Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (239 page)

Her recent transformation had also improved her professional life. No matter what anyone said, one’s appearance mattered, especially in a business like public relations. Aileen’s clients paid her for representation, and they wanted someone who looked the part for the job. Aileen had always been good with people. In fact, up until recently the only feature she liked about herself was her voice, which was why she had chosen public relations as her occupation in the first place. A large part of her job was done over the phone, and she was really good on the phone. She had good people skills as well and was pretty good at in-person meetings—God knows, she had to compensate for what she lacked in looks with a cheerful personality—but now she was even better. Over the past month, Aileen had secured three new accounts. She had already accumulated a good nest egg by living with her parents, and now she was doing even better. It was time to make one last change: it was time to move out of her parents’ house. Yesterday, she had signed the lease on a one bedroom apartment in West Village. She would be moving in on the first of next month. The reality of the change was still sinking in, and she was yet to break the news to her parents who were bound to object, especially her mother.

Aileen’s mother was the president of the local women’s club and was on the board of several local charities. It was her dream for Aileen to one day succeed her mother as president of the women’s club. While Aileen’s high school friends were out dating, her evenings and weekends had been occupied with helping her mother with charity auctions, dinners, and other social functions her mother organized. At first, Aileen had not minded—her calendar was far from being booked up with dates—but as the years went by, these occasions became more of a burden than a joy. Sure, she wanted to contribute to all the good causes her mother supported, but it bothered her that most of the women in the club, including her mother, cared more about the social status that their involvement with the charities gave them than the causes they so ardently rallied to raise awareness of. And now that she had David in her life, Aileen refused to surrender her evenings and weekends to her mother. Her mother had already chided Aileen for not being available for several events, but Aileen stood her ground. She was as charitable as the next person, but that did not mean that she had to sacrifice her social life at her mother’s whim.

At the thought of David, a smile appeared on Aileen’s face. She could not wait to tell him the news about her apartment. Deep down she hoped that the two of them would not have to reside in separate apartments for too long, but at the same time she did not want to go straight from living with her parents to living with David. She wanted to live on her own for a while. Not for too long—a year would most likely suffice—and then she would marry David. The prospect of becoming Mrs. David Muller made Aileen’s heart flutter; she would do anything to make it a reality. At first she had not even dared to allow such thoughts into her mind, but as the months went by and David remained by her side, the previously unreachable possibility began to seem feasible.

If only things would not change, Aileen thought, suppressing a frown. For as much as she hated to admit it, things had changed. Lately, the previously attentive David seemed to grow more distant. On several occasions David had canceled their dates, and his behavior at the Bostoff wedding had been downright atrocious. David had apologized to Aileen afterwards, presenting her with a lovely pair of gold aquamarine earrings. “They will go nicely with your eyes, lovey,” David had said. “I am sorry for losing my temper, Aileen, and I’m sorry for not being around as much. It’s just that I’ve been so busy lately. The charity fund is a lot of work, but once I have it set up, it should pretty much run itself.”

The earrings’ blue stones had sparkled with icy shine, and Aileen nodded, deciding not to remark on the fact that David always found the time to meet with her father. Indeed, the two of them met on a regular basis, and at times Aileen wondered whom it was that David really wanted to date. “Don’t you like them?” David had asked.

“Yes, I like them.” Aileen nodded. The earrings were beautiful, and David’s voice was so tender, just the way it used to be when they had first met.

“Am I forgiven?”

“Yes.”

“Well, are you going to try them on?”

Aileen did as David asked. The cool blue stones did go with her eyes, but it was not the earrings she yearned for David to give her; it was a ring with a solitaire diamond. Still, the earrings were a good start, and they had brought her luck. She had been wearing them to client meetings and she had closed every deal since then.

Aileen checked her watch. It was six p.m. She had planned to stop by her new apartment to measure it for furniture. From a bed to a kitchen table, she would need to furnish the entire place from scratch, and she only had about two weeks to do it. But, on the bright side, moving out of her parents’ house would be a breeze, as she would only be taking her clothes. Well, at least the physical process would be a breeze, for Aileen could already foresee the emotional ploys her mother would use to get Aileen to stay.

