“I’m not certain what my plans are,” he said. He opened the French doors for her. “In fact, if you don’t mind, I’d like to take the opportunity to make a few phone calls while you tend to that stray pin. Business,” he said by way of explanation. “You understand.”
Darby smiled and nodded, even as she scrambled to think what to do next. She needed to keep him in sight until Shane or Pepper could close in. “I suppose with all the projects you have going on that you’re never truly off duty.”
He smiled, but this time it didn’t reach his eyes. “Not really, no.”
“Just how many countries do you have mining interests in?” she asked as she gathered up her skirts to leave. “I suppose gemstones are mined all over. I really know nothing about the industry.”
His gaze hardened then, and for the first time she realized how truly dangerous a man he might be. There was a lot more to him than probing gazes, sly innuendo, and killer dimples. She entered the sunroom in front of him and felt the impact of his gaze on her back . . . only it felt a whole lot more deadly than sexual. Had she pushed too hard? Did he suspect she was on to him somehow?
Then another thought struck her. He couldn’t possibly know about Pepper, could he? Had he spotted her out there? Or—shit!—maybe he’d known about Pepper all along. And her father. After all, he’d been staying one step ahead of them for a long time. It would explain his wariness from the beginning with her last-minute substitution. Did he think she was a spy? If so, that made her relationship with Shane look all the more suspect. Suspicions which would prove to be true, since, though she wasn’t a spy, she and Shane had been investigating him. Holy Mission Impossible.
“It’s a complex science,” he said finally. “I currently have projects set up on several continents.” He placed his hand on her lower back and she had to fight the urge to run screaming out of the house.
He steered her through the bright, plant-filled sunroom and into the dim coolness of the study. And all she could think was that she’d been a pretend spy for less than thirty minutes and she’d already allowed herself to get trapped alone with her quarry. Great job, Darby.
“Again, please accept my apologies for leaving you so soon after meeting up,” he said, almost hurrying them into the house. “I shouldn’t be long. Thirty minutes or so?”
“Yes, fine,” Darby said, trying not to look vastly relieved when his focus shifted away from her. He wanted her out of here, and she was more than willing to comply if it meant she got to leave under her own power. Except that wasn’t her mission.
She was really beginning to hate that word.
She glanced discreetly around to see if there was a way she could head out of the room, then retrace her steps and follow him. But the wide-open halls beyond the spacious study they’d stepped into didn’t really afford her that luxury. Fortunately, he continued to guide her through the room and out into the hallway. “Can you find your way, or would you like me to accompany you to the main stairs?”
“No, that won’t be necessary,” she assured him. “They’re just at the end of the hall. Will you be here in the study?” she asked, proud of herself for working in their location, hoping her mike was still transmitting. “Should I meet up with you here?”
“Why don’t we meet at the base of the stairs,” he said, barely glancing at her. His tone was smooth, but she could almost feel the tension rolling off of him. Something had changed, she just didn’t know what in the hell it was.
She forced a smile and nodded. “Fine. Thirty minutes,” she said, in case Shane or Pepper had missed that part. She began to ease her elbow free, assuming he’d nod gallantly and step back into the study to make his call. But, instead, his grip tightened. Just slightly, but his gaze shifted fully back to hers, and the slow intent that filled his gaze was enough to make the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end.
“I’ve enjoyed my time with you, Darby,” he said.
“Thank you. I’ve enjoyed it as well,” she said automatically.
His eyes flared. “Have you?” His fingers caressed the inside of her arm. “A shame we don’t have more of it. As I said, you fascinate me. I believe I’d have rather enjoyed getting to know you better.”
Darby’s throat closed over when Stefan reached out a gloved hand and smoothed a stray hair behind her ear. She went completely still, terrified that his fingers would brush over the earphone and she’d be discovered. Hopefully, with this ridiculous updo Pepper had fashioned, he’d think it was a bobby pin or something.
His fingers paused when she froze, and his gaze narrowed, just slightly.
“Yes,” she said, heart hammering, “it’s a—a shame.”
