She picked up the phone without looking at the handset to see who was on the other end. “Hello?”
“Darcy, you missed our appointment today.”
Her stomach clenched at the sound of Malcolm’s voice. She reached for a cracker and reminded herself to breathe. “I thought we were done with that. You got what you wanted.”
He cleared his throat. “I’m not sure what we have yet. We’re still analyzing it. However nothing we find there will help us find evidence of what happened to Scott. We can’t drop the act yet. I need you to come into Theo’s office at Snyder’s and check over his work on the foundation’s website.”
Hearing him talk about his cover identity like that threw her for a loop. In her mind, she struggled to figure out the difference between Malcolm and Theo. Malcolm had told her there wasn’t one, not really. Yet he attributed his work to Theo.
“Darcy?”
She had been quiet for too long. “Yes?”
“This will fall apart without your cooperation. I wish I could do this without involving you, but you’re the key to infiltrating Snyder’s inner circle. We need you.”
Longing wrapped around her core, and she wished he was there to hold her in his arms. She ached for him, but she wasn’t ready to have him in her life. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“You can.” He used his Dom voice, the one that had carried her through that first speech. “You are the strongest woman I’ve ever met. It won’t be easy and I’m sorry for that, but you can’t give up now. You can’t let him win.”
No, she couldn’t let the person who’d hurt Scott win. However she still hadn’t seen evidence of Victor’s guilt. Based on nothing but suspicion and probability, the police had hounded her. She couldn’t do that to another person, especially not someone who had helped her so much. “Malcolm, how can you be so sure Victor is the one? What if you’re wrong?”
“I’m not wrong.” His confidence came through loud and clear. She wanted to cling to his surety, his strength, and his body, just to inhale his scent.
But what if he wasn’t right? What if Victor was guilty of money laundering and all those financial crimes, but he had nothing to do with Scott’s disappearance?
“Darcy, come in tomorrow. Meet with me. I’m working my ass off to extract data from the processor we found. I’ll bring over what evidence I can show you on Wednesday. We have a witness that places Scott in Snyder’s neighborhood the night he went missing.”
It sounded like a good compromise, but she wasn’t free tomorrow. And the longer she put off meeting with him, the longer she put off having to confront the tattered state of their relationship. “I have a meeting tomorrow, and I’m busy the rest of the day.” She still had more clothes to clean out, and she hadn’t begun to pack up Scott’s workroom. Plus she had to schedule in her daily nap and bouts of nausea. The next seven and a half months had better not be like this.
“Come after your meeting. Just stop by for twenty minutes, enough to keep up appearances.”
She munched the cracker. “I’ll try.”
__________
When she missed their meeting the next day, Malcolm wasn’t surprised. She hadn’t exactly committed to the appointment. He headed to Victor’s office without her. He would present the finished website for Snyder Foundation, and if things went well, Snyder would offer him more work.
Victor’s admin, Georgie, waved him inside. She spoke into her phone, pausing long enough to flash a friendly smile.
The inner sanctum looked exactly the same, but the stakes were much higher. This was the point where Malcolm either became a trusted associate or was shown the door.
Victor shook his hand and clapped him on the back, but he declined to see the site. “I looked it over this morning. Nice work. Darcy approves?”
“Of course.” He lied smoothly. Mickey Halter slunk forward, and Malcolm nodded in greeting as he conducted a silent threat assessment. Though the thug was bulkier than Malcolm, he was a little shorter. Despite the ease with which Malcolm had overpowered Halter in the stairwell, he suspected it wouldn’t be so easy to win a fight Halter actually wanted to win.
Halter handed Malcolm an envelope. “And how is Darcy? I haven’t seen her around this week. She usually finds a reason to stop by at least every other day.”
Victor poured two brandies and set one in front of Malcolm.
“She’s been busy.” He examined the outside of the manila envelope.
Victor took a sip and leaned back in his chair. “So I saw.”
