A Brother's Honor (26 page)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“W
hat do you have for us, Marcel?” Shana asked the man sitting across from her, with Jace and his brothers looking on.

The five of them were assembled in Jace’s office. She’d spent a wonderful weekend with Jace, and now it was time to get to work. Back to finishing what she’d been hired to do.

Marcel was in his late fifties and had been an agent for over fifteen years. He’d been married for twenty years and was the father of triplets who would be entering college in the fall. Like Shana’s father, Marcel had been a dedicated cop and was even more so as a federal agent. This wasn’t the first case he’d become involved in because of her, and as long as people thought it was okay not to do the right thing, she knew it wouldn’t be the last.

He leaned back in his chair. “I’m sure you noticed Ms. Swanson did not come in today.”

Jace raised a brow. “Yes, Melissa isn’t here, and according to Ms. Booker, she hasn’t called in.”

“And she won’t be,” Marcel said casually. “At six this morning, federal agents knocked on the doors of two of your current employees and one former—Melissa Swanson, Cal Arrington and Titus Freeman. Swanson and Arrington were taken in for questioning, but Freeman’s whereabouts are unknown at the moment. An alert is out for his arrest.”

“Christ!” Dalton exclaimed, shaking his head. “I figured something in the milk wasn’t clean with Freeman, and I’m not surprised at Arrington. He seemed like an annoying fart. But Melissa Swanson? She was so kind. Making sure I ate lunch and—”

“She was Freeman’s lover,” Marcel interrupted. “And has been for more than a year. He’s the one who convinced your grandfather to promote her as his personal assistant. Of course, he had ulterior motives in doing so. She reported back to him whatever he wanted to know.”

“And she admitted to that?” Jace asked quietly. Like Dalton, he’d liked the woman, thought she was efficient with not only how the executive offices ran but with always being solicitous of their needs, as well.

“Not to everything, but we had evidence she couldn’t refute thanks to the work of my undercover agents and Shana’s man Kent.” He glanced over at Shana and smiled. “Kent’s report was pretty thorough.”

She smiled back. “Always is.”

She glanced over at Jace. He was staring at her, and she saw the tightness in his jaw. Was he upset that she hadn’t shared her suspicions about Melissa with him? Would he understand that she had made the decision not to say anything until she was certain?

“Just what has she admitted to?” Jace asked, switching his gaze from Shana to Marcel.

“Basically those two things about her and Freeman being lovers and his being responsible for her becoming Richard Granger’s personal assistant. However, she swears she had nothing to do with bugging Shana’s office.”

He paused a minute and then said, “Arrington denied everything. Called his attorney, but since we’d obtained a search warrant, we had confiscated evidence before his attorney arrived.”

“What sort of evidence?” Caden wanted to know.

“Various airplane designs that belong to this company. It seems he was selling those designs to Barnes Aerospace. We have a search warrant for their premises, as well, and the search is taking place as we speak.”

“Where do you think Freeman is?” Shana asked.

“Not sure, but his photograph is out there in case he decides to leave town or the country.”

Pushing away from his desk, Jace stood and walked over to the window and gazed out. Shana knew he was upset and rightly so. Those who’d been arrested were employees his grandfather had trusted.

He turned back to them, shaking his head. “I just don’t get it. Freeman was bright, intelligent and excited about taking Granger to the next level. That’s the main reason Granddad made him second-in-command. If my brothers and I hadn’t decided to stay, he could have run the company whatever way he saw fit. He was CEO, and we would not have interfered.”

“But that’s just it,” Marcel said somberly. “The three of you did decide to stay, which messed up his plans.”

“And just what were his plans?” Caden asked.

“That under his leadership, Barnes would have initiated a merger, one he would have agreed to. According to Swanson, a deal had been made, a fellow’s agreement, so to speak, between Freeman and the people over at Barnes months ago, before your grandfather’s death. His job was to convince your grandfather to go along with it. In doing so, your grandfather might have become suspicious.”

Jace sighed. He was almost certain Richard had.

