He could see Lucas in the swimming pool treading water and anger filled him. “Worthless piece of shit!” he cursed, throwing the glass against the wall.
The key turning in the front door got his attention and he waited for Barbara to come in. They looked at each other in stony silence before she said, “I’ll go get my things.”
Exhaustedly, he waved her away. The sooner she was out of his life the better. He had no use for ungrateful people who did nothing but waste his money. Lucas might be lazy, but at least he hadn’t betrayed him. They had no idea what he had gone through to get where he was. Within twenty minutes, Barbara was coming down the stairs hauling her luggage.
“You get nothing,” he said sharply, not bothering to look at her.
“Okay,” she replied, resignation in her voice.
She stood between the two suitcases, not sure what she was waiting for. If she was being honest with herself, Barbara didn’t want to give up on her marriage yet but also knew that trying to save it was a losing battle. Better to cut their losses before they hurt each other more than they already had. Her pale blue eyes filled with tears at the prospect of striking out on her own. It wasn’t that she didn’t love David; it was just that he was never around. The fact that he blamed her for his first wife’s departure had also created a rift between them and then there was the fact that Lucas never really liked her. They simply had too much baggage between them.
Deep down she had known that it wouldn’t last with David, but she never thought that their marriage would fall apart because of adultery – at least, not adultery committed on her part. Her shoulders sagged as she watched David stare out the window. He wouldn’t even look at her. Somehow, she found the strength to dry her tears, straighten her shoulders and stand tall. She silently picked up her suitcases and went out the front door, stopping to look back one last time, before heading down the driveway to her Buick.
Lucas was out of the pool and toweling himself off when he noticed his father standing at the window. He also heard the car pull away from the house. He had no idea what was going on but it was unusual for his father to be home at that early hour. He didn’t like the look on his face as he entered the drawing room.
“Dad, what are you doing home?”
“I could ask you the same thing!” David bellowed.
“What did I do?” Lucas had no idea why his father was angry with him.
“NOTHING! That’s what you do. Nothing all day,” David stared his son in the eye. “I have had enough. What are you doing? You don’t have a job and you didn’t have the common sense to marry that girl. You are worthless,” he shouted.
Lucas was surprised. His father had never spoken to him like that. “Whoa there, Dad. I had lunch with Zoe earlier today. I can’t just propose to her again. I tried that already and it didn’t go well. I have to wait until she forgives me.”
“That’s the other thing. You already had her but you ran scared like a wimp. Did you know Steve was going to put you in charge before all that mess happened? You just had to screw that up.”
Lucas knew Steve had considered him as a potential candidate to run Dunmore Corp but when he named his only daughter as the next CEO, he’d thought nothing out of the ordinary.
“Is that why he chose Zoe?”
“You idiot! Steve is no fool. He would never hand over the reins unless you were married to his daughter. You listen and you listen closely. Soon Steve will retire and when he does, Zoe will become president. You need to make sure you get that girl to walk down the aisle before that happens.”
“What if she doesn’t want to marry me?”
“Then you convince her.” David’ tone became deathly calm. The look in his father’s eyes was scary. He had never seen him like that before. “By the way, your stepmother left.”
“Huh?” Lucas was still mulling over what his father had said to him about Zoe and was a little confused.
“Barbara’s gone,” David reiterated.
“What do you mean gone? What did you do to her?”
“What did I do to her?”
“Well, you drove Mom away,” Lucas retorted. He was already anxious enough about his relationship with Zoe. She’d been so distracted at lunch; he was beginning to think they couldn’t get themselves back to where they’d been before the Vegas fiasco. He just wanted to go back and undo it all. But to hear his father shouting at him, lecturing him about whom he should marry, and then admit that his latest marriage had failed… The hypocrite, Lucas fumed.
“For your information, that traitorous BITCH…” but David couldn’t bring himself to admit aloud to his son that Barbara had cheated on him. “You concentrate on what I told you and leave my business alone,” David replied when he could finally speak again. His fury was barely under control; the glass of scotch in his hand was clenched so tightly, Lucas worried it might shatter in his father’s grasp.
Lucas heard the dismissal in his father’s voice and knew better than to keep pushing so he dropped the subject. He was shocked Barbara would leave everything she loved behind. The woman seemed to love money more than anything else. Her greatest pleasure had been to spend her husband’s money on jewelry and clothes she would probably wear once if ever. She’d been using his father’s money to try and buy his affections for years. He knew something major must have happened to cause her to leave but he had his own issues to deal with.
Chapter 10
“Can you come to my house on Saturday? I know it’s not a work day but I thought we could go over the employee files together.”
Aiden was tempted to tell her he had plans to see how she’d react, but that would be lying. He was somewhat uncomfortable about spending the day with Zoe. Whenever he was near her he lost focus and he was afraid he would do or say something silly. She had a way of hypnotizing people with her eyes – or maybe it only worked on him. If they’d been having this conversation in person, he wouldn’t even have thought about it.
