Enchanting the Beast

by Maggie Dallen

  How Eve and Holly were connected wasn’t immediately known and it didn’t really matter. The pieces were all there. Maybe not directly, but he could read the signs.

  His dad had sent Holly. He had no clue why and he really didn’t care. The only thing his dad cared about was making money. He always had some sort of scheme going on and odds were that this time he wanted Spencer’s help.

  Not surprising. A lot of people seemed to want his help these days. Being able to navigate the dark net and crack online security was considered a pretty handy skill among a certain crowd.

  He wouldn’t do it, no matter what the favor was, so if he was smart—and he was—he would steer clear of his father and Holly. Steering clear of people was his specialty. Keeping his distance from two of the lousiest liars and criminals he’d ever met should not be difficult.

  But even as he told himself that, he knew it wouldn’t be that easy. He’d have to see Holly again, if just to tell her that he knew.

  Not for the first time, he found himself wondering why? Why would someone like her get involved with someone like his father? While his dad might not be cruel, Spencer didn’t kid himself. He’d spent the better part of his adult life in prison. Jack’s connections were spotty, at best, and vile on the whole. His father had kept him from the worst of them even back when he’d done the occasional favor for his father.

  His dad had never had the intellect or the brute strength to earn real power on the streets, which meant that he ended up being a middle man for the big wigs. He was expendable—one of many reasons he was always the one paying for the crimes. It had been a sad day when he’d realized that his dad was a patsy. He’d been thirteen when he’d seen it. He’d watched his father’s face fall as one of his so-called friends sold him out, letting him take the blame for a petty theft. Granted, his father had also been well able to get himself into trouble so he wasn’t letting him off the hook, but more often than not his bad deeds were done at the behest of someone else. Someone with brains.

  The point was, his father wasn’t a true bad guy…but his acquaintances definitely were.

  So if Holly was involved in his father’s latest scheme, odds were she was in over her head, whether she realized it or not.

  It wasn’t his problem.

  He cleaned up the kitchen and continued to tell himself that.

  Not his problem. Holly wasn’t really his friend and he barely knew her. He certainly wasn’t responsible for her. And he’d stopped worrying about his father years ago. He kept his distance for both their sakes. His dad didn’t need more bad luck following him around.

  As he got himself ready for bed, he couldn’t settle his thoughts. Snippets from the evening replayed in his mind like a movie. Every montage ended with that kiss.

  He’d no sooner closed his eyes and shut off the light when he finally admitted it to himself.

  He couldn’t let it go. Call it obsessive behavior or call it insatiable curiosity, but he could not let Holly go without knowing what was going on.

  Sometimes he hated his brain.

  Holly stared at her sleeping sister. If Eve would just wake up, Holly was certain her sister would figure out a solution to all their problems. Eve always had the answers.

  “She looks so peaceful,” Lexy said. Her tight blonde curls were pulled up in a bun as she huddled beneath a blanket in a chair on the other side of the hospital bed. There were dark smudges beneath her eyes and she cradled a cup of coffee.

  “Were you here all night?” Holly asked.

  Lexy yawned as she nodded. “I couldn’t sleep at the apartment. I hate being home alone.”

  Holly felt a pang of guilt. Of all times to be off living on her own. “Sorry.”

  Lexy smiled. “Don’t apologize. You’re taking one for the team.”

  Holly tried to return the smile and failed. Her mind flashed back to that devastatingly wonderful and confusing kiss for the millionth time since it had occurred the night before. Taking one for the team. That was one way of describing it, though it didn’t feel entirely accurate.

  She shook off the persistent memory and focused on her younger sister. “You could go back to the dorms, you know.” Eve hadn’t gone to college and Holly had lived at home and held down a job while slowly earning her bachelors, but she and Eve had been determined to give their little sister the full college experience. Lexy had always been the kid with her nose stuck in a book and if anyone deserved to revel in higher education, it was her. She’d earned herself a partial scholarship, which helped, but the tuition bills were still hefty, as were the room and board.

