Her Wanton Ways [Notorious Nephilim 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (17 page)

“Oh my God…”

How long had they known each other?
Five years…
Had Scott actually been cheating on her with this woman? Had he truly been going to private sex clubs with someone for over five years, and Joelle had absolutely no clue about the clandestine life he’d led? The idea was preposterous. She had to find out more about Betsy Simpson, but how? And where had she heard her name before?

“Scott’s college yearbooks,” she whispered. But how would she get a look at them? She knew where he kept them in his townhouse, but…no. It couldn’t be that easy. She still had a key. Had he changed the locks by now?

“That’s madness.” But even as she voiced it out loud, she knew she had to do it. She had to do something to help Blade and Cristian. Although this article might very well kill Scott’s chances at state government and the rest of his political aspirations, it might not stop him from going after the resort.

She went back and read it again, looking for additional clues. Either the reporter or Mr. Pastor had to be mistaken. Scott going to a private sex club? The Scott who had once called her a whore because she wanted to experiment in the bedroom? Not possible…

She’d known Scott her entire life. Their parents were old friends. Scott was a few years older and consequently they hadn’t seen much of each other while growing up, but after she graduated from Northwestern their parents had pushed them together quite a bit. He’d recently returned from his internship in Washington and was looking for a wife who would not only look good on his arm in public, but who came from the “right stock,” as her father had put it.

When her father’s firm decided to jump on the latest trend about two years ago and represent people as well as products, Scott had been one of their first clients. As far as their parents were concerned, Scott Malloy and Joelle Albright were a match made in heaven.

Joelle tossed the newspaper on the table, poured the rest of the tea into the kitchen sink, and reached for the phone to call Peggy. “Heaven my ass,” she muttered while waiting for the receptionist to switch her call to Peggy’s desk. “I’ll see you in hell, Scott Malloy.”

Cristian jumped when the door burst open, and Leo and Andras walked in. Leo carried a copy of the
Tribune
, which he still read faithfully every day. “All of you need to see this,” he said, tossing it on the table.

The paper landed closest to Sterling, so he picked it up and read out loud the article about Scott Malloy on the front page. Cristian resisted the urge to stand up and pump his fists in the air when the author described Scott as a deviant who had been going to private sex clubs with a woman named Betsy Simpson for as long as five years. They had him. They had the bastard by the balls now.

Zach shot out of his seat. “What a minute…what did you say this woman’s name was?”

Sterling scanned the text. “Betsy Simpson. Apparently she went to college with him—”

“She’s one of our maids.”

“
What?
” Every owner voiced the same word simultaneously.

“We hired her last October after Cathy Henderson left,” said Zach.

Heads nodded and a general murmur of understanding went around the table. Cathy Henderson had been one of the rare guests to whom they’d told their secret. She’d become very upset and had spent two days running around the resort trying to convince anyone who would listen that the twelve of them were the very spawn of Satan and this resort was a portal to Hell. Blade had personally driven her back home to Madison, Wisconsin, but not before she’d scared the shit out of many of their staff.

Zach glanced around the table. “We had to hire over two dozen new housekeeping staff in a hurry, along with others. We lost forty-two staff members in one month. I take full responsibility for this. I simply didn’t have time to scrutinize everyone we hired. If I’d had more help”—Zach cut his gaze to Cristian—“I would have been able to check more carefully into her background. I’ll fire her at once, of course.”

“Can you go and get her file first?” asked Blade. “Let’s gather all the facts before we do anything rash.”

Cristian fidgeted in his seat while they waited for Zach. He felt like everyone was watching him, waiting for him to say something. Sure, he knew he should help Zach with some of the work, but it was more fun to seduce the guests. Until Joelle had come along, that is. Now, the thought of making love to another woman didn’t even make his dick hard. He only wanted Joelle.

When Blade had said he wanted her out of here within the hour, it had taken every ounce of strength not to tell Blade to shove it up his ass. He understood Blade’s concern—it was simply too big a chance to take—but at the same time, he knew Joelle was telling the truth. If anyone in this room had asked him exactly how he knew, he wouldn’t have been able to say, but he was dead sure of it.

