French Kiss (Decadence Nights Book 2) (22 page)

“Think of something personal that only the two of you would know. The place you met, perhaps, or the name of the hotel where you spent your honeymoon, a special song—”

“Wait.” She put her shaky hands in her lap and bowed her head, the lump in her throat burning painfully. “I know what it is.”

After a moment of silence, he prompted, “What do you think it is, Mari?”

“He called me Merrily.”

“Of course, but surely he would have used a more secure password than his wife’s name. Anyone could have—”

“No, not Marilee, my name. Merrily like in “Row, Row, Row Your Boat.” From the corner of her eye, she saw him angle his head and look down at her, waiting for more. She kept her focus on the screen. “Type in, ‘life is but a dream’.”

Arturo quirked a brow, but quickly keyed in the words. It worked, after a few seconds of the cursor spinning, the folder opened. Inside there were two files. An excel workbook and a video file. As she watched him slide the mouse to the video file, she explained in a hushed, trembling voice. “He used to whisper in my ear during private moments, ‘with my Marilee, life is but a dream’.” Bowing her head, she returned her gaze to her hands. “Now it turns out the dream was a living nightmare.”

Arturo’s hand came out and covered both of hers where they rested, fingers intertwined and gripped so tight, her knuckles had turned white.

“I can see how hard this is for you,
petite
, but we need to watch this.”

She nodded, moving her hands out from under his grip, not remotely close to forgiving him yet. And, she wasn’t sure she could ever forgive Derek, her stomach churning with the strong suspicion that the safe deposit box with the mysterious jump drive and password encrypted files were just the tip of the iceberg.

“Mari…”

She shook her head. “Just play it,” she urged, “so I can get out of here.”

A faint rumble, resembling a growl sounded by her ear. She ignored it, much like she planned to ignore him as soon as this ordeal was over.

“Please,” she insisted.

He didn’t say another word as he double clicked on the file. The image of her dead husband appeared full screen as the video began to play. The sense of dread that had been roiling slowing in her gut since the bank manager brought her the long, metal, fireproof box turned to cold, unremitting fear. Her first indicator that her husband was about to impart unprecedented bad news was his slow, sad, hesitant—she didn’t recall Derek ever being hesitant—smile.

“Hey, doll.” His familiar greeting and the low tone of his voice wrapped around her, as cozy as a favorite, old sweater. Her hands tightened painfully around each other as she braced for the worst. “As they say in the movies, if you’re watching me now, I’m not with you anymore. Clearly, you’ve found the safe deposit box and that means it’s time to come clean. I hope you’re sitting down for this.”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. That’s when she noticed there were dark circles under his eyes that she didn’t remember being there the last time she’d seen him alive, when she’d kissed him goodbye on that awful night three years ago. How had she missed him looking so tired? When he opened them again, he spoke directly into the camera.

“My Marilee, the best thing in my life, you and the kids. I didn’t deserve you, never did. I’m not a good man, never was. I love you and that’s probably one of the only honest things I’ve said to you in the past few years. I can also say that I fucked up, badly, but I never stopped loving you, or the kids. I got mixed up with some men who paid me very well to sell them some secrets about what I was working on at BSE. Suffice it to say that once wasn’t enough with these men. But I found I was good at covering my tracks. What’s more, the more secrets I gave up the easier it got, but I got cocky, brought in others to my little enterprise and it went bad. Now I’m in deep, honey, up to my eyeballs. And I don’t see a way out.”

He paused, his hands coming up to rub his red streaked tired eyes.

“I’ve set things up so you’ll be okay, financially, and I’ve made it clear that you weren’t involved.”

“How could it look like I was involved?” she whispered.

As if from the grave, he answered. “I’m not proud of it, but I used the server from your shop to make the deals. The security systems at work were too good. Because of this, I’m afraid the feds might look at you as an accomplice. Take the flash drive. It has my signed confession and all the information they need to bring down this ring. I’ve also made it very clear you had nothing to do with any of it.”

At last, he paused. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am, baby. I know this hurts and it will for some time, but you can go on. Don’t grieve for me, Marilee, I don’t deserve it. This was my doing, my need to provide for and protect you and the kids, and my colossal ego told me I could get away with it and never have it blow back on you.”

