He gathered his things and slipped out of the room, promising himself not to get into this situation again. After all, both his brothers would be pissed if they found out what he had done—he was supposed to be down here on business, not banging a girl they all had wanted to sleep with for years. He couldn’t get them to see him differently if he didn’t act differently.
After freshening up in his own room, Hawk picked up his phone and dialed the office again, determined that he was going to get his hands on those reports today. He didn’t care how it was going to happen, he had to get that paperwork, and it was going to be today, one way or another. When the receptionist answered, he immediately told her to put him through to Gordon.
“I’m sorry, but he’s not in,” she replied.
“How can that be? You opened like ten minutes ago!” Hawk shot back, in no mood to be given the runaround again. He was going to get those files, and she was going to help him.
“He said that he called you back last night. I apologize for the inconvenience,” she answered. He was about to say something else but she hung up the phone. Hawk threw his phone on the bed. “Fuck!”
Suddenly, he had an idea. Gordon could run from him, but he couldn’t hide. He would simply wait at the office for him. He had nothing better to do with his day, so he would drive down there and stay planted in the waiting room. When Gordon got back, he would demand to see the reports, and that would be the end of that. With a smile on his face, he headed downstairs and hailed a taxi.
“What are you doing here? I told you that he wasn’t going to be in for a while,” the receptionist asked when she saw Hawk walk through the doors. This time, he was less taken with how pretty she was. Compared to Kathryn, no other woman held a candle, after all.
“I know what you said, but I’m going to wait here until he comes in. And if he doesn’t come in today, I’ll be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next. He can run, but he’s going to have to come back eventually.” Hawk smiled as he leaned on the desk. “Or, you could make this a lot easier on both of us.”
He gave her his most seductive look, and he could see that she was both intimidated and taken with him at the same time. She fluttered her eyes but looked back down at the paper in front of her, clearly feeling torn on what to do. Hawk could see that he was making progress with the girl, and he smiled.
“Come on, sweetheart, you know you want to help me—I really could use it,” he prompted.
“All right, but if you say anything, he’ll have my neck,” she said nervously. He made a motion of sealing his lips, and she smiled.
“He’s been avoiding you,” she said flatly.
He looked at her curiously. “Why?”
She hesitated.
“Come on, I know you know more about this than you want to let me know. I promise, you are doing me a solid, and I’m not going to say a word about it.” He smiled seductively once more, and she blushed.
“Oh, you devil. He’s been choosing cheaper and cheaper labor and supplies, and nothing is going well. You can’t trust those people, and though everyone knows that, he is just trying to make more money off this himself.” She leaned in and spoke with a gossiping tone, and Hawk mimicked her, knowing she was eating up the attention.
“Can you show me?” he breathed. She glanced around the office, then quickly typed in a few things. When she turned her monitor to him, he could see the names of many of the companies his father had often complained about when he was still alive. He felt a mix of anger and triumph fill his heart, but he masked his feelings as he looked back at the receptionist with wide eyes. He knew that keeping the appearance of surprise on his face was the best way to get her to tell him anything that he wanted to know—and it was clearly working.
“Is there anything else you can tell me? This is coming as quite the shock to me, and I really can’t believe I have been so gullible. I really owe you one, Stacy.” He glanced at her name plaque on the counter, and she blushed as she smiled, nervously brushing her hair behind her ear.
“Not really, but I can print these out for you,” she said at last, clearly wanting to be as helpful as possible.
Hawk mustered his most grateful look. “Oh, would you? Thank you so much! I didn’t know if I could dare ask for such a thing, I really appreciate it!” He glanced around the room as though he, too, were worried that they were going to be overheard. She smiled coyly as she hit a button, and within minutes Hawk had in his hand all the paperwork he needed to prove that they were dealing with a fraud. As soon as he was back in his hotel room, he grabbed his phone and called Blake.
“It’s about time you decided to get a hold of us. Do you have those reports?” The sound of his voice told Hawk that Blake thought his younger brother was merely wasting his time in Las Vegas, and likely not even doing anything to try and help out company. Hawk had a surge of pleasure run through him as he told his brother to shut up and listen.
“We’re being double-crossed,” he said.
“What are you talking about?” Blake sounded incredulous.
“Gordon and Jack are cutting corners and skimping on the work, pocketing all the extra dough themselves.”
“Are you fucking serious?” Blake asked, the anger clearly shining through in his tone.
“Fuck, yes, I am, and I’ve got proof. I’ll send you copies of all the documents that show everything—I have it all,” Hawk said with a smile. He flipped through the papers in his hands, and grinned when Blake’s voice came through the phone a lot louder.
“Yes! Send it up here on the double. I need to see those things for myself as soon as possible!”
