Devereaux Billionaires Complete Series: Books 1-4

by Mallory Crowe

  Hotchins approached and Luke took a deep swig of water, wishing it was something else that could distract him from the clusterfuck around him.

  “I hope you’re doing okay, Mr. Devereaux,” said Hotchins.

  “Honestly, it’s been kind of a shitty night.”

  Hotchins nodded in understanding. “I believe it.”

  Hotchins didn’t know the half of what was pissing Luke off, but he wasn’t about to enlighten the agent.

  “I just got off the phone with your brother and cousin. They’re both fine and haven’t noticed anything out of the ordinary. Mr. Lance said he’d work on getting them protection that they could, um, trust, as soon as possible.”

  Which meant he might be trying to send more guys to Luke. And if there were new bodyguards for Luke, that meant Evelyn wouldn’t be anywhere close. He glanced down to see that his hands were curled into fists once more.

  No. All he needed was some time. He’d be damned if Evelyn was going to blame what happened on their relationship and he’d be damned if she was going to wallow in guilt over killing some man who wouldn’t have thought twice about doing the same to her.

  “How is Evelyn doing?” asked Luke.

  Hotchins’s brow furrowed. “Evelyn? She’s a professional. She’s doing fine.”

  “She just killed a man,” pointed out Luke.

  “And she will process that in her own time. Right now you’re her number one priority. Because of the incident at her apartment, we’re hesitant to get anyone else on your detail, so she’s determined to stay on. I guarantee, you’re safe with her.”

  Great. Hotchins thought he was complaining about Evelyn now. “As long as she’s in New York,” muttered Luke.

  “What was that?”

  “Evelyn told me that she wants to transfer back to her old position when this is all over. I’m just worried that the investigation will stretch on too long and she’ll go back sooner.” Or she’d finally let her anger take over and leave as soon as possible to get away from him. Luke was reasonably certain he could get Evelyn to come back to him if he had time. But he couldn’t woo her from across the country. Well, maybe he could, but the kind of chemistry he and Evelyn had in person was electric. He needed her to remember that feeling.

  And hopefully she’d realize how unique it was.

  “I’m sure Evelyn will stay until everything is taken care of,” said Hotchins.

  “I’m going back to the city tonight,” said Luke.

  “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “I have no idea if it’s a good idea, but our theory about hiding out obviously didn’t get us anywhere and I have shit to get done.” True, but not work shit. As much as he trusted Evelyn as an agent, this situation with the Thirteen Stars was getting out of hand, and he needed to take over.

  He had one major advantage over the FBI. He had no problem breaking all laws necessary to get what he wanted. And he wanted Evelyn Price.

  In order for that to happen, Brian Longineu was going to have to go down.

  “Hi, Gail,” said Evelyn with a fake smile as she sat down on the other side of the interrogation table.

  The older woman looked as if she’d been through hell. Her eyes were red and puffy, her hair a tangled mess. Despite her attempts to be cold, Evelyn had to admit she felt bad for her former friend. She knew that Gail had been kept in nice conditions under the circumstances. She’d had a bed and blanket and, except for Hotchins, no one had interrogated her at all. So her deteriorating physical condition was almost completely due to stress and her guilty conscience.

  Which meant that there was still a federal agent in there somewhere.

  “Evelyn,” said Gail. “Believe it or not, I’m very happy you’re okay.”

  “I don’t know if I can believe that.” Gail had refused to talk to anyone but Evelyn after she was brought in on Monday, so she and Luke had split up. He was going to be secluded in his office for the morning, and Evelyn took the opportunity to get this interrogation over with as soon as possible. “I’m assuming you had your reasons for talking with Longineu.”

  A tear rolled down her face. “I don’t even know who I talked with. They never told me their name.”

  “This person offered you money to give information about my investigation?”

  “No! Well, yes. It’s not that simple.”

  It never was. “Explain it to me.”

  “They stole our savings. Almost every penny from my husband’s 401k. We’d be left with nothing and the boys are still in college...”

  “You work for the FBI. If they committed financial fraud, why wouldn’t you come to us?”

  “Because they didn’t even take it!” She took a few deep breaths, as though trying to calm herself down. “They made it disappear. He didn’t direct the investments himself. He doesn’t know the first thing about money. So we checked the box that had the fund direct investments for us. And last year, every single cent was put into the highest risk investments in the market. There was nothing we could do.”

  They both knew that was a lie. If she had come to the agency, it would’ve raised alarms. Got people looking into it. But, that being said, they might not have been able to recover the money either. And money made people do things they normally wouldn’t do.

  “I tried to avoid giving them anything useful. They only asked for easy things at first. They only started asking harder questions recently. But I never told them the Devereauxs were working with you, I swear!”

  “You didn’t have to. You told them I was working the case and Longineu spotted me at Luke’s office. You remember how you recommended I go to his office?” Though Longineu had still somehow known exactly where she was sitting...

  “I didn’t want to.” More tears poured down Gail’s face.

  Evelyn wanted to be dispassionate about the whole scene, but it was hard not to feel sorry for the woman who’d almost caused her death. “Do you know if any other agents were working with them?”

