Stolen Seduction (13 page)

“It probably didn’t help. But no, Bryan and I always had a strained relationship. He’s worked for the

company for years, but he’s never made it past regional VP. He’s lazy, and my father knew that,

which is why he kept him around but didn’t promote him. My father was loyal to family without

fault, no matter how they worked for him.”

“So Bryan probably didn’t like the fact you were in charge.”

“Definitely not.”

“And the board of directors didn’t have any problem with you stepping in?”

She shook her head. “RR is a private company, not public. The board is composed of family members who all have equal interest. My mother, Bryan, me, my sister Nicole, and Bryan’s father—my

uncle Graham. There was one other member—my maternal grandfather, who invested a great deal

of money years ago when my father started his first hotel—but he passed about eight months ago

and his shares were divided between my mother, myself and my sister.”

“Leaving Bryan and his father with less say.”

“Right. My father could basically do whatever he wanted and the board had to go along with him.

And my sister and I have been silent members for as long as I can remember.”

“He didn’t try to get your sister involved?”

She pinned him with a look. “You’ve seen my sister. She lives for the easy life. Parties, shopping

and flashy magazine covers. She doesn’t care who runs RR so long as it isn’t her and her trust fund

isn’t impacted by any changes going on within the company.”

Since you couldn’t buy groceries without seeing Nicole Roarke’s face on some tabloid, Shane figured that statement wasn’t far off the mark. “So answer me this, now that your father’s gone, why

haven’t you resigned? If you never wanted to be a part of his company in the first place, what’s the

point of sticking around?”

She took a deep breath and the ease with which she’d been talking to him seemed to fly right out the

plane’s small windows. “I was going to. After we got through the funeral and will reading. But then

my father threw a wrench in the whole thing.”

“How?”

She glanced up at him from her seat on the end of the bed. “Did Lisa tell you anything about my father’s…eccentricity?”

He shook his head.

A humorless smirk curled one side of her lips. One that was so damn sexy, he had to resist the urge

to cross to her and wipe it off her mouth with his own. “Let’s just say he loved movies like National

Treasure. Indiana Jones wasn’t just a franchise, it was his idea of fun. When he heard about Lisa

and Rafe finding the three Furies? He thought it was the coolest thing ever. And this from a man

who hated Rafe Sullivan’s guts the first time he laid eyes on him.” She shook her head. “My father

collected art and antiquities his whole life. Most of what he’s collected isn’t worth much, but he’s

got storage units full of ugly paintings and useless sculptures no one could care less about. Used to

drive my mother nuts, but having them wasn’t the issue. It was the finding that thrilled him.”

She braced her hands on the mattress. “At the will reading last week, I expected him to hand the

company over to my uncle Graham. Or to divide his shares equally among the rest of us and appoint

Paul McIntosh as acting CEO.”

“Who’s Paul McIntosh?”

“Highest-ranking nonfamily officer. He’s worked for the company since he interned there in college

years ago. My father loved Paul. He was like the son my father never had. Paul…he’s bright. And

he’d probably be good for the company, but…”

“But what?”

She shrugged. “I don’t know. There’s something about him I’m not wild about. He’s slick.”

If there was one thing Shane always trusted, it was gut instinct. “He wasn’t appointed, obviously.”

She shook her head. “No. In fact, he wasn’t even mentioned in the will, which was shocking to most

of us there. But the biggest surprise was the terms of the will. My father left each of us a few trivial

items—I told you what he left for me—but the bulk of his estate is still in limbo. As is the future of

the company.”

“How so?”

She shifted on the mattress. “At Christmas, he gave each of us a copy of a famous sculpture, The

Last Seduction. Are you familiar with it?”

He shook his head.