  Lexy studied the edge of her blanket. “I was thinking, maybe I should come back home for a while.”

  Holly bit back a sigh. They’d been over this before. Eve would be okay—she had to be. She and Lexy refused to accept any other outcome. The last thing Eve would want was for their kid sister to have put her life on hold.

  Besides, Holly had it under control. Barely, but she was managing. She opened her mouth to protest but Lexy was too quick. “I could come home and get a job. I know things are tight and we don’t need the expense of—”

  Holly held up a hand and summoned her best Eve impersonation. “No.” Her tone brooked no arguments. Eve had a natural confidence that left little room for questions or arguments. Holly tried for that now. “I told you I’d handle our finances and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”

  Lexy’s mouth hitched to the side. She looked like she wanted to argue further but she didn’t. Instead she asked, “How’s it going with the hermit?”

  She glared at her sister across Eve’s prone body. “He’s not a hermit.”

  “I thought you said he never leaves his apartment.”

  She had told her that, but that was before she’d gotten to know him. “He rarely leaves his apartment,” she said. “There’s a difference.”

  “Uh huh.” Lexy tilted her head to the side. “What am I missing here? Why are you sticking up for the guy? I thought you said he was a jerk.”

  Holly pressed her lips together. She’d said that too. Sometimes it was a pain to have a little sister with a fantastic memory. Lexy’s attention to detail and her excellent recall would most likely make her a great reporter once she graduated. But at the moment it just made her an irritating little sister.

  She looked back at Eve. Perfect, lovely, comatose Eve. How would she handle this situation? If she knew, she wouldn’t be in this position in the first place. “I wish she’d wake up,” she muttered.

  It was a stupid thing to say. Of course she wished that. They both did. But the doctors thought it was best to reduce the swelling in her brain after her accident, which meant keeping her in a medically induced coma. It wouldn’t last forever and the doctors had high hopes that she would make a full recovery. But even after she woke, it would be a while before she was fully healed. The last thing Holly wanted was for her sister to wake up and be faced with a load of problems. When she woke, Lexy would be doing well in school and getting ready to graduate and she will have handled their money woes.

  And she would wake, she reassured herself. It was just a matter of time.

  Holly’s stomach churned as worry ate at her gut. Unfortunately patience was not a Hallister sister trait. None of them dealt well with waiting. Heck, if Eve knew she was sleeping her life away, she’d have a hissy fit.

  She’d be even more pissed if she realized she was lying in an ugly hospital gown with no makeup and a partially shaved head.

  Of the three, Eve was by far the most vain. But what she didn’t know couldn’t hurt her. She wondered what Eve would make of one of her younger sisters taking on one of her gigs.

  She’d probably laugh her butt off, especially when she found out it was Holly. Lexy would have been a better fit—she was a skillful liar and could chat up just about anyone. But Holly refused to drag her into this mess. She was entering her final semester and she should be focusing on her grades and her internship. There’d be time enough for
money stress and moral dilemmas once she entered the real world.

  Lexy was smart and determined. She’d do well once she spread her wings. At this particular moment, however, Lexy’s intelligence and determination were put to use trying to figure out what Holly was hiding. Which was nothing, really. Just the fact that she maybe kinda sorta developed feelings for the guy she was supposed to be handling.

  She fixed her gaze on Eve as Lexy studied her from her chair. This was the sort of rookie mistake Eve would never have made. She might not know much about what Eve did, but she knew that Eve never got close. There were very few people who knew the real Eve and there was a reason for that. A very good one.

  Holly took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The memory of that kiss was taunting her, reminding her what a horrible person she was. Bad person, worse con artist.

  “Okay, spill.” Lexy unfurled her legs and tossed aside the blanket. She looked wide awake and ready for action. “What’s going on with you and this job?” The way she said the word “job” made it clear she thought it was an actual job like Holly thought frozen fruit was a real dessert.