“And it seems that he might have deliberately set the company up to fail so your grandfather had no choice,” Marcel added. “That’s where Arrington came in.” He paused a second then said, “I know this is not good news to have to deal with on a Monday, or any other day for that matter.”

“No, it’s not,” Jace agreed.

“And just so you know, there might be others involved, others willing to take cash under the table for the company’s failure. We’re trying to develop a paper trail. Swanson is telling all now, trying to paint herself as a woman taken advantage of. Right now, Arrington’s refusing to say anything. We believe Freeman is the mastermind, but I can’t guarantee we’ve gotten him and all his troops. Hopefully, someone will want to make a plea deal.”

“So, in other words, until this case is completely solved, we have to continue not to trust anyone,” Shana reiterated.

Dalton stood. “Shit. I need a drink. All this spy, knife-in-the-back stuff is too much for my blood,” he said, heading for the door.

“It’s early, but I think I’m going to have that drink with him,” Caden said, following Dalton out the door.

Marcel stood and chuckled as he rubbed a tired hand down his face. “I think your brothers have the right idea with that drink, but some of us still have work to do, and I have a feeling this case is far from over.”

He headed for the door. Before opening it, he turned and said to Shana and Jace, “I’ll keep the two of you informed of anything I think you need to know.” He then left.

Jace glanced over at Shana. “I need to call a meeting of my executives immediately to let everyone know what’s going on before they get wind of it in the media.”

Shana nodded. “There’s something else you might want to do, as well.”

At the lifting of his brow, she added, “Get prepared to hold a press conference.”

* * *

Several hours later, Jace sat at his desk with his head thrown back. This had been one hell of a day. It was amazing the difference a few hours made. He had awakened that morning after such a wonderful weekend feeling on top of the world. Never had a day started off so right to end up so wrong.

He felt tired, drained. Although he’d felt the same way several times over the weekend, at least he could claim during those times the exhaustion had been pleasurable and enjoyable. This time, it was not. He had been on the job a little more than a month, and already he’d been thrown in the line of fire. He was glad both the meeting with his management staff and the press conference had gone well.

“Granddad, I hope you know what the hell you were doing by asking Caden, Dalton and me to make that promise,” he muttered quietly to himself. Luckily, his brothers had returned from McQueen’s in time to make appearances at both meetings. It felt good having them by his side.

And then there was Shana.

Although she hadn’t interfered with what his public relations department was being paid to do, she had been there, on the sidelines, positioning herself where he could see her and know she was there to offer support.

He took a moment to close his eyes, needing just for a little while to go back in time. And he knew just what he wanted to revisit. This past weekend and the cabin in the mountains with Shana. Beginning with the bath they’d taken together...although they’d had sex in the tub more than they’d bathed.

And then, after drying them both off, he’d carried her to the bed. Then they had made love again, several times, before finally calling it a night and drifting off to sleep in each other’s arms. More than once during the night, she would shift in sleep, awaken him. He would tighten his arms around her and draw her body more snugly against him.

Sunday morning, he had opened his eyes to find her already awake and staring over at him. He wasn’t privy to what thoughts were going through her mind, but he knew what thoughts immediately began flowing through his.

He’d reached out and stroked his fingers through her hair before raising his mouth to hers. Her lips parted sweetly, and he thrust his tongue between them, greedy for her taste. But that hadn’t been enough.

Jace had left her mouth and began kissing her neck, lower still to her breasts, where he enjoyed a feast with her nipples, sucking wildly. And while she moaned and groaned through the sensations, his tongue tunneled lower still. Easing her legs apart and lifting her hips, he settled his mouth on her womanly core, reacquainting his tongue with her taste there. His mouth feasted on her sensitized flesh, nibbled on her clit and lapped her sweet nectar.

He had licked her into one orgasm and then another, certain that even today the taste of her lingered on his tongue. And when she had been on the brink of sexual delirium, pressed close to a third orgasm, she had begged him to take her. And he’d done just that.