“Yes,” he replied when in fact his mind cried ‘no.’
She could tell he was hesitating from the long pause. “If you have plans, I understand.”
“No, I don’t have plans.”
“Oh, and bring Jack. I have a surprise for him,” she pressed the red button on the cellphone to end the call.
If she was to find out who this David person was she would need help. Mason was busy assisting with the audit and trying to find out about the offshore accounts. He had solicited the help of a few of his father’s colleagues but had come up empty so far. She thought if they spoke to some of the workers who had left the Dunmore Accounts department they would get a better picture of what was happening.
She couldn’t believe how quickly the week had flown by. It had already been almost two months since she came back to Cupertino and started working in her father’s company. A lot had happened in that time, including uncovering large scale embezzlement from the company and the past she shared with Aiden, a past she was curious to learn more about. For the time being, however, she would let sleeping dogs lie; at least until the mess within the company was sorted out.
The audit was just about complete. The auditors were simply putting together their official report, one that could be handed over to the authorities to use in opening a criminal investigation of their own. In the past ten years, a total of thirty-five million dollars had been donated to charities that were connected to the elusive Allan Peters. Zoe had no idea where to start looking for this thief. In all the searches they’d tried, they hadn’t even succeeded in finding a photograph to give a face to the name.
It was Thursday evening and she was heading home but decided to make a stop at Cali Mall Plaza. At six thirty in the evening there shouldn’t be many children there. You would find couples strolling, enjoying the lights reflecting off the water. People would sit at the water’s edge and hang their feet in to cool them from the summer heat. Though summer was nearly over, there was still some humidity in the a
ir. But the real reason Zoe loved going there was that her mother used to take her.
She parked her car behind Le Boulanger and walked over to the mall. It was more deserted than she imagined it would be but she didn’t mind. She found a bench near the fountains and eased off her shoes. For a moment, she closed her eyes and willed her tension away. When she opened them again, they rested on a man with his back to her. He was wearing grey sweat pants and a muscle tank. There was a baseball cap on his head and he leaned lazily against a post that held up one corner of the shelter for the benches.
She couldn’t peel her eyes away. His hands, which were stuffed inside his pockets, were attached to strong muscular biceps and triceps. She could make out the definition of his thighs pressing against the fabric of his pants. He was enticing and Zoe had little doubt he was as attractive from the front as from behind.
Prompted by curiosity, she drew closer, feigning interest in the water. She grabbed her shoes and slowly walked past him barefoot to sit at the water’s edge and touch the surface with her toes.
“Miss Dunmore?” The voice was unmistakable. She stood and turned to face him.
“Are you following me?” Annoyance played in her voice along with surprise and disappointment. That was twice an attractive stranger turned out to be Aiden. She was beginning to grow wary of appreciating any random male figure for fear it would turn out to be Aiden. She had to admit that she no longer loathed him and she knew he wasn’t a thief, but that didn’t mean she wanted to like him.
Aiden was used to her sour attitude towards him. He chose to chalk it up to the fact that she was still remembering and processing the suppressed circumstances of their childhood relationship. “I could ask you the same thing. I was here first.”
Their eyes met and that moment a current passed through them. It was so intense neither of them could deny it, but neither would willingly admit to having felt it either. For a few moments they stood in awkward silence before Zoe broke the spell.
“My mom used to bring me here,” she said, looking down at her feet.
A long breath escaped her as some of her tension was released. She went back to the edge but didn’t sit. Aiden followed and they stood looking out over the water, admiring the randomness of the different fountains.
“Mine too. Our parents brought us here during the summer,” he told her.
“Huh?”
“I know you don’t remember but my mom and your mom used to bring us here together.”
Zoe had the feeling Aiden was holding something back and pushed on, eager to learn what it was. “Is there something you’re not telling me about our past?”
Aiden shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He seemed uncertain regarding what he was about to say. “You said you hated me,” he confessed.
“What?” she was confused.
“When we were kids, the last thing you told me was that you hated me and never wanted to see me again,” he stated, his voice deepening a little.
“Why would I say such a thing?”
“I don’t know, but that’s what you said,” he sounded a little sad when he said it.
Zoe tried to remember but nothing came to her, maybe if she pushed she would remember, she thought. It was a cruel thing to tell anyone, especially someone who saved her life, and he must have been pretty young then too. “Tell me what happened… Please.”
Drawing in a deep breath Aiden began to tell her their story. “We’ve known each other a long time but when your mother died you went…” He paused but she urged him to continue. “You weren’t yourself. You locked yourself in your room and rebelled against everything, including me.”
“No, I want to know from the beginning.”
“There’s not much to tell. Our parents were friends. They spent a lot of time together and our fathers were working on some sort of business deal when the accident happened. I don’t know what kind of deal it was. I was just a kid. We spent a lot of holidays together, especially during the summer. The lake incident was the summer before our parents died,” he trailed off and took another deep breath.