  Frozen fruit would never be “just like ice cream” no matter how hard Eve tried to sell it.

  “There’s nothing to spill.” She shifted in her seat and tried to make eye contact with Lexy.

  She failed.

  “Ugh, you are the worst liar,” Lexy said. Her weary sigh made her sound older than her twenty-one years. “No wonder you’re having trouble. The guy saw right through you, didn’t he?”

  Holly looked up with a frown. “No. For your information, I’ve been doing a great job of getting close to Spencer—”

  “You mean the mark?” She shook her head in disappointment. “How many times has Eve told us that she never thinks of her targets by their name. She keeps them firmly in the role of the mark. It makes it easier to keep her distance and remember their roles.”

  Holly’s mouth opened and then shut as she digested that. “Wait, when did Eve tell you that? She never talked to me about her jobs.”

  “That’s because you never asked.” Lexy took a sip of her coffee and shrugged. “I was curious.”

  That summed up Lexy to a T. She’d always been curious about everything. Insatiable, really, and unstoppable once she set her mind to figuring something out. Apparently she’d had a fascination with Eve’s profession, while Holly had done her best to hide her head in the sand. Not wanting to think about the unethical means Eve was using to pay their bills.

  She sat up straighter. “So you know how Eve did it.”

  Lexy nodded, a smile peeking out behind the rim of her mug. “Not so eager to send me back to school now, are you?”

  Holly raised a brow. “You are still going back to college, young lady. But first, I need you to tell me everything you know.”

  Lexy laughed. “I have a better idea. How about you tell me what you’ve been up to and I’ll tell you where you’ve gone horribly wrong.”

  Holly’s eyes widened. “How do you know it’s gone horribly wrong?”

  Lexy leaned across the bed to pat her knee. “Because the truth is written all over you, sis. You are an open book. And not just to me and Eve.” Lexy kept going when she tried to protest. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, it’s just not ideal for the kind of work that Eve does. She’s always been good at manipulating people, for better or worse, but you…”

  Holly found herself waiting impatiently to see how that sentence would end.

  Lexy leaned back in her chair. “Your strength lies in being honest and straightforward.”

  “You mean I’m tactless and blunt.” Holly restated it in the proper terms and Lexy laughed. “See? Just like that. I was trying to be diplomatic. But we’re both right. Tactless and blunt is just the negative version of being straightforward.”

  Holly made a noncommittal noise. Maybe.

  Her sister arched her brows in expectation. “I’m waiting…”

  “Okay, here goes.” Holly spilled it all. From the very first meeting with Charlie and Jack to last night when she’d experienced the kiss of a lifetime. She ended with those final moments, when Spencer had unceremoniously ended what she’d thought had been a meaningful moment.

  Lexy was frowning at her when she finally came to an end. “Huh.”

  Holly waited for more. When no more came, she threw her hands up. “’Huh?’ That’s all you’ve got?”

  “Give me a minute,” her sister said. “I’m processing.”

  Holly tried to wait patiently but patience was not her forte. “You process, I’ll go get us some more coffee.”

  Grabbing her empty cup, she headed out into the hall. When she turned the corner, she stopped. Charlie was there. That alone was enough to give her the creeps. He was her sister’s on-again off-again boyfriend so she did her best to be polite, but she’d never liked the guy. He was too nice. She didn’t trust anyone who was that nice.

  But right now he did not look nice. He looked pissed. His handsome face was set in stone as he stared at a man she recognized from wandering the halls. The stranger was taller than Charlie with a broad chest and lean build. He was Hispanic, with pitch black hair and dark skin. She’d passed him in the hospital halls but never talked to him. Truth be told, he intimidated her a bit. He was ridiculously hot. Definitely the kind of guy Eve attracted but not someone in Holly’s league. She’d assumed he was a friend of Eve’s, but judging by Charlie’s defensive stance, this was no friend.

