Dangerous Love (27 page)

***

The security guards downstairs confirmed Faith’s identity then led her to the private elevator and punched in the code. It wasn’t often she visited Galen Towers. Even when she was younger, she’d hated coming to the building. She glanced at her watch and sighed. A few minutes to one. She made a quick call to Ken and left a message that she was running late.

The tension in her stomach increased with each floor and her grip on the strap of her bag tightened. When the doors opened, she hesitated. There was no going back now, she thought then took a deep breath and stepped into the reception. It was empty, all the employees gone.

“Faith?”

She whipped around. Her aunt’s chauffer cum body-guard cum confidant rose from a chair.

“Your aunt is waiting.”

“Thank you.” She walked to the door, knocked, and opened it at Aunt Viv’s command.

Seated in a stuffed chair, her aunt waved her over, her gaze assessing, her expression not giving much away. In every generation of Fitzgeralds, the position of the chairman went to the oldest, unless they didn’t want the job, which was a rarity.

“That’s a beautiful suit,” Aunt Viv said. “Is it one of yours?”

The knot in Faith’s stomach loosened a bit. Just a bit. “Yes.”

“I’d like one…or two..”

Taken back, Faith blinked. Her aunt wore suits by more famous designers, including Sean’s DHS. “Of course. I can come to your place for measurements and to discuss colors—”

“No, no, child,” Aunt Viv said impatiently. “Not now. We’ll discuss all that after Fashion Week. Sit down.”

Faith took the seat across from her aunt, crossed her ankles and tucked her legs. When she realized she was fingering the strap of her purse, she stopped and placed one hand on top of the other.

Despite her nervousness, she lifted her chin and stared Aunt Viv straight in the eyes. “I’d like to apologize for what I implied during our exchange yesterday, Aunt Viv.”

“Which is what?”

“Telling you that you’d rather believe Sean O’Neal than me because I’m not a Fitzgerald,” Faith explained.

Aunt Viv’s brow rose. “What has changed your mind about your statement?”

“I am a Fitzgerald. I’ve been since Dad looked me in the eye and said, ‘Hi, Faith, I’m Caleb Fitzgerald and I’m your father.’ It doesn’t matter whether he is my biological father or not. He claimed me that day and has loved me since. It took me a long time to see things clearly, to appreciate the love and support of my cousins, uncles, and aunts. I was angry yesterday and lashed out. It won’t happen again.”

The silence that followed was the worst she’d ever sat through. Her aunt’s expression didn’t change.

“That was well-said,” Aunt Viv said, her eyes narrowed. “Yes, you are Caleb’s daughter, paternity test or not. I admit I was hard on you when you were growing up, but someone needed to be. Everyone treated you like Orphan Annie and made excuses for your appalling habits. You had to learn to act and talk right.”

Faith frowned, trying to remember if her social habits were lacking when she joined the family. “Aunt Viv—”

“I’m not done talking,” Aunt Viv snapped. “You had too much attitude, terrible table manners, and had something to say about everything even when your opinion wasn’t solicited.”

“My parents encouraged me to speak my mind.”

“Estelle could barely control you, yet she refused to put you under my care,” Aunt Viv continued.

“I wasn’t that bad,” Faith said defensively.

“You were, but you’ve come a long way from that awkward girl, thanks to me. You are now graceful. You are strong. Your younger cousins look up to you. However, all this doesn’t explain the things I said about your mother. No child should hear her mother maligned the way you did and for that, I apologize.” Aunt Viv leaned forward and poured water into a glass and glanced at Faith. “Would you like some?”

Faith shook her head. “No, thank you.”

Aunt Viv took a sip and put the glass down. “Now I’ll explain about your father. I love Caleb, but he was a reckless young man from the moment he discovered girls.”

Faith cringed, not wanting to hear about her father’s exploits. “Is this necessary, Aunt Viv?”