Was she already back in Chicago? Maybe he could telephone her, just to make sure she was all right? He could still trace her scent in the air. The softness of her skin was burned into his fingertips, and the fiery red of her hair was a color he’d never forget. Every fiber of his being ached for her touch.

Cristian closed his eyes for a moment, not wanting to admit the truth even to himself, but there was no point in denying it. He’d done the impossible. He’d fallen in love with a mortal woman.

While they waited, Blade filled Leo and Andras in on all they’d discussed in their absence. When Zach returned, he took a seat and opened the file. “Barbara ‘Betsy’ Simpson, thirty-five years old, graduated with a degree in government from Georgetown University the same year as Scott and just happened to have interned with Senator McCarthy the same year Scott was learning the ropes from Senator Charles Brooks.”

Blade gave the others a droll look. “And now she’s working as a housekeeper? Why would a woman with a degree in government from Georgetown University, and who had interned for a United States senator, suddenly take a job as a maid at a resort in the middle of nowhere?”

Zach leaned back in his chair. “Okay, how do we handle this? If we fire her, we won’t know for sure she’s the one who’s been giving Scott information.”

Emmett frowned. “Wait a minute. Slow down. Now Betsy is the snitch, and not Joelle Albright?”

Zach tapped the
Trib
. “The woman walking into the Rose and Leather Club with Scott Malloy is Betsy, one of our staff, not Joelle Albright.”

“And Joelle is his ex-fiancé,” said Emmett. “How do we know she’s not working with both of them? How do we know she’s an ex, for that matter?”

“There are too many coincidences, regardless. I’m firing her.”

“We should ask Joelle if she knows Betsy,” said Cristian.

Zach frowned. “Why?”

“She’s known Scott a long time. Maybe she knows something about Betsy that would help us?”

“Not if she’s working with her,” said Emmett.

“No,” said Blade and Cristian at the same time. Cristian cut his gaze sharply toward Blade. It wouldn’t have taken a genius to see he was ready to defend Joelle, no matter what. Blade wasn’t even bothering to hide his feelings.

“I should have listened more carefully instead of asking her to leave,” said Blade. He pointed toward the newspaper. “This story proves Betsy is the one who’s been giving Scott information, not Joelle. Scott knows too much about this place, and Joelle was here barely a week. Betsy has been here almost an entire year. I believe Joelle’s story.”

“So do I,” said Cristian.

“You were both fucking her,” said Zach. “You aren’t thinking clearly about this.”

Blade leaned forward. “Zach, my thoughts have never been clearer.”

“Hang on a minute,” said Sterling. “What Cristian and Blade are saying makes sense. Betsy has been working here for almost a year. If Joelle is part of this, why did she come here now looking for information? What could she possibly have gained that Scott hasn’t already learned from Betsy?”

Zach glared at him. “A woman who is after sensitive information can get more of it in bed with one of us than she can by cleaning our guests’ rooms.”

“But Betsy has access to places in the resort our guests don’t,” said Sterling. “And we each have been trying to figure out how Scott was able to find out so much about this place.”

“Well, maybe Scott was looking for something different, so he sent Joelle,” said Zach.

“Like what?” Leo laughed. “Come on, Zach. Think about that for a moment. Betsy is staff. She knows our secret. Even if she told Scott, he can’t use that information. He’d be laughed out of city government. What could Joelle have told him that would hurt us? No. I think Blade and Cristian are right. I think Joelle made a huge error in judgment by not telling them she knew Scott when she had her first chance to do so, but I don’t think she’s in league with him. I think we should concentrate on Betsy. The only question is, do we fire her or wait for her to contact Scott again so we can catch her in the act?”

* * * *

As the sun was setting, Joelle and Peggy sat outside Scott’s townhouse, debating. They’d driven Peggy’s car, as hers was less likely to be recognized than Joelle’s flashy convertible.

“He isn’t even in Chicago,” said Peggy. “I had Mark check with his contacts in the mayor’s office. Scott is in Springfield touring the recent storm damage, along with other aldermen who hope to run for state government one day. They’ll be there for at least another day, maybe more.”

