there was no way she could have avoided hearing the occasional talk about the tragedies that had dogged the prominent family all those years ago.

But immersing herself in the stories, she’d soon grown fascinated by the details. The passage of time didn’t lessen the horror felt at the thought of a three-year-old child being snatched out of her bed in the middle of the night; hadn’t dimmed the tragedy of the girl’s parents being killed in a car accident less than six months after her safe return.

Tremaine made no move to take the stack of articles, and his voice when it came was more than a little disparaging. “If you were half as careful with your research as you’d like me to believe, you’d have discovered that I’m no fan of tabloidism.”

Tori dropped the clippings back in the open briefcase. “And your family’s no stranger to it. I got that. But a good investigator uses every tool at her disposal, and newspapers are a great place to start.” Looking up again, she caught his gaze on her. “Do you have the name of the person who hired my Dad after your parents’ accident?”

He didn’t respond. He didn’t have to. She saw the answer on his face, in the deliberately blank mask that he’d drawn over his features. She sat back, a bit stunned. “It was you, wasn’t it? But you were barely more than a kid yourself at the time.”

“I’ve always felt that need dictates maturity more reliably than does age.”

She could wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment. Even at twenty-eight her husband wouldn’t have approached anyone’s definition of mature. Which was only one of the many reasons he’d become her ex.

Thoughts of Kevin Stephen Corbett III were delegated to a particularly shadowy corner of her mind, where she preferred to keep them. “So you hired my dad to investigate your parents’ accident?” She didn’t need his answer to be certain she was on the right track. Which was fortunate, because he didn’t appear disposed to give her one.

“Ms. Corbett…” It was clear Tremaine had reached the end of his patience.

“Earlier you called me Tori,” she reminded him.

He drew in a breath, expelled it slowly. “Tori.” She decided her name had sounded better on his lips when it wasn’t uttered from a tightly clenched jaw. “The only help I was interested in you cannot provide. You can’t produce the files and, unfortunately for us both, your father can’t answer my questions.” He headed for the door, a not-so-subtle indication that the meeting was over. “Thank you for returning the money. I hadn’t expected it.”

“Then you must be used to dealing with a different caliber of people.”

He turned, his lips curving just slightly. “I think we can both be assured of that.”

“So if you’re the one who hired my dad after your parents’ accident, you’d have your own file on that investigation. He wouldn’t have kept anything of interest in his that he hadn’t shared with you.” She ignored his stoic gaze, cocked her head, mind still racing furiously. “And why now? I mean, what would suddenly make you start looking for information that’s more than twenty years old?”

There was a definite un-Bond-like muscle twitching in his cheek. “I just happen to have some spare time on my hands and thought I’d check into a few things I’d been wondering about.”

Tori shook her head, slouched more comfortably in her chair. “Now you’re not even trying. If you’re going to lie, make it believable.”

His eyes narrowed. Again she was given an impression of danger lurking just beneath his polished exterior. “Are you sitting in my office calling me a liar?” The lethal tone suggested that she backpedal, fast.

It was a suggestion she chose to ignore. “A not-very-good liar,” she corrected. “I’d think it was lack of practice, but given your experience in the corporate world, you must have plenty of that. So I figure it’s just me. You don’t know me, so you don’t respect me enough to expend the energy necessary for a really good story.” She waved a hand, indicating she wasn’t going to take offense. He appeared less than impressed with her forbearance. “I’ve given this some thought and I figure something had to have happened to torch your curiosity about those events.”

“You have an overactive imagination.”

She refused to take offense. “Uh-uh, just an ability to connect the dots. The FBI never did catch whoever kidnapped your sister when she was a toddler, but she was found safe and sound before your family paid a ransom. So it’s doubtful that you’re interested in that particular investigation. That leaves the one you hired my Dad for. Since you’ve waited this long, something must have happened recently to convince you there was more to the story.”

His face was impassive. “Are you finished?”

“Almost.” Something about his still air had a chill skittering down her spine. She’d trailed unsavory characters through the back alleys of New Orleans and never experienced this level of unease. Shaking off the reaction, she went on with more confidence than she felt, “You may not have gotten what you came for when you stopped by my office, but I can get it for you.” When he started to speak, she held up a hand to stop him. “I understand you’ve got a brother who has made a name for himself as a detective for the NOPD. He’s probably capable of acquiring certain types of information, as well, but it occurred to me that had you wanted to involve him, he would have been the one to show up at Landry Investigations, instead of you.”

She reached into her briefcase again, surprised to see her hands trembling, just a bit. Handing him a file folder, she said, “You came to me looking for answers of some kind, Mr. Tremaine. Whether you know it or not, you need me if you hope to find them.”

Chapter 2

Chewing on the inside of her cheek was a nervous habit she’d outgrown when she was twelve, so Tori willed herself to stop doing it now. But that flinty-eyed stare Tremaine arrowed at her after glancing at the pictures in the file folder would have mowed down the firmest intentions. “Where did you get these?”

“From a scumbag photojournalist who’s a great admirer of his own work.” Kiki Corday wouldn’t blink at the description, as long as he’d made a buck on the deal. He also never threw away a shot he’d taken as long as there was the remotest possibility he could still cash in this time. He’d certainly cashed in on it. “He assured me they wouldn’t have been part of the police file.”

“They weren’t.” Tremaine snapped the folder shut and thrust it toward her again. She felt twinges of sympathy and regret. Sympathy, because looking at old photos of the automobile wreckage that had killed his parents couldn’t be pleasant. And regret that she’d been the one to make him do so. “They also don’t prove a thing.”

“I disagree. They prove that I have sources you don’t.” She lifted her shoulders, then let them fall. “They prove you need me, or someone like me, if you want information. Check out the other contents in the folder.” With a visible show of reluctance, he did so. It took conscious effort for her to push aside a sneaky blade of guilt. James Tremaine was on a quest that was bound to stir up more than a few old wounds. She shouldn’t, wouldn’t feel responsible for his pain. She looked away from him, concentrating on the century-old oaks outside while he flipped through the reports and pictures in the file.

