Night After Night

“This first entry in a new series is sure to garner a devoted following. Members of The Reliance Group are introduced well and there are obviously some secrets to be uncovered about each and every one. First up is Nathan Fox. Hold on tight, this one’s a page-turner!”

—
RT Book Reviews
on
Into the Night
(4½ stars, Top Pick!)

“
Into the Night
is an explosive beginning to a series with all the right ingredients—a demanding plot, interesting characters, and action-packed drama—to get the reader hooked. This is one fabulous read!”

—
Fresh Fiction

“Fascinating.”

—
Romance Reviews Today
 on
Into the Night

“Ms. Denison knows how to make a story more than a romance. She makes it sensual, electric, and with a plot that keeps readers turning the pages.”

—
The Road to Romance

“Ms. Denison has done it again with her phenomenal writing talent in bringing out the physical as well as the emotional in her characters.”

—
A Romance Review

“When I want a sensuous read, I know Ms. Denison delivers what I want to read: sexy heroes, sassy heroines, and sinfully erotic games to die for!”

—
Reader to Reader Reviews

“Steamy, sexy, and suspenseful.”

—
Midwest Book Review

“Ms. Denison has a ‘not-to-be-rivaled’ talent in writing a story that pulls the reader into it from the first line, and this book [
A Shameless Seduction
] is no exception!”

—
Love Romance and More

To Carly Phillips, for holding my hand every step of the way with this book. Your friendship means the world to me and I can’t imagine my life without you in it.

And to my husband, Don, because he’s the reason I write romances and believe in happily ever after. I love you.

“Do you recognize the man in this photograph?”

Sean O’Brien glanced from his boss, Caleb Roux, to the picture he slid across the surface of his desk. Leaning forward in his seat, Sean reached for the snapshot, all too aware of Caleb’s direct gaze watching him, waiting for some kind of reaction.

Sean found his boss’s quiet intensity disconcerting, especially when it was directed at
him.
Something was up, and Sean could only wonder where this meeting would lead.

If there was one thing he’d learned about Caleb, it was everything he did had a distinct purpose. Especially when it came to doling out the cases exclusive clients hired him to investigate.

As the founder of The Reliance Group—a private organization he’d established to accommodate those who preferred a more untraditional approach to resolving personal, private matters—Caleb utilized each member on his team according to their experience and skills.

In Sean’s case, his proficiency as an ex–con artist had come in handy on a few of Caleb’s cases. Sean’s prior life as a hustler wasn’t something he was proud of, and he was grateful that Caleb had given him a chance to redeem himself. First, for offering Sean a job as a bartender at the Onyx Hotel & Casino when no one else would hire him, and second, for inviting him to be a part of The Reliance Group.

Realizing Caleb was waiting patiently for a reply, Sean finally glanced at the photograph in his hand, his stomach clenching at the familiar face staring back at him. Even though it had been twelve years since he’d seen this man, there was no forgetting the person who’d betrayed Sean’s father.

Not that he had been innocent in his crimes. Hardly. But the man in the picture had been an equal accomplice and had ultimately sold Sean’s old man down the river to save his own ass.

“Yes, I know him,” Sean said, his tone bitter as he tossed the picture back onto Caleb’s desk. “That’s Elliott Cooke, the man who sent my father to jail.” Sean suspected Caleb already knew that bit of information. He had a thick file on Sean and his past, and there was nothing Caleb didn’t already know about him and his family situation.

“He goes by ‘Grant Russo’ now,” Caleb told Sean.

Sean didn’t give a damn what the bastard called himself. At the core, he was still a man who lacked morals and a conscience. “And this matters to me why?”

Sean’s gruff attitude didn’t faze Caleb at all; his gaze remained razor sharp and determined. “It matters because you’re about to take on a case that’s going to force you to face your past, and this man. Can you handle that?”

Sean’s jaw clenched and resentment burned in his gut. He despised Elliott Cooke for a variety of reasons but mainly for ruining Sean’s father’s life.

Sean didn’t know what Caleb’s case involved but hoped it included serving up a large dose of overdue justice to Cooke so he could have the satisfaction of delivering the punishment himself. It was the least he could do to avenge his father and finally settle a long-overdue score between the two men.

Doing so would also provide Sean with the opportunity to ease some of his own guilt when it came to his father. In the twelve years that Casey O’Brien had been in prison, Sean had only visited his dad a handful of times, and that wasn’t something he was proud of. Sean’s own shame and embarrassment in failing his father’s final request to stop the cycle of cons and build a better life for himself was something he desperately wanted to make amends for. Only then could he face his old man again.