He paused for a moment, guilt radiating from every pore.

“You will learn more, no doubt, but I’m not man enough to tell you. Just know in my heart, that you were always first with me, my first love, my first submissive, and the only one I ever wanted to master. I’m heartsick and sorry, baby.”

Nothing more was said as with tears in his eyes, he reached toward the camera and the screen turned blue. Silence encompassed the room. Arturo stood close by not stirring, not speaking, and if he was breathing she couldn’t tell, but she sensed his presence, his empathy, and support, even though she wanted none of it.

“He was having an affair with Adri, wasn’t he?” she asked in a flat, emotionless voice. “That’s what he meant by me being his first love. He didn’t say one and only, but first, meaning there was at least a second.”

“I’m sorry, Mari.”

She nodded, remaining stoic as her heart leapt into her throat, the dry, choking fullness seeming to cut off her air. At every turn, those she trusted had betrayed her. How she would ever be able to believe in anything, or anyone, ever again was beyond her. It would be utterly foolish. And Arturo, despite his words of love, of a future, and his continued dismissal of her insistence that it was at an end, wasn’t any different, no matter his intentions to help and protect her, was he? If she could bring herself to forgive, how could she ever forget, or overcome the lingering doubts and be with him in anyway close to what they’d had?

A roaring sound in her ears obliterated him calling her name and his image, as she turned to him, liquefied as tears flooded her eyes. Through dry lips and a parched throat, she managed to croak out the one word that would end what they had, irrefutably.

“Red.”

An hour later, she sat stiff and withdrawn across from him in the Rossi conference room not deigning to look his way, nor did she address Arturo directly when he laid out the plan for closing the case once and for all, with Adriana implicated fully and any contacts she had locally and beyond, clearly identified and shut down for good. Instead, she spoke to Jonas as if he wasn’t in the room.

“I don’t want to work with him, Jonas. I won’t.”

“You will,” Arturo countered succinctly. “You have no choice, Mari.”

Ignoring his growled response, her eyes locked on Jonas, imploring him.

The younger man shook his head. “I’m sorry, darlin’, but it’s an MI6 case. The security breaches are directly impacting homeland security in the UK. We’re subcontracted to SIS and Arturo’s our lead.”

She looked down at her hands, clamped so tightly in her lap, her knuckles were ashen and her fingers had turned cold. “What if I refuse?”

Arturo answered that as well, managing to stay calm, although what he wanted to do was scoop her up and hold her in his arms. Once there, he was torn between the need to soothe the justifiable hurt caused by so many, himself included, or turning her over his knee to redden her obstinate backside until she saw reason. Instead, he laid it out straight for her.

“If we have to run this op without you, Adriana potentially walks free and Derek goes down as the sole culprit.”

“And that would be bad, how?”

“You don’t mean that,” he replied more softly. “Lives have been lost already. Good men who served their country honorably. The count is low now, but with this technology, and innumerable other secrets they may have sold, many more could die. Innocents like you that are caught up in things they know nothing about. And Adriana is duplicitous in all of it, more so than Derek since she recruited him in the first place. Would you see her get off Scot free?”

That got to her. He could tell by the greenish tinge that crept into her face and the tears that welled up in her lovely eyes.
Merde
! If it were possible, he’d kill Derek Hoffman all over again for embroiling her in this mess.

“I didn’t know that Adri recruited Derek,” she said just above a whisper.

“Evidently while working as the VP’s assistant, she made contacts, serious contacts, but they needed someone involved in R&D. Businesses run credit checks all the time on employees. Derek was low hanging fruit with his mountains of debt.”

“Ripe for the picking,” she concluded.

“Exactly.”

“I feel like it’s my fault. He did this for me and the kids.”

“Stop it,” he insisted, anger ringing clear in his voice. “You are innocent in this. Did you ask him to do any of this, to lie, cheat, or to steal top-secret intelligence and sell it to terrorists? The only role you have in this mess is to help put Adriana away for good.”

Her innate sense of right and wrong won out the next moment. “What do I have to do?”

Arturo quickly explained the operation. Mari’s role was simple: confide in Adri that a man, a foreigner, had been in touch, wanting to meet with her about Derek and a special research project he’d been working on before his death.

