Dangerous Attraction Romantic Suspense Boxed Set (243 page)

“No he didn’t. But he really wanted to know what the hell you were doing running background searches on Rover’s execs. And as a matter of fact I’d like to know as well. In fact, I think I have the right to know since I was the one who had to save your ass.”

“You’ll find out in due time.” A grin of self-satisfaction glinted on Dennis’s face, making Janet seethe with irritation.

“And when, pray tell me, might this due time be?”

“When we get Laskin to tell us what he’s found out so far. And you won’t even have to wait that long since we’re already here,” Dennis added smugly, handing the cab fare to the driver.

Dennis swung open the car door and jumped out on the pavement, holding a hand out for Janet to lean on. “My lady.”

This time Janet permitted her eyes to roll, pushing his hand out of the way. If Dennis thought that his lame attempts at gallantry were going to get him off the hook, he had another thing coming.

This had better be worth it, thought Janet as she followed Dennis toward the stoop of the brownstone where Laskin lived.

Dennis pressed the intercom button. A few moments later, a tentative “Who is it?” was heard in response.

“Hey there, Peter. It’s Janet and Dennis. Let us in.”

Agitated shuffling erupted from the receiver. “I wish you would have called me. This isn’t a good time for me, guys.”

Dennis winked at Janet, as though implying that he knew something she did not. “We won’t take long, Peter. Come on, you’re not going to leave your colleagues standing out in the cold, are you?”

The intercom buzzed, and Dennis pushed the front door, holding it open for Janet. “Which is Laskin’s apartment?” Janet asked.

“Six A. Up to the sixth floor we go.” Dennis pointed to the staircase.

“No elevator? Great.”

“Trust me, if my instinct is correct, and it usually is, the exercise will be well worth it.”

“Trust you? That’s the one thing that’s becoming increasingly difficult to do,” Janet retorted.

“After you, my lady.” Dennis beamed, pretending not to have heard her.

Five minutes later Janet was panting for breath, unpleasantly aware of the perspiration mist on her back.

“Ready?” asked Dennis, who somehow managed to look as cool as a cucumber.

“I need to start doing more cardio,” Janet gasped.

“See? There are benefits to this little excursion already.”

The sign on the wall listed the location of the apartments by letters. A was on the right side of the floor.

Dennis rapped his knuckles on Laskin’s door.

“I think we’ll get a quicker response if we use the bell.” Janet pushed the doorbell button.

“Have it your way.”

There was a sound of hurried footsteps on the other side of the door, after which the door opened slightly, revealing Laskin behind it.

“I told you this isn’t a good time!” Laskin mumbled, keeping the door half closed. “Can’t this wait till tomorrow?”

“Procrastination is the mother of all vices.”

“Huh?”

Before Laskin could react, Dennis jammed his foot in the doorway and shoved the door to the side with Laskin still clinging to the doorknob.

“Thank you for your hospitality, Peter.” Dennis took off his jacket and hung it on a coat hanger. “Please, allow me,” Dennis took Janet’s coat off her hands.

“Take off your shoes!” Laskin demanded. “I just vacuumed.”

Dennis strolled into the living room, ignoring Laskin’s request. “Your obsession with cleanliness is unhealthy, Peter.”

Janet had expected Laskin’s apartment to reflect the man’s personality, and in many ways it did. From the simple couch that occupied the majority of the living room, to the TV stand, to the small bookcase in the corner, everything was in pristine order with not a single object out of place. What Janet did not expect to see was a dining table romantically set with candles and crystal champagne flutes.

“Planning a party, are we? Or perhaps a tryst?” Dennis lifted one of the flutes and twirled it in his fingers.

“Put that down! It belonged to my grandmother.” Laskin leapt across the room and attempted to pry the crystal out of Dennis’s hands.

Dennis nimbly averted Laskin’s grasp. Turning his back toward him, Dennis lifted the flute to his eyes. “Indeed, the workmanship is remarkable,” he added, still holding the glass in his hand. “So, who is the lucky lady?”

“No one of any interest to you,” Laskin snapped.

“You are being extremely rude, Peter.”

“I’m being rude? You’re the one who barged into my apartment, and now you’re threatening to ruin my date.”

