Because I did.
I wanted to ask her to come with me, to come away and say goodbye to this place. I could pay for her mom - shit, I could buy that whole damned trailer park and add it to my portfolio whether it was for sale or not - and I could make her... and me... happier than we'd been in a long time.
Why didn't she try to find me all those years? Why didn't she tell me when her dad died and she fell on hard times?
Something beeped and a bunch of red lights started flashing. She pulled away and sat back down at the terminal.
"Oh, c'mon, not again. This damned router keeps going out and the server backup link goes down, not to mention our entire internal network." She looked up at me. "You'd think our wealthy benefactors would bestow upon us a router that was made in the last decade."
"Yeah, yeah, I'll have someone get on that. You need a job?"
The smile faded from her face. She was about to say something when the equipment started to beep again.
"I've got to go. I'll be right back. Hold that thought."
Since Wendy didn't come "right back," I called Evelyn to tell her that I wasn't going through with her little arrangement.
I didn't get a chance. She starting going off on me as soon as she answered the phone, without even saying hello.
"That little tramp of yours has been digging around in your emails!" Her voice was shrill and I had to pull the phone away from my ear.
"What do you mean? I've been with her. She's just doing some... I don't know, computer stuff?"
"I had the IT manager look into it back in Vegas. All of our systems are connected, we do that right away for security of the casinos."
"You had him look into what, Eve? All those emails you've been sending?"
"What? I told you, I didn't send those emails. It must have been you."
"Evelyn Malieux! You know damned good and well that I run my business through you and my cadre of assistants. I don't have time for email."
The line went quiet.
"Eve?"
"Bob - the IT manager? - Bob told me that someone copied all of your incoming and outgoing emails. And the logs. AND set up an alert to go to '[email protected]' once per day, with the an activity log of your activities as an attachment."
"What are you saying, Eve? English!"
"Your plump little plebeian is spying on you."
It was my turn to be quiet on the line.
"Wendy? Really? She didn't even know I was here."
"Maybe you should rethink our arrangement, Daryl. Victoria is a little lower on the IQ distribution but she's very pretty and ticks all the right boxes. Besides, she's not there to talk, you are. She's eye candy and politically beneficial. She's the Perfect Wife."
The door opened and Wendy came back in. "Sorry that took so long."
"Okay, Evelyn, I gotta go. I'll talk to you before dinner."
Maybe Wendy isn't different, after all. Maybe she's just an opportunist, and using our shared past to trick me.
If she was, she was doing a great job because she had me completely fooled.
"Is the taskmaster cracking the whip again?" She laughed but stopped when I didn't laugh with her. "Why so serious?"
"Why did you ask me if I was sending a lot of emails earlier? Have you been sniffing around my emails?"
She looked a little panicked.
No, Wendy, no. Please don't burst my bubble. I don't want to believe it.
"There was suspicious activity that was tripping our intrusion detection systems. Most of the activity seemed to be centered around your email address. So I asked you. Simple as that."
I didn't believe her. I felt betrayed. Anger welled up inside me.
"Why didn't you come looking for me all those years?"
"Me? YOU were the one that insisted that a long distance relationship wouldn't work."
"But your dad died. He meant the world to you. Your mom fell apart. You said you had nobody. Why didn't you come to me?"
"I already told you-"
"And why are you logging my email activity?"
She stopped and took a deep breath. "Do you trust me?"
"What's that got to do with this?"
"Do you trust me!" Her brows furrowed and her nostrils flared.
"I don't know, Wendy. I've had a great time with you but I don't think you trust me. You don't go logging my emails if you really trusted me." I stood up and went to the door. "I thought you accepted me for who I am, instead of just trying to use me for money or influence like everyone else. Now I find you're trying to dig up dirt on me? Who put you up to this?"
"I do trust you, Daryl - Daddy. I don't have all the details but I'm saving this information because I think Evelyn is crooked."
"Evelyn? Are you just pinning this on her because she had corporate IT figure out you were spying on me?"
"She did WHAT?" She turned and began typing away on the computer, pulled a USB drive out of her purse and plugged it in, kept typing. Lights flashed, the screen had a wall of text flying faster than I could read it.
"What are you doing?"
"Something I shouldn't be - saving your dumb ass."
Chapter 12
Wendy
The goddamned fucking nerve of that guy accusing me of all people of doing something illegal.
ME!
I've been here trying to save information for the FBI because I'm damned near 100% sure that they are building a case against Evelyn.
Precious Evelyn. Who can do no wrong.
I couldn't take it any more.
"But you wouldn't know what saving your ass is like, would you? You know what I'm doing? I'll tell you. Your sweet old lady campaign manager is a fucking criminal. She's involved in money laundering."
He squinted his eyes at me.
"Yeah, I saw the suspicious activity, and I traced some of it back to the FBI."
"The FBI? Evelyn's involved with the FBI?"
"No! Evelyn's being watched by the FBI. My email server kept having problems because someone was trying to hack in - I figured it out, it's the FBI, or at least that's the best guess I have based in the IP addresses and some sniffing around on IRC. They're trying to get her emails. And the FBI doesn't do that without a warrant. Sooner or later - probably sooner - they are going to hit me with a subpoena for all these emails."