“Absolutely, otherwise you wouldn’t understand what happened. Even before your father joined the navy, women claiming they were carrying his child called us, demanding marriage or child support. Often, we investigated them and found only lies. After a while, we stopped investigating them. We just ignored them and they went away.”

No wonder Aunt Gemma said her mother had tried to locate her father through his family but was given the runaround.

“So when we heard he had gotten married to a woman with his child, we assumed the worst. The more we learned about your mother the more we worried. I hounded your father to do a paternity test, but he brushed me off. He loved your mother and you were his. End of story.”

Faith grinned. If it were possible to love her father more, she would. Maybe one day she’d search for her real father, but now it wasn’t important. When she looked up, she found her aunt watching her expectantly.

“Thank you for explaining. I may not agree with the way you do things and why you’d think I had no manners, but I can now see where you are coming from.”

Aunt Viv shook her head and stood, the corner of her lips twitching. “You still give unsolicited opinions.”

“Old habit, I guess.” Faith stood too.

“I concede I failed you in that area, but I’m happy we had this talk, Faith. It’s never good to let things fester. It creates unnecessary tension in the family. Now we can move on and enjoy your debut at Fashion Week.”

“Thank you for making that possible. I wouldn’t be planning it if you hadn’t repaid my debt to GGC.”

Aunt Viv frowned. “I didn’t pay anything to GGC. I called them this morning to take care of what you owed them, but they told me it was already taken care of. You don’t know who your sponsor is?”

Faith shook her head, but a sinking feeling settled in her mid-section.

“Sean,” she muttered.

“I don’t think so,” Aunt Viv said. “I withdrew my support for Sean’s show after we spoke yesterday. He doesn’t have the money to have a show let alone settle your debt. He also will not be joining us for Thanksgiving anymore. I detest liars and bullies.”

Faith stared at her aunt in shock then she laughed, reached forward and kissed her aunt on the cheek, surprising both of them. “Thank you, Aunt Viv. I think I know who my benefactor is.”

Faith hurried out of the room, feet light, her heart even lighter.

“Who is it?” Her aunt called out.

“The man I love,” Faith threw over her shoulder and raced toward the outer office. It was half past one. She should be angry with Ken, but she couldn’t. She understood why he did it.

CHAPTER 21

When Ken came to, he was bound and gagged with duct tape. His head throbbed and his vision was blurry. He squinted through the low-lighting in the room and took inventory of his surroundings.

The room was big with no windows, but light filtered under the door. Sean and his psycho lady friend were gone. Instead, Ken was surrounded by wooden crates, boxes, packaging foam, and old garment bags. Someone had cleared a path through the mess from the door to where they’d left him. He had no idea whether he was still inside the New Mart Building or elsewhere.

Ignoring the discomfort of the hard floor and the kink on his shoulders from the weird angle his arms were tied behind him, Ken wiggled and shuffled until he was sitting with the wall behind him. His watch was gone and so were his boots, the blade he hid inside them would have been useful. He was also minus his jacket, which meant the transmitter he’d hidden in the fake button wouldn’t help his people find him.

The door opened and in walked Deidre and Sean. Deidre carried his laptop while Sean had his boots and coat. They paused, studied him as though they were surprised he was conscious.

“We’ll let him go after he tells us where all the spy cameras are and deletes everything from his hard drive, right?” Sean asked, keeping his distance.

“Of course.” Deidre moved closer and placed the laptop on a crate in front of Ken. On the screen was the footage of Sean inside the vault. “By the way, I found your van outside the building. The trans-receiver in the back is completely destroyed. Coffee didn’t agree with it.”

Deidre knelt beside him and yanked off the duct tape covering his mouth. He winced as the adhesive pulled at the hair around his mouth.

“Tell us where the transmitters are?” she said.

Ken flexed his jaw before speaking. “Which ones? The ones in his office or the vault?”

Sean moved closer. “You bugged my office?”

“Yep,” Ken said, enjoying the older man’s shock. “My people are nothing but thorough. If you want them removed, untie me.”