“It’s a bronze. A man and woman, both nude, standing together, locked chest to knee. Her mouth at

his throat, his head tipped back in, well, pleasure. It’s been engulfed in controversy for years. Most

historians believe it’s one of the lost works of famous Italian sculptor Benvenuto Cellini, who was

commissioned by the Medici family to create it. It depicts the last temptation of Alessandro de

Medici—a Medici prince from the sixteenth century, the first Duke of Florence, and quite possibly

the first black head of state in the modern Western world—who was murdered by an anti-Medici

uprising headed by his cousin. Supposedly, Alessandro was seduced by his cousin’s sister, then gutted with a dagger.”

“Lovely way to go,” Shane mumbled.

“Yeah, well, regardless of whether it actually went down that way or not, the sculpture was created

shortly after his death, probably as an act of warning to any other factions considering a takeover attempt. There are records of it in Italian libraries and historical annals, but the original disappeared

over two hundred years ago. Not before it was copied, though.

“Sometime in the late 1970s, replicas of The Last Seduction started popping up in auctions around

the world. Each piece has had to be examined in depth because the foundry that created the copies

was so good. My father got his hands on some of those copies and gave one to each of us. Bryan, in

particular, was disgusted with the gift because it came in lieu of his normal Christmas bonus. I

didn’t much care, as I never wanted the money in the first place, but I hung on to my sculpture because I’d always liked the piece. My father’d had one years ago in his office. And when I used to go

there, I don’t know, something about it intrigued me.”

She shrugged and looked down at her hands. “Anyway, no one thought much of it until the will

reading. And then the odd gifts made sense. Five were given out. Each one is a piece of a puzzle.

Put them all together and supposedly it leads you to the sixth. The person who finds the sixth inherits Roarke Resorts and his estate, minus the trust fund he’s set aside for my mother, my sister and

myself.”

Shane’s eyes narrowed. “A treasure hunt?”

Her eyes lifted to his. “Yeah. Pretty weird terms, huh?”

Weird was an understatement. “Why would he do that?”

She shrugged. “Maybe he figured it would prove who wanted the company more. Maybe he’d really lost it the last month of his life. None of us are sure.”

“Lost it?”

A nervous look crossed her face. “Aside from all…this, I’ve heard some rumors in the company

that he was getting paranoid in his old age. I’m sure the RR lawyers are looking into the legality of

his will, but if there’s one thing I know about my father, no matter how strange he may have been

acting, he’d have made sure his will was sound. He had a head for business like nothing you’ve ever seen.”

“And this…bizarre treasure hunt…it didn’t make you want to step down?”

“It did make me want to step down. I had no interest in participating. Running the company, managing his money, none of that holds any appeal for me. But the morning before I came up here, my father’s personal lawyer brought me a letter my father had left for me. In it he hinted this stupid quest

was something I needed to be a part of, for reasons he didn’t elaborate on but which made me wonder what was really going on. He also said if I participated, at the end I could truly walk away from

everything Roarke related for the rest of my life without looking back. That I would finally be…

free.”

“And that convinced you?”

“No. What convinced me was being ambushed by the entire board that same day. All of them—even

my mother—gathered to try to get me to resign. I don’t like being challenged like that. And Bryan

was in-your-face aggressive. He didn’t care about the company. All he cared about was getting what

he felt was due to him, even though he didn’t deserve it. If Paul had talked to me privately and

asked me to step aside, I may have, but not Bryan. Never Bryan. I wasn’t about to hand over everything my father worked for so Bryan could drive it into the ground. My father and I may not have

gotten along, but he taught me the value of loyalty. And I guess I felt I owed him this one small

thing.”

Loyalty was something Shane also understood. And admired. “So tell me what happened with your

cousin.”

She pointed to the bruises on her face. “He’s responsible for this. Or, at least, someone he hired is.

When I wouldn’t sign the papers they’d prepared for me, Bryan made it pretty clear I’d be sorry.

Minutes later some jerk in the elevator told me I hadn’t taken the first hint, and this was the second.”

Shane’s spine stiffened.