Janet felt bad. From the amount of hours that Laskin spent at the office, she knew that he rarely got out. He was always taking on extra projects or volunteering to help other analysts on their cases. Janet guessed that Laskin did it so that he would not have to go home and be alone, and now that the poor guy had finally gotten a break, they were ruining Laskin’s chances. “I’m sorry, Peter. We didn’t know you were so busy. We’ll come back later.” Janet grabbed Dennis’s arm. “Let’s go.”

Dennis took Janet’s hand into his own and slowly loosened her grip. “Hold on, Janet. Tell me, Peter, why did you say that the search on Rover executives did not produce any leads?”

Janet was still recovering from the sensation of Dennis’s hand holding hers, so it took her a moment to notice the crimson color of Laskin’s face.

“Because … Because it didn’t,” Laskin replied.

Peter Laskin was an excellent analyst who had many skills, but bluffing was not one of them. Janet glanced at the triumphant grin on Dennis’s face—the man definitely knew something that she did not.

“Do you really like her that much, Peter?” Dennis glared at Laskin. “Is she more important to you than your friends?”

“Who?” Laskin’s voice cracked. Obviously these two knew something that Janet did not; her eyes dashed from Dennis’s stern face to Laskin’s flabbergasted one.

“You are insulting my intelligence, Peter. But I’ll spell it out for you if you wish. Aileen Finnegan.”

“What about her?” Laskin whimpered.

“You’ve got the hots for her, that’s what, and you’re willing to jeopardize this operation to get laid. But I won’t let that happen.”

Janet eyed Dennis dubiously. Perhaps the man was getting paranoid. To think that the straight-laced, do-it-by-the-book Laskin was dating Aileen Finnegan was too much to believe.

“How did you guess?” Laskin croaked.

“It was not that difficult, Peter. The background search on Rover’s executives showed that Kevan Magee and Cornelius Finnegan went to the same Catholic school.”

“You ran the background search?” Laskin’s voice was filled with reverent awe. “But you hate that software. You never use it.”

“So you thought that you could hide the fact that Kevan Magee went to the same school as Finnegan?”

By now Janet had had enough. The entire situation was beginning to sound like an Agatha Christie mystery. “Who is Kevan Magee?”

“Kevan Magee is on Rover’s board of directors,” Dennis announced triumphantly. “Every single large contract that Rover signs has to be approved by the board of directors. Magee is leaking tips to Finnegan, and Muller is trading for them through his charity.”

“But how do we prove that Magee is actually leaking the information to Finnegan and Muller?” Janet cut in.

“The timing of Muller’s trades, for one,” Dennis replied. “Phoenix Fund made killer profits on every single trade in stocks of companies that Rover awarded big contracts to.”

“That’s not enough,” Janet argued. “We had far more evidence on Muller’s shenanigans through Emperial and the case still got thrown out for lack for evidence. And now we won’t just be going after Muller, we’ll be going after Finnegan too, and we’ll need bulletproof evidence.”

“Precisely. And I think that Peter can help us with that.”

Laskin threw up his arms. “What do you want me to say? I can’t tell you anything more than you already know.”

“Perhaps we should wait for your date to get here. She might have something to contribute to the matter.” Dennis sat down on the couch. “Make yourself comfortable, Janet,” he added, patting the seat next to him, “it’s going to be a long night.”

“Fine! I’ll tell you,” Laskin sighed. “But you have to promise to get out of here. And you have to promise not to hurt Aileen.”

“Oh, man up, Peter! Do you think you are the only one who ever had to make a decision like that? How do you think I felt when I was doing undercover work at Bostoff? Janet was the assistant general counsel there. Do you think I liked the prospect of her being hurt by the investigation? No, siree, I didn’t, but I did what I had to do, and things worked out in the end. You have to do what’s right, Peter, even if it goes against your personal wishes.”

“I’ll tell you everything tomorrow. Aileen is coming over in less than half an hour. You’ve got to leave.”

“So you’ll have to make it quick then.” Dennis clasped his hands behind his head. “What did she tell you so far?”

“Muller is being really mean to her. I think he’s using her to get to her father. She said that sometimes she’s not sure whether Muller is dating her or her father.” Laskin slapped his mouth, looking like a man who said something he should not have.

“Really? How interesting. Did she by any chance say when they will be meeting next?”

“I don’t know.”

Dennis frowned. “Don’t lie to me, Peter.”