  Gail shook her head. “I think I’m the only one. They didn’t seem to know things before I told them.”

  “What about Hotchins? Did he seem suspicious at all to you?”

  For the first time, Gail seemed truly confused. “Hotchins? No. He’s one of the best agents I know.”

  “Funny. He said the same about you,” pointed out Evelyn.

  The color drained from Gail’s face. “If he is working with them, I don’t know anything about it,” she murmured.

  If it wasn’t Hotchins who gave them away, who was it? Damn it. She needed to get back to Luke, and she needed to get down to business with this interrogation. Hopefully they’d get something useful out of Gail.

  Evelyn pushed a pad of paper and a pen across the metal table to Gail. “I want you to write down every single thing you remember. When they first contacted you, how they contacted you, what they sounded like. Everything.”

  She nodded and picked up the pen. “I am sorry, Evelyn.”

  “They tried to kill me, Gail. He invaded my home and tried to kill me. What would you have done if they’d attacked Luke the night you were watching him? Would you have the balls to watch what they did or would you close your eyes?”

  Gail didn’t say anything. She just picked up the pen and started to write.

  While she was writing, Evelyn took out the phone she’d taken from the dead attacker from the night before. After picking it up with her bare hands, she’d packed it in a baggie and put it in her luggage. She didn’t want the locals putting it into evidence.

  Now that it had been scanned for fingerprints—only hers and the dead man’s showed up—she was free to touch it. She looked at the history and wrote down the two numbers in the phone’s history log before she passed the paper over for Gail to see. “Do any of these numbers look familiar?”

  Gail looked them over and shook her head. “No. The numbers they called me from were always blocked, so I couldn’t see anything about them.”

  Another dead end. S
hocking. “I’ll be right back.” Evelyn walked out of the interrogation room.

  Hotchins waited for her on the other side of the one-way mirror. “Do you still suspect me?”

  She shrugged. “Someone found out where we were. Luke said he didn’t tell anyone. I made sure no one could track us by our computer activity and Luke didn’t use his cell phone at all.”

  “Are you sure he didn’t use it? A lot of people are surgically attached to those things these days.”

  “Well, I made him give it to me for the time we were in the Hamptons. So I’m pretty sure.”

  “He could’ve snatched it sometime when you were in the shower. You weren’t with him every moment.”

  Evelyn tried her best to make sure no hint of blush crept up her cheeks. If only he knew exactly how many moments she and Luke spent together. “If he had been stupid enough to use his phone, he would’ve copped up to it after what happened last night.”

  “If you say so. Any luck with the phone?”

  “Gail didn’t recognize the numbers. I’m going to call them from a secure line right now and see if anyone is stupid enough to answer.”

  Hotchins nodded. “I’m going to see if Gail will talk to me. Maybe now that she apologized to you, she’ll be more open to sharing all the details of what happened.”

  Evelyn nodded as he walked past her. Part of her wanted to listen in to hear what Gail would tell Hotchins, but she didn’t have time. She could listen to the recordings later when she was back with Luke.

  She went up three flights of stairs until she got to one of the secure lines. This way, if whoever she was calling had caller ID, they’d see her as a John Smith calling, instead of the FBI number. The first number she dialed went straight to an automated voicemail that gave nothing away. Hopefully whatever database they ran the number through would give her more.

  Then she tried the second number. This time, she hit pay dirt. “You’ve reached Easson. I’m not able to come to the phone. Leave a message and I’ll call you back.”

  Easson. That was something she could work with. It wasn’t a super common name, and the phone number was probably registered to him considering the voicemail had his name on it. She gave the number to the technical division before she headed back to DevX.

  “Are you comfortable keeping this from Evelyn?” asked Luke into the phone.

  “Evelyn is more than qualified to deal with anything, but not with her hands tied behind her back,” said Jace. “I can be on the next plane out.”

  “No. I want you there with Emma.” The words felt like sandpaper in his throat, but it was true. As long as Jace was with her, nothing would happen. “Just see what you can find out on your end. I’m done sitting around and waiting for them to make a move. I’m going on the offensive.”

  “Do you know the Farrells?” asked Jace.

  “The Farrells? As in the real estate moguls?”

  “Those ones. Walter Farrell works with a former associate of mine. Colin Carter. I’m going to see if he can help you out. Walter has lived in the city the past few years and Carter usually isn’t too far behind.”

  “Great. I appreciate it.”

  “Anything for Emma,” said Jace.

  “You two aren’t going to elope, are you?” blurted out Luke.

  “What?”

  “Michael and Lori had me freaked out that they were going to elope. I mean, a destination wedding is one thing, but Emma isn’t getting married without me, Lance.”

  “Michael and Lori are getting married?”

  Shit. “Not officially. But they’ve been talking about it.” Luke let out a sigh of relief. Jace wasn’t planning to elope with Emma. At least part of his family wasn’t changing.

  “I mean, I’m definitely going to marry Emma, but I think we’re going for something bigger. Her choice, not mine.”

  “You’re engaged? Emma should’ve told me!” It was like his entire family was coupling off and they were keeping him out of the loop.