Malcolm didn’t know what that meant. Darcy’s recent radio silence had cut him out of her life. He had no ready response, so he said what Victor needed to hear. “She’ll be there. I’ll make sure of it.”
How, he had no idea. If she refused to go, they couldn’t very well force her to cooperate.
Victor nodded sagely. “I’m impressed, Stevenson. I drove by Darcy’s house yesterday afternoon, and I saw something that’s been a long time coming. She’s spending the days clearing out evidence of her former relationships and her nights with you. There was a time when I thought she’d never move forward.”
Clearing out evidence of former relationships? She had said she wanted to clean out Scott’s things, but he didn’t think she would feel she still had a reason to do it. No wonder she sounded so tired and worn when he’d spoken with her the night before. She shouldn’t have to go through that alone. Struggling to not show how Snyder’s statement affected him, Malcolm reached for his glass. He sat back and lifted the corner of his mouth into a smirky smile. “Her triggers took some time to find, but they were a pleasure to uncover.”
The three shared a laugh that made Malcolm a little sick inside.
Two days later, he still hadn’t heard from Darcy. He’d called, but she hadn’t answered. When he’d cruised by her house, he saw her car in the driveway and the lights on, but he hadn’t possessed the courage to intrude. She’d asked for time.
But time was up. In a little under four hours, he needed to have her to Snyder’s house.
__________
“Darcy? Sweetheart, it’s time to wake up.”
Without opening her eyes, Darcy rolled toward the delicious sounds of his honeyed words. If she gave in and opened them, the voice would be gone and she would awaken to an empty room and pangs of loneliness.
Reaching out, she found warm flesh. She ran her fingertips over his cheeks and across his lips. Then she buried her fingers in his hair and pulled him down. With her heart and soul, she yearned for his kiss. She didn’t open her eyes or say anything, though by this point she was awake enough to know Malcolm was in her bedroom.
He hadn’t surrendered his key, and now he teased her mouth with the gentle pressure of his almost kiss. The entire week had been so horribly draining. Right now she wanted to forget any of it had happened. She wanted to drown in his arms.
Parting her lips in an unmistakable invitation, she managed a mewling plea. With a groan, he braced his hands on either side of her head, crushing her pillow flat and releasing the passion bottled inside both of them.
It exploded, liquid and hot. She moaned and clutched his shirt. She wanted him closer, and she wanted no clothing barriers between them. Still ravaging her mouth, he captured her hands and held them above her head. She arched, lifting her body closer, but since he stood next to the bed and she was trapped beneath the covers, it did no good.
Just when she thought she’d expire from the sweet bliss, he broke the kiss and rested his forehead against hers. Her oxygen-starved chest heaved, and she was happy to see him similarly out of breath. He lifted his head, depriving her of that contact.
She tried to reach for him, but he still had her wrists pinned. “Don’t go.”
“I’d have been here days ago if I thought this was how you’d greet me.”
Days ago she would have rewarded his bravery with a fat lip. Sometime yesterday, a few hours after she finished clearing the last of Scott’s things from his workr
oom, the ache left by his lies had morphed into an ache for him.
Before she could say anything, her afternoon companion made waves in her stomach. She fought his hold. “Let me up.”
He didn’t, and she didn’t have time for an explanation.
She didn’t know how else to call a quick end to the game they were or weren’t playing. “Red.”
Not only did he release her wrists, he took a step back. That turned out to be fortuitous. She shot out of bed and through the bathroom door in record time. Fortunately she managed to slam it closed before she lost her lunch.
When she was finished, she stumbled to the sink to brush her teeth and wash the clamminess from her face and neck. The cool water always felt good.
The door’s handle jiggled, but it didn’t turn. Thank goodness the door had locked when it closed. She couldn’t do that trick again if she tried it a hundred more times. Malcolm pounded on the wood. “Darcy? What’s wrong? Are you sick?”
“Fine.” Her voice sounded weak and thin, but it had enough volume to carry. “I’m going to take a shower.”
He jiggled the handle again. “Open the door, Darcy. You don’t get to call red and then disappear to take a shower.”