“Obviously, the guy he hired didn’t expect me to know how to defend myself, and I’m pretty sure

he ended up looking worse than I did, but it pissed me off. That’s when I decided to go along with

this stupid treasure hunt, if for no other reason than to prove to these people they can’t push me

around.”

“So that’s why you were in the Chicago house.”

“Each of the sculptures has a different number on the bottom. I needed to get a look at Bryan’s.”

“And you did.”

She nodded.

“And what about the dagger?”

A worried look crossed her face. “I’m…not quite sure where it is.”

“What do you mean ‘not sure’?”

“I mean,” she said, blowing out a frustrated breath, “I had it in the elevator after that meeting in Miami. After I got this”—she pointed at her face—"I was way more interested in getting out of there

than picking up everything I’d dropped in the struggle. When I got home I realized it was gone.”

“So you’re saying you didn’t take it with you into your cousin’s house?”

She flicked him an irritated look. “I didn’t have it with me in Chicago. Even if I’d had it, do you

think I’m stupid?”

No, he thought this entire situation was stupid. And totally, completely over-the-top unbelievable.

No one could come up with a story like this just to cover their ass. Who the hell would believe it?

“So someone took it.”

“I think that’s the only possibility. Where did they find it?”

“Basement.”

“I was never in the basement.” At his silence she looked up. Crystal clear blue eyes that sent a tingling through his chest all over again. “Look, I know this looks bad, but I didn’t kill him. I got what

I needed and left. I wore gloves, just in case, so I know my prints aren’t in that house. The only other thing they can use to tie me to the scene is…”

“Is what?”

She bit her lip again, almost as if she didn’t want to tell him. Then finally mumbled in a low voice,

“I cut my arm when I was there.”

“You what?”

She closed her eyes. Opened them. “Okay, this part sounds bad, so don’t freak out. But when I was

in the house, Bryan showed up with his girlfriend. I ended up hiding under the bed and cut my arm

on a spring that was sticking out.”

“Christ Jake.” He scrubbed his hand through his hair. “They pulled DNA from the house. Which

they’re going to try to link back to you.”

“I know. Look, I didn’t plan it, okay? And I cleaned it up.” She looked back down at her hands. “I

never suspected it would turn into what it has. I…I guess you can call it really bad luck.”

She didn’t know the half of it.

His eyes narrowed as he tried to piece together what she was telling him. “How’d you get out without being seen?”

“I waited until they fell asleep. Then I found his bronze.”

“Where was it?”

“Freezer. He had it wrapped in tinfoil so no one would see it. It’s where he used to hide things when

we were kids.”

“And you took it.”

“No.” She shook her head. “I only looked at what was carved into the bottom. I made sure I left it

there.”

He’d have to talk to Tony and have someone check the freezer, if they hadn’t already. “Then what?”

“Then I left.”

His eyes narrowed. “Then what were you doing in my bar?”

Maybe he imagined it, but as she twisted her hands in her lap, he thought he saw her cheeks turn the

slightest shade of pink. “Well, I…I was a little wired when I got out of there, and I wanted to get a

drink. And you, well…I knew it was your bar so…”

Now it was starting to make sense. “So you used me.”

She glanced up sharply. “No, that wasn’t my intention at all. It was so late, I didn’t honestly think

you’d be there. I only went because I was, well, curious. But I never intended to use you as an alibi

because there was no reason I’d even need one.”

A little of the pressure eased in his chest. Curious could mean a whole host of things, but the fact

she couldn’t look him in the eye meant she’d been curious about him. In the same way he’d been

curious about her over the last three months.

He studied her resolute expression for any hint she was lying. Really looked hard, because, man, he

couldn’t afford to fall for something that wasn’t real. But damn, if he could see it. All he saw was a

woman who was being backed into a corner. “You mentioned the security system. How did you get

into the house?”

A nervous expression crossed her face. “You’re not going to like that part.”

“Try me.”

She let out a long breath. “Since Bryan changed the locks, I had to get some help. I can pick an easy