by Lucy Monroe
Again, Beau was there putting his oar into the water. “Why?”
“I’m a professional in the area of security. As strong and big as my brother might be, he’s a scientist, not a bodyguard. Frankly, I’d feel better knowing both of them were under my protection.”
Mat opened his mouth, no doubt to argue, but Elle shook her head.
“It’s my job, Mat. I know what I’m doing.”
Beau said, “I think we need to bring Frank and Mr. Smith in on this.”
“What if the people who want the plans make good on their threats?” Chantal asked.
“We won’t let them take you,” Elle assured her.
“No, I mean what if they have something that will make it look like I was in on Eddie’s deal? What if Frank believes them? Or Mr. Smith does?”
“If you’re innocent, Chantal, you have nothing to worry about,” Beau said.
“Are you implying you doubt her innocence?” Mat demanded in a dangerous voice.
Elle recognized that tone and she didn’t want to have to deal with the aftermath if this situation continued. Her instincts were telling her that Chantal was on the up-and-up. Besides, Mat cared about Elle, and her brother might be borderline antisocial, but he was a good judge of character.
Elle jumped up and indicated her bedroom with a jerk of her head. “Can I have a word with you, Beau?”
Chapter 9
Beau got up without a word and went straight to the bedroom. Elle closed the door behind them and turned to join him by the window on the far side of the room.
She whispered angrily, “Your confrontational attitude is not helping anything here, Beau.”
“Listen, I want to believe Chantal is as innocent as she appears, but it’s my job to protect the company. Both Frank and Mr. Smith are smart enough to figure out if she’s telling the truth.”
“You told me that Frank was fallible. After all, he hired Eddie, right?”
Beau just shrugged.
“Darn it. What is your problem with trusting someone? You didn’t trust me when we first met, and now you’re showing a ton of unjustifiable skepticism where Chantal is concerned. This is ridiculous. Do you really think she would have come forward about the threats if she had been in league with Eddie?”
“I’ve got my reasons for thinking the things I do. Like you said to Chantal, lots of people are good at pretending to be something they aren’t. Like innocent.”
“Oh, for goodness’ sake. I wasn’t talking about Chantal. Has she done something to indicate she might be untrustworthy?”
“She was going out with Eddie Danza.”
“You told her that didn’t mean anything.”
“I don’t think it does.” Beau rubbed his eyes, like he was tired, but he didn’t look tired, just frustrated. “I have to be sure. It’s too easy to be deceived.”
“Listen, Beau. She came to me for help. She told us what was going on. She could have run.”
“I know.” Beau swiped his hand down his face. “I know. My gut says trust her, but then it tells me to trust you too.”
“You can, Beau.”
His jaw hardened and he looked over her shoulder, rather than at her. “You’re damn good at sounding sincere. So is Chantal.”
“Then believe us.”
“I’ll be more careful of what I say, but I’m still watching her.”
Elle couldn’t say she didn’t understand his cynicism. He’d already been betrayed by at least one employee. The jury was still out on Bigsley. But somehow Beau’s distrust of Chantal felt personal, like it reflected a lack of belief in Elle’s integrity. And that hurt in a way she had no desire to examine.
“Just remember, she’s on the edge of losing it, Mr. Paranoid. Don’t push her over, or she might do something that could put herself at further risk. Like run. Not to mention, if you want her cooperation investigating this issue, you don’t want to antagonize her past the point where she’ll give it.” He was already almost there with Matej. Thank goodness Chantal seemed to be more even tempered than the man so interested in her.
Beau frowned. “Understood.”
Elle shook her head, feeling like there was more to be said but not knowing what it was. “Fine.”
“Fine,” he repeated with a boatload more belligerence. Then he grabbed her shoulders and pulled her into a kiss.
A very steamy, no-holds-barred, passion-drugging kiss. She was swaying on her feet when he was done.
“That feels real at least,” he said.
She blinked. “It is.”
There was an angry tinge to the desire darkening his eyes that she didn’t understand. But rather than say anything that might explain it, he shook his head and stepped back. “Let’s go find out what else Chantal has to tell us.”
She nodded.
They returned to the living area to find Chantal and Mat sitting side by side on the love seat. They were talking in hushed tones that ended when they saw Beau and Elle.
Beau sat on one end of the couch. “I’m sorry if I made it sound like I think you’re a suspect, Chantal. I don’t, but I have to be cautious for the sake of the company. You’ve got nothing to worry about with Frank and Mr. Smith, though.”
Elle took the other end in silence.
“That’s easy for you to say,” Chantal replied with a definite spark. “Frank treats you like the son he never had, but I’m just another underscientist. I don’t want to lose my job or my reputation.”
Mat rubbed her back. “It won’t happen.”
Chantal straightened her shoulders and squeezed Mat’s forearm. “I hope not, but regardless, Mr. Smith and Frank deserve to know that someone is trying to steal ETRD’s technology.”
“Someone is always trying to steal new technology,” Elle said, with a sigh. “But, you’re right. They need to know about what is happening right now.”
“Then we’re all in agreement?” Beau asked.