Aileen navigated her way down the convoluted West Village streets. The neighborhood was new to her and, unlike Midtown Manhattan, one could not figure out one’s way by street numbers. In the Village the streets had names, and unless you knew the sequence in which each name followed after the other, you were lost. But Aileen was not worried. She would learn her way around the neighborhood soon enough and there was no better time to start like right now.

* * *

Janet Maple paced the floor of her apartment while Baxter observed her curiously from the couch. It was seven p.m. and she was expecting visitors—two visitors to be precise: Dennis Walker and Peter Laskin. Needless to say, the prospect of Dennis being in her apartment made Janet jittery with apprehension. Still, this option was far better than the alternative of meeting at Dennis’s place. At least Janet would be on her own turf, and Laskin would be there to prevent her from making a fool of herself. The three of them needed a safe place to discuss their plan of action for nailing Muller. Speaking at work was out of the question, and even meeting at coffee shops or bars was risky.

So far, Alex remained completely unsuspecting of their extracurricular activities. The majority of the credit for this feat belonged to Janet, as she had endured several lunches with Alex and even one after-work drink. During their rendezvous she fed Alex with elaborate lies as to the activity of the department, assuring him that the Bostoff and Muller case had long been forgotten. She repeatedly assured Alex that Dennis Walker was nothing more than a pompous womanizer whose only concern was increasing the number of female conquests, and that Laskin was nothing more than a mindless data mining machine. Alex seemed to eat these figments right out of Janet’s hands, an outcome that she had achieved by allowing Alex to believe that they were indeed headed for reconciliation. She herself greatly doubted that Alex’s intention to get back together with her was genuine. In fact, Janet was certain that the only motivation behind Alex’s rekindled interest in her was for Alex to be sure of the truthfulness of the information that Janet was supplying him with. If the two of them were to get back together, Janet would undoubtedly be on Alex’s side, or so Alex believed.

But if Alex thought that she was foolish enough to fall for this lame ploy, he had another thing coming. Of course Janet had to admit that she had been flattered when Alex had first showed up unexpectedly during her evening walk with Baxter, proclaiming that leaving her was the biggest mistake of his life. What girl wouldn’t feel flattered hearing such a speech from her ex? But the flattery wore off quickly once Alex showed his true colors by unleashing on Baxter for something as minor as biting off a piece of his trouser. While Baxter had not been on his best behavior, Alex’s reaction was downright pathetic, just like the man himself. The image of Alex’s frightened face as he jumped away from Baxter’s scowl brought a smile to Janet’s face. Alex was nothing more than a bully with a tough exterior that contained cowardly insides.

“You are my knight in shining armor, Baxter,” Janet complemented Baxter, patting him behind his ear.

The doorbell rang and Baxter jumped off the couch, heading for the door.

“Wait up, Baxter!” Janet rushed for the door, sincerely hoping that Laskin would be the first to arrive, for despite all her talk about being impervious to Dennis Walker’s charms, Janet could not vouch for her conduct if she were to be left alone with Dennis Walker for too long.

“Hi there, Janet.”

“Good evening.”

Both Laskin and Dennis stood at the threshold of Janet’s apartment.

“I thought you guys were going to arrive separately to maintain cover and all that,” Janet replied, stunned by the look of her guests: both men were panting for breath.

Dennis shrugged. “That was the plan, but our timing overlapped.”

“I see. Come on in.”

“I thought we might get hungry.” Dennis motioned at the pizza box he was holding under his arm. “And thirsty.” He handed Janet a beer six-pack.

“Wonderful. You must have psychic powers because my fridge is empty.”

“Nah, I just remember it from last time.”

Laskin cast a questioning glace at the two of them, and Janet flushed. The last time Dennis Walker had been a guest in her apartment was when they were investigating the Bostoff case together. In fact, there had been several last times, as the two of them had made Janet’s apartment their meeting spot to discuss the evidence they were gathering for the case. And then there had been one occasion when Dennis had spent the night on Janet’s couch. She still remembered the sound of his breathing while she lay unable to fall asleep in her own bed. When she woke up the next morning, Dennis was gone, leaving her with nothing more than speculations as to what might have happened had she acted differently.