“I’ll have them to you right away,” Hawk said. He didn’t wait for Blake to answer. Instead, he hung up the phone as he stepped out of his hotel room. He knew where he could go to fax the papers up to New York, and his brother would be able to look over the paperwork for himself. It wasn’t too bad for a single day’s work, if he had to say so himself. Within the hour he was at one of the offices for the company, and he faxed the information up to New York.
It wasn’t long before his phone was ringing once more, and he answered it. “What do you think of that? I told you there was something fishy going on around here.”
He explained to his brother how both men had been avoiding him almost from the beginning, and how he had had to get the receptionist to give him the information. There was silence on the other end of the line for a few moments. He could hear by the way his brother was breathing that he was far from happy with the situation, but Blake clearly hadn’t decided how to handle it.
There were a number of things they could do, but the fact that it was going to be another scandal was more than any of the Parker brothers wanted to be a part of. It was hard enough dealing with the paparazzi and everything else that the news liked to throw their way. Finally, he sighed.
“You might as well come on home, Hawk. You’ve done what you can, but I really don’t see that there is much we can do here. I’m going to pull the plug on the investments, and we are going to just cut our losses here. Thank God you went down there and figured this all out before we had a shitty hotel permanently on our hands. We’ll lose a ton of money now, but it would have been millions more later.” Blake’s voice sounded disappointed, and for the first time in as long as he could remember, Hawk felt sorry for him.
But then, there was another thought that came to his mind. He suddenly remembered that Kathryn had told him that she was in Las Vegas to live it up for a while, and if he were to leave, he didn’t want to think of the things she could get herself into. He knew it wasn’t his job, but at the same time, he didn’t feel comfortable leaving her down in Sin City unsupervised.
“You know what? I bet we can get something on them without this blowing up,” he said.
“What?” Blake asked.
“We don’t have to just run away with our tail between our legs. You know Dad wouldn’t do that if he were here, and I don’t think we should do that, either.
We have a case here—they are the ones who were pulling fraud on us, not the other way around—so why are we going to just run away and let them have all the money and glory? Come on, you know that I’m not going to be much help when I get back to New York. Let me stay and look this over a bit longer. I bet you I can find enough dirt on them to get them arrested for fraud.” He wasn’t waiting for his brother to answer, his mind more on staying in Las Vegas than it was on the company.
“I don’t know, the last thing that I want is for you to make another headline yourself. We don’t need any more bad publicity, okay?” Blake sounded resolute, but Hawk was quick to try to change his mind.
“I’m not going to do anything stupid; I’m just going to see what else these guys are up to. Come on, Blake, you know we don’t have that kind of money to just walk away from it without another word. Let me do this.” He didn’t need his brother’s permission, but it was going to be a lot easier for him to justify staying in Las Vegas if he had a work reason to do so.
“Okay, fine. But I swear to God, if I hear of you on the news for any reason, it’s going to be hell to pay when you get back here,” Blake said.
“Gotcha,” Hawk replied nonchalantly. He hung up the phone and smiled to himself. He really was going to look into the situation that had happened with those men, but he had also practically just gotten permission to hang out with Kathryn in Las Vegas for a few more days.
And whatever happened in Vegas, stayed in Vegas.
Chapter Twelve
Kathryn
Kathryn lowered her sunglasses, looking over the body of the male model in her magazine. There were parts of the man that reminded her of Hawk. Or did they? She wasn’t sure. It was difficult for her to get Hawk off her mind. She had woken up about mid-morning, proud of herself for not having drunk enough to have a hangover. Her head was fuzzy, but she wasn’t nauseous. There had been times back in the day when she had partied with Hawk and woken up hungover like a high schooler who had gotten into her father’s liquor.
She had to admit, when she rolled over and found herself to alone in the bed she had been rather upset. She hadn’t known what she expected—Hawk never had been the cuddling type, and if she had to be honest with herself, neither had she in the mornings. She liked to lie for a few minutes with the person she had just had sex with, but they had passed out together that same night, so she had already done that.
Kathryn tried not to take it personally; she knew that there was nothing left between her and Hawk besides the same attraction they had always had. Of course, Hawk hadn’t stayed that morning— there’d been no reason for him to do so. He’d likely thought of the evening as a one-night stand. And that was what she’d said she wanted.
But then, what did she call what they had? They weren’t dating, and she knew Hawk was not the kind of man to want to start up again with someone whom he had had a fling with before. In fact, it was a miracle that he had had sex with her in the first place. He had often said that he would never go back and have sex with someone after they had broken up—the last thing he wanted was for them to get attached to him
She tried to tell herself that she wasn’t attached to him, either. After all, she had come to Vegas to have fun—and sex—with anyone who wanted it. Yes, it would be a real bonus if Hawk was that person, but if he wasn’t, she would have been just as happy to have sex with that man she had found at the pool.
Or would she have been?
Kathryn wanted to believe that was how she felt about it. She hated to think that she might be attracted to Hawk again. At least, attracted to his personality. He had taken very good care of himself since they had broken up, and she could imagine that had they stayed together, she would have had no problem being faithful to him.