“And how will that help?”

“Add to it,” Jonas inserted, “that he is interested in gaining access to all of Derek’s research and notes, and that he promises to compensate you well for your trouble.”

“She’ll panic,” Arturo predicted, “which is what we want. Scared people get reckless and make mistakes. She’ll contact her friends and when she does, we’ll know.”

“But these friends, the terrorists, what if they decide to come after me, thinking I know more than I do, or that I really have access to Derek’s files?”

“You do,” Jonas replied. “Derek laid it all out for you on that flash drive.”

“But I haven’t seen any of that.”

“They don’t know that, Mari,” Jonas added further. “Even if you didn’t know, these are not the type of people who are going to give you the benefit of the doubt.”

She looked up with alarm. “Are my children at risk?”

“We’ll assign someone to them,” Arturo assured her, while shooting a scowl Jonas’ way. “You’re scaring the shit out of her.”

“She needs to be aware of the risk. From past experience, our subs seem to go off half-cocked and get into it up to their defiant little asses.”

“I’m not his sub.”

“You are,” Arturo asserted. “You’re just too stubborn to admit it. In any case, you will have full security 24/7, and never will your protection be more than a step away.”

“Won’t that look odd?”

“Not if it’s me.”

She shook her head. “No.”

“It’s not your decision.”

“It’s the safest option,” Jonas agreed, weighing in once again. “We have to assume they’ve been watching you. If not constantly, you’ve been out with Arturo in public numerous times. No one will suspect the man in your life is anything other than that if he stays close to you.”

“They will if he hangs around the shop all day.”

“I don’t have to. You’ll have constant eyes on you. As long as you don’t leave the store, you’re safe,” Arturo explained. “Outside is another story. You don’t leave my sight. I’ll be driving you to and from home, as well as spending the night.”

Shaking her head vehemently, she demanded, “I want someone else.”

“A sudden change in boyfriends would arouse suspicion,” Jonas reiterated.

“After you called this morning, I told Katy you were breaking up with me.” Her eyes met and held his for the first time since they’d sat down.

“Tell her you were wrong, or that we made up. No one else is going to play bodyguard to you, so deal with it.”

“I thought you were charming, but you’re actually a big jerk.”

“And you’re acting like a child,” he snapped, his patience gone.

“My world is turned upside down!” she protested.

“I realize that,
ma chère
, but we are doing our best to turn it right side up while ensuring that you are still breathing when it’s all fucking said and done. Your cooperation would be appreciated.”

Immediately, he regretted not softening his words as the color leached from her face, but Jonas was right, they couldn’t candy coat the seriousness of the situation, especially if she was going to fight him at every turn. Still the look on her face made him feel like the jerk she accused him of being.

“Now who’s scaring the shit out of her?” Jonas quipped, not helping one bit.

* * *

They spent the return trip to Mari’s shop in stony silence. Neither said a word until the Porsche pulled into a reserved space in the rear of the building. Mari’s hand was on the door latch, more than ready to get out, before the engine had gone quiet, but his hold on her forearm stopped her.

“Do we need to go over this one more time?”

“No. I go in, act natural, explain to Katy it was all a mistake and everything is hunky-dory in Mari-Arturo world once again, then when I have a chance to get Adri alone, I tell her what you told me to.”

“Good girl.”

She stiffened as the warmth of his approval washed over her.

“I’ll pick you up at seven sharp. When you get inside, take note of the utility van parked out front. That’s how close Rossi’s men are and I won’t be far away either.”

She nodded. Taking a deep breath to calm her nerves, not as unruffled by it all as she wanted to appear.

“You’re being very brave, Mari. I know this is hard. When this is through, we will talk.”

“You keep saying that, but you’re wrong. When this is through, I don’t want to see you again.”

He didn’t reply immediately, the increased pressure on her arm so subtle that she was wondering if she imagined it when he responded. “After we talk, if those are still your wishes, which I sincerely hope they are not, I will respect them.”

She swallowed, beneath the hurt, a rational area of her mind told her not to act rashly, but her aching heart was still in control. “I hope I can trust you to keep your word on that.”

“You can.”