His gaze stayed focused on her for what felt like an eternity, then, like the sun bursting out from behind a cloud, he grinned. “Morgan is a luckier bastard than even he knows.”
Darby was so relieved when he dropped his hand and stepped back, his words barely registered.
“By the stairs,” he repeated, but made no move to go into the room. Instead, he bowed slightly and motioned for her to go on.
She had no choice but to turn around and walk down the wide marble hallway toward the main foyer and the split staircases that led to the upper wings of the house. Her legs felt like jelly after all that tension, and it didn’t help that she could feel his eyes drilling into her back. But she didn’t dare glance over her shoulder to see if he’d finally gone inside. She’d taken all of Stefan that she could for the moment. It wasn’t until she was at the landing that she dared look back. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or worried when there was no Stefan in sight.
“You okay?”
Shane’s voice in her ears startled her, and was so welcome she could have sunk right to the floor as the rush of nervous tension left her body. “Yes,” she whispered shakily, looking about to make sure none of the household staff was anywhere nearby. “He’s in the side study on the south side of the house, off the sunroom. Supposedly making calls. I can sneak back and listen through the door.” Although they were huge, heavy-paneled hardwood, and likely she wouldn’t hear a thing above a murmur. “Or I guess I could duck out the front and go around to the sunroom we came in through.”
“No,” Shane said, “you need to be at the bottom of that staircase in case he gets done early. I’ll head around to the sunroom. Pepper?”
There was no response, just the background noise of party chatter and glass clinking with ice. Pepper’s mike was on her fan, so the party noise was minimized when she was speaking to them. Shane’s was on his cuff link, so he could pretend to sip a drink and speak clearly to them both. Darby’s was in her bodice. Lucky her.
“My, it’s warm, isn’t it?” came Pepper’s voice suddenly, along with a whooshing sound that Darby realized was her fan being flicked back and forth. “I think I’ll take a little stroll,” she went on, obviously speaking to one of the guests. “That path over there looks enticing. A bit of shade, too, by the sunroom.”
Darby paced the grand foyer. “Pepper? Shane, do you see her?”
“I’m already at the sunroom door. I’ll let you know when—”
“Oh, thank God,” came Pepper’s rushed whisper. “I thought I would never get myself out of that little circle.” Her breath was rapid, as if she were rushing. “My lord, you really can’t run in this thing, can you?”
“The heels, or the corset?” Darby muttered, feeling the pinch in her toes, as well as her ribs.
“I was born in heels. But dammit, Dar, did you have to cinch me in so tight? I can barely breathe in this thing.”
Darby just smiled, not feeling the least bit ashamed. “Fair’s fair.”
“Yes, but that was the only way we could get your buttons fastened. Besides, you have cleavage now, be thankful.”
“Now, now,” came Shane’s voice. “I happened to adore her cleavage just the way it was.”
“Okay, I’m almost there,” Pepper said, huffing. “Dar, you stay in the foyer in case he comes
out that way. Shane—”
“Dammit!” That from Shane.
“What?” both Darby and Pepper said at the same time.
“He’s not in here.”
“Are you sure?” Darby turned back to the hallway. He wasn’t there, either. But then, she’d been pacing the foyer and not paying strict attention to the door all the way at the end of the hall. She hadn’t thought he might sneak back out that way. The hallway led directly to the foyer, but there were other doors off to each side. She supposed he might have ducked into one of those, but that would have taken him long enough that she was certain she’d have spied him as she paced.
Fairly certain, anyway.
“Yes, I’m sure,” Shane said. “Shit. He must have taken the back stairs, although how he’d know about them, I have no idea.”
“Is there any other exit from the room?” Pepper asked Shane.
“No, just to the hallway.”
“He might have ducked back out here and gone into one of the rooms in the hallway,” Darby admitted. “My, uh, back was briefly to the hall.” In fact, there was nothing to say he’d gone back into the study at all. “Do any of those rooms have other exits?”
Pepper hissed. “Dar! Weren’t you watching him?”