When he spoke, there was a strange note to his tone. “You have a copy of the sheriff’s accident report in here. How’d you get your hands on that?”

Her brows skimmed upward. “It’s what I do, ace. That’s why my license says Investigator. I investigate stuff.”

“I’ve always made it a point to avoid working with smart-asses,” he said mildly, continuing to flip through the file. “Bad for the blood pressure, and who needs the aggravation.”

It took a great deal of effort on Tori’s part to avoid a delighted grin. Not over the smart-ass comment, although truth be told it wouldn’t be the first time the description had been applied to her. But his comment could be interpreted, in a roundabout, insulting sort of way, that he might be considering working with her, couldn’t it?

Adopting a more conciliatory attitude, she said, “If you hire me you’ll have every bit of information that I come across. But I won’t always be able to divulge my sources.” That brought his gaze snapping up to hers, and she didn’t flinch from it. “The sheriff’s report was easy enough. All motor vehicle accident investigations are a matter of public record. But I’m thinking that the answers you’re looking for won’t be found by going through old records, will they?”

He stared hard at her, long enough to have her decide that those deep-blue eyes of his could be strangely hypnotic. Not that Tori was prone to instant mesmerization from a mere look, she thought uncomfortably, but she was a trained observer. She couldn’t help but notice things like that.

Nodding toward the file he still held, she said, “My purpose in coming here was to show you what I can do. I put those contents together in a day and a half. But if you’re looking for information other than what was included in my dad’s original report to you, I’m going to have to tap completely different sources. And some of them have to remain confidential. It’s a condition for their talking to me at all.”

Tremaine flipped the file closed, tapped the edge against his open palm. “No offense, but I know countless individuals I can hire to look into this for me. Why would I need you?”

She’d been ready for this question, and her answer came smoothly. “I already know why you need a private investigator, which means one less person you have to share the information with. The fewer people who know, the easier it will be to keep quiet. And it was my father you wanted to talk to. I learned the business from him. I know who a lot of his contacts are…were,” she corrected herself, ignoring the pang that accompanied the reminder. “With him gone, I work alone, except for some services that I contract out. You could go with a bigger company, one with more manpower, but that just means more people are going to know about your private affairs.”

The last was a gamble. By the flicker in his eyes, she could assume it had paid off. James Tremaine was, by nature, a very private man. And his quest was an intensely personal one.

“You don’t look old enough to have acquired all that much experience.”

“I’ve had my license three years, but I’d worked for my dad on and off for years before that. My mother died when I was six. I was raised in and around his business.” She stopped then, one of her dad’s favorite sayings drifting through her mind. Put your cards on the table and let the client decide if he wants to talk or walk.

Dragging a matching chair to face hers, he sat, more elegantly than she had. Somehow she managed to suppress a sneer when she noted the care he took with the crease in his trousers.

“Decision-making time, Mr. Tremaine.” Tori leaned back into her chair, the relaxed pose belying the nerves scampering along her spine. “That folder proves I’m capable of conducting the investigation you’re interested in. I’m also tenacious and a good listener.” Because that last had him raising his eyebrows, she shrugged modestly. “People tend to talk to me. That’s a plus in my line of work. And it might be to your advantage to use a woman on this case, did you ever think of that?” At his arrested expression she knew she’d scored a direct hit. “I’m assuming you’ll want this kept quiet.”

“Discretion is imperative.”

She nodded. She offered nothing less to her clients. “As a female I’m apt to rouse less suspicion in certain circles. I can go places, do things, that men can’t.”

He was silent long enough to have disappointment welling inside her, a slow steady surge. Until that moment she hadn’t let herself think of failure, but it faced her now, stark and uncompromising. It was the first job she’d pitched since her dad had died. The first door, since then, to be shut in her face. His death had become a yardstick by which she measured a lot of firsts these days. And lasts.

Snapping the locks shut on the briefcase, she rose, ready to thank him for his time and determined to keep the emotion from her voice.

“I’ll give you a week trial.” Her mouth dropped, “A thousand a week plus expenses, within reason. At the end of that time, I’ll evaluate what you’ve come up with. If I’m not satisfied, you’ll hand over what information you’ve accumulated and we’ll part ways.”

“I…” She swallowed hard and tried to recover her power of speech. “All right. I usually give weekly updates, but under the circumstances…”

“I’ll want daily reports.”

His interruption had her gritting her teeth, but she managed to nod agreeably. She had, after all, gotten exactly what she’d come here for. “All right.”

“I’ll have my lawyer draft a contract tomorrow. You can wait until after you’ve signed it, or start work right away, whichever you’re most comfortable with.”

Now that his decision had been made, he’d changed slightly, she thought. She studied him as he strode to the desk. He’d reverted to type, she realized suddenly. It was the earlier indecision that had been foreign for him. James Tremaine would be a man very much in control of any situation. And now that he’d hired her, now that she’d become just another employee, he was firmly back in charge.

He approached her again with the money she’d returned to him. “You may as well keep this. Half now, and we’ll settle the rest at the end of the week. Are those terms acceptable?”

Slowly, she reached out to take the money. “Sure.” Taking the cash from him, she reopened the briefcase and dropped the money inside. “I’m assuming you kept the original file my father put together for you. I’d like a copy of it sent over with the contract.” She didn’t doubt that he still had it. He wouldn’t be a man to leave anything to chance.

“I’ll do that.”

“So.” Tori sat down and drummed her fingertips against the case in her lap. “Why don’t you tell me what caused you to want to reexamine this? Why now?” She could wait for the file. She didn’t expect to find any surprises in it. Her father apparently hadn’t encountered any during his investigation all that time ago. Her curiosity was more focused on what had made Tremaine decide to dredge up painful ancient history. He wouldn’t be the type to do anything without a reason.

As an answer, he unlocked the center drawer on his desk and withdrew a small white envelope. Crossing to her, he opened it and shook out three slips of paper atop her briefcase. Turning them over, Tori scanned each one, shock layering over adrenaline.

“When did you get these?”

“They began arriving four weeks ago. They were sent to my home, but I have all my personal mail routed to work. I’m here more, anyway.”

