Betrayed

by Rebecca York

  Finally, Shane exerted enough willpower to break the kiss, knowing that he was going to have to stop while he was still thinking clearly.

  Her eyes blinked open, and she stared at him, looking dazed and aroused. The arousal almost tipped the balance for him, but he managed to say, “You should go in.” He could hear the thick quality of his own voice and knew he was close to the edge of doing something he’d be sorry for about five minutes after he did it.

  He watched her tongue flick out and stroke across her lips.

  “Yes.”

  “I want to see you again,” he said, hoping she didn’t think he’d been taking advantage of her.

  “Yes.”

  What else would she agree to, if he asked? He wanted to find out, but at the same time he knew he was walking very close to the edge of forbidden territory.

  She turned away from him and reached for the door handle. He watched her climb out and close the door, then walk slowly toward her apartment building on unsteady legs.

  The impulse to follow her was almost too great to resist, but he stayed where he was, watching her enter the building. There was a large window in the front of the stairwell, and he could see her climbing to the second floor.

  When she reached her landing, she turned and looked back. Seeing his car, she raised her hand and gave a small wave. He waved back and watched her turn to her apartment and unlock the door.

  ***

  Elena stood for a moment at the top of the stairs. She was far enough away now that she could turn and face Shane, looking at his car through the window. She raised her hand and gave him a little wave. He waved back, then backed out of the parking space and drove away. She’d dreamed about kissing him—and more. The dream had been erotic, but the reality had been so much greater that she could hardly deal with it.

  She was aroused, but that was only part of what she’d felt—a connection to him that she hoped was the start of something new and good in her life.

  But what had the kiss meant to him? He’d looked at her as though he wanted to eat her alive. That should have frightened her. Instead, it had made her heart leap inside her chest. She’d been afraid that the attraction was all on one side. Now she knew that he felt something for her. But she wished she understood the depth of those feelings. Her thoughts circled around as she tried to make sense of the kiss. She knew he wanted to make love with her. And she was quite sure he felt more than just the physical attraction. Still, that didn’t mean he wanted to marry her.

  She made a scoffing sound. One kiss and she was thinking about marriage again. But that was what her upbringing forced her to think about. Women from her culture who slept around were considered sluts. And she wasn’t able to get her early training out of her head. If this was leading nowhere, she should tell him she wouldn’t see him again. But why do it so quickly? She could be pushing him away when he was still making up his mind as to what kind of relationship he wanted.

  ***

  Shane forced himself to breathe deeply and get his body back under control. He’d never wanted a woman more, even though he’d vowed that he wasn’t going to get involved with anyone after the sting of his divorce. His relationships over the past year had been few and far between—and casual. He liked it that way. Sex with no strings, because he didn’t have to think about the future with anyone he took to bed.

  But this evening had confirmed his suspicion that a casual relationship was the wrong way to go with Elena. For a whole lot of reasons. He suspected she was a virgin. Not because most women her age would be, but because of the culture she came from and the way she’d kissed him—with enthusiasm but not a lot of skill.

  If he wanted to keep seeing her, he’d have to think carefully about where they were headed. And not only because she’d mentioned marriage when he’d asked her what she was planning for her career. There was another factor as well. He still had the problem that she was a prime suspect in the S&D case. And if their relationship was going anywhere, he’d have to satisfy himself that she wasn’t into something illegal.

  But did he have to stay away from her while he figured it out?

  He snorted. What was he hoping—that he could act serious, then catch her with her hand in the cookie jar, giving him the perfect excuse to congratulate himself on making a timely escape?

  ***

  Elena pulled her keys out of her purse, unlocked her front door, and stepped inside her apartment. She’d been wrapped in the rosy glow of the kiss. Suddenly she was back to reality, and she didn’t like what she saw. The first thing she noticed was that the light she’d left on beside the sofa was off. The second thing she noticed was a strong coppery odor that smelled like it had nothing to do with her apartment. She was about to back out the door when she saw the figure huddled on the end of her sofa and stopped short.

  It was her brother.

  “Alesandro.” He had her key, and after she hadn’t answered the door, he’d let himself in.

  When he made a moaning sound, she rushed toward him and went down on her knees in front of him. As soon as she saw him, she knew that the odor she’d smelled was blood. His nose was bleeding, and one of his eyes was black. Bruises and abrasions spread across his face, and the collar of his dress shirt was torn. He looked like he’d been in a fight and lost badly.

  “Madre de Dios.”

  He raised his head and squinted at her through his good eye. “You came home. Finally.”

  “What happened to you?” she gasped.

  He made a sound deep in his chest. “It’s what I told you.” He gave her a direct look. “Where were you?”

  She felt the question thud against her. “Out to dinner with a friend,” she answered, holding her breath for him to ask who she’d been with, but the answer seemed to satisfy him. Or maybe he wasn’t in good enough shape to focus on her social life.

  “What you told me?” she asked, trying to understand what he was talking about.