“Dammit, I’m not trained for this, you know? I can barely breathe, my feet are numb, and gangrene probably is setting in from lack of circulation. And I wasn’t—”
“Listen, there’s no point in arguing,” Shane interrupted. “I’m already heading upstairs. Pepper, you take the rooms in the hallway. Darby, you stay on the stairs. Other than this and the service stairs, if he’s up here, it’s his only way back down.”
“You’re good at this,” Pepper said. “Okay, I’m through the study. Darby, I can see your skirts. Move up the stairs in case he comes out this way, so he won’t know you’re right there.”
“What, you think I’m going to do a flying tackle in this dress?” She glanced back down the hall in time to see Pepper open the first door in the hallway. Her voice got louder and more airy as she said, “Why, I can never find my way around these big old—” She broke off the Southern belle routine as soon as she’d stepped inside. “Nope, clear.” She stepped back out again, shooed Darby up the stairs with her fan, then moved to the next door.
It was like playing Let’s Make A Deal: the Nightmare Home Game. “Just . . . be careful,” Darby hissed and resolutely climbed halfway up the staircase. Of course, it was a split staircase, so how she was supposed to cover both sides she had no idea.
“This room is empty, too,” Pepper reported moments later. “Where the hell could he have gone? Shane? Any luck?”
“Goddammit!” Shane barked in her ear. “He’s been in my rooms. And he wasn’t too worried about being sneaky about it, either. Shit.”
“What?” Darby whispered.
“I think he’s figured out we’re on to him. Maybe he spotted Pepper, or someone else tipped him off, who knows. But I think he’s outta here.”
“So what was he looking for?” Darby asked. “Alexandra’s private files,” she and Shane said simultaneously.
“I’m heading to Alexandra’s private office,” he said. “Get Pepper to check out his rooms. Be careful.”
Torn between running up the stairs to help Shane, or down to get Pepper, she startled and turned around when a phalanx of guests in full historical costume came storming up both sides of the staircase behind her. “What the—” She grabbed hold of the banister as they rushed past. It was only when she caught site of the guns two of them were carrying tucked next to their thighs that she began to realize what was going on. “Shane,” she whispered, wanting him to know the cavalry was on its way. At least she prayed it was the cavalry. Only the word got stuck in her throat as she turned and spied the man entering the foyer below, and froze.
He looked different with the silver graying his temples, she thought, but all the more dashing because of it. She’d wondered, a lot more often than she’d admit to, about what she’d think, or what she’d feel, if she ever saw him again. The last thing she’d expected was a wave of longing so strong that she found she had to grip the banister for support.
She must have made a sound, because he looked up. His eyes widened in shock and he stopped dead in his tracks. “Darmilla? Is that you?”
“Yeah, it’s me,” she said on a choked whisper. “Hi, Dad.”
Cinderella Rule #22
You can’t always wait for the right time to do the right thing.
—VIVIAN
Chapter 22
Oh, shit,” said Pepper, her voice sounding hollow in his ear.
But Shane didn’t even pause. He ran to the door of Alexandra’s private office, then swore himself when he found the room empty. He strode immediately behind the desk. The bottom drawer was closed. He tugged on it. Still locked. Only then did he smile. “Didn’t find what you were looking for, after all. You bastard.” He dug the key out of the pocket in his jacket lining. “He hasn’t been in here yet,” he said to both Darby and Pepper. “Any sign of him in his rooms?”
Which was when he heard Pepper rather breathlessly say, “Daddy, I can explain.”
Daddy? Now Shane understood the Oh, shit remark. Because he was thinking the exact same thing. He fumbled with the key, needing to verify that the files were still in the drawer, but also wanting to get back to Darby before her father confronted her. He bent down and jammed the key into the lock.
“Step away from the desk,” came a voice from the doorway. “Hands raised.”
He straightened slowly and tossed the keys on the desk.
“Very good. Now turn around and move away from the desk.”
“Daddy, honestly, I told you, he’s on our side,” Pepper said, bursting into the room behind him.
“You don’t know what side he’s on,” he corrected, his tone one of strained patience. “He’s a Morgan first.”