“The envelopes?”

“I still have them, but a contact of mine in the postal department assures me they’ll be of little use. They were postmarked in New Orleans, all by different offices.”

Her gaze dropped to the notes again, her flesh prickling. “Have you thought of going to the police?”

“Please.” His tone managed to be both derisive and amused. “If someone really means me harm, they aren’t going to waste time warning me first. I’d be easier to take out if I wasn’t on my guard.”

At the certainty in his words, her eyes met his. “Is that the voice of experience I hear?”

He slipped his hands into his trousers pockets, rocked back on his heels slightly. The casual pose didn’t fool her. She was beginning to doubt that this man ever truly relaxed.

“I don’t consider these serious threats.” It didn’t escape her attention that he hadn’t answered her question. “A private lab I occasionally use informed me there were no fingerprints on the notes other than my own. There were several on the envelopes, of course. But it’s doubtful any of them belong to the sender, which means the police will likely come up with nothing. With their involvement, there’s a higher probability of a leak to the press.”

His tone became clipped, his expression closed. “My family dislikes publicity. With my sister’s recent wedding, and my brothers’ engagement announcements appearing in the papers, there’s been a renewed interest in our history. My firm is on the verge of landing another sensitive contract with the Pentagon, and the last thing I need are new rumors about my family serving as news fodder to ratchet up slow ratings.”

That was, she supposed, a reasonable enough explanation. Her brief foray into the Corbett family, the Dallas Corbetts—distinguished from the Houston Corbetts primarily by their bank accounts and penchant for social climbing—had taught her that wealthy people had an aversion to publicity. Unless, of course, it involved them handing over a very large check to a suitable charity.

“Let’s talk about your brothers and sister for a minute. What do they think about this?” If she hadn’t known better, she would have believed her question took him off guard. Which was ridiculous, of course. James Tremaine wouldn’t be a man to entertain self-doubts.

“I’d rather not have to tell them,” he said finally. “My sister and her new husband are just settling into married life. My brothers are both in the process of planning their weddings. Raking all this up again is bound to be painful, and in the long run will probably be for nothing. I’d like to spare them that if I can.”

She wondered if they would thank him for that, and thought probably not. But his protectiveness of his family warmed something inside her. She could respect a man who looked out for his loved ones, even if his tactics weren’t appreciated.

Glancing back down at the notes, she observed, “These could have just been sent by someone looking to hose you, you know.”

“You’re most likely correct. But if that’s true, the sender will find that I’m not, as you put it so eloquently, easily hosed. I won’t give in to blackmail.”

She almost grinned. There may be a hint of humor beneath all that tailoring, after all. And she didn’t doubt his words. He wouldn’t be an easy mark, which meant that the sender had grossly underestimated him. Or else was holding something back that would yet prove truly compelling.

As if reading her thoughts, he said, “The only note that interests me is the one about my parents’ accident. I’m not going to pay for any information that this person has, if it comes to that. That’s what you’re for. By reconstructing the investigation into their deaths, you should be able to answer any questions about what really happened.”

During his speech, the temperature in the room seemed to have dropped ten degrees. She decided it was due to the chill in his voice. “And what if I find out there was more to their deaths than was ever reported? What then?”

His smile was as brilliant and lethal as a keen-edged blade. “Then…justice.”

She stared at him while a shiver snaked over her skin. Something about the way he said the word leeched it of its nobility and instilled it with a sense of deadly purpose. “I won’t do anything illegal.” For the first time, it seemed prudent to point that out. “I’ll use every avenue at my disposal and take advantage of every possible lead, sometimes utilizing unconventional methods. But I’ll do it all within the boundaries of the law of Louisiana.”

“Of course. I’d expect nothing less.” His tone was normal, making her believe she might have misinterpreted it a moment ago. Except the gooseflesh on her arms was still raised, and her nape was still prickling. “With any luck you can have this thing wrapped up shortly, and we can both go about our lives. I’ll contact you tomorrow.” He approached her, pausing by her chair.

Slowly she rose, sliding the briefcase to the floor. “Tomorrow?”

“When I messenger over the contract and file that you requested.”

“Ah. Yes.” Her tongue suddenly thick, she resisted the urge to wipe her palms on her khakis. He was standing a little too close, as near as he’d been when she’d turned around on that ladder and found herself almost in his arms. Close enough to have her marveling at the deep blue of his eyes, but retaining enough of her scattered senses to wonder at the secrets behind them.

“To our partnership, Ms. Corbett, as brief as it may be.”

Her hand raised of its own volition. “To our partnership.” His hand engulfed hers. It suited her to blame the skip in her pulse on static electricity. But try as she might, she couldn’t shake the feeling that she’d just made a pact with a very sophisticated, very charming devil.

The plaintive cornet of Bix Beiderbecke wailed from the portable CD Tori had carried into the attic. The blues music provided a perfect backdrop for the task at hand. With resignation layering the ache in her heart, she scanned the contents of the space and wondered where in the world to start.

Rob Landry had been an undisputed pack rat, and she didn’t doubt that he’d saved more than he’d ever thrown out. Furniture was heaped and shoved into one corner, and overflowing boxes teetered in precarious towers, threatening imminent collapse. There were stacks of newspapers, neatly bundled and piled haphazardly almost to the ceiling beams. Why they’d been important enough to keep was beyond her, but then her dad had been the type to let junk mail accumulate, too, until she came in and tossed it. The man had been able to figure every angle of a case and work a source like a master, but hadn’t been able to part with a single scrap of paper.

The memory made her lips curve and her eyes mist. The pain twisted just a bit, leaving a wound that she knew from experience would throb for some time. Cancer had stolen both of her parents now. First her mother, and now her beloved dad, who had seemed so indestructible. Right up until that day three months earlier when the pain he’d passed off as indigestion had been diagnosed as something a great deal deadlier.