He’d made love to her enough times to know she liked being taken hard, and he’d had no problem delivering. They eventually sexed themselves to sleep again, and by the time they’d awakened, it had been close to noon.

They’d had every intention of coming back to town before six but ended up barely making it back before midnight. He’d been tempted to spend the night but figured she needed her rest, what little she would get before her alarm awakened her at six. Besides, Caden was due back in town Sunday evening. Luckily for Jace, his brother had arrived and retired to bed by the time he’d gotten in. Just as well, as Jace was certain Shana’s scent was all over him.

Jace opened his eyes. Remembering what had taken place this weekend between him and Shana sent heated lust flowing through him. Now was not the time and not the place to get a case of horniness. He’d messed up once about that and couldn’t do so again.

But it was hard, knowing she was there, right next door. Dalton and Caden had left hours ago, and so had Brandy Booker. She seemed really taken aback, genuinely hurt and let down by Melissa’s duplicity. She wasn’t the only one.

Jace stood and stretched his body and then tried talking himself into sitting back down and couldn’t. He glanced over at the connecting door, stared at it for a long moment. The next thing he knew, he was walking toward it.

* * *

Shana glanced up and saw Jace standing in the doorway where their offices connected and wondered how long he’d been standing there. She stared at him, saw the heat in his gaze. The desire.

“Working late again, I see,” he said in a deep, husky timbre, breaking the silence between them and moving from the door to stand in front of her desk.

She gave him a slow once-over and thought, as she always did, that Jace Granger was good on the eyes. No matter what he put on his body, he wore it well. But then, although his shirt and pants looked nice, she also enjoyed seeing him wear nothing at all. Those were the times in bed that she would curl into the curve of his naked body while hearing his heartbeat throb against her ear.

“Yes,” she said. “Thought I’d try my hand at putting together pieces of this puzzle since there still seem to be links missing.” A small smile touched her voice. “Vidal was in the office and stopped by. He gave me a pep talk. By the time he left, he had me believing I’ll have this thing figured out in no time.”

“And you will.”

She wasn’t so sure. Marcel had called them earlier to report that Melissa had retained an attorney who advised her not to provide any additional information without a plea deal, and Cal Arrington still wasn’t talking. Freeman remained nowhere to be found.

“You handled the media well during that press conference,” she decided to say, wondering when he would make his move on her.

There was no doubt in her mind that he would. The sexual chemistry flowing between them was potent, stimulating and was filling the air with an electrical charge she could feel. The thought of him acting on the strong attraction between them didn’t bother her like it once did. Mainly because she was tired of fooling herself about what she wanted. An affair with no future was probably not the best thing for her, but at the moment, when it came to Jace, it was all she wanted.

Now she was fooling herself again. She did want more but knew more was highly unlikely with him. He’d made that pretty clear this weekend. He was not a true love believer and a forever kind of guy. Then why had she allowed herself to fall in love with him? That was another admission she could make. If there was any doubt in her mind, it was eradicated yesterday when she’d arrived home from their weekend trip.

For her, it hadn’t been just about sex. It had been about getting to know the man who’d captured her heart. They talked a lot about things that mattered to them. She’d told him about her mother and how her mother’s death had affected her, and he’d opened up and told her about his mother’s death and his father’s subsequent trial. He went into how his so-called friends had deserted him and his brothers and how Dalton and his grandfather would occasionally butt heads because the two were so strong-willed. She had gotten to know Jace Granger the man and truly appreciated the person he was.

“Thanks. I think the press conference went pretty well myself.” He gave her a tired smile, which still managed to send goose bumps trailing across her skin. “A few minutes ago, I was sitting in my office thinking about this weekend.”

“Any particular part?” she asked, tightening her thighs together at any mention of this weekend. Need was radiating from the soft core of her body, causing sensations to flow between her legs.

“Yes, all of it.”

A smile touched her lips.
Good answer.
But she was fishing for more. She wanted to hear him say it. Claim it. “So, there wasn’t anything in particular that stood out more than the rest?”