  “The guys who want that information from S&D. They want me to persuade you to get it. And they gave me some extra incentive.”

  His flat words made her feel like he’d knocked the breath from her lungs, but she managed to ask, “How did you get involved with them?”

  “I did some work for them. Easy jobs. Like taking a car from a particular parking space.”

  “Stealing a car?”

  “I’m not sure it was stealing. But that’s not the point. They want more now. They beat me up as a warning. Next time they’ll kill me—unless you get me that thing from S&D.”

  Her head was spinning as she tried to work her way through what he was asking.

  “I don’t even know what I’d be looking for.”

  “Something Arnold Blake stole from the company. Information about a new product that isn’t on the market yet. But it’s a big deal. He got it, but then he held out for more money and didn’t turn it over.”

  “You said they killed him.”

  “Yes.”

  She shook her head in confusion. “How were they supposed to get what they wanted if he was dead and couldn’t tell them where he’d hidden it?”

  Her brother raised one shoulder. “They’re violent men. They beat people up to get what they want. But maybe what they did to Blake was a mistake. Maybe they leaned on him too hard. Did too much internal damage or something. They could have done that to me tonight—and I wouldn’t be here begging you to help me.”

  She felt her throat close. He was right. He looked awful, and he was lucky he’d gotten here under his own power.

  “Would they do something to my car?” she asked suddenly.

  “Like what?”

  “It wouldn’t start, and the mechanic said the spark plugs were loose. He said that was unusual.”

  “They might have done it.”

  “Why?”

  “To make you worry.” He gave
her a sharp look. “Stop asking questions about your damn car. You have to get that thing for me.”

  “I don’t know what it is,” she repeated, trying to make him understand that she was in no position to do what he wanted. “And why would it still be there? Wouldn’t they have cleaned up his work area?”

  “No. It was left alone.”

  “How do you know?”

  “They have inside information. They told me his office hasn’t been touched.”

  “Not even by the police?”

  “Of course by them. But they didn’t take anything away.”

  “How do you know?”

  “I just do.”

  When she started to object, he rushed on. “If it’s not the truth, then I’m a dead man.”

  Her brother reached for her arm, squeezing his fingers into her flesh. “Blake must have left it somewhere around his work area. You have to check through his stuff.”

  “Why his work area? He could have taken it home.”

  “If he had, the guy who wants it would already have it.”

  “We can get help.”

  He gave a mirthless laugh. “If you tell anyone about this, I’m dead.”

  Her stomach clenched. She felt like she’d stumbled into an alternate universe where nothing was as it seemed.

  Still trying to be logical, she said, “But someone would already have checked Blake’s work area.”

  “And they didn’t find anything,” Alesandro insisted, a note of desperation in his voice. “But it’s got to be there.”

  Feeling like they were going around in circles, she asked, “How do you know?”

  “Because the men wouldn’t be asking me to get it if it didn’t exist.”

  His logic didn’t make perfect sense. Someone was making impossible demands, yet she wasn’t going to waste her brother’s energy by arguing with him. Instead, her mind was racing as she thought in detail about what he wanted her to do.

  “There are security cameras at work. I can’t just go into the building and up to Blake’s desk.”

  “You can go into the building. You can go to your office. Then you can go to Blake’s office.”

  “But…”

  He reached into his pocket and brought out a rectangular object that looked something like a smartphone, only a little smaller. “This will jam the cameras.”

  She made a moaning sound. “But they’ll know something’s wrong.”

  “Then you have to be quick.”

  “Alesandro, por favor. I can’t do this.”

  “You have to. Now.”

  “Now?” she echoed.

  “This is the perfect time. Pretend you forgot to do something at work. Go into the building, and go up to your office.” He held up the device he’d shown her. “It’s preprogrammed. You press these buttons. It will disable the cameras in that area.”

  She wanted to say no. She wanted to scream at him that she couldn’t do what he was asking.

  But after handing her the device, Alesandro slumped back against the back of the couch, his face contorted with pain.

  “Go now,” he said. “Please. For me.”

  “What am I looking for? Something on a piece of paper?”

  “No. Something with data in electronic form.”

  “And what if they figure out the information is missing?” she dared to ask.

  “It’s already missing. Blake took it before he died.”

  While she was turning that over in her mind, he reached into his pocket again and took out a pair of rubber gloves. “You should wear these.”

  She winced. She hadn’t even thought about fingerprints. But of course she needed the gloves.

  “Give me a minute.”

  Feeling as though she were trying to lift her feet through quicksand, Elena walked into her bedroom. After taking off the sundress and carefully hanging it up, she pulled on a dark blouse and a pair of slacks.

  Then she came back to the living room, marched past her brother, and fled her own apartment. A few minutes ago, she’d been happily thinking about what the future might hold with Shane Gallagher. Now she knew a future with him was an impossible dream.

  Chapter 11

  As Alesandro watched his sister leave the apartment, he felt elation bubble inside his chest. The excitement came with pain, but he ignored that part and focused on his victory.

