Tender Is The Night (3 page)

His words came out with a reckless passion that he wished he'd been able to repress, but there was something about her wide-eyed optimism that pushed all the wrong buttons.

She gave him a thoughtful look, then said, "I think we have something else in common besides our desire to always be right, Devin."

"What's that?"

"We're both bad at taking advice."

He had to give her credit for taking his curveball and hitting it out of the park. He tipped his bottle to her. "Nice."

She gave him a half smile. "Did I mention I have three older brothers, two sisters, and a humongous family who like to give me advice every time I turn around? You're not going to scare me away, not from this assignment or from the job I've wanted to do since I was eleven years old."

"Eleven, huh? What happened at eleven?"

"Nothing." She averted her gaze as she sipped her beer. "Two men just came in. Is one of them Russell Walton?"

He glanced toward the new customers. "No." He gazed back at her. "What happened when you were eleven, Kate?"

"I already told you—"

"No, you didn't," he interrupted. "You can't keep it from me. It's in your file. Everyone who goes through Quantico is interviewed extensively about their background and motivation for becoming a special agent. And even if it's not in your file, it still wouldn't take me more than fifteen minutes to figure it out. A little Internet research, and I'd come up with an answer. Something happened to you or to someone you knew when you were eleven."

She let out a little sigh. "Fine. I was walking home from school with my best friend, Melissa, when her father kidnapped her. He'd been beating up on Melissa and her mother for years, and her mom had finally kicked him out and gotten a restraining order, but there he was. Usually, there were plenty of people around, but not that day. I was right there when he jumped out of a van, grabbed her and threw her inside. I heard her screams in my head and saw her terrified face pressed against the window for a very long time."

His stomach turned over. He'd worked a lot of child kidnappings over the years, and the story never got easier to hear. "Was she rescued?"

Kate nodded. "Two days later. The FBI tracked them to a dive motel in Idaho. I remember when they brought her home. A female agent held Melissa's hand as they got out of the car. I was so happy to see her safe. The whole neighborhood was there. When that agent handed Melissa to her mother, I thought I'd like to be her. I'd like to bring a missing kid home, make someone's family whole again."

"So you've got a hero complex."

"I don't have a complex anything," she said with a frown. "That incident was the seed of my motivation, but over the years I took time to figure out what I wanted to do with my life."

"It doesn't sound like you considered other options."

"I did, but law enforcement called to me. It wasn't just Melissa's kidnapping that influenced me. The Callaways are big on public service. All the kids are raised with the idea that it's important to give back, to serve the community, and I thought the FBI would be a great fit for me. I wasn't wrong. I'm good at what I do, and I like it."

"So now you're living the dream," he said dryly, waving his hand at the striptease going on at the other end of the room.

"At the moment, I'm living your dream, not mine," she retorted. "Why did you want to be an agent, Devin? And before you say you had no reason, let me remind you that I could also probably figure it out in about fifteen minutes, too, so why not save me the time?"

"My dad was FBI," he said. "I went into the family business."

"Really?" Surprise filled her gaze. "I didn't know that."

"Hal didn't give you my file?"

"He only gave me the case file, not yours, and no one mentioned to me that you were a legacy agent."

"My father died when I was fourteen. That was twenty years ago. Only a few people at the Bureau would remember him now."

"And one of those few is Hal Roman?"

He nodded. "My father was Hal's mentor. They were good friends. Hal encouraged me to follow in my dad's footsteps."

"Now I understand why Hal wanted me to help you."

"If he really wanted to help me, he would have sent someone more experienced." He lifted the bottle of beer to his lips, wondering how the conversation had gotten so personal. It was his fault. He'd pressed Kate for information, and she'd come right back at him. He'd learned one thing about her. Despite what she'd told him, she did want to be a hero and while that wasn't necessarily bad, sometimes it was dangerous, and sometimes he was guilty of the same desire.