“What do you need me to do?” Sean asked.

Caleb picked up his BlackBerry and tapped out a message on the small keyboard. “Before we go on, Valerie will be joining us so she can explain the case and what she knows.”

Valerie Downing was also a member of The Reliance Group, though her main job was as casino host for the Onyx. She spent her days and evenings catering to the requests and whims of the high-profile gamblers, known as Whales, who frequented the establishment.

“How is Valerie involved?” Sean asked.

Text sent, Caleb set his phone back down before meeting Sean’s gaze once again. “It was one of her Whales who heard about TRG and asked for our help. I have the case file and all the initial investigative reports right here for you to review, but Valerie can give you a better rundown of the facts and answer any questions you might have.”

Within a few minutes, Valerie arrived. She knocked briskly on the closed door before entering Caleb’s office. The casino host was young and beautiful, a brunette with soft brown eyes and a charismatic way about her that people were drawn to.

Wearing a black pantsuit with a beige silk blouse beneath the short-waisted jacket, she sat down in the chair beside Sean’s. “Hey, O’Brien,” she said by way of greeting.

“Val.” Sean inclined his head. “I’m dying of curiosity here. Tell me what you know about Russo.” The last Sean had heard, after evading prison time, the other man had sworn he was going to clean up his act and lead an exemplary life.

Yeah, right, like Sean believed that.
Once a con, always a con.
Once you played the game and reaped the rewards, it was like a rush and an addiction that coursed through your blood and made you crave more. And as Sean well knew from his own experience, living the high life of a scam artist was a habit that was difficult to break.

As a cocky teenager, Sean had been sucked into his dad’s fast and loose lifestyle that kept a lot of cash in Sean’s pocket and made him believe he was invincible and above the law. Until his last con as an adult had gone horribly wrong and the innocent woman he’d swindled had paid a hefty emotional and physical price for being such an easy, gullible mark.

While Sean’s own stint in prison had given him a much-needed slap of reality and had scared him straight, he still harbored a load of guilt and regrets for what had happened to the woman. Spending months in a small concrete cell had given him a helluva lot of time to reflect and to make the decision to finally turn his life around for good.

But there were some things in his past he couldn’t forget or forgive himself for. And that last con gone wrong, and the woman’s life that had been irrevocably changed as a result of Sean’s deliberate deception, was one of them.

Valerie tucked a long strand of brown wavy hair behind the shell of her ear, that intuitive gaze of hers meeting Sean’s as she addressed his question about what she knew about Grant Russo. “I never heard of the guy until one of my best clients came to see me about hiring The Reliance Group to find him. Conrad Davenport is a billionaire with his own investment company, and he’s one of the Onyx’s highest rollers. He doesn’t think twice about spending an obscene amount of money on gambling in the casino. My job is to keep him happy, and right now, the man is fuming mad. Not at us, of course, but his anger at being conned is affecting his game play at the Onyx, which in turn affects our revenue, and so on.”

The corner of Valerie’s mouth quirked with a wry grin. “I’m sure you’ve heard the saying ‘If a Whale isn’t happy, then nobody’s happy.’ Trust me, it’s true.”

“I’m sure it is,” Sean replied.

“Davenport’s private company, Security Investment Group, is based out of Texas.” Valerie went on to explain the specifics of the case. “About a year ago his company invested over fifty million dollars toward the development of a new casino and resort slated to be built on a huge parcel of land in the Las Vegas Valley. It appeared to be a legitimate investment opportunity. The land was owned by Russo, formal contracts were signed, and he provided all his investors with an impressive résumé of his past projects and a full-blown business plan for the development of The Meridian Resort.”

Sean already had a strong feeling where this story was heading and how it would end. It was a familiar scenario and a repeat of the past and the other lives Elliott Cooke had shattered and destroyed through an organized Ponzi scheme.

Realizing just how quiet Caleb had been, Sean cast a quick glance at his boss and found him reclining back in his leather chair. He appeared relaxed, but Sean knew beneath that deceptively casual façade Caleb was processing every word Valerie spoke, as well as Sean’s response.

“About three months ago they broke ground for the Meridian project and started grading. Shortly after that, construction came to an abrupt standstill, along with a bunch of excuses from Russo as to what was going on.” Valerie crossed one leg over the other as she continued. “Davenport suspected foul play and called Russo on it, but Russo swore the investment was legitimate. When Davenport insisted on seeing current financial statements, Russo wasn’t able to provide them and kept putting him off. Now, he can’t even get ahold of the guy.”