Releasing the breath that had backed up in her lungs, she headed toward the furniture. She’d already been through the downstairs, putting aside the pieces she wanted to save and those that would be donated to the needy. She’d expected this to be easier somehow. The things that he had stored up here wouldn’t hold the keen reminders of him, nor still smell of his aftershave. There wouldn’t be memories of him here, as there were in every room below. He’d been a big man, but had filled a room more with his presence than his stature. It would be impossible to exorcise those memories from the house, and impossible to live with them. She’d placed it on the market earlier that week.

Tori worked her way trough the chairs and tables that he’d deemed too good to throw out. It took an hour to decide there was nothing in the collection that she wanted to save, and she restacked the pieces. She’d use the corner to separate those things to be gotten rid of from the things she wanted to keep. Most of what she had decided to hang on to was downstairs, but there wouldn’t be room for all of it in her small house. It would have to go into storage until she had a bigger place.

The newspapers could be tossed without going through them, she determined, passing by them in an effort to get at the boxes. But she must have brushed the stack as she went by, and the entire pile began a slow-motion sway. With a sense of futility, she leaped aside, just in time to avoid being nailed by the bundles as they tumbled to the floor.

The impact of their landing sent up a cloud of dust that sent her into a spasm of sneezing. When her eyes and lungs had cleared, she glared at the mess accusingly. Her dad had tended to keep any newspapers with articles that caught his imagination, talking vaguely about writing a book sometime when he retired. She’d never been able to imagine him in so sedentary a pastime, but had thought it a harmless enough intention until now.

Muttering a few choice words, she set to hauling the papers into yet another pile, this one designated for the trash heap. The headline leaped out at her from the top one of the bundle, and a quick flip through them showed a collection detailing the trial of the notorious New Orleans Ripper, who’d been caught and tried a decade earlier after killing a dozen women.

With a grimace, she pushed them aside and started some smaller, steadier piles. He’d had varied interests. Some of the papers were articles on fishing, a passion of his, others on the history of the city. But it was the bottom bundle that caught her eye, with a headline very like the one she’d clipped and placed in the file she’d given to Tremaine.

Tremaine Heiress Returned Safely.

With a sense of déjà vu she had a sudden recollection of James Tremaine’s face when he’d seen the similar headline in the file she’d given him. A grim mask had descended over his features, but not before she’d glimpsed the bitter resentment in his eyes. He’d made his feelings toward the press and public prying quite clear, but that didn’t stop her from reaching out, tugging at the string that bound the papers together. Flipping through them, she found stories detailing the kidnapping and the car accident a few months later. She scanned the stories, but they elicited no information she hadn’t found in her research earlier that week. Something clicked in the rereading, however, something she’d forgotten to ask Tremaine about. There had been a third passenger in the car. A third death.

To refresh her memory, she pulled the papers loose, looking for the articles detailing the accident and the follow-up investigation. The passenger’s name was given, but she was identified only as a family friend. Tori made a mental note to look up more about the woman.

She set aside the bundle of papers on the Tremaines and finished stacking the rest to be destroyed. But during the task, her gaze strayed more than once to the papers she’d saved. Her earlier excitement at having landed her first job on her own had been tempered by her troubling reaction to Tremaine. She’d thought her interest in the opposite sex had been laid to rest permanently upon the ignoble end of her marriage. Or, to be truthful, months before the official ending. As her husband’s criticism and dissatisfaction with her had grown, her hormones had gone dormant at approximately the same pace. Finding him in his parents’ pool house on top of Miss Texas Rose 1998 had nearly shredded what was left of her confidence. She’d had enough sense, however, to leave him and their marriage behind. And enough self-respect to first send his canary-yellow Ferarri convertible crashing through the fence to sink to the bottom of the pool. It was the only memory of her marriage that still had the power to bring a smile to her face.

Given that, it was more than a little disturbing to experience that inexplicable…awareness when she was near Tremaine. A woman would have to be in the grave not to react to his looks, and so her response to him was only too natural, a cause for celebration, even. But as comfortable as it would be to believe that’s all there was, Tori couldn’t prevent feeling a sliver of unease. There was something about the man that heightened all her sensitivities, which really wouldn’t do. Getting involved with a client was an ethically sticky situation.

A wry grin twisted her lips. Luckily, that was not likely to be a problem. She and Tremaine couldn’t have less in common if they’d been born on different planets. Her brief foray into the monied class during her marriage had taught her only too painfully that the rich were, indeed, different.

Moving to the boxes, she hauled down the top one and opened it. A familiar sight inside it surprised a laugh from her. There, folded neatly, was a sweater her dad had worn for more years than she cared to count. She’d replaced it nearly three years ago with one enough like it to satisfy the man, but he must have rescued this one from the trash and hidden it away. Anything that was a favorite of his was always deemed too good to be thrown out, despite its missing buttons and worn-through elbows. What he’d intended to do with it was anybody’s guess.

Nevertheless, she found herself folding it with care and setting it aside. Perhaps there was more of her father in her than she’d guessed, because she knew that she’d never be able to part with it now, either.

Beneath the sweater was a file folder stuffed with papers, which she shook out onto her lap. Her throat went abruptly dry as she recognized medical statements dating from the time her mother had grown sick. With hands that shook just slightly, she stuffed them back into the envelope. She could remember vividly when as a nine-year-old she’d packed away most of her mother’s things to prepare for their move back to New Orleans. Her death had been the first and only time she’d ever seen her big, capable father helpless.

The envelope beneath was one she recognized. It was a packet of love letters exchanged between her parents when her mother was in the Mayo Clinic. For years they’d been in the bedside table of her father’s room. When had he finally put them away? she wondered. Sometime after that instance when he’d come home unexpectedly and found her reading them. He’d been coldly furious, and she’d been ashamed of her snooping, unable to explain that the few letters she’d read had helped bring her mother within reach again, the words painting an almost real form for her that had previously only been viewed through a child’s eyes.

A foreign sound had her catapulting back into the present. Looking around carefully, she eyed the piles of junk suspiciously. Any one of them could be a hiding place for some disgusting four-legged creature. Although Tori was an animal lover, most were best enjoyed outside her home.

Rising to her feet she listened again, and her blood abruptly chilled. The noise that resounded didn’t come from the attic. It came from the floor below.