She patted her face dry and opened the door. Light from the bathroom spilled into the bedroom, illuminating how handsome he looked in a black suit. She braced her hand against the jamb. “It was either that or throw up on your nice suit.”
Those warm brown eyes roamed her body from head to toe. No doubt she looked pale. It always took her an hour or so to recover to the point she didn’t look in the mirror and cringe. “You’re sick. You never nap this late in the day, and that’s twice you’ve…” He trailed off and gestured toward the toilet.
Though the nausea had been an evening companion, she didn’t always vomit. She leaned to glance around him at the digital clock. It showed less than an hour before they had to leave the house if they wanted to get to Victor’s on time. It wasn’t polite to show up late at these formal occasions.
“I’m feeling a little under the weather, but I’ll be okay tonight. Just don’t be shocked if I don’t eat much.” She stepped back into the bathroom and put her hand on the door to indicate she was about to close it. “Now if you don’t mind, I need a shower.”
The argument in his head played out across his face, but at last he nodded. “I’ll be downstairs.”
Darcy had never showered and dressed so quickly. Her hair wasn’t going to do anything elegant without a lot of work, and she only had time to blow it out. So she opted to use barrettes to sweep it out of her face and let it fall freely between her shoulder blades.
The black dress wasn’t new, but it looked good. The straps that went over her shoulders crossed in back. The neckline scooped down, but not too deep, and the long skirt was split up both sides to the knees.
Keith whistled as she came down the stairs. She hadn’t known he was in the house. Dressed in a sharp suit, hair cropped close to his head, he looked exactly like Hollywood’s idea of a hot federal agent that nobody should mess with. “That’ll go great with some jewelry I have for you to wear.”
“She’s not wearing a camera or a wire. If we’re caught, then I don’t want anything implicating her.”
Darcy turned to see Malcolm standing in the hall. Determination glittered in his eyes, and his hungry gaze roamed over her curves.
“Attending with you implicates me. I don’t mind wearing whatever it takes to find Scott’s killer.” She closed the distance. Her heels gave her enough height to kiss him. She studied his lips, but she didn’t take advantage of the opportunity. She was no longer half-asleep, and there was too much at stake.
He didn’t reach for her and he didn’t move closer, but he did hold her prisoner with his gaze. “We’re going to talk tonight, Darcy. We’re going to clear the air.”
Trust would take time to reestablish, but she agreed it was time to talk. Over the past few days, she had done more soul-searching than she had originally anticipated. She straightened his tie, her hands steady despite her nerves, and nodded. “I’ve done a lot of thinking about us. We’ll talk tonight, when this is all over.”
As she finished with his tie, Malcolm took each of her hands in his and kissed her fingertips. “Darcy, there’s very little chance this will come to a head tonight. I’m looking to embed myself deeper into Snyder’s organization. He’s not going to consent to letting me search his house, and we don’t have enough for a warrant yet. This investigation could take months.”
That might be his goal, but hers was much different, and it would probably blow his operation to bits. She didn’t care about the money laundering or pump-and-dump schemes. The more she turned the situation over in her head, the more she could see this from Malcolm’s point of view. If Victor hadn’t killed Scott himself, he’d ordered that slimeball Halter to do it. She could see the cold logic of it all, and that gave her a clarity of purpose—she would expose Scott’s killer and bring justice to the man she’d loved.
He set his jaw hard. “If anything happens, you abandon me at once. You didn’t know. You’re appalled that I could be so disloyal. Whatever angle you have to play to stay safe, you play it.”
She set her jaw to match and shook her head. “I’ll play whatever angle I have to play to get him to admit to what he did to Scott. Agent Legato, you and I are going into this with different goals. I’ll help you with yours, but I’ll never forgive you if you stand in the way of mine. I can take care of myself.”
He closed in on her, pinning her against the railing with his proximity. “It’s my job to take care of you. This isn’t open for discussion, and disobeying me will have unpleasant consequences.”