Like maybe now…

He shoved that thought out of his head. He didn't want to be a hero. He wanted to get justice, which was completely different.

He straightened in his seat as his subject walked through the door. Russell Walton wore a navy blue suit, a maroon-striped silk tie knotted around his neck. He fit right in with the other businessmen looking for after-work entertainment.

"Is that him?" Kate asked.

He nodded, taking out his phone and placing it on the table, so he was ready to take the shots he would need.

Russell walked down toward the stage and took a seat at an empty table right in front. He ordered a drink, then took out a bill and placed it in the dancer's thong as she shook her ass in his face.

"Looks like he's here to play," Devin murmured. "Hopefully with someone besides the talent."

"What if no one else comes? Maybe he just comes here to watch the show and then goes home."

"If that's the case, I'll tell his wife that." He discreetly snapped a few shots of Russell at his empty table. "But I don't think he's going to be alone for long. His credit card receipts appeared to be for more than one person." He'd no sooner finished speaking when a woman walked into the bar. She hesitated in the dark entry as if she were looking for someone, and then she made her way down to Russell's table.

Russell got up, took her hand and kissed her on the cheek. Then they sat down at the table.

"Wow, that was hot," Kate said dryly. "I think I'm going to need another drink to cool me off."

He frowned at her mocking smile. "It's early yet." But as he watched the two talk, it struck him that there was something off about the way they were sitting, talking, smiling at each other.

"She's not having an affair with him," Kate said. "She's not acting intimate."

"Maybe she needs a drink to warm up."

"No, she's not looking at him like a lover—more like a conspirator."

"Which would back up an affair."

"Or something else."

As much as he hated to admit Kate might be right, he couldn't deny that his own instincts were telling him exactly the same thing.

"Women lean toward the men they're sleeping with," Kate continued. "They put their hand on their lover's arm or their leg. They give their man a little smile as if they're remembering what went on the night before or the last time they were together."

"Did they teach you that at Quantico?"

"They didn't have to. I'm a woman. I know when a woman is interested in a man in a sexual way and that is not the case with those two."

He wanted to disagree, but he couldn't. Instead, he snapped the woman's photo, and then ran it through an app on his phone for facial recognition. It wasn't as in-depth as what the police department or the FBI could do, but if the woman's face had been on the Internet in the past few months, the app would pick her out.

A moment later, he had more than one result. "Lily Holbright, owner of Lily Bright Beauty Products—whatever that is."

"It's a hot new makeup company. Lily Holbright is a former makeup artist to the stars. My sister, Annie, is a big fan of the products. She gives me something every year to encourage me to wear more makeup."

Looking at Kate's clear skin, bright blue eyes, and naturally pink lips, he didn't think she needed anything to enhance her beauty, but what did he know? Maybe it was all a makeup illusion.

Kate glanced toward the couple by the stage. "I wonder if Lily knows Russell's wife. You said Brenda Walton sells beauty products. They're in the same industry. But I still don't think Russell and Lily are having an affair. So what else could they be doing together? And why would they be doing it here?"

Kate's questions echoed his own. He had to admit she was a quick thinker.

As Lily got up and headed toward the restrooms, Kate said, "I think I'll use the restroom, too."

"Don't talk to her. I don't want you to scare her off."

"Don't worry. I know what I'm doing."

Kate was already out of her chair and walking across the room before he could think of a good reason to call her back.

He turned his attention to Russell. The man pulled out his phone and appeared to text someone with a smile of satisfaction. Then he set the phone down and smiled up at the woman seductively dancing on the stage in front of him. Whatever Russell was up to, the man was clearly enjoying the show. He didn't seem to be aware of anything but the half-naked woman in front of him.

Acting on instinct, Devin got up and walked toward Russell's table. Russell didn't even glance in his direction. It was child's play to pocket Russell's phone on his way to the bar. As he waited for the bartender, he glanced back at Russell. The man was so caught up in the woman in front of him, he hadn't a clue his phone was gone.