Someone was in the house.

The open door and the music that still poured from the CD player left little doubt as to her whereabouts. Scanning the area, she moved silently to the corner with the furniture. She grabbed a small, particularly ugly lamp, removed the shade and light bulb, and wrapped the cord securely around it. Hefting it with one hand, she was satisfied that it would make a useful club.

She heard footsteps below, but no one called out, as she would expect if a curious neighbor or the Realtor had come looking for her. She’d left the front door unlocked, as it had been afternoon when she’d started her task. But a glance out the tiny window showed that it was early evening now. Dusk and shadows would have fallen over the street. Most of the elderly neighbors would have already finished up their dinner dishes and be seated in front of the TVs with their front doors carefully locked.

The footsteps paused, and the attic door squeaked a bit, as if the intruder had taken it in one hand and stuck a head inside the opening to listen. Tori could feel the blood pulsing through her veins. Her heart was beating a rapid tattoo in her chest, but her mind was cool as she flipped the lamp in her hand so the heavier base would be at the top. She’d feel more comfortable under a cloak of darkness, but the switch was at the base of the steps and out of reach.

The first step squeaked under the weight of the tread on it. Whoever was climbing the stairs now blocked her only exit out of the attic. There was another telltale sound. Another step upward. Options limited, Tori melted back into the shadows afforded by the stacked furniture and waited, weapon in hand.

Chapter 3

“You know some people content themselves with a simple hello.” James eyed the lamp clutched in Tori’s fist, deciding she looked more than capable of wielding it.

“And most consider it rude to walk into people’s homes without announcing themselves,” she countered, setting the lamp on a nearby table. “How did you know I was here?”

“I went by your place. A rather unkempt individual by the name of Joe, informed me that you might be at your father’s.” When she didn’t respond, he continued helpfully, “Ribbed undershirt? Uncertain hygiene? Pants riding low enough to show far more than most would care to see of his choice in undergarments?”

She made a face that was half recognition, have irritation. “My neighbor’s son. He takes an annoying interest in my comings and goings. Must have heard me talking to his mother earlier today.” She dusted her hands on her shorts as she approached, cocking a brow at him. “I have to say, when I heard someone moving around downstairs, I considered it might be the real estate agent or a neighbor. But I never thought of you.”

Since she was heading toward the stairs, he turned and preceded her down. “Which one were you going to smack with that lamp, the agent or the neighbor?”

“There was an equally good chance it was a street punk looking for an easy score.” The words, as much as the matter-of-fact way she uttered them, caused him to pause for just a moment. “It never hurts to be prepared.”

“No, it doesn’t.” He turned, once he’d reached the open door, and studied her. She snapped off the light switch before following him into the upstairs hallway. He wondered how many women in his acquaintance would have dealt with the possibility of a stranger in her house with such cool calculation. There was no evidence of alarm in her demeanor, just a certain competency that was at odds with the unmistakable femininity of those long legs and lean curves. The observation was undeniably chauvinistic, so he wisely refrained from sharing it.

“I did telephone,” he offered, surprising himself by making the explanation. “There was no answer at your house, and apparently you’ve had the phone here disconnected. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to swing by and see if I could catch you. You didn’t answer the doorbell, but I heard music from somewhere in the house and followed it.”

She brushed by him, sending him a sidelong glance before she led him toward the steps to downstairs. “I didn’t expect to hear from you until tomorrow.”

“I had business in the city, so I decided to drop off the contract I had my lawyer draw up.” He held up the hinged file he carried. “As well as a complete copy of the old investigative report.”

If truth be told, his business in the city could have waited or could at least been delegated. But he’d found it strangely difficult to focus once she’d left his office that afternoon. They’d decided upon a course of action, and now he was anxious to see it through. Anxious to see what answers, if any, her investigation would supply.

“I thought if you had some time tonight, you could go over the contents of the file and decide where you want to start.” He followed her into a small downstairs living room and, waiting until she’d seated herself on the sofa, sat in a nearby chair. He looked with interest around the room he’d merely glanced at his first time through. There was a battered recliner in one corner, facing a TV and stereo setup. It didn’t take much imagination to figure that the chair had been well used by the man who had lived here. Above it hung a sampler, on which someone had painstakingly embroidered the words Integrity Above All Else.

He gestured to it. “Your work?”

“My one-and-only attempt. It was my dad’s favorite saying. He had what some might consider an outdated code of honor.”

James thought of the family crest that hung above the doorway in his family home. Honor. Duty. Devotion. It was the creed that his father had lived by. He and his brothers had grown up attempting to do the same. “Not everyone,” he murmured.

When her gaze turned quizzical, he opened the file he carried, took out the contract inside. Withdrawing a gold pen from his suit jacket, he handed both to her. “I had my lawyer draw up this contract. The terms are outlined clearly in it, and they’re not negotiable. We already discussed this, but you’ll want to read the confidentiality clause near the bottom. If you or anyone in your employ violates it in the slightest, I’ll direct my attorney to prosecute to the fullest extent of the law. Am I understood?”

“As you say, we discussed that earlier.” Her voice was cool. She scanned the rest of the document, and he used the time to watch her. It was no hardship. She’d tamed that unruly tangle of hair by hauling it up in a knot and securing it somehow. The simple cotton shirt she wore was marred with dust, no doubt encountered upstairs, as were her shorts, which showed an intriguing length of slender thigh.

Not for the first time he noted that she didn’t fit his notion of a private investigator. If he was lucky, she wouldn’t fit anyone else’s, either. Once she’d left his office, he’d been plagued by doubts about the wisdom of his choice. The feeling was too foreign to be borne comfortably. He could put an army of more experienced investigators on the matter, but she might be able to provide the one thing that no one else could—a direct line to her father’s old contacts. It was possible that one of them knew something about the case he’d worked that hadn’t been contained in the man’s report. That, coupled with his reluctance to spread the word of these threats, had cemented his decision. He could spare a week. And if she failed to come up with anything new— He gave a mental shrug. Then there would be time enough to select another individual.

