Turning back toward the darkness of another adjoining office, she saw Presley. He held her gun in his hand as he locked the door behind them. “So you know who I am.”
She stepped back, bumping into the desk. She pretended to use both hands to brace herself on the desk, while she mentally tried to remember if she’d seen anything within reach that she could use as a weapon.
“Easy,” Presley said. “Let’s not do anything crazy, okay?” His voice had the same gentle, slightly Southern drawl she remembered. He had another weapon stuck in the waistband of his jeans. This one had a silencer on it and she knew it was what she’d heard just moments before.
“You shot Brian?”
“Actually, he tried to shoot me,” Presley said. “You don’t believe me.” He stepped closer. “I love Caroline. But I think you know that.”
Surprisingly, she believed him. She did know. “So this is just about money.”
“Just about money?” He laughed. “You and I both know people have killed for less.”
“Do you really think you can get away with this?”
“For Caroline’s sake and our baby’s, I sure hope so.”
Brian stirred on the floor, groaning as he worked his way into a sitting position, his back against the wall.
Presley hadn’t pointed her gun at her. But although he held it pointed downward, it wouldn’t take much for him to raise it and fire at either her or Brian.
“I have proof what Brian was up to.” Presley patted the breast pocket of his jacket.
Brian swore. “He’s lying. He’s a con man. His name is Presley Wells. He’s here to clean out my accounts.”
Presley let out a humorless laugh. “I would be too late for that. The accounts have already been emptied. I would imagine Caroline’s trust fund is also empty. Caroline thought she got away with your PDA clean but you were on to us, weren’t you?”
“What is going on?” Samantha demanded, looking from one man to the other but all the time worrying about where Alex was. And what he would do next.
“Brian discovered who I really was and came to me with a deal,” Presley said. “A scam to bilk his father out of more money. Brian said he had an investment that was too good to pass up, but risky. His father would never go for it. Unless it looked like it came from me. C.B. liked me. Of course C.B. wouldn’t go for it unless Brian gave his stamp of approval.”
“Don’t listen to him,” Brian said rubbing the side of his head where Presley must have hit him. Samantha couldn’t tell if Brian was really hurt or just biding his time, waiting for Presley to let his guard down.
“If all this is true, then why didn’t you go to C.B. with it?” she asked Presley.
This time his laugh was sincere. “Brian would have told him the truth about my…background and then who do you think C.B. would have believed? So I went along with it, pretending I was in it for the money.”
“Like this isn’t about money,” Brian piped up. “You think anyone is going to believe your story? Your word against mine. There is no evidence that I was in on any of this.”
Presley smiled and shook his head. “No, you made sure you’d covered your tracks. But the only reason I went along with your so-called deal was that I’d discovered you’d been siphoning off Caroline’s trust fund account. I couldn’t prove it. Until tonight. I found what I needed to put the nail in your coffin. I found proof that you made an attempt to pay a hired killer to get rid of me.” He patted the papers in his pocket.
Brian, Samantha noticed, looked worried. “There isn’t any…” His voice trailed off as if he’d just remembered something he’d overlooked.
Samantha jumped at the sound of a loud boom just outside the office door as if the door had been rammed by something heavy.
“No!” Samantha cried as she saw Brian launch himself at Presley. Presley raised her gun as if to fire, but it was knocked from his hand as a man came barreling into the room.
She caught only a glimpse of the man but she recognized his size and shape. The man who’d been following her and Alex? The hired assassin who’d tried to kill them in Tennessee?
“You think you can double-cross me?” the big man bellowed at Brian. “Are you crazy?”
Brian grabbed her fallen gun and pointed it at the man and yelled, “You’re fired!”
Two explosions boomed in the office. Two quick shots. Brian’s shot went wild, burrowing into the wall over the big man’s head. Samantha wrested the other gun from Presley and fired. Hitting the big man in the leg.
But he didn’t go down.
“Drop your gun! FBI!” she yelled, the gun aimed at the big man. “Drop your gun!”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alex. He had something in his hands. A fire extinguisher.
The big man hadn’t seen Alex but her biggest fear was that he would. As the man started to turn, Samantha’s finger twitched on the trigger.
The man swung around. Samantha fired but the bullet that buried itself in his chest seemed to have no effect. The big man raised his gun, pointing it at Brian. “I always finish what I started.”
Alex swung the fire extinguisher. It made a loud crack as it struck the big man’s skull. Presley charged the big man, stepping into Samantha’s line of fire.
Samantha shoved Presley aside, but not before the big man got off two shots. Alex swung the fire extinguisher again, this time the sound more of a sickening thunk followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor.
“Bri, oh hell, Bri,” she heard Alex saying as he bent over his brother.
Samantha was moving, first making sure that Presley hadn’t been hit, then kicking the big man’s gun out of his reach just in case he wasn’t dead. But when she checked, she found he wasn’t breathing.
She could hear sirens in the distance. Alex didn’t seem to hear them, didn’t seem to notice as he stripped off his shirt and pressed it to Brian’s gaping chest wound.