Laskin sighed with resignation. “Yes, she did. Her father is supposed to meet Muller this Saturday.”

“Do you know where?”

“I don’t know exactly, but I suspect that it might be at Keens since Aileen had mentioned that it’s Finnegan’s favorite restaurant.”

“Do you think you could confirm that with her tonight?”

“I don’t know. I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything. She might not want to talk about it.”

“Now, Peter, have a bit more faith in your powers of persuasion. If she doesn’t want to talk about her father, convince her to.”

“I’ll try.”

“If you really like this woman, I hope that you’ll be persuasive. On the other hand, we could forward the investigation to the Feds, and they will most definitely subpoena Aileen Finnegan for evidence.”

Janet regarded Dennis with a shocked glance. He sounded so cold-blooded, so indifferent that she found it hard to believe that this was the same man she thought she knew.

Laskin hung his head with the look of a resigned man. “You’ll get your information, but you have to promise me that you’ll spare Aileen the indignity of being questioned by the Feds. She has no idea about the scheme that her father and Muller are running, so leave her out of this.”

“I will do my best, Peter. But you have to get us the information that we need to solve the case.”

Janet shifted her seat across the couch to be as far away from Dennis as possible. She did not want to be a part of any of this. As far as she was concerned there was no “us” when it came to her and Dennis Walker.

Laskin shook his head. “I guess I should have seen that one coming. In our line of work there are never any concrete promises. Serves me right for signing up for this charade in the first place.”

Dennis got up from his seat and patted Laskin on the shoulder. “Cheer up, Peter. Things have a funny way of working out. There was a time when I had thought that Janet would hate me forever, but now we are not only colleagues but friends.”

“I’m sorry, Peter,” was all Janet could manage. She wanted Muller and Finnegan to get the punishment they deserved. Even more so, she wanted Kingsley to get his. But as much as Janet longed to bring these scoundrels to justice, she did not want to do it at the expense of an innocent woman.

“Oh, forget it. Once Aileen finds out the truth she’ll never want to see me again. If you want to get the information you’re after, you’d better get out of here and let me go on with my fake date.”

Dennis squeezed Laskin’s shoulder. “I appreciate your help, Peter. Believe me, I understand how difficult it is for you, but no one ever said that our job is easy.”

Silently, Janet slunk after Dennis as he headed for the door. The emotions inside her were too conflicted for her to speak.

“I think that went rather well,” Dennis remarked once they were standing outside of Laskin’s building.

Janet’s eyes flew wide open. “I think it was a horrible thing to do.”

“A horrible thing to do?”

“Yes, a horrible thing to do. And even worse, you dragged me into it. If I knew about the stunt you were going to pull in there, there’s no way I would have come with you.”

“Are you telling me that having Muller get his justice served to him is a horrible thing to do? And let’s not forget Cornelius Finnegan and his honcho, Kingsley. Do you think that these crooks should be allowed to remain in public office, free to do whatever they please?”

Janet felt Dennis’s stare burrowing into her face. When she looked up, she was stunned to see that his eyes were filled with genuine bewilderment. Up until now, she had thought those blue eyes to be sexy, playful, and warm, but now she thought them calculating and hateful.

“I want Muller to get justice served to him as much as you do, probably more so. And God knows I have enough reasons to want to see Kingsley and Finnegan kicked out on their butts, but unlike you I still have some decency left.”

“Decency left?”

“Yes, decency. Don’t you think it’s wrong to use that poor woman? Don’t you even care about—” Janet cut herself short before she could blurt out what was truly on her mind.

“Care about what?” Dennis moved toward her, standing so close that she could feel the heat emanating from his skin.

Janet stared back at him. Don’t you care about me? She wanted to scream. Didn’t you care about me when you had me procure evidence for you for the Bostoff case? Or was I nothing but a source of information to you? But instead she said, “About the people involved.”

“Of course I care. But Janet, one must consider the good of many versus the good of one person.”

There, she had her answer. Janet hung her head to hide the tears that suddenly sprung up in her eyes. She felt like such an idiot. Why was it that she always ended up being attracted to the wrong guy? As it turned out, Dennis was no better than Alex. Dennis was just as ruthless and just as unprincipled. The only difference was that Dennis happened to play on a different side of the law—the side that just happened to be the right side—but the techniques that Dennis was willing to use to achieve his aim could hardly be called right.