When she was finished, he took the contract, studying the signature with a sense of amusement. “Your full name is Victoria?”

He noted her barely concealed wince. “Use it at your peril. And be warned that the last guy to call me by it lost his right front bicuspid.”

“I’ll be sure to remember that. Do you have a cell?” When she rattled off a number, he jotted it down on the top of the contract, before setting it aside and handing her the hinged portfolio he’d brought with him. “You’ll find mine on the outside of the top file folder. Don’t hesitate to call, regardless of the hour.”

“Are you sure?” Her tone was light, but the expression in her eyes was speculative. “I don’t want to be responsible for interrupting business. Or whatever.”

“Business will take a back seat to your reports, and ‘whatever’ will have to wait until we get this—” he nodded toward the portfolio she’d set on the table beside her “—taken care of.” Upon reflection, a personal life of any type hadn’t been a priority for much too long. Few women tolerated being set aside once he became embroiled in a particularly challenging contract. He tried, and failed, to recall the last time he’d been involved in a halfway serious relationship. If he was actually spending time wondering if his P.I.’s legs were as silky as they looked, perhaps his sister, Ana, was right, and he was becoming too focused. Not that he’d ever admit as much to her.

“As long as you’re here, I did think of a question earlier.” She slid to a more comfortable position in her seat and crossed one long line of leg over the other. “Who was the third person in the car with your parents?”

It took a moment for him to switch mental gears. “Lucy Rappaport. She was the young wife of our production manager and a good friend of my mother’s. They’d been on their way to New Orleans, where my father had business. The women were going to shop and have dinner there.” The subject brought him back with a crude jolt to the business at hand. “She and her husband had an eighteen-month-old son.”

The tragedy that day hadn’t been limited to his family. Marcus Rappaport still worked for them, having risen high enough in the corporation to be his right-hand man. Although he was considered one of the most eligible men in the parish, he’d never remarried. Some losses, James knew, left a void that couldn’t be filled.

“The time frame of this case will make it challenging,” Tori stated. “Witnesses move away or die. Memories fade. But technology has grown more advanced, too.” She gave a shrug. “Maybe that will prove to be to our advantage.” She began pulling things from the file he’d brought and arranging them in piles around her on the sofa, in an order that made sense only to her. “At any rate, I intend to reinterview the people who processed the accident scene, at least those I can get hold of. Is the name of the salvage yard the car was sold to included in this file?”

“The remains of the car were destroyed long ago.” And he knew that precisely because he’d already attempted to trace it. “There’s nothing left to examine with new technology.” James felt a surge of impatience, which he tempered. There ought to be ways to find the truth that he hadn’t thought of…ought to be avenues to explore that he hadn’t considered. Not for the first time he questioned whether he’d made the right choice pursuing this thing.

Then he thought again of the note that had arrived today. Your parents were murdered. You’re next. And then it was really quite simple to recall just why he’d gone down this path. And just how badly he needed answers, one way or another.

He shifted in his chair, tamped down frustration. There was a sense of powerlessness in putting this into someone else’s hands, however close he intended to supervise. He didn’t much care for the sensation. “I received another message today.”

Her gaze was sharp. “What did it say?”

Lifting a shoulder, he said, “More of the same. But it did mention my parents again. If this was simply about extortion, I would have expected to receive the demand for cash already. Or at least some indication of what information the sender has to trade.”

“He could just be whetting your appetite until you’re anticipating just that, before striking with the promise of more for a price.” Her head was still bent over the file, but her voice was certain.

“Sounds like you have a fair idea of how this guy would think.”

“Well, I have met my share of dirt bags. And we don’t know the sender is a guy.” She did look up now, and caught his gaze on her. “Unsigned notes give a guarantee of anonymity, and they’re nonconfrontational. They could just as easily be from a woman. But I tend to agree with you. I doubt the sender is after cash. The tone of the messages are a bit too personal. Have you made any enemies lately?”

He gave a grim laugh. “Honey, if we’re going to list all my enemies, we’ll be here all night.” From the arrested expression on her face, he’d managed to surprise her.

“Let me guess. Your magnetic personality or boyish charm?”

He wondered if he should be offended. “Neither, although I can be quite charming, given the right circumstances. But Tremaine Technologies is considered to have made a pretty rapid rise in the global economy in the last twelve years. We’re listed as one of the five premiere encryption/decryption software corporations in the world. All modesty aside, there’s only one other in this country even in our league, and that’s Security Solutions. The biggest contracts in the past four years have gone to one or the other of us.”

She cocked her head consideringly. “So if your company was out of the running, they’d all go to this Software Solutions?”

“Probably, at least for a time. But sending anonymous notes hardly fits the profile of Simon Beal, its owner and CEO.”

“Don’t be so sure.” Setting aside the paperwork she was sorting, she crossed to an overflowing desk tucked in one corner of the room and pulled a pen and a legal pad from the top drawer. “Didn’t you tell me yesterday that you’re being considered for an important new project?”

“Yes, and so are a handful of other companies. Beal is the only real competition, although Allen Tarkington of Creative Technology considers himself in the running.” Rising, he slipped his hands into the pockets of his trousers, for once not mindful of the crease.

“So any one of those companies, Beal’s especially, would have reason to want you distracted right now.” She jotted a quick note down on her pad before looking up again. “I assume that this business is competitive, right? Companies willing to do what it takes to get an edge?”

His smile was as sharp as a blade. “That edge usually takes the form of corporate espionage. Arson. Sabotage. Even the odd bullet on occasion.”

Tori gaped at him, her eyes wide. “Wow. Guess that’s where the phrase corporate warfare comes from.”

He inclined his head. It was an appropriate enough term. “If one of the other business leaders was trying to eliminate me from the competition, I think they’d engage in something more direct than anonymous notes.”