Shane turned to find himself staring at Paul Landon III, international financier. And a whole lot more than an occasional consultant to Interpol, judging from the very lethal-looking gun in his hand.
“Please,” Landon said, with a small wave of his gun barrel, “over there, if you will. Center of the room. Now.”
“Dad,” Darby said, striding into the room behind Pepper. “Will you put that thing away before you hurt somebody?” She looked to Pepper. “Consultant, huh? What else haven’t the two of you been telling me?”
“Quite a lot, I imagine,” her father said in very stilted tones, “given you have no contact with us.”
Darby gaped at him, looked like she was going to argue, then glared at Pepper, instead. “Oh, yeah, this was all going to turn out peachy. Just explain it to him, you said.” She waved her hands. “Now look what you’ve gotten us into.”
“Darmilla, hush. You have no idea what your sister is involved in.” He never once shifted his gaze, or his gun barrel, from Shane, who had done as he’d asked and moved to the center of the room. “We’ll speak no more of this now. It’s neither the time nor the place.”
Darby snorted. “Oh, I’m sorry, I didn’t realize we were breaching espionage etiquette. How gauche of me. But then, I was raised on a ranch, so what can you expect.”
Shane noticed Landon’s jaw tighten again. “I expect you both to let me do my job.” He shifted his attention to Shane, keeping his gun level. “Now, then. Explain for me, if you will, exactly when you tipped off Mr. Bjornsen.”
Shane’s mouth dropped open. “Tipped him off? I haven’t even spoken to the man since yesterday afternoon. I was up here trying to find him myself. He’s already gone through my room, so I thought he’d come here next. Instead of standing here grilling me, you should be out there trying to find him.”
“He seems to know an awful lot about the layout of this house. My daughter tells me he took some secret stairway to the second floor. How would he come to know of this?”
“I have no idea. When you track him down, ask him. In fact, I have one
or two questions of my own I’d like to ask the man.”
“Do you think yourself clever, Mr. Morgan? Bjornsen is no longer on the premises. But I’m sure you’re well aware of that. Clever of you to keep my daughters entertained on some wild-goose chase, to allow him time to escape. I’m sorry to say, we have agents posted at both Dulles and BWI, so there will be no flight to Brazil this evening. Your little plan has failed.”
Shane folded his arms. “I see. And what plan would that be, sir?”
“You’ll be distressed to learn that you’ve been sold out, Mr. Morgan. Mr. Bjornsen made a deal with one of the scientists at Celentrex. He won’t need you to procure the prototype for him.”
“What?”
Landon apparently took his response for outrage. “You were planning to go ahead with the buyout, were you not?”
“Yes, but I’d only just decided that yester—”
“I’m afraid those plans might have to be put on hold temporarily. There will be a full investigation, of course. You’ll be—”
“Wait just a goddamn minute. I had nothing to do with this. In fact, I’m the one who was trying to figure out what he was up to.” It took him a moment to decipher the source of the real outrage that was coursing through him. It wasn’t that he was being wrongly accused, although that did piss him off just a little. But he could take care of himself. It was the fact that Landon was threatening to topple Morgan Industries by starting a scandal of global proportions before finding out just what the fuck was really going on. “We’ll talk,” he stated, jaw clamped. “But I want your word that nothing leaves this room until I’ve explained everything. And until you’ve answered my questions as well.”
And it hit him fully then, like the proverbial ton of bricks. First the revelation that there was a possibility that his grandmother might have been victimized, making her more vulnerable than he’d ever presumed the old battle-ax could be. Then there was the notion that he actually felt some kind of, well, sense of responsibility. To his late grandmother, and even more, to the people of Morgan Industries. They’d done nothing wrong in all this. It wasn’t their fault Alexandra had died suddenly, that her only living heir didn’t want to take over the empire. He still didn’t. But if he was going to dismantle the company, sever the ties and break it down into independent corporations, then he wanted them to have every opportunity to go forward with the chance of succeeding, and not under the black cloud of corporate scandal. He owed them—and maybe his grandmother and all the other Morgans before her—that much. Didn’t he?
The Cinderella Rules Page 30