“Have a seat on the couch,” Janet offered. “I’m going to get plates from the kitchen.”

A few moments later they were gathered on Janet’s couch, digging into Dennis’s pizza. “This is what we’ve got so far,” Laskin began. “While attending the Bostoff wedding, Janet and I established that Muller is dating Aileen Finnegan.” Laskin paused to chew the last bit of his pizza slice.

“Peter, didn’t your parents teach you that it’s rude to talk with your mouth full?” asked Dennis, tilting the beer bottle to his lips.

“Dennis, I think that you will forgive my faux pas once you learn what Janet and I have discovered.” Laskin paused for emphasis. “Aileen Finnegan is the daughter of New York Attorney General Cornelius Finnegan.”

“Janet already told me about that.”

Laskin continued unperturbed. “Excellent. Nonetheless, this important piece of information warrants repeating, as it is vital to the premise of our case. From Aileen Finnegan I learned that Muller has established a charity, Phoenix Fund. Apparently, all proceeds go to funding education efforts in the area of finance.”

Dennis yawned. “How noble of him.”

“That was precisely the reaction Janet and I had. Muller does not strike me as the charitable type. So, I’ve begun the process of looking up trading activity for Phoenix Fund. The analytics will take some time, but I hope to have some data for us to look at in about three to four weeks.”

Dennis groaned. “Three to four weeks? For all we know, Muller could be brewing something this very moment. In two weeks he could be gone to the Bahamas or Mexico.”

Laskin threw up his hands. “You’ve got a better idea?”

“Tell me more about this Aileen Finnegan character. What’s she like?”

“Average-looking, not the type of girl that Muller usually dates,” Janet cut in. “And I don’t think he likes her very much. I’m pretty sure that the only reason he’s dating her is her father.”

“What makes you so sure?” Dennis asked.

Janet paused; she didn’t exactly feel comfortable about summarizing Muller’s attempts to pick her up.

“Muller was flirting with Janet,” Laskin offered. “It was quite obvious, and in my mind extremely rude to his date.

Dennis’s eyes lit up. “Oh, was he?”

“It was nothing like that, Dennis.” Janet had had it with Dennis’s sarcastic comments. After all, Laskin and Janet were the ones who had found the information about Muller, and Dennis was just being sore for having missed out on the action. “We danced to a couple of Frank Sinatra songs, but that was it. Muller told me about his charity. His overall demeanor made it clear that he did not really care for his date.” Janet halted, reluctant to reveal the more sordid details of her conversation with Muller.

“The two of them danced for quite a while, so I had to keep Aileen occupied,” Laskin added.

“Excellent. And did you by any chance get Aileen’s phone number?”

“As a matter of fact I did. I told her that I had an information security consulting business, and that I was looking for PR representation.”

Dennis rubbed his forehead. “Jeez, Peter, couldn’t you have come up with something more upbeat? An online pet supplies store would have been a far better choice.”

“Janet didn’t think there was anything wrong with an information security consulting business cover.”

Dennis glanced at Janet, and she shrugged. She really did not see a difference either way and thought that Dennis was just gloating.

“Never mind. Have you called her yet?” asked Dennis.

Both Janet’s and Dennis’s eyes focused on Laskin who had suddenly turned crimson red. “Well, no. I thought it would be best for us to meet first and decide on the course of action.”

Dennis shook his head. “I can’t believe we’re even discussing this. Look, Peter, it really is quite simple. When you get home tonight, dial Aileen’s number and ask her out.”

“What if she refuses?” Laskin asked feebly.

“If she refuses, we’ll explore a different avenue. But right now this seems like our surest bet.” Dennis eyed Laskin suspiciously. “You’re not actually attracted to this girl, are you, Peter? Because if you are, we’d better come up with something else. We can’t afford to botch this.”