Her expression had gone shrewd. “But a direct attack would have police scrutiny turned on them. Maybe this was deliberately planned to be more subtle, and you haven’t reacted the way you were supposed to. The whole publicity angle is exactly why you didn’t go to the police, but most people in your shoes would have. From there it would be an easy enough task to get the information leaked to the press. Fan the flames a bit, pay off a reporter or two and you have the Tremaine family history, past and present, in headlines and on TV for days, complete with hype and speculation about this newest development. Given the global prestige of your company, the story is sure to be picked up by the Associated Press, and lo and behold, all those Pentagon types are reading about you and your current problem over their morning coffee.”

The accuracy of the picture she painted was startling. “You catch on fast. It would be a roundabout way to approach things, but it’s conceivable.”

“And even better, at least from the sender’s standpoint, it’s unexpected. So why don’t you, for sake of argument, give me the names of the companies in the running for that contract, along with their locations and CEOs?”

James rattled off the information, only half thinking about it. The scenario she’d just described was possible. Entirely possible. And it would somehow be preferable to believe it than to discover that he’d been wrong all these years about his parents’ accident. That he had failed them somehow by not suspecting the truth and bringing those responsible to justice.

He was very much afraid that, if true, his failure to act would haunt him for the rest of his life.

Belatedly he became aware that she was speaking again.

“…just a theory.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“I said, right now, with what we have to go on, this is a theory, one among many. I just don’t want to overlook anything.”

“Nor do I.” He glanced at his watch, surprised to find it was nearly nine. “I’ve taken enough of your time this evening. I should go.”

She rose, in a fluid stream of motion that he couldn’t help but appreciate. “You’re going to drive all the way home tonight?”

He shook his head. “We have a place on Lake Pontchartrain. I’ll stay there and drive to work in the morning.” He headed for the door, leaving her to follow him. He felt an odd reluctance to leave. It was a sort of relief, he realized, to be able to talk this through with someone. To finally have a plan of action. He’d spent long hours considering sharing it with his brothers, but his first instinct had warned against it. When this was over, when he had the answers he needed, he’d tell them. He owed them that. But until he had something to report, the uncertainty could only cause them pain. He wasn’t willing to inflict that unnecessarily, especially if this was just a ploy by one of his competitors.

As the eldest in the family, responsibility was in-grained in him. He wouldn’t shirk it now.

Her voice had him hesitating with his hand on the doorknob.

“This thing between you and Beal…have you been keeping score?”

He looked over his shoulder at her. She had her thumbs hooked in the pockets of her shorts, her head tilted slightly. “Running a business the size of mine is hardly a game.”

Her tone grew mocking. “So you haven’t kept track of who has landed the hottest contracts. Come up with the most impressive technology.”

She saw, he thought, entirely too much. “It’s not something that can be reduced to win-loss columns.”

Tori smiled knowingly. “You’re ahead?”

“By three in this year alone.” He shot her a feral grin before turning and going through the door. “And I intend to keep it that way.”

There were worse ways to spend the afternoon than lolling on a grassy bank, fishing. Tori had an innate appreciation for life’s little bonuses, and she was enjoying this one to the fullest. It wasn’t often that she could work a case and indulge her love of fishing at the same time.

She cast her line and kept a watch on the man seated forty yards to her left, closer to the pond’s edge. The former Tangipahoa Parish sheriff had been retired for almost six years, and from the size of his girth, his love for food at least matched what she’d heard about his fondness for his favorite pastime. It had taken surprisingly few phone calls to elicit the information she’d needed on the man. And the small group of elderly men playing cards in front of his hometown diner had been more than happy to share favorite local fishing spots and directions to them, once she’d provided some winsome smiles and small talk. Picking up their lunch tab hadn’t hurt, either.

She’d spotted him on her third stop, on a secluded shady knoll on the banks of the Atchafalaya. For a while she was content to keep her distance. She didn’t want him to feel crowded and leave.

Selecting a bright-green lure, she baited the hook and cast her line, settling into a comfortable position to wait. It wasn’t for long. Within just a few minutes there was a tug on her line and she surged to her feet, reeling in slowly.

The yellowed speckled sunfish on the other end was a good size, at least sixteen inches, and she allowed it to thrash on the line just long enough to capture ex-Sheriff Halloway’s attention. When she was sure she had it, she made a show of landing her prize, holding it up before her to admire it before deftly releasing it in the fish pail she’d brought along.

Thirty minutes later that fish had been joined by two others, and the man down river disgustedly reeled in his empty line, packed up his tackle box and began making his way to a new spot, one a great deal closer to hers.

“Looks like you found yourself a hot spot here.”

“Caught three beauts and haven’t even been here an hour,” she said casually. “This is my first time fishing in this area. Is it always this good?”

Halloway wiped his brow, then adjusted the brim of the straw hat he wore. “Not for me. Not today, anyways.”

“Well, you’re welcome to try your luck here.”

It was the only invitation he needed. Minutes later he had his equipment situated and was settled in a portable folding chair. He cast his line and it fell soundlessly into the river. “You’re not from these parts.”

“New Orleans.” Tori leaned back in the grass, propped on her elbows and toed off her sandals. “Every day off I get I head to new fishing spots.” She shot him a sideways glance, a bit concerned at his flushed expression. The sun was searing overhead, though it wasn’t yet noon. For the first time she thought he might have been equally attracted by the shade nearby as he was by her fishing success. “Guess you must spend your free time same as me.”

He grunted, reeled in his empty line and rummaged in his tackle box to choose a different lure. “I got nothing but days like these. I been retired now near ’bout seven years.”

There was a tug on her line. Tori pretended not to notice, although the fact hadn’t escaped Halloway. “I’m figuring you must live around here.”

“How you figure that?”

“No lunch with you.” She smiled easily and pointed to the small basket she’d packed. “I came ready to make a day of it.”

“Born and raised ’round these parts,” he admitted. “Gal, you got something bitin’ at your line, there.”

“So I do.” With a nonchalance that seemed to set the man’s teeth on edge, she straightened, cocked her wrist back and reeled in her fourth and biggest catch of the day.

“Well, if you aren’t having Sam’s own luck,” the man muttered, narrowed gaze envious. “What’re you using there?”

She added the fish to her pail, and held the lure up for him to see. “Something my dad used to make himself. Sunfish go wild for it. What do you use?”