Biting back a smart ass remark that would make her feel better briefly, but would only increase the tension between them, she settled for a skeptical grunt instead, as she pulled way and got out of the car.

Arturo’s long legs eliminated the distance between them as he came around the front of the car, and together they walked to the service door in the rear of her shop. He caught her hand in his as she reached for the doorknob.

“We’re supposed to be intimately involved, remember?”

She shot him a look. His eyes were dark and serious, his usually smiling or teasing lips set in a grim line. He didn’t seem to be looking forward to this charade any more than she did. Resigned, she took a deep breath, plastered on a false smile, and pulled open the door.

Once inside, Arturo laid it on thick. Touching her constantly, he held her hand or brought her fingers to his lips for a soft kiss. He brushed her hair back from her face, his fingers lingering lightly on her cheek, his white teeth flashing his devastating smile as he completely charmed Adri and Katy who were both working the mid-day to closing shift.

“I thought it was over,” Katy mouthed when she thought Arturo wasn’t paying attention.

“A lover’s spat, is all, I assure you,” he said having intercepted the silent message. His arm at her waist curled her into his side and as she looked up, he lowered his mouth kissing her tenderly. The audible sighs from the other two women echoed her own melting response, and she was barely able to suppress one of her own. The tremor coursing through her body was not so easily checked, however, and gave her away. When he lifted his head, the look in his eyes told her clearly that his next words weren’t meant for their audience. “It is far from over.”

Then he squeezed her hard, brushed a kiss against her temple, and with a chin nod to her twitterpated staff, was out the back door.

“Gone a few weeks and you’ve got a French hottie on the string. Girl, spill,” Adri insisted.

“I am over the moon that things turned out okay,” Katy gushed. “What was so pressing he had to speak to you alone this morning?”

Being light complected, she always blushed easily, and for once, she was thankful for it because her crimson cheeks told the story they wanted to believe, without her having to say a word. She did add, playing her part to the hilt, “It was a little misunderstanding, but as he said, we made up and then had a nice lunch.”

Adri didn’t miss much and pointedly looked at the clock. “A five-hour lunch. Gotta say, honey, that takes kissing and making up to another whole level.”

“Oo la la, girl,” Katy teased with a knowing grin. “Let me say on behalf of all woman-kind, congrats. He is f-i-n-e, Mari, and the way he calls you kitten,” she patted her hand on her chest, “be still my lonely heart. That is so sweet.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Adri said with a wave. “I don’t want to hear about sweet. I want hot and dirty.”

“Oh no, I’m not kissing and telling,” Mari said as she walked toward the front of the store, the words she really wanted to say to her so-called friend burning a hole in her tongue. As soon as she was within range of the window, she caught sight of the plain white van with the local cable company logo on the side, right where he said it would be.

“Come on, Mari. You’re the only one of us that has any sex life to speak of and you’d deprive us of the sexy details?”

She turned. “But Adri, you’re married.”

“Yeah…” she sighed, “as I said, the only one of the three.”

Katy chuckled and Mari forced herself to join in. Adri was funny, she’d always been despite being a conniving backstabbing bitch, but knowing what she knew made it damn hard to laugh.

“Well, you’ll have to live vicariously through someone else’s sex life, I’ve got emails to check and loose ends from last week to tie up.”

“I put some phone messages on your desk,” Katy called after her, as they all settled back into their usual routines.

She waved her thanks as she closed the door to her office. As she leaned against it to catch her breath, she noticed her hands were shaking.
Bide your time and wait for an opening,
she told herself as she moved toward her desk and sat, trying to focus on work.

An hour later, after having returned emails and made a few calls, she was sorting through the ‘while you were out’ slips when she came across one from 4:35. A Mr. Abdallah had called with an urgent matter. She marveled at how efficient Arturo and the Rossi team were. This had come in while she was still in the car on the way to the shop.

She was frowning down at it when Adri walked in.

“I need the computer to do invoices, hon.”

She nodded, concentrating on what she would say.

“Is something wrong?”

“I’m not sure.” Adri’d given her the perfect opening. Flipping the pink message slip around so she could read it, Mari told her the line as scripted. “I had the strangest phone call. This man, he sounded foreign, like from India or somewhere Middle Eastern. Anyway, he wants to talk to me about Derek.”