  The hot stranger didn’t seem to notice her and after a few more words she couldn’t hear, he turned and headed back toward the elevators. She took another step forward and Charlie spotted her. The grim expression turned even darker as he glowered at her.

  Uh oh. No more Mr. Nice Guy.

  She hesitated in the hallway, not sure if she should approach. Her chance to run away was lost when he headed toward her, crossing the distance in a few long strides. “Way to go, Holly.”

  He’d managed to make her name sound like an insult. She blinked at him in surprise. She’d never heard him sound so nasty before. It sounded far more genuine than his typical schmoozy charm, but it was still disturbing.

  “What’s going on?”

  He stopped in front of her with his arms folded across his chest. “That’s what I’d like to know.” He nodded toward the man who just walked away. “The good detective wanted to know the same thing.”

  Holly’s stomach sank. That hot stranger who’d been hanging around her sister’s hospital room was a cop? That couldn’t be good. She licked her lips and met his furious stare. “What did he want?”

  Charlie looked down his nose at her. “He wanted to know about a certain Holly Hallister and how she was related to Eve. Seems someone has been asking around trying to figure out what Holly is up to.”

  The room tilted as the air rushed from her lungs. There was only one reason a detective would be asking about her but she didn’t want to believe it. She racked her brain to come up with any other explanation but drew a blank. Finally she said it out loud, hoping against hope that Charlie would deny it. “He knows.”

  Charlie nodded. “He knows.”

  There was no other explanation. Who else would be looking into her, asking contacts at the police for information on her? She was an accountant with no record and a boring social life. No one cared about her…until now.

  Spencer was on to her.

  The truth of it made her chest ache and her stomach turn. Stupidly, her first reaction was hurt. Rejection stung her pride and her heart. She’d thought he liked her. She’d thought there was a connection there.

  But that was stupid. She wasn’t the one who should be hurt. He was the one who’d been duped.

  Her mind raced, replaying their conversations, reliving every interaction. How long had he known that she was up to something? She thought back to that very first encounter and then his about-face the next day when he’d shown up at her door.

  It struck her like a slap acro
ss the face. He’d known from the beginning. That was the only way to explain his sudden change in behavior.

  He’d been playing her.

  She’d met the real Spencer that first day on his doorstep. That was the loner. The recluse. The man who didn’t like people. So who was that other Spencer? The one who’d made her laugh while they baked cookies. The one who’d talked her ear off about the use of symbolism in contemporary Japanese fiction.

  The one who’d kissed her.

  Had that all been an act? She gripped her stomach and bent over slightly, trying to keep the contents of her stomach where they belonged.

  This was karma in action. The quick bastard, karma had turned right around and bitten her in the butt. She’d thought she was fooling him but she was the one who’d been duped.

  And here she’d been feeling so guilty. She’d been struggling with her feelings for him and the job that she’d signed up for. And meanwhile he’d been laughing at her. He must have been. Tears stung the back of her eyes as it all became clear.

  There’d been no connection, no attraction. Nothing real, at least.

  “What did you do, Holly?” Charlie asked. “How did you get caught so quickly?”

  When she didn’t immediately answer, Charlie cursed so loudly a couple of nurses in passing turned to look. “Your job was simple. All you had to do was be nice to the guy. That’s it.”

  She backed up from the fury in his voice.

  Charlie rubbed a hand over his face. “You don’t get it, do you? Jack isn’t the only employer here, Holly. There are other people…bad people…” He shook his head and looked away. “I vouched for you. I said you could handle this....”

  “I can.” She said it quickly, not thinking through what it would mean. But she couldn’t afford to chicken out. She couldn’t quit, even if that was an option. Her family was counting on her. Eve needed her, for once.

  And beyond that, this wasn’t over between her and Spencer. The fact that he’d been lying, manipulating her, that helped to clear away all the doubts and the guilt.