“Which is why he asked The Reliance Group to get involved,” Caleb said, finally jumping into the conversation. “I put my best investigators on the case, but they couldn’t find Russo, either. In fact, it’s as though he’s dropped off the face of the earth, and he’s left a lot of personal and private investors very unhappy.”

Sean wasn’t surprised to hear that Russo had disappeared. An exemplary life, Sean’s ass, he thought sarcastically. Obviously, Russo was back to doing what he did best—wooing the wealthy and gaining their trust, making grand promises of huge return profits on their investment, then padding his own pockets and supplementing his affluent lifestyle with their money.

Clearly, whatever latest scheme he’d been plotting had finally come crashing down around him. Most likely, he’d taken the investors’ money and gotten out of Dodge and, unless he was caught, the investors were pretty much shit out of luck. Including Davenport.

“The Feds are about to get involved with a thorough investigation of the situation, and once that happens, all of Russo’s assets will be frozen.” Caleb absently tapped his pen on a file folder on his desk as he spoke. “All his money, including the investors’, will be tied up in court for years. Chances are, nobody will ever see their money, and Davenport is determined to recover his before this case breaks wide open.”

“I still don’t get how this case applies to me, and what, exactly, you need me to do,” Sean said.

“You know the life and thought processes of a man like Russo,” Caleb said, reminding Sean of everything he’d spent the past six years trying to forget. “Russo has a daughter, Zoe, and we believe she’s our best connection to finding out where her father is. We need you to get close to her, gain her confidence, and uncover what she knows of Russo’s whereabouts.”

Sean shook his head, not liking the direction this conversation was taking. The last thing he wanted to do was dupe another woman, even if it was for the greater good of putting Russo’s ass in jail where it belonged. “I doubt she’s going to spill family secrets to a stranger.”

“Not the first time you meet her, no,” Valerie agreed, her eyes shimmering with amusement. “But after a few chance encounters I’m sure you could work it into the conversation somehow.”

He rubbed his fingers across his forehead and groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.” His own personal misgivings aside, he had no desire to babysit the daughter of the con man who’d sent Sean’s father to prison.

“I’m quite serious,” Valerie replied, and softened her words with a sweet smile. “And I know for a fact that you’ve got the personality and the gift of persuasion to pull this off. I don’t think I’ve ever met a woman who has been able to resist your charm.”

As he was unable to argue with Valerie’s reasoning, a reluctant grin tipped the corner of Sean’s mouth. True, he normally enjoyed seducing the opposite sex—and reveled in the fun while it lasted. He just hadn’t anticipated having to flirt with a woman he’d never, ever, willingly choose to hook up with. But he knew that both Valerie and Caleb were counting on him to make this work, to retrieve the information they needed to find Russo for their client, and Sean couldn’t bring himself to disappoint either one.

“So what do you want me to do, call her up and ask her out on a date?” Sean joked.

Valerie laughed. “Actually, you don’t need to be so obvious. We’ve set up a legitimate way for the two of you to meet.”

“Here’s what we know about Zoe Russo,” Caleb said as he opened a file folder on his desk and perused the first page of notes. “She’s an up-and-coming designer, and she’s currently looking for a place to open her first boutique here in Las Vegas.”

“She designs the most amazing accessories,” Valerie said, sounding as though she was a fan of Zoe’s creations. “Scarves, purses, sunglasses, jewelry, those sorts of things. Everything is accentuated with sparkling crystals in some way, which is part of her brand and what makes her ZR Designs recognizable.”

“Yeah, what she said,” Caleb said, his tone wry. “I’ve been told that the Onyx is interested in adding her flagship store to the promenade of shops here, and you’ll be standing in for the leasing agent to court her, so to speak, to sign a lease to open her boutique here. That will give the two of you plenty of face time, so be sure to use it to your advantage to establish a connection with her so you can find out what she knows about her father and his whereabouts.”

Sean accepted the file that Caleb pushed across his desk toward him. Just like with every other job he’d taken on for The Reliance Group, Sean knew what the folder contained. Pictures of their mark. Personal information. Investigative reports. Everything he needed to familiarize himself with all the players in the game and get the job done.

He’d always enjoyed the excitement and thrill that came with taking on an assignment for TRG. He supposed it provided him with that adrenaline rush he’d always relished as a former con artist. But he’d never been handed a case with such a personal connection. One that dredged up his imperfect past yet offered him the opportunity to serve a bit of overdue justice to the man who’d screwed Sean’s father.

And maybe, in the process, Sean would also be able to repair his own broken relationship with his dad and show his old man that he really
had
changed his life around.

It appeared that
complicated
had landed in Sean’s lap in a big way. Now he just had to prove to Caleb that he’d chosen the right man for the job.