Deidre sneered. “You think we’re that stupid?”

“When did you plant them? Why?” Sean demanded.

“You were stealing from Faith and she wanted proof,” Ken retorted.

“I didn’t mean to use her designs. Deidre—”

“Don’t listen to him, Sean,” Deidre cut him off then picked up the duct tape and slapped it back on Ken’s mouth. “He just wants to push you into admitting things. You want the bugs removed, baby, don’t you?”

Sean nodded.

“Then I will make sure he does it.”

“How?” Sean asked.

“We’ll use Faith.”

A chill shot up Ken’s spine. He didn’t want Faith involved in this mess, and from the gleam in Deidre’s eyes as she studied him, she knew it.

“That bitch started this and I’ll not rest until she pays,” Deidre said.

Ken had assumed Sean was the mastermind behind the mayhem these two had caused, but watching them, he reversed his opinion. Deidre was in charge, and her agenda involved Faith.

Deidre restarted the video clip. Behind her, Sean moved back toward the door, his eyes unfocused, hair mussed as though he had ran his fingers through it. He kept muttering something under his breath.

“There is a transmitter around here.” Deidre pointed at a headless mannequin on the screen. Ken had planted a bug on the choker around the neck of the mannequin. “Come here, baby.” Deidre beckoned Sean over.

He walked forward slowly but kept glancing at Ken as though he expected him to jump up and attack.

“I want you to go downstairs and remove the bugs in the vault.” She rewound the footage and pointed at three locations as she spoke. “Check the mannequin from chest up, the shoes on this other one and the rack pole.”

“I don’t know what a transmitter looks like,” Sean said in a whiny voice.

“I’ll walk you through the search.”

Sean shook his head, his expression unyielding. “You go.”

Deidre frowned, then walked to where Sean stood and touched his arm. “Okay, baby. I’ll take care of it. This will be over soon. I promise.”

Sean nodded.

Ken followed their conversation. They were still in New Mart Building, somewhere upstairs. Deidre wasn’t stupid. She was resourceful and ruthless, which meant Ken needed to come up with a plan fast. Use Sean. How?

He waited until she left the room then put his plan into action. He made gurgling noises and faked a convulsion. Sean moved closer and pulled off the duct tape covering his mouth.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

Ken pretended to cough. “Yeah, thanks.”

Sean took a step back and sat on a wooden crate. Despite his suspicious expression, he didn’t try to cover Ken’s mouth again.

“What’s your end game, O’Neal?”

Sean frowned, confusion flashing in his eyes.

“Do you even know anymore?”

“Of course, I do. I’ll get my funding back after Faith calls her aunt and you delete all the recordings you have of me and Deidre. Now stop talking or I’ll cover your mouth again,” Sean said but, there was no heat in the threat. In fact, he sounded like a man who’d given up.

“When are you going to see she’s setting you up?”

Sean’s eyes narrowed. “She’s not. The only reason Deidre is involved is because she loves me.”

What an idiot. “You’re just a means to an end, O’Neal. Deidre hates Faith and because of your history with Faith, you’ll be blamed for all this mess.”

“That’s not true.”

How could a grown man be so stupid? “Look. Everyone thinks you told Deidre to steal Faith’s designs and we have a recording of you taking the clothes to her house and asking her to get rid of them. She will claim she was doing your bidding and the cops will believe her. I mean, look at her. She’s nearly twenty years younger than you, half your size, and can act helpless when cornered. She even fooled Detective Fitzgerald and he’s hard core. Trust me. She’ll walk with a slap on the wrist while you’ll serve time.”

Sean scowled. “I never asked her to steal the designs. She said Faith owed me for claiming I stole hers when she worked for me. She’s the one who brought me the designs. As soon as I saw them…” He looked down instead of finishing the sentence.

“You had to use them.”