He looked confused, then angry, then confused again.
"You know, Victoria mentioned something about money laundering. Or, 'washing money,' as she called it because she's a few watts shy in the old bulb."
I smiled. It was coming together.
"You don't think - is Victoria somehow involved in this?"
"Her dad is a filthy, slimy mob boss in Vegas who has his claws in deep with every politician he can buy. But he was never able to buy me. My motto when it comes to that shit is 'Daddy don't play.' My entire operation is on the up-and-up or I shut it down. Period."
"Do you think he would, or could, get to you through Evelyn? I mean, what's her game here? Why is she all into this? Isn't it just something she does?"
"She's wanted to be in politics for a long time. Back in the 80s, she had a failed bid for office. She was pretty hard on herself for losing because she thought she was the perfect candidate. According to her, she did some soul searching and she realized that she was single, she didn't have the right connections, she didn't have the right money, she wasn't smooth enough. Sure, she had the education, the background, and she's a brilliant political strategist, but it wasn't enough."
"But then she met you."
"Yeah, she met me, except I had a string of failed relationships. Lucky in life, unlucky in love, that was me. Is me, I guess."
I wanted to hug him. I couldn't, though, because he was pushing me away even as he began to realize it was he that pushed me away long ago.
"She had been working in political consulting as a strategist for several firms and she came highly recommended to me. I guess she saw that we would make a perfect pair, but I was m
issing the beautiful spouse. She started going on and on about the "Perfect Wife" and she even capitalized it in memos she sent to me. I spent a while 'vetting' the ladies she sent me, but none were good enough. As we started to campaign, she started to get really anxious and then announced to me that she figured it out, she struck a 'deal' and found her elusive "Perfect Wife" and I would meet her soon."
"You only just met her?"
"I met her a few seconds before you did, yeah."
I actually felt bad for the guy. For all his ambition in life, for all his success, he needed a washed up political drop-out to play matchmaker for him.
"What do you think she did? Did she make a deal with this mob boss?"
"That's what I don't know. Victoria Lobos is no prize, but I'm sure she's a drain on her father, so he was happy to be rid of her, and Evelyn was happy to have her connections and the trophy wife for her family values campaign."
"If the FBI is looking into it, this can't be good. Do you think Evelyn will come clean with you?"
"Yes. She's my trusted confidante. We've been together for years. It takes a long time to plan a run for political office, a lot of preparation. Do you think she won't?"
"I don't know what to think, honestly. I'm pretty confused here. The man I loved for so long comes waltzing back into my life after 10 years and we seem to be getting along great - and having the absolute, hands-down best sex of my life - and suddenly it seems he's being watched by the FBI. And then I find out he's about to get engaged, which would have been nice to know BEFORE he fucked my brains out."
Daryl raised his brows, puffed out his cheeks and slowly let his breath out.
"I don't know what to say. You love me?"
I knew I was going to cry no matter how much I didn't want to. "Damn it, Daryl, I loved you when you were the scrawny kid! I didn't want you to leave! I thought you knew that!" I hit his arm as the tears began to stream down my face. He tried to hug me but I pushed him away. "No! You're just going to leave me again! Just go away, just leave now before you tear my heart out again. Just go."
"I'm not going to marry Victoria. I already told Evelyn-"
"You know what's going to happen? She's going to trick you into it. Or she's going to tell you that you can't win an election with a fat little wife next to you. That's all I am to her, this fat little lady from small town nowhere, a pitstop on your career path."
"Hey, that's not fair-"
"It's true. I suspected from the beginning. I can't leave here, anyway. My mom needs me. I have my life to put back together. I was dumped this morning, I wrecked my car, I almost got fired because of your vindictive assistant-"
"Campaign manager."
"Whatever. I almost got fired, and now old wounds that I spent years trying to heal were viciously torn back open. Did you know about Evelyn's shady dealings or not?"
"I will not be accused of any wrongdoing, Wendy. You know I'm not that way. You know me. Or at least I thought you did. And I thought I knew you. I think I'd better go."
I didn't have time to sit and cry in the server room, but I wiped away the running mascara and tried to dry my eyes as best I could.
"Oh, he didn't say he loved you, too, dear?" Lisa could see my red eyes.
"How do you know that?"
"Your eyes are red from crying. Your nose is red from sniffling. You look like you want to unleash hellfire on everyone around you, hon." She hugged me and I got a nose full of that awful perfume, but it didn't smell quite so awful this time. It just smelled like Lisa.
"You're going to make me cry again."
"Well, we have a few things to do. Dinner's about to start and there's going to be an announcement."
I got a lump in my throat when she said that.
"What announcement?"
"I don't know, Ms. Malieux didn't tell me and I didn't ask. I need to do a mic check and make sure you do that think that limits the feedback."
"The limiter, yeah, I got it. The acoustics in this place suck ass."
"Wendy!"
I laughed. Lisa was always a good foil.
I stared at her. I wanted to spill the beans about the FBI and the email that I read, but she would be very upset and it was probably outside the limit of her tolerance and understanding.
"What is it?"
"He told me he loved me."