“Straight fly lure. Ain’t seeing the kind of luck you’re having, though.”

Seizing the opportunity, Tori reached into her tackle box. “You’re welcome to try one, if you’d like.” She held out one of the neon lures and it took only a moment before Halloway pushed himself from his chair and came to get it. “I always put a bit of bacon on mine.”

“Always use grubs for sunfish, myself.” Nevertheless, he accepted the piece of bacon she offered and gave her a smile before lumbering back to his chair.

“So, what’d you retire from?”

“Used to be sheriff of this parish. Got myself elected unopposed every term but two, and neither of them elections was close. Don’t know if that means most folks got more sense, or that I got the job done right, but put twenty years in office.”

“People must have been satisfied,” she said, with an obvious stroke to his ego. “I suppose things stay pretty quiet around these parts, though. Not like in the cities.”

“You’d be surprised. Just a couple years ago, Cooter Beecham shot his wife, Emma, stone cold after being married thirty years. That got the parish buzzing, I can tell you.”

“I’ll bet.” Although Tori could care less about Cooter or his questionable ancestry, which Halloway described at some length, she let the man talk. And when he pulled in a sunfish a good foot long, he got even more expansive. “’Course no one was surprised overmuch,” he concluded, his story winding down. “Got himself drunker ’n Bessy Bug most Saturdays. Went home after he’d tied one on and thought he saw a ghost standing in his doorway. Ran to get his shotgun from his truck and squeezed off three shots afore he figured out it was Emma in her nightdress.”

She took advantage of his pause for breath to say, “I’ll bet that created some excitement around here. Did it bring all the reporters in from the city to interview you?”

He looked a little crestfallen at that. “Well no, just the reporter for the local paper. But,” his face brightened as he recast his line, “I was on WDSU once, you know the New Orleans channel? Near ’bout twenty years ago, it was. Everybody wanted to talk about that case, yes sirree. There was a mite more interest in the Tremaine family than in Cooter’s.”

“I think I remember that. It was a car accident, wasn’t it?” Tori nodded, her nonchalant manner at odds with the jitter in her pulse. “I’ll bet that did bring the reporters crawling.”

“Reporters, photographers and more gawkers than a body could shake a stick at. Gruesome scene, it was,” he said, shaking his head. “By the time I arrived there was nothing to be done for any of the passengers. Car ran off the road, over an embankment and landed fifteen feet below. Terrible sight.” He looked, Tori thought, just a little green at the retelling. “The Tremaines have done a lot for folks ’round these parts. The tragedy was talked about for years. But an accident’s all it was, just like I told ’em, and despite all the digging by journalists and P.I.s, that’s all they came up with, too.”

Since she’d spent the better part of the night reading the reports in the file, Tori was well aware of the conclusions drawn. “They didn’t discover anything wrong with the car?” she asked.

“Not a thing, and I had Harris DuBlass look it over special. At that time there wasn’t a finer hand with a car than his, and he said it was clean as a whistle. Not much left of it, of course, smashed up as it was. You’ll still hear some folks ’round these parts talk about sabotage or some such thing, but I’m here to tell you, the steering and brakes looked just fine. Accident went in the books as plain, old DE.”

It took a moment for Tori to follow his meaning. “Driver error.”

“That’s right. The road had just been reopened after road crews had worked on it for months. There was interest for a while to straighten out that curve, make the road into four lanes, but folks got upset about cutting down the big ol’ trees along one side. In the end they just widened it. Most likely Joseph Tremaine took that curve too fast. Only idea I ever come up with. If it happened in these times, they’d probably all survive, what with the shoulder harnesses and air bags. But back then with just the lap belt.” The older man shook his head. “Didn’t none of ’em stand a chance of living through it.”

“Didn’t that surprise you, though?” Tori asked. “I mean, he must have been familiar with the area.”

He let out a crow of delight as another tug on his line brought him to his feet. “I think I got me a big one here.” He let the line play out a little before reeling it in slowly, watching the fish on the other end thrash. “Sure he knew the roads like the back of his hand,” he continued his earlier thread seamlessly, “but like I said, that road had been changed some. And there’s not a one among us that don’t get behind the wheel when our mind isn’t totally on driving. That’s why they call them accidents.”

“I guess there were no witnesses to help clear up any questions.”

“Nope. Just a couple of Bernie Glasser’s cows that musta got out and come downriver, and they weren’t talking. Leastways, that’s the story Glasser gave. Like nobody knew he brung them down regular every morning to avoid the cost of watering ’em. Used to tromp ’em across Cooter Beecham’s property like clockwork, and didn’t that make the old guy cuss a blue streak. Had a mouth on him, old Cooter did, and he didn’t need to be liquored up to let loose, no sirree. Why I remember a time…”

Tori let the man ramble and her mind drift. Ex-Sheriff Halloway’s retelling of the accident was different from his report only in the colorful details. Doubt about the cause of the accident hadn’t lingered long in his mind, if at all.

If he was right, his conclusion would mirror her dad’s. His report had been included in the file, as well, and she’d pored over it with particular attention. Just reading it, imagining him sitting at his battered desk painstakingly typing his findings, had summoned a lump to her throat that appeared only too easily these days.

For the first time she considered the fact that if she arrived at a different conclusion from his, it would mean he’d been wrong. That he’d overlooked something, or been too careless in his investigation. Neither of the possibilities seemed likely. Rob Landry had been meticulous about his work and his reputation. If there had been something to find twenty years earlier, something to support James’s fear that the accident had been deliberate, he would have found it. Reported it. And remained on the case until the wrongdoer was brought to justice.

She let out a sigh, only half aware that Halloway had fallen silent. It was highly probable that there was nothing to the claims in those messages about Tremaine’s parents. They’d likely been sent to distract him at a time when he most needed to focus his attention on his work.

But the conclusion didn’t make her breathe any easier. She couldn’t dismiss the threats in the notes as easily as James did. Even if the car wreck all those years ago had been an accident, he could still have a target on his back. Either way, this investigation could well prove dangerous to him. And if she was honest, the fear that followed that thought was more than just a professional one.

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