Dirty Secrets (10 page)

She shook her head. “Nope. But you were sharing some uncomfortable things about you, so I thought I should do the same.”

Alex watched her for a long moment, his eyes studying her. She had the sense he was looking for any hint of mockery, any sign at all that she was teasing him. He didn’t find it. She made sure he didn’t find it. “You mean that,” he said. His voice was quietly wondrous.

“I do,” she said.

He took her hand again and tugged her towards him. She slid across the seat and kept her eyes on his as one of his hands came to her chin, the other to the small of her back. He softly tilted her face up as he kissed her, and this time, there wasn’t a crowd to encourage them to keep the kiss chaste. She made a whimpering sound in her throat and he groaned against her, pulling her sideways into his lap as he bit at her lower lip. She could feel his erection against the backs of her thighs, and she shifted a little. He slapped at her butt; she barely felt the contact, but she gave him the little yip she knew he wanted from her.

“I am going to keep my promise to you,” he said, his voice closer to a growl than anything else. “But first, we need to talk business. I need to know everything you know about Arturo. Everything you even suspect about my father, about AEGIS, about the will. I need to know what’s going on, Zoey, and I’m starting to think that there’s no one else I can trust. Not even my mother.”

“Not your mother? What do you think she has to do with it? Just because he was in her office—”

He was shaking his head. “No, that’s not it,” he said. “I think—God, this is hard to say. I think Arturo might have been—well, a half sibling of mine. And I think my mother just might have had him killed to protect my inheritance.”

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CHAPTER ONE

Zoeysat perfectly still in the back of the town car that was driving her God knew where. Ale
x’
s home seemed the most likely destination, but with the dark light that shone in his eyes, she was
n’
t sure she wanted to ask him. She had absolutely no fear that he would hurt he
r—
well, not unless she begged him t
o—
but there was a level of determination in his eyes that made her not want to do anything that would make her look like prey to the predator. The man had just, with a completely calm expression, accused his mother of murder. Sh
e’
d known since the first time she saw Alexander Blankenship in the club
that he was a force to be reckoned with; this was the first time it had occurred to her that he might actually be dangerous.

In her view, there were two ways she could  respond to what h
e’
d said. She could act like a girlfriend, reaching out to touch his hand and try to tell him that everything would be okay. She thought h
e’
d probably respond all right to that, but he would probably try and reassure her back. It might help; comforting her might let him feel more in control of what was happening, which might help him be calm and cool. But at the same time, it said that she did
n’
t think he could control himself, that he was someone who needed to be soothed.

So she went with the second option. She just answered his questions
.“
The trouble is
,
” she said
,“
That I have a lot of suspicions, but not much I can actually prove. Where do you want to start? Philip, Arturo, or AEGIS
?
”

“
Olivia
,
” he said. There was a light strain to her voice
.“
Do you think she could have had something to do with all of this
?
”

She shook her head very slowly
.“
I do
n’
t know, Alex. She was
n’
t something I was looking into this afternoon. I do
n’
t know her personally, so I do
n’
t have a read on whether or not sh
e’
s capable of arranging a murder
.
”

He nodded, his face quiet, but the expression in his eyes was deeply wounded. Not by her, she thought. By the fact that he felt the need to ask. It was one of those questions where the asking said more than the answering ever could
.“
Philip, then
.
”

“
I suspect you know a lot of this
.
” She reminded herself briefly that she was speaking about this ma
n’
s father, and then dove in
.“
The stories are everywhere. The gossip columns had him paired with a different woman every month, and sometimes, after he was gone, the women in question were pregnant. Sometimes, they seemed to have greater means than the
y’
d had before he was there. None of the women were ever willing to publicly state the father of their children, and he never claimed any of them publicly
.
”

Alex nodded
.“
The old man fucked anything that moved. Especially if it was paler than my mother
.
”

Responding to that was harder than sh
e’
d anticipated
.“
That was a source of tension between them
?
”

Another nod
.“
If you ask Olivia, he misused her, and only married her in order to prevent her father from trying to ruin Philip
.
” Ale
x’
s eyes were far away, seeing another time and another conversation
.“
He used to say that she was the cow he had to accept to get Grandp
a’
s fortune
.
” The corners of his mouth bent upwards, but the expression he wore was
n’
t quite a smile
.“
I figure there had to be a middle ground. They had to have liked each other at some point. There must have been a moment, even if it was only one, where they got along
.
”

Zoeythought back over the articles sh
e’
d found in the archives of the different papers around the cities. The fights in public, the screaming. More than once, the police had been summoned. If that moment had happened, it was before the new Mrs. Blankenship had found herself in the public eye
.“
Absolutely
,
” she said.