Elle nodded. “You call Frank and set up a meeting. I’ll go home with Matej and Chantal and secure the premises. Do you have my cell phone number?”
Beau shook his head.
“Where is your phone?” she asked Beau.
“On the small table beside your bed. I left it there last night.”
Predictably, Mat was back to scowling.
Elle ignored them both and hopped up to go get the phone so she could program her number into it. She handed the phone to Beau as she came back into the room. “It’s in there under Elle.”
“What quick-dial number?”
“I don’t know, whatever the next one available was.” She never used quick dial.
Beau flipped the phone open, and being the curious cat that she was (it came with the territory of her job), Elle watched him alter her place on the numerical list to number two, right under Frank and before everyone else. Okay, so it shouldn’t matter, but she liked it.
Was she turning into some kind of sap?
Mat fixed Beau with a look that Elle knew all too well. Kyle’d had to withstand the same one from all three of her brothers and her father. “So, you want to tell me what you’re doing at my baby sister’s apartment on a Saturday morning wearing nothing but the jeans you wore to my parents’ house last night for dinner?”
It was a testament to how worried he was about Chantal and how much he cared for the petite blonde that Mat had waited to pull the big-brother protector card until now.
“That would be none of your business,” Elle said before Beau could answer.
Mat ignored her, his gaze fixed firmly on his boss.
Beau looked supremely unworried. “I’d think the answer was self-evident.”
She was going to kill him. Later. After she’d had a few more nights like the one they’d just spent. He didn’t need to be so blatant.
Mat puffed up with anger.
Elle groaned. “Here we go again.”
Chantal giggled. “Soon they will be beating their chests, no?”
It was so like what Elle had thought earlier t
hat despite the annoyance she was feeling, she laughed as well. “I think maybe.”
Her brother made a noise that sounded suspiciously like a snarl.
Elle had to bite back her own sound of irritation. She didn’t think her private life was her family’s business, nor did she rub it in their faces. Especially not when it came to her brothers. Of course, if her mother knew about last night, that grand dame would have her and Beau as good as married and headed off to the Poconos for a honeymoon.
Beau gave her another one of those looks that made her spine itch, then said, “I’m not into lying, Elle.”
“Keeping your mouth shut isn’t exactly miring yourself in dishonesty,” she said with exasperation.
“Sometimes it is, princess. Sometimes, that’s exactly what it is.”
And Mat, darn him, was nodding his agreement, giving Elle another one of those looks that said he wanted the truth on the table. All of it.
“I’m not denying what happened last night, but I don’t think it’s any of my brother’s concern either.”
“I don’t agree,” Mat said. Of course.
“Mat,” Chantal said with open censure.
“It doesn’t matter if you agree, or not.” Elle kept her voice even but firm. “My private life is my own business. I won’t hide things from you, but I won’t dissect it for you either. We are here to discuss Chantal’s problems and deal with them. Full stop. Period.”
Beau had the effrontery to laugh while Mat was back to glowering. This time at Elle.
“She really doesn’t get it, does she?” Beau asked Mat.
Her brother shook his head. “She does not understand what it is to be an older brother.”
“Gee, you think?” she asked with sarcasm.
“I know,” Mat replied, all serious.
“I know that I give you the respect of privacy.” In the spirit of full truth she added, “Mostly.”
“I respect your privacy,” Mat said.
Chantal made a noise of disbelief that echoed Elle’s feelings.
“But he has a natural desire to know what I was doing here this morning, sugar. He now knows. Case closed,” Beau said.
“Really?” She didn’t think so. Either she was going to hear more about it, or Beau was. She gave her brother her best die-later-in-pain-if-you-ignore-me glare. “If you rat me out to Mama again, I’ll get you good with Baba. You get me?”
Mat actually grinned. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to say anything. For now.”
“Forever.”
“You know you can trust me with your secrets, Elle.”
Chantal looked pleased with that statement.
Elle nodded, feeling better. He and her other brothers had kept the truth of her job from their parents for several years now. He wasn’t going to go blurting out stuff to Mama that would end up hurting her in the long run.
Okay, time to get back to the matter at hand.
“I need to make a phone call.” She pointed to Chantal and then Mat. “You two stay here.” Then she looked at Beau. “I’ll see you at the meeting with Frank.”
“What, you’re kicking me out?”
“I’m not kicking you out. I just assumed you’d want to go home, get some clean clothes and call Frank.”
“I could call Frank from here, but some clean clothes wouldn’t hurt.”
“Right. So, see you later.”
He shook his head, smiled, and stood up. Then he bent down, getting right into her personal space until her head was leaning back on the sofa. “You will definitely be seeing me later.”
He planted a kiss smack on her lips. And it wasn’t a friendly little peck either. If her brother had had any doubts about what they had been doing last night, he didn’t now. Elle was panting when the kiss ended, and Beau looked altogether too pleased with himself.
It was pure claim-staking behavior, but he had no claim on her to stake. What in the world was going on?
She didn’t have any better of an answer a couple of minutes later when Beau came out of the bedroom wearing his shoes and tucking his wallet into his back pocket.