"Why, that's good, isn't it?" Her tentative smile faded. "How couldn't it be?"
"I accused him of doing some illegal stuff."
"Oh, Wendy. You've really got to stop fucking yourself, dear."
"Lisa!"
Chapter 13
Daryl
I just about dragged Evelyn into a conference room. I held her arm and she complained and resisted, but I had to find out what the fuck was going on, and I had to find out right the fuck now.
As I pushed her into the executive conference room, I thought about what Wendy and I did in there this morning and felt my cock start to stir. Settle down, boy, that's not happening again.
I slammed the door and turned around.
"Sit!"
She jumped and fumbled for a chair. "Goodness, Daryl, what on Earth has gotten into you? What can be so important? I have to introduce Victoria in ten minutes. I really don't have time-"
"Quiet!"
She jumped again.
"I didn't go to the Naval Academy so that I could be played, Evelyn."
"I don't-"
"Don't interrupt me!"
Evelyn shrank in her chair.
"I joined to serve my country. To get out of this small town. I didn't realize what I'd left here, but I think, now, that nobody ever realizes what they had until it's gone."
I paced the front of the room by the whiteboard.
"I didn't build a fortune from scratch so I could be played! I built my fortune so that I would have freedom, and I dreamed of passing on my knowledge."
I paused and cupped my hands behind my back.
"I didn't get into politics to further your ambitions, nor so I could be played, Evelyn! I went into politics so I could help kids get unstuck, to help them achieve what I've achieved, not to take my slice of the pie, but to make the pie bigger."
"That's good, Dar-"
"I said be quiet!" I felt my face flush. "This isn't a stump speech. This is quite possibly the moment your career goes flushing down the toilet."
Her hand started to shake and she moved it under the table.
"What are you afraid of, Evelyn?"
"I'm not afraid."
"You're shaking like a leaf."
I sat down across from her, leaned forward, folded my hands on the table.
"Did you make a deal with Vic Lobos to launder some of his money through my casinos in exchange for that dimwitted bimbo downstairs?"
She looked down.
"Answer me," I said calmly. Because if she didn't, I was going to have an epic meltdown.
"Yes," she said, barely above a whisper.
"What was that?"
"Yes! Yes, okay? You needed a wife, that was all! And I found one for you!"
"At what cost, Evelyn? At what cost?"
She started to cry. "Please don't hate me, Daryl. Please don't hate me. I did it all for you."
"No. You did it for you."
"You were nothing before me!"
I chuckled. I leaned back in my seat and started to laugh. It became a full belly laugh, loud and hearty.
Evelyn's face soured.
"It's my fault, really. In my pursuit of a political career, I turned a blind eye to what you were doing. I knew something was up, but I never thought you'd succumb to the wiley ways of Vic Lobos. I don't know exactly how he did it, but he finally got to me, Eve, he finally got to me. He won."
"You're scaring me, Daryl."
I stood up. "You should be scared, Eve, because the FBI has all of your emails."
Her hands started to shake harder. Tears streamed silently down her cheeks. "If I go down, you go down, Daryl. All the emails are from your ac
count. I set up that meeting with you and Vic last year. I've already signed some deals in your name. If I go down, Daryl, you'll lose everything, and you'll go to jail, too."
"What does he want?"
"He wants his daughter off his hands. She's always around and, well, you saw how stupid she is, and she almost tanked several of his deals. I don't know the details, but she's a liability to him.
"But she's the perfect wife for someone like you, someone that doesn't really want a wife, someone that claims no woman is ever good enough for him, anyway. Vic has political connections, which probably means he has dirt on just about everybody, and can grease the wheels for us. All we have to do is sell shares of our properties to him... and take his daughter off his hands."
I leaned back. "You sold me out to win this election? You didn't think I could do it on my own?"
"I didn't want to risk it! Not again, I'm not losing again, not for you, not for anyone."
"If I don't marry Victoria, what does he do?"
"He probably fits us for some size 15 concrete shoes, Daryl. Or a shallow grave in the Nevada desert. Barring that, he sings to the feds in a plea deal the next time law enforcement is sniffing around his neck of the woods."
"You really fucked me, Evelyn."
"I'll organize a shareholder and board of directors revolt if you try to out me. Or if you try to fire me."
She really was evil.
I stood up. "Let's go, Ms. Malieux. I've got an engagement dinner to attend."
Evelyn made it back stage minutes before she was scheduled to make her announcement.
Wendy was seated at a table with Lisa. I wanted to apologize to her, but the lights went down and I lost my opportunity.
The emcee greeted everyone, made her statement, then introduced Evelyn.
She came out onto the stage acting like our conversation never happened - a big smile, waving to the audience, pointing out some of the VIPs in the front, thanking everyone for coming out tonight.
After she was done with the pleasantries, she asked for everyone's attention. A TV news crew aimed their cameras at the stage.
"I'm honored to inform you that tonight is very special. Not just for the special guests we've had, but for another reason, a wonderful reason, and we'll all have reason to celebrate in a minute. My friend and your next State Senator, Daryl Dinero has something to ask."
Daddy's Perfect Wife: A Billionaire Romance Page 7