He gave her a small smile, the sort that said that he did
n’
t believe her even a little bit, but he appreciated the consideration
.“
And Arturo. Was he ever connected to my father
?
”

“
Did you know that AEGIS gives scholarships to a certain number of highly qualified New York City college kids every year
?
”

“
Of course. I
t’
s part of a recruitment program, to try and get a more diverse applicant pool into the STEM divisions of the company
.
”

“
Did you know that Arturo was one of the scholarship students, just a few years ago
?
”

Ale
x’
s eyes locked onto her with that same scrutinizing gaze that made her want to sink into the seat and disappear
.“
No, he was
n’
t. Tha
t’
s been one of the few fields
I’
ve never neglected.
I’
ve been part of the award ceremony every years since its inception. The old man was determined that his son would be see
n“
giving back
,
” especially since I did my best to take his place in the gossip rags as much as possible. I would know if
I’
d shaken his hand
.
”

Zoeypulled out her tablet and tapped to one of the pages sh
e’
d saved, then passed the tablet to Alex. She knew what h
e’
d see, but she also knew he needed to see it. Arturo Soprano. 2010. Ale
x’
s knuckles were pale as he clung to the tablet
.“
Wha
t’
s interesting, though, is that as far as I can tell, Arturo Soprano never went to college. H
e’
s listed as winning the scholarship, and then a few months later, he opens his construction company. And right away, the compan
y’
s doing great, i
t’
s getting contracts from big companies, h
e’
s doing renovations and interior design work instead of the crusty gross stuff most companies need to do in the early days to make ends meet. And he did an interview a few years back, where he credited his success to the confidence and support of a venture capital firm. When I went looking for the VC fir
m—
it did
n’
t exist
.
”

“
What do you mean it did
n’
t exist
?
”

She shrugged
.“
I mean that if there ever was such a thing as Wilfred Venture, it never had an Internet presence. No Facebook page, no website, no contact information. No Yelp reviews. Nothing. It did
n’
t exist. I did
n’
t get as far as digging down into incorporation records, I ran out of time, but that would have been my next step
.
”

Ale
x’
s mouth had grown thin. Whether he was pressing his lips together with rage or pain, she could
n’
t tell for sure
.“
You do
n’
t need to
,
” he said
.“
Wilfred Ventur
e—
Wilfred was the old ma
n’
s middle name, his fathe
r’
s name. He hated his father, probably more than I hated him, if such a thing can be imagined. He had a small fund of company money that he invested in projects which were of personal interest to him, but where he did
n’
t want to spend his time selling the board on using AEGIS funds. He called it Wilfre
d’
s Ventures. Because they never panned out, the company never saw a return on those investments
.
”

“
You think tha
t’
s the connection
?
”

“
It makes sense
,
” Alex said. His scrubbed his hand over his mouth for a moment, then rubbed at his eyes as if he were trying to wake himself up.

The car stopped, and after a moment, there was a soft tap on the window. Zoeyjumped, and Ale
x’
s expression flipped like someone had turned a switch, moving from the cold and remote expression of a businessman to that of the man who owed her sexual favors in return for her research
.“
Davi
d’
s just letting us know h
e’
s there. H
e’
ll give us a moment to put our clothes back on before he opens the door
.
”

Zoeyglanced down
.“
My clothes are on
.
”

“
He does
n’
t know that. H
e’
s been driving for me since I was 12. He does
n’
t want to know what I get up to back here
.
”

“
Is tha
t—
u
m—
a thing you get back to up here
?
”

Alex went still for a moment
.“
Sometimes. But never on the way home.
I’
ve never brought women to my home before
.
” He smiled faintly
.“
Tha
t’
s not a line. I
t’s—
well, i
t’
s never been necessary
.
”

“
What do you mean
?
”

He shrugged
.“
I always got invited to her bedroom long before now
.
”

Zoeyfelt her cheeks flare
.“
I have a Murphy bed. It squeaks, and i
t’
s lumpy. Most of the time I sleep on my couch. I
t’
s more comfortable
.
”

“
I
t’
s all right
,
” he said, and that faint smile, the one she was starting to realize that she trusted more than the big CEO grin, was brushing his lips again
.“I’
m not upset that you did
n’
t ask me back to the Bronx.
I’
ve had a lot of sex over the years, Zoey. More than a lot of men I know, less than the gossip sites would like to believe. Is that a problem
?
”

“
No
,
” she said, and she meant it
.“
Just curious
.
”

Alex tapped back on the window with one knuckle, and the door opened, as if by magic. He stepped out of the car, then reached a hand back towards her. She scooted over to the door, then put her hand in hers, her bag over her shoulder, and followed Alex towards the high rise apartment building.