She’d called the team against Alex’s wishes. She’d had to. She hoped some day he would understand. Unfortunately everything had happened too fast. The team hadn’t had time to get there. Maybe things would have gone differently. Or maybe not, she thought, looking down at Brian.
Brian was lying on the floor sobbing, his words barely audible. “I’m sorry. I just lost control of everything. I didn’t know what to do. I had to stop Dad from finding out.” He looked into Alex’s face. “Everything just got out of control, you know?”
“Yeah, bro, I know,” Alex said.
Samantha knew. She looked around the room. Presley was sitting on the floor looking sick, as if this wasn’t what he’d wanted to happen, even though Brian had paid the big man on the floor to kill him. To kill all three of them.
“Don’t tell Dad what I did,” Brian said. “Promise me, you won’t tell Dad.”
“I promise,” Alex said. But even as he said the words, Brian’s eyes dimmed then went blank. His hand dropped from his chest. Alex let go of the shirt he’d pressed to the wound, then reached up gently and closed Brian’s eyes.
When he looked over at Samantha, his gaze was filled with pain. Slowly, he rose and stepped to her. She felt a surge of warmth flow through her as he pulled her into his arms.
“Thank God, you’re safe,” Alex said against her hair. “Thank God.”
Epilogue
“I still can’t believe this,” C. B. Graham grumbled as he reached for his drink on the table beside his chair.
Alex saw that his father had aged. C.B. seemed smaller, frailer, definitely chastened. C.B. had put all his money on Brian, so to speak. And Brian had caved under the strain.
“Go ahead and say it. I know what you’re thinking. That I put too much pressure on my children. That I’m responsible for everything.” C.B. stared down at his drink. “That if I’d been a better father…” His voice trailed off as he looked up at Alex, tears in his eyes. “I could have lost you all.”
Brian had gotten in too deep, come up with a scheme to cover it up and invol
ved Presley. Because of his background, Presley had felt he had to find proof against Brian before he could go to anyone with what he suspected.
“I still can’t believe Brian hired a killer.” C.B.’s voice faltered. He swallowed and gripped his glass for a moment before taking a drink.
Alex glanced out the window. It had gotten dark and now all the lights in the garden twinkled. From somewhere, he heard music. The house felt alive again with Caroline back home.
“There’s been enough blame,” he said “Caroline is doing great. The doctor said her recovery is going well, she’ll be back on her feet in no time.”
C.B. nodded. “It’s nice having her here.” At her father’s request, Caroline had agreed to recuperate at the house—but only if Presley would be allowed to move in, too.
“I want you to get to know him,” Caroline had told C.B. “That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.” C.B. had grudgingly taken it.
“She’s going to marry that man, isn’t she,” he said now.
Alex nodded, smiling a little as he thought of his sister’s fiancé. Caroline had been right. Alex liked Presley. Alex just wished his sister and Presley had trusted him enough to come to him when they’d suspected what Brian was up to.
But Samantha had taught him to put the past behind him. He couldn’t change what had happened. All he could do now was look to the future. And what a future it could be.
“Presley reminds me of you,” C.B. said and took a swallow of his drink.
Alex looked at his father, not sure what to say. As C.B. looked up from his glass, Alex felt the full weight of the old man’s gaze. “I know I let you down when I wasn’t interested in taking over the family business…”
“No, not that,” C.B. said with a wave of his hand. “You and Presley, you’re both stubborn, pigheaded and have to do everything your own way. Invariably the hard way.”
The last thing Alex wanted to do was argue with his father. “If that’s supposed to be a compliment, it’s not coming off as one.”
His father laughed, a wonderful sound after all pain they’d been through. “I’m trying to tell you that I admire you.”
Alex stared at his father.
“The truth is you always were so damned much like me.”
“Thank you,” Alex said uncertainly.
C.B. laughed. “That definitely wasn’t a compliment.” But the pride he heard in his father’s voice made him ache.
He looked at his father and saw something he’d missed for years. Grudging respect.
Is this what Brian had seen? Is this why Alex and Brian had never gotten along? Brian had tried so hard to please their father. While Alex hadn’t tried at all for his father’s respect or love, Brian had tried too hard. Brian had risked everything for it—and lost it all. How sad that Alex hadn’t seen how much Brian had been struggling with that insecurity until after his brother’s death.
While it had been Brian’s scheme, Presley had invested the money he’d received from both Brian and C.B. and invested it in his companies. C.B. was going to make a sizable sum. Brian would have, too, had he lived.
Brian had been buried in the family cemetery on the property. Most of what had really happened had never surfaced. Not much of an investigation followed the shootings. Alex knew he had Samantha to thank for that. The police had just been happy to finally have the notorious Victor Constantine and the impeccable records of his kills. Looking for Constantine’s clients would keep them busy for years.
There was a tap at the door. “Am I interrupting?”
Alex motioned Samantha into the room. C.B. lit up at the sight of her. She went straight to the old man and gave him a kiss on the cheek, then came over to settle into the seat next to Alex. He couldn’t believe what just seeing her did to him.
“How’s my favorite wedding planner?” C.B. asked, all smiles now.
“Just fine.” She glanced at Alex. He gave her hand a squeeze.