But his inattention was about to end. Lily was almost back to the table, Kate following a few feet behind.

Kate met his gaze, tipped her head and walked toward the door. He followed her out of the club and across the street to the car.

"So, I might be able to help you," Kate said, giving him a proud smile as he got into the car and closed the door.

"How's that? Did you hear something?"

"Yes. Lily had a conversation in the hallway outside the ladies' room. She said she had a deal and that by the end of the week there would be no more competition and that Brenda Walton was done. Maybe there's more information on her phone." Kate pulled out a phone and put it on the console between them. "I accidentally bumped into her on my way out of the ladies' room."

He raised an eyebrow. "You stole her phone? You think the Bureau would approve of that?"

"I don't know about the Bureau but you said we were operating under your rules tonight, so I didn't think you'd care."

"I don't." He put Russell's phone down next to hers. "I got his, too."

Kate stared back at him in surprise, then smiled. "Well, how about that? We might make a good team after all."

"Don't get carried away."

"Hey, I just broke a law to help you. At least, you can say thank-you."

"We may not be able to get into her phone."

"Well, in addition to getting the phone, I also just told you what she said, that she and Russell are conspiring to destroy Brenda. That's more than you got by just grabbing Russell's phone."

"Fine. I can say this: You might not be the
worst
person Hal could have sent to help me."

She laughed. "Well, I can say this: You are
definitely
the worst person Hal could have sent me to help. You have been nothing but rude and ungrateful since I walked into your office."

"If your skin is that thin—"

"It's not. But that doesn't mean I can't call out bad behavior."

"Look, if you want someone to throw you a parade when you do something right—that's not me. But…"

She raised an eyebrow. "Yes?"

"Thank you."

"Was it really that difficult to say? And why did you take Russell's phone if you don't have a way to get into it?"

"Brenda gave me Russell's password just in case."

"Oh, well, that's a little too easy."

"It doesn't always need to be difficult."

He ran through Russell's texts. There were numerous messages between him and Lily, and it quickly became clear that Russell was sabotaging his wife's business. "Damn," he muttered. "They are trying to destroy Brenda's business."

"I told you they weren't having an affair."

"But he is definitely cheating on her," Devin replied. "He's selling his twenty-five percent of his wife's company to Lily Bright Beauty Products. In return, Lily is going to bring her multi-million dollar advertising budget to his agency."

"I guess we know why Russell and Lily were meeting in secret."

"And why Brenda knew that Russell was up to something," he said. "She was just wrong about what that something was."

"What a douche bag. He's selling his wife out for his own personal gain."

"He justifies it," Devin said, glancing down at the latest texts. "He sent a text to his lawyer saying that with the advertising revenue, he and Brenda will be better off in the long run. That giving up twenty-five percent of her company is nothing compared to what will be gained."

"I doubt Brenda will feel the same way. It's her company, not his. I can't believe he even has the right to do that without her consent."

"She obviously put too much trust in him."

"I'll say. And he doesn't care at all about his wife's business; it's all about him." Kate paused, frowning. "He literally tore her down to put himself up. What is wrong with him?"

"Probably more than this one act of greed. I've seen enough."

"What are you going to do?"

"Hand Brenda her husband's phone."

"Maybe we can give her Lily's phone, too," Kate said with a smile. "Even if she can't get into it, it will piss Lily off."

"Good idea." He started the car and pulled away from the bar, wanting to put some distance between themselves and the club before Lily and Russell both realized their phones were missing.

"That was actually kind of fun," Kate said. "And hopefully with this information, Brenda will be able to stop Russell from selling his shares."

"Maybe, but Russell and Lily seemed celebratory. It could be too late."

"I hope not."

He shot her a look. "Don't get too invested in this. There's a good chance that Brenda will do nothing but cry and tell her husband she forgives him as long as he promises not to ever do it again."