“His nosy neighbor Miss Latch keeps an eye on things when he isn’t here.”

Peggy grinned. “Not tonight. You know the butcher at Sam’s Deli? The one who flirts with everyone that comes in? He and Miss Latch are in New York City.”

Joelle stared at her roommate. “How do you know that?”

“Purely by accident. I was in there buying a few things the other day, and two of the other employees were gossiping about it. Apparently Scott was quite upset to find out Miss Latch wouldn’t be around, and Miss Latch had been bragging about how she told him he could just find someone else to watch his place because she was going to New York City with a
man
.”

“So who’s watching it?”

Peggy shrugged. “Maybe no one. It’s not like he needs anything done. No pets to take care of, and he can ask the post office to hold his mail. Joelle, the longer we sit here parked on the street, the more we risk drawing attention to ourselves. I say we just waltz in there, and if anyone asks, we can always tell them we’re the ones watching the house for Scott.”

“His neighbors all know me.”

“Then we’ll hurry inside so no one gets a good look at you. Put on your scarf. That’ll hide your hair.”

“But what if he changed the locks?”

Peggy threw up her hands in frustration and opened the driver’s side door. “Then we can’t get in, and we’ll have to come up with another way to dig up dirt. Let’s go.”

Joelle hadn’t expected an onslaught of memories as she stepped inside, but what surprised her was the fact they didn’t cause her grief. It was more a feeling of embarrassment that she’d stayed with this man for so long.

It didn’t look as though he’d changed a thing since their breakup. The same afghan his great aunt had made for him was thrown across the back of his recliner, and his house plants all needed watering. The place even smelled the same—a combination of Aqua Velva aftershave and pipe tobacco.

“Where are the yearbooks?” asked Peggy.

“Spare room closet shelf, lined up in alphabetical then chronological order.”

Peggy snickered as they climbed the stairs. When they passed his bedroom, Joelle glanced at the bed and a wave of nausea washed over her. Had Betsy Simpson fucked him there as well? She mentally shook away the thought and headed for the spare room.

The Georgetown yearbooks were on the shelf where she’d last seen them. “Should we look through them here or take them with us?”

“We don’t want to have to come back. You look, I’ll keep watch.” Peggy stood in front of the window and peered through the slats in the blinds.

Joelle pulled the yearbook from his senior year off the shelf and sat on the bed. She flipped to the photos and swore so loudly when she found Barbara “Betsy” Simpson’s picture that Peggy spun around, wild eyed.

“What? What happened?”

“I know where I’ve heard her name before.” Joelle’s heart hammered in her ears. “He actually introduced me to her when we were first dating. We were at some country club party our parents had insisted we attend. I remember her feline eyes, gleaming with lust as she ignored me and fixed her gaze on Scott. She was drunk, and at the time I shrugged it off to too much booze.”

Joelle closed the book and hugged her knees. “Oh my God. He’s probably been fucking this woman for years. Why the hell didn’t he marry her? Why did he start dating me? Why couldn’t he have just left me the hell alone?”

Peggy sat next to her and patted her arm. “Well, at least now you know he not only was a bastard, he was a lying, cheating bastard. I’m so sorry, hon.”

Joelle shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. I don’t even care about that. But I saw this woman at Lilith’s Playground.”

Peggy looked confused. “Was she a guest?”

“A maid. She came in to clean my room, Peggy. I thought I recognized her and asked if we’d met. The look on her face…I should have put two and two together, but I was a bit preoccupied at the time.”

“Jesus Christ,” whispered Peggy. “You don’t think…”

“Oh yeah. That’s exactly what I think. When Cristian told me what Scott was doing, I remember wondering how he’d gotten so much information about the resort. But of course I didn’t ask. I didn’t say anything.”

“Joelle, it wouldn’t have made a difference.”

“I know, but I have to warn them.”

“What?”

“I have to tell them they have a snitch working for them.”

“Are you kidding me? They kicked you out. You spent a week doing things in bed with them that you’ve never even fantasized about, and then they told you to leave, without even giving you a chance to explain.”