But with him being gone, Kathryn now had to figure out what she was going to do with her day. She hadn’t thought that she would spend the day him, but she hadn’t exactly thought that she was going to be alone, either. Not wanting to spend a lot of money, she decided to go back down to the pool.
It was nearly noon by the time she got down there, and she had to admit she was glad that the man she had been flirting with the day before wasn’t present. The last thing she wanted was to have to explain what had happened between her and Hawk, or worse, her and him. Kathryn hoped that it would be obvious that she had only been wanting him for her own selfish desires, and that he would feel the same way about her.
“’Scuse me, miss, but I couldn’t help but notice there isn’t a ring on your finger. Can I interest you in a drink by chance?” a man asked as he rose out of the pool. He walked over to her, a towel wrapped around his swimsuit but pulling it down enough that she could see the V cut he had. She looked over his body, taking her time to get up to his eyes. He gave her a sultry grin, and she took off her sunglasses, putting one of the arms to her lips.
“I don’t think so, but thank you,” she replied. He looked at her with surprise in his eyes. Looking down, it was clear he was feeling as though there had to be something wrong with her—and that must be why she would turn such an attractive individual down. She looked at him once more, then went back to looking through her magazine. It was clear she was done with him, and she wasn’t going to acknowledge him again.
After a moment of standing awkwardly in front of her, he scoffed and walked away, leaving her to her magazine. She was glad that she was left in peace, but it was short-lived. Lying in her bikini in the sun that poured in through the window, it was just a matter of time before another man came over and hit on her, then another. When all the men in the room saw that she would rather be left alone, it was only those who came into the pool room after the fact that started hitting on her.
Though Kathryn did enjoy the admiration she was receiving from the men, she didn’t allow any of them to get far with her. She didn’t need to. She was feeling a lot better after having spent the night having sex to her heart’s content, and she was feeling rather tired afterward. Tired, but happy.
Kathryn couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so happy and relaxed. Of course, none of her problems had left her, but now she felt that she was going to be able to handle them. She didn’t want to spend too much money right now, as she knew she was going to have a lot of bills to pay when she got home, but at the same time, she wasn’t going to let it get her down.
So far, she felt she had accomplished what she had come to Las Vegas for, and she was going to enjoy the rest of her time here feeling pleased with herself.
Suddenly, the door opened, Hawk walked in, and her heart skipped a beat. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to see him, but she could see that he was irritated about something. He walked right up to her, and she put her magazine down, looking up at him from under her sunglasses.
“What’s up with you?” she asked archly. “I’m not here picking up guys. Trust me, I’m more than satisfied.”
Hawk looked at her for a moment, and it was clear that he didn’t fully believe her. Finally, he looked up at the ceiling and sighed, then looked back down at her and gave a light nod toward the door. “Get dressed. I’m going to take you out to take a private tour of the city. You’ve never seen half the things this place has to offer, and you aren’t going to spend your vacation here looking at a magazine full of naked men at the side of a hotel pool.”
Kathryn looked up at him with wide eyes, and she couldn’t help but hesitate. She wanted to go with him, but at the same time, she wondered what his real intentions were. She had had fun with him the past couple of days, the one night out on the town, the other night between the sheets. But, with the way he was wanting to take her out yet again, she couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing.
“Well, if you want to wait for me, I would love to join you—but may I ask why?” she asked.
“Because you wanted to get some things out of your system, and I have found myself to be free yet again. Do you want to get out of here or do you want to just stand here and talk about it forever?” he aske
d impatiently. She laughed and rose from her chair, aware that all eyes on the room were on her.
“I’ll be right back,” she said.
Less than an hour later, she found herself with him in the back of a taxi. She was surprised to see that he had taken the time to get ready to take her out when she had been getting dressed in her room. She’d thought that he was just hanging out in room, but the next time she saw him, she was amazed at the transformation that had taken place.
Hawk was no longer in his suit and tie—he was wearing his jeans and jacket. The casual look suited him so well that it made it difficult for her to think clearly. But, as the cab driver pulled away from the curb, she couldn’t get a question off her mind about why his day was suddenly free.
“What is with all the people who keep bailing on you? I thought Parker Industries was a little more respected than that,” she said. He sighed and shook his head, clearly annoyed with the situation himself.
“There’s a lot going on, actually. I don’t really have the time to go into all the details, or rather, I really don’t know what all the details are. But trust me, I am going to get to the bottom of this,” he said after briefly mentioning what happened with the hotel. She shook her head.
“Sounds really sleazy if you ask me. But I bet you enjoy being down here. It’s got to be nice getting to work away from the watchful eye of your brothers,” she said. Hawk nodded, but obviously wanted to change the subject. Though it was no secret to anyone that he and his brothers certainly didn’t get along, Kathryn could see that he didn’t want to discuss them with her.
Love in Lust Page 7