  “Um, well, it’s not official or anything. But it’s come up a few times in conversation.”

  Not official? You’re either getting married or you’re not. There’s no maybe about it, at least as far as Luke was concerned. Luke shook his head and figured he’d deal with that problem later. “Get Colin Carter up to speed on what we’re dealing with and pass him my contact info.”

  “Will do.” Jace hung up right as Evelyn walked in holding two cups of coffee.

  Luke set the phone down and tried to look normal. “Good morning.”

  “Morning.” Evelyn set one of the coffees on his desk. She was at least being civil to him, which was nice to know. After the awkwardly silent drive back to the city in the early hours of the morning, he’d been half worried that this was how things were going to be between them now. But he took the coffee as a sign of good things coming.

  “Thank you.” He took the large cup from her. “Did you get anything from that agent you were questioning?”

  “A few things. Also I might have a phone number that will lead to a real, live person. Was Cali able to fix your schedule now that you’re working from here?”

  Right back to her professional self. Even back to her mismatched pants and suit, this time beige slacks and a brown suit jacket with a white blouse beneath. “She’s been doing her best.”

  “I want to have a few moments with her today. I think it’s time she knows that I’m not really an intern since I’m pretty sure she never bought that story anyway.”

  “Funny. She’s never believed much of my bullshit either,” said Luke with a sideways grin.

  Evelyn didn’t crack a smile.

  “If you want to take a break on my couch, feel free. I know you got just as little sleep as me.”

  “I can handle the lack of sleep. Just let me know if you need anything.”

  “And what if I need privacy?” If Colin Carter called him back, he’d rather Evelyn not be in the room when he talked with someone about going over her head.

  “Keeping secrets?”

  “My biggest client is the US government. Secrets kind of go along with the territory. If you saw the size of the nondisclosure agreements they make me sign, you’d understand.”

  “You should see some of those I’ve seen.” She took a seat on the couch at the other end of his office.

  She didn’t say anything else, and he tried to go back to work. Which was difficult considering a majority of his work involved phone calls and meetings. She didn’t seem to mind the constant noise in the background. She’d moved from his office sofa to the table in the corner for more private meetings in his office. She had her computer set up and stared intently at the screen every time he glanced over to her.

  During a fifteen-minute lull in calls, the silence finally got to him. “Did you have any thoughts on dinner?” he asked. “I was thinking about making reservations at a nice Italian place down the street.”

  Evelyn met his eyes from over her computer screen, but she seemed unenthused with the idea. “Whatever you want.”

  “Do you have a preference? Everyone likes Italian, right?”

  Evelyn lowered her laptop halfway so Luke could get the full effect of her frown. “I’m here on protective detail, Luke. Just go about like you normally would.”

  “I don’t normally have a smoking hot FBI agent following my every move. So there is no normal here.”

  “If you want to go out to dinner, that’s fine. But not a date. From now on, things between us will be strictly professional.”

  Luke stood up, his chair shooting behind him at the sudden motion. “Damn it, Evelyn.” He crossed the room in a few long strides. He pulled the arm of her chair until it rolled out from the table and set his hands on the armrest on either side of her, caging her in. “I’m not going to pretend the last three days never happened.”

  She started to get up, but he didn’t budge, and she remained stuck in the chair. “Get out of my way, Luke.”

  “Stop treating me like
just another one of your assets.”

  “You are just another one of my assets. The fact that we slept together has no bearing on our interactions from now on.”

  Luke leaned in closer. “I still want you. You still want me. Don’t let a little guilt over something that wasn’t even your fault cloud your judgment.”

  “The only thing clouding my judgment is you.” She brushed her fingers over the tender spot on his forehead where he’d been struck the night before. It was now a nasty dark blue and raised. “If I’d been doing my job, I never would’ve showered with you. I would’ve been in the living room, standing guard like I was supposed to be doing.” She pushed herself up again, and this time, he did move out of her way. “So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to go back to doing my job the way I should’ve in the first place. Distraction free.”

  Evelyn crossed to the door and Luke watched her go. “Just tell me one thing,” he said right before she left.

  She paused before she stepped out of the office. “What?”

  “I’m a damn fun distraction, right?”

  She looked over her shoulder at him. “You weren’t the worst distraction,” she conceded before she left.

  Luke smiled as he looked around the empty office. That was promising. He’d get Evelyn back even sooner than he expected.

  Evelyn tried to shake off the shivers that raced through her. Even though Luke hadn’t touched her, it was as if she could feel him all over.

  She let her head fall back and rolled it around, trying to get back to her equilibrium. Luke had a way of throwing her off balance, even with just a look. All the more reason for her to keep her distance.

  She didn’t know why it was so important to him to be with her. From what she knew about playboys, once they had a taste, they were normally done. But she supposed there wasn’t much normal about Luke.

  As she approached Cali’s desk, she forced herself to go blank. She needed to be focused for this next conversation. “Hey there,” she said, and the blonde looked over immediately, smile in place. Evelyn wished she could be that cheery. Or at least know how to fake that kind of cheer.