He put his hand out. “I’ll need the keys to the Spider. You picked me up last night, remember?”
Elle grabbed the keys from her purse and handed them over. “Bring it to the meeting. We’ll work out your transport home from there.”
“Will do.”
Then he was gone and Mat was giving her a look of utter disbelief. Chantal’s sweet face wore an expression of introspection.
“What?” Elle asked her brother, when he kept giving her that look.
“You’re letting him drive your car?”
“He drove it last night. He knows how to handle the powerful engine.”
“You’re letting him drive it…a second time?” Mat whistled. “It must be love.”
“Not. Listen, brother mine, Beau and I enjoy each other. I’m sorry if that offends you, but it’s the way it is. Since he’s the first man I’ve wanted to be with in the last four years without an ulterior motive, I’m not about to dismiss this thing between us. But trust me, it’s not love.”
“Whatever you say, princess.”
“Matej, my dear brother, did you know that I have the skills to maim a man twice my weight more easily than fixing a run in my panty hose?”
“Elle, my darling little sister, did you know that though you might do it for a living, you can’t lie to family for shit?”
“I am not lying. Beau and I are not in love!”
“Fine.” That word was getting a lot of use this morning.
And she didn’t think it had been said once with real sincerity. She turned to go.
“Just don’t forget to invite me to the wedding.”
She pivoted on one heel, and faster than he could blink, she flipped him right onto the carpet. She was careful not to actually hurt him, which might be why instead of being properly impressed, he was laughing his grumpy grizzly ass off.
Yelling out instructions over her shoulder for them not to leave or open the door to anyone, Elle slammed into the bedroom to make her call.
The Old Man wasn’t happy to hear the threat to the antigravity project still existed, but he didn’t sound surprised either.
“You’re sure that Ms. Renaud is trustworthy?” he asked Elle. “That she’s telling you everything she knows?”
“That’s what my instincts are telling me, sir.”
“You’ve got damn fine instincts.”
“Thank you. I’d like to ask her some questions about her former boyfriend and his associates, though.”
“Good idea. Clearly we need to deal with this threat.”
“I’d like to find Gil Bigsley, sir.”
“He might have information for us.”
“Yes, and he’s definitely in danger if they don’t already have him.”
“Agreed. So, is Ms. Renaud.”
“I’ll be watching over her and my brother.”
“You’re going to need help.”
“I’ve considered that, sir. I would like to bring in outside resources.”
“You want to pay for bodyguards for them?”
“Yes, sir.” She wasn’t going to let her brother or the woman he was clearly smitten with lose their lives, like Kyle had.
And Elle knew her limitations. She couldn’t be with them twenty-four-seven, not without removing herself from her current assignment. She could do more to assure their long-term safety staying on it.
“We could bring in another agency, but that’s not our way,” The Old Man said.
No, it wasn’t. “For good reason, sir.”
He made a sound of agreement. “I concur that Ms. Renaud and her lover need full-time supervision at present. TGP will see to it.”
“If you don’t mind, sir, I would prefer to choose the outside resources.”
“Whom do you have in mind?”
“Do you remember that friend of Alan’s? He and his associates were mercenaries and now they run a secur
ity consultation firm almost as good as mine. It’s called Elite Security Force.”
“I’ll make the call.”
“If you are sure. I’m fully prepared to fund this endeavor.”
“That won’t be necessary, but I’ll make it clear to them that you are the agent in charge on this case.”
“Good. Will you be calling Alan in?”
“I think you can get what you need from him in a phone consult. His investigation didn’t extend to anything thorough in California. Which is why your assignment was created.”
“Okay.” The call-waiting click sounded on her phone. “I’ve got another call, sir.” She looked at the display. “It’s Beau. He’s probably calling with details on the meeting with Frank Ingram.”
“Take it. I’ll call you when I have information on Elite Security Force.”
“Got it.” Elle beeped through to the other call. “Beau?”
“Yeah, it’s me, sugar. Frank wants to meet in his office at ETRD as soon as we can all get there.”
“I’ll get Chantal and Matej on the move.”
“See you there soon,” he said, then hung up.
Both Beau and Frank were waiting in the controller’s office when Elle walked in with her brother and Chantal.
“Mr. Smith is joining us on speakerphone,” Frank said as they all took chairs around the six-person dark-wood conference table that dominated one side of the room. “The other three have arrived, sir.”
“Hello, Ms. Gray, Dr. Chernichenko, Ms. Renaud,” came the cultured male accent from the high-end speakerphone on the table near where Frank was sitting.
The phone’s quality was so good it sounded like the other man was in the room with them. None of the tinny acoustics so many speakerphones were plagued with.
Elle said, “Mr. Smith, it’s good to talk to you again.”
“Hello, Mr. Smith,” Chantal said, hiding her nervousness admirably.
Elle’s brother was back to his normal unsmiling self, but he managed to grunt a greeting to the founder of ETRD. She loved her brother, but she bet the employees on his team would be really happy to see Gil Bigsley back. If the man could be found.
“Ms. Renaud, I must apologize for the stress you have been put through as an employee of Environmental Technology Research and Design.”