Alex had realized something over the last week. Samantha was her own woman. And that was what had made him fall in love with her. He knew now that he wouldn’t have tried to change her for anything in the world. He loved her and while her “second” job might scare him, he had every faith in her abilities. Just as she did in his.
“I was upstairs talking to Caroline and Presley about their wedding,” Samantha said.
C.B. frowned. He’d come a long way over the last week, but he was still a curmudgeon at heart. He still wanted his only daughter to marry another blue blood.
“They’ve decided to postpone it until Caroline can walk down the aisle,” Samantha said.
“If she waits too long, she’ll have the baby in the middle of the aisle,” Alex joked, excited about being an uncle. Even more excited about someday being a father. “You’ll have to plan a joint wedding-baby shower.”
Samantha jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow.
“I guess there is no talking her out of it,” C.B. said and took a drink, but Alex could hear more than acceptance in his father’s tone. “Well, there is the baby and Caroline obviously loves the man. Presley does seem to be good with money and it will be my first grandchild.”
Alex smiled to himself, seeing his father’s delight at being a grandfather. C.B., he thought, just might make a wonderful grandfather.
The door opened and Presley Wells stepped in with a roll of paper.
“Pres,” his father said. The two men looked at each other, mutual acceptance and admiration growing between them. Presley Wells was the last man C.B. had wanted for his only daughter. And yet that was the man she’d chosen.
The fact that C.B. had let Presley move into the house with them said it all. Yes, Alex thought, his father was learning the fine art of compromise. It was something to see.
“That the condo project you’ve got there?” his father asked Presley.
“I’m thinking of making a few changes,” Presley said, spreading out the plans on the table as he sat down across from C.B. “Want to take a look and see what you think?”
It was just a matter of time, Alex thought watching the two of them, before Presley Wells would be running the Graham empire.
Alex saw his chance to escape and slipped out of the den with Samantha in tow. They ran across the courtyard at the back of the house, laughing and falling into each others arms. They’d had so little time to be entirely alone over the past week.
But they were alone now and Alex planned to make the most of it. The night was warm, the garden lush. Lights flickered overhead. He could hear the soft murmur of the waterfalls, the gentle splash. The air was scented with the perfume of many flowers now in bloom. Everything couldn’t have been more perfect.
“It is so beautiful here,” she said as she turned to look out over the gardens.
He wrapped his arms around her, never wanting to let her go. And to think there’d been a time when he’d thought he’d never be able live with the fact that she was an agent.
But they both had dangerous jobs that they loved. They’d both chosen their own paths in life. And those paths had led them to each other.
Love, he realized, could conquer all.
Samantha snuggled against him, filled with a sense of joy at just being in his arms. His mouth felt warm as he nuzzled her neck, his breath tickling her skin. She felt safe. She felt loved. There was no greater feeling, she thought, as he drew her closer and they looked out on the gardens and the night.
They’d been through so much but it seemed to have made them stronger. It had definitely brought them closer.
Now if only there could be a break in the Sonya Botero kidnapping. The team was still investigating every avenue, following up on every lead, but still no word. Every day, they waited for the kidnappers to contact either Sonya’s father or her fiancé, Juan. But still nothing.
Samantha wasn’t giving up and neither was the team. She would just work harder on the case, praying there would be a break. Praying Sonya was still alive.
“Samantha?” Alex
turned her slowly in his arms to face him. She looked up into his eyes and felt her heart begin to pound as his mouth dropped to hers in a soft sweet kiss. Then he drew her back to look at her.
She’d changed so much since she’d met him. She no longer wore the boxy suits. She no longer hid from her past or the girl she’d been. With Alex, she felt beautiful.
Presley Wells, for all the mistakes he’d made in investigating Brian by himself, had proven to her that there were men in the universe who were good and loyal and worth loving. And Alex Graham was one of them.
“Do you hear that?” Alex asked cocking his head and grinning as he drew her closer. Music moved on the breeze from the open terrace doors.
She smiled up at him as he pulled her into a slow dance, their bodies fitting together perfectly. She could feel the beat of his heart against her breast, hear his breath quickening as she touched her lips to his warm flesh just above his shirt collar.
The song ended and she realized that he’d danced her over to a stone bench beside a fountain. Caroline said the house should be filled with flowers and music and love.
Samantha couldn’t agree more. Otherwise a house was nothing but an empty shell. Just as her heart had been before Alex.
Alex. He brushed a kiss over her lips. She breathed in his scents mingling with the fragrance of the garden, the water of the fountain, the uniquely south Florida smells. The night felt magical.
Her heart began to beat a little faster as he gently lowered her to the bench. And just like in the movies, he dropped to one knee in front of her, his eyes locking with hers.
“Samantha Peters, wedding planner and secret agent, will you marry me?” he asked, his gaze never leaving hers.
She swallowed, tears welling in her eyes as she smiled at him. “Oh, Alex.”
From his pocket, he pulled out a small black box and held it out to her. Her fingers shook as she opened it and saw the diamond ring nestled in velvet.
“I never dreamed I could be this happy,” she said, tears burning her eyes.
“Should I take that as a yes?”
“Oh, yes!”
B. J. Daniels Page 18