She disregarded his threat. It didn’t matter what he did to her afterward. It only mattered that she found out once and for all what happened to Scott. The stage fright she normally experienced was absent. Keith stepped forward and ran his finger over her left shoulder strap, effectively breaking Malcolm’s spell. “I have something that’ll go here. It’ll give us a visual. I’m going to replace your barrettes with jewelry to match. Those will have directional mikes that’ll pick up conversations going on around you.”
She nodded. She’d wear anything to gain justice for Scott. “Okay. What should I be looking for?”
“Stay close to Snyder, but take your cues from Malcolm.” He clipped a thin brooch onto her shoulder strap just above her breast, and then he worked on her hair. “We’ll have a team in the street. We won’t be able to get onto the estate, so backup will be about four minutes away.”
Malcolm fit an earpiece into his ear. His hair was just long enough to provide cover. Then he slid a small gun into a holster around his calf and a knife into another holster on his other ankle. “Darcy, I expect you to run at the first sign of trouble.”
She had no intention of running until she got Victor to admit to what he’d done to Scott, but she just nodded at Malcolm and flashed her most benign smile. “Yes, Sir.”
He smiled tightly, not fooled for a second. Darcy looked away. She could almost detect the delicate tingle of butterflies brushing against her skin, and she couldn’t decide if the feeling was disconcerting or soothing.
Chapter Sixteen
Victor’s estate had never held any special charm for Darcy. She always wondered why anyone would want to live in a house so large it would incur roaming fees to call someone at the other end.
He lived in an exclusive neighborhood in a bedroom community southwest of Ann Arbor. Malcolm handed his keys to the valet and offered his arm to Darcy. She wrapped her arm under his, laying her hand loosely on his bicep. It flexed under her soft grip, and she didn’t wonder how a computer geek came by such substantial muscles.
They arrived in time for cocktails. Victor greeted her with a kiss on each cheek. He shook Malcolm’s hand and clapped him on the shoulder.
“I’m glad you changed your mind. Darcy, you do so much to benefit this community. It’s okay to take som
e time to enjoy yourself. Come, I have a mai tai for you.” He gestured to his wet bar.
She favored Victor with a sweet smile. “I promised Theo I would go virgin tonight. We have plans later. You understand.” She refused to look at Malcolm to see his reaction to her response.
Shaking his head, he lifted a brow at Malcolm. “Stevenson, what’s your poison?”
Darcy recognized several of the couples in the room, so she let the men go off to get drinks while she mingled. Keith had told her to stay close to Victor, but she figured that didn’t include the times Malcolm was with him. Though she had been in the room a dozen times, she looked at it with new eyes. Somewhere in this massive house, information or evidence hid that could lead to the capture of Scott’s killer.
She did what she normally did at Victor’s dinner parties. She conversed with a variety of people on a variety of topics and ate a decadent meal. For once that week, her stomach cooperated and let her enjoy the fruits of the personal chef’s labor. Still, she was careful to not overdo it.
Afterward they retired to the library and the conservatory for more drinks and conversation. Darcy stuck to sparkling cider. Malcolm didn’t comment, and she noticed he didn’t actually do more than take a few sips from each glass of wine given to him.
Malcolm left her side often. She suspected he was searching the house for evidence, but she didn’t know what he was looking for or where he searched. She also didn’t know what he hoped to accomplish without a search warrant. Far better to take her with him so she could rifle through drawers and cabinets. That way it wouldn’t get thrown out of court. Because, really, he couldn’t control her actions.
She did her best to keep attention to his absences to a minimum. Toward the end of the evening, she was nearly dead on her feet. A discreet glance at the clock showed it was after eleven, two hours past her recently acquired bedtime. She leaned against the edge of the wing chair behind her and listened to a woman whose name she couldn’t recall. She was the wife of one of the vice presidents. If Darcy wasn’t so tired, she would be able to remember the woman’s name.
Re/Bound (Doms of the FBI Book 1) Page 31