  She was such a goody-goody that he hadn’t been sure she’d do it. But he knew her family ties were strong. He’d convinced her that she was his only salvation, and now she was on her way to get the information Blake had stolen. And he was on his way out of trouble.

  “Thank you, Lord,” he said in Spanish, then added, “I know I’ve done bad things. I know I could have been a better man. But now I promise you that I’ll turn myself around. I’ll stop doing shit to earn extra money. And I’ll get a better education, like my sister has.”

  He wasn’t sure that he believed in God. But if there was one, it couldn’t hurt to ask for an important favor and to make promises for the future. As for the past, he knew his parents had always favored him. When he was a little boy, that had made him feel good. But since he’d become an adult, he’d come to envy his sister.

  He could see she was determined to make something of herself. She’d studied hard, and she’d gotten a good job. Not that their parents even noticed. To them, she would always be second best, while Alesandro knew in his heart that he was the one who truly fulfilled that role.

  Was he screwing up her future? He hoped not. But he wasn’t going to call her back. He needed her to get him out of the shit pit.

  He moved his shoulders, wincing at the soreness, then felt his nose. It had bled, but he didn’t think it was broken.

  The thugs had worked him over, but he knew that they could have done much worse. This beating had been intended to cause him pain. But it had also been for show—to make Elena realize that her brother was going to end up dead if she didn’t do the job. He winced. That was no joke. They really would kill him if she didn’t do it. But she was on her way, and he’d be home free soon. And then he would mend his ways. No more little jobs for the mob that had a way of turning into bigger jobs. He had to get out of that trap because if he went on like he was going, he’d end up in a Dumpster in an alley somewhere.

  ***

  Elena paused at the entrance to her apartment building and peered into the darkness. Were the men who had beaten up Alesandro out there, watching to make sure she did what she was supposed to?

  She shuddered, remembering that she’d thought a car was following her a few days ago. Could it be those same men? Staking her out? Was that what they called it?

  She made a sound low in her throat, hating the position she was in. All her life, she’d tried to do everything right. And it had felt like it was working. And now this.

  Her hands clenched and unclenched as she walked to her car and got in. She had to do what Alesandro had asked—to keep him from getting killed. Or maybe her brother was wrong, and Arnold Blake’s office had been cleared out, leaving nothing to find. Then what? She’d fail and they’d kill her brother? Or would they realize they’d given her an impossible task?

  She answered that question with a hollow laugh. If they thought that, she wouldn’t be driving to S&D right now.

  She felt like she was moving through a nightmarish landscape as she pulled up at the S&D building.

  The lot was almost empty, and she was able to park close to the entrance.

  In the lobby, she was relieved to see that the security desk was empty. She knew there was supposed to be a guard on duty, but apparently he’d stepped away from his station for a few minutes. That was good, because maybe he wouldn’t come rushing upstairs in the next few minutes when the cameras went off in the IT area.

  Quickly she crossed to the elevator, keeping her
head down but feeling the camera on her. Unfortunately, she couldn’t do anything about that.

  On the IT floor, she walked down the hall to her own office and stepped inside, knowing the security cameras were still following her progress. For a long moment, she stood without moving. Then she pulled out the device Alesandro had given her and pressed the buttons he’d indicated. Nothing seemed to happen, but she had to believe that the cameras were temporarily off. If it hadn’t worked, someone would be coming up to ask her some leading questions.

  She was about to leave her own work area when she realized she needed to have a reason for coming back to work so late if anybody figured out she was here. She opened her filing cabinet and took out a folder with instructions for using the new version of the word-processing software that she’d been issued. It was something S&D had developed, and it wasn’t on the market yet.

  After tucking the folder under her arm, she hurried down the hall to Arnold’s office and stepped inside. With the door shut, she turned on the light and looked toward the desk, zeroing in on the nameplate that she had half expected wouldn’t be there. “Arnold Blake” in gold letters on a polished wooden strip. It looked as though the man had only stepped out for a few minutes and was going to walk back in.

  When she moved around to his side of the desk, she saw a picture of his family at one corner. Arnold with his wife and a teenage boy and a girl. They all looked happy, unaware of what was going to happen.

  His technical books were on the shelves behind the desk, and the computer was on the el at right angles to the desk. She started to reach toward it, then remembered the rubber gloves and pulled them from her purse. They were a size too big for her, but she pulled them up as far as she could.

  Even though everything was here, she couldn’t believe that nobody had searched for the information she’d been sent to get. Or maybe nobody at S&D knew that Arnold Blake was a thief. Yes, that could be right. They knew he’d been killed, but they had no idea why. Of course, Shane had mentioned him. And she didn’t know why. Did he suspect something?

  She sat down in Arnold’s chair, telling herself she’d better hurry and trying to figure out where he could hide something. And all the while she kept her ears tuned for someone coming down the hall to ask what the hell she was doing here.