“I’m sorry I made you jump in that water,” Zoe was surprised she apologized.
“You already apologized for that,” he told her quietly. “After the lake my mom took me to your house to spend the day. She was going to the doctor. I brought you flowers and you kissed me.”
“I remember that now. It was the first time I willingly put on a dress. I was so nervous you were coming over. Oh God, I was nine and so nervous about a boy. You promised to always be there for me.” Zoe said as the memory washed over her again.
“What else do you remember?” Aiden asked.
“That’s the only thing I remember.”
“You don’t remember what happened after our parents died?”
“No. Not everything. I know that was about the time my dad and Uncle David got close and I was around Lucas a lot. That’s probably why I thought Lucas was the one at the lake.”
“Oh, Lucas,” he said with thinly veiled contempt in his voice.
He said he remembered meeting Lucas at his parents’ funeral. The boy was rude and they never became friends. He told her she had begun to spend a lot of time with Lucas and didn’t want to see him as much after her mother passed. He was a few years older and took his parents’ deaths better than she did the loss of her mom. When he tried to console her she told him to leave. He reminded her of the promise that he would always be there but she hadn’t believed him. She told him she hated him and she never wanted to see him again. He tried several times to see her but she refused so he had stopped trying. He was sent away to school shortly after and never kept in touch.
“So you knew who I was the day you hit me?”
“No. I thought you were beautiful and you did remind me of the girl I knew but I didn’t know it was actually you,” he said with a half-smile.
“I can’t believe I was so cruel to you. You must hate me,” Zoe said softly.
“I don’t hate you. I know you were just venting… grieving. But I didn’t then. I was a kid and your words hurt, especially since you’d told me you loved me.”
“I what?” Zoe asked with flat disbelief.
“I knew I should have waited until you remembered that one on your own,” Aiden commented.
Zoe swiftly moved past him, embarrassed by the words and actions of her nine-year-old self. Aiden didn’t want their working relationship to be awkward so in a bid to fix it he grabbed her arm, trying to stop her.
The impact of her speed and his hold on her pulled her up suddenly against him. She stumbled and he righted her. Both of them were breathing hard as the tension sizzled around them. He didn’t know why he didn’t just let her go and had no idea what to say to her.
Something kept pulling them together. Maybe it was the remnants of a bond forged in the past. But there it was and they had little control over it. It happened so quickly that neither was the wiser. His arms came around her while his lips descended on hers. Her arms closed on his back and pulled him closer, the heels of her shoes catching on the material of his shirt. The instant their lips touched her heart gave a start. She felt like sleeping beauty coming awake for the first time. She had never felt that kind of electricity in a kiss and it shook her body.
Zoe was shocked to find that she remembered more of her past and the cruel words she’d spoken to Aiden came flooding back to her mind. A part of her wanted to make it up to him and kiss him forever but the rest of her was ashamed, more so than minutes earlier when she’d only heard about her disappointing behavior. It was that part she caved to and she pulled away, her breath coming in shallow gulps.
She tenderly touched her lips and ran towards her car. With trembling hands she opened the door, making sure to lock it as she seated herself and forced the dry shoes back on damp feet. Her hands were shaking and her pulse was racing. Once more, she fingered her lips where Aiden’s kiss had set them afire before
turning the car around and heading home.
Chapter 11
Deloitte and Touche concluded their audit and it was now up to Dunmore Corp to take action. Their file was sitting on her desk with notes and recommendations. All the evidence was now there but no one knew who Allan Peters really was. It was not the job of the auditors to find him so they weren’t all that far from where they’d started.
Zoe sat staring at the folder for a solid hour before picking up the phone and dialing the local police. She was pretty sure it was beyond their scope, but figured they would have a better idea of how to get her in touch with the people whose job it was to investigate this kind of thing. After several hours of being on hold, transferred, calls dropped, and redialing, Zoe was put through to the FBI. It was a surreal conversation that ended with the promise that someone from the local FBI division would stop by her office to discuss the case.
Hanging up, Zoe realized that they hadn’t told her who it would be or when they’d arrive. She locked the folder in her desk and stared at the clock, debating on what would be the best time to go to lunch. Would they have sent someone as soon as she’d hung up with them? Or would it take a while for them to get their act together? Would they even show up that day or would it be when they had a chance next week or next month?
Unable to keep her mind on anything else, Zoe decided to leave a little early for lunch. As she was crossing the parking garage to her BMW a man emerged from an SUV that had just parked, worn but sturdy suitcase in hand. He spotted her as she rummaged through her purse for her keys and began to approach her. The sound of his footsteps echoing through the concrete structure sent ominous chills through her spine. She wished she had a can of pepper spray as she located her keys and clutched them in a fist, the metal ends sticking out from between her fingers like spikes.
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