“I wanted to show Faith how great we could be together.” Sean glanced toward the door as if to confirm that Deidre wasn’t back. “I didn’t know Deidre hired thugs to vandalize her store until after it happened,” he continued in a whisper. “Or that they’d seriously hurt the salesgirl for posting the footage of our fight online.”

“Molly might have posted the fight online the first time, but Deidre’s thugs did it the second time. That’s how the cops found them. She probably told them to do it, so you’d want to punish Faith more.”

Sean appeared to shrink into himself.

“You cannot trust this woman, O’Neal. She’s a con artist, who belongs behind bars. She has an agenda and you’re just a pawn.”

Silence followed.

“I offered to get rid of the recordings if you left Faith alone,” Ken continued. “That offer still stands, so untie me before Deidre comes back and I’ll help you stop her.”

Sean shook his head. “I can’t.”

“Kidnapping me and holding me hostage isn’t going to achieve anything. It’s only going to add to the other crimes you two have committed. You are going to end up in jail because you’re scared of…” His voice trailed off when Deidre walked through the door.

“Scared of what?” she asked.

“Of you,” Ken finished. “Why do you think he lets you run things? He probably believes you’ll hire thugs to finish him off too if he challenged you.”

“Sean knows I’m here to help him.” Deidre stopped beside Sean and smoothed back his hair. Her eyes grew hard when they connected with Ken’s. “We’re going to call Faith and finish this.”

Ken stiffened. “Leave her out of this. I’ll do whatever you want.”

“Do you love her, Lambert?” Deidre asked.

“Yes,” Ken answered without hesitation.

“You’d do anything to protect her?”

“Damn right.”

“I love Sean, too, and I’d do anything to protect him.” She patted Sean’s head. The designer wrapped his arms around her waist and pressed his head against her stomach.

Ken shook his head. Whatever these two had was beyond his comprehension. It wasn’t love.

***

Faith couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something wasn’t right. Ken was too conscientious to stand her up and not to return her calls. As soon as she’d left Aunt Viv’s place, she’d called him, scolded him, cried, then went back to scolding him. The worrying didn’t kick in until he missed their lunch date.

Her gaze went to the clock on her microwave oven. It was almost five. The sandwich she’d picked up on her way home still sat on the kitchen counter. She’d tried to eat but after a few bites had lost her appetite

Faith tried Ken’s cell phone, his office, and home again. The calls went unanswered. Refusing to panic, she dialed Eddie’s number.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asked.

“Ken is missing, and I’m going out of my mind with worry.”

“What do you mean ‘missing’?”

“He was supposed to meet me for lunch but didn’t show up. It’s been over four hours, Eddie. I don’t know what to think. He could be okay or lying in some ditch—”

“Whoa, slow down. Getting in and out of tight spots is Ken’s specialty.”

A hollow feeling settled in her stomach. “He said he was finishing up a case when I saw him this morning. Do you know what he’s working on?”

“No, but I wouldn’t worry too much about him. He is good at what he does and he has an amazing team watching his back.”

“I called his office and no one answered the phone. I think he’s working solo on this one. A few days ago he was in Vegas too, alone. Is it possible to put an APB on his car? You know, just in case.”

“Sure. I’ll call the precinct and have someone do something about it.”

Background noises filtered through and Faith frowned. “Where are you?”

“LAX.”

“Oh. You’re not going to Sonoma for Thanksgiving?”

“Not this year. I’ll call you back in a few.”

“I don’t want to spoil your vacation with this, Eddie. If you give me your friend’s number at the precinct, I can just talk to him.”

“Or her,” he corrected. “Since tomorrow is Thanksgiving, there’s no telling who’s on duty and who’s not, but I’ll explain the situation with Ken and call you back with a name. You may also want to check with Ken’s people. They have a way of tracking each other down.”

Faith sighed. “The thought crossed my mind, but I only have their office number and no one is answering it.”

“I have Sly’s cell number.” Eddie rattled off ten digits, promised to call again, and hung up.

Faith punched in the numbers and brought the phone to her ear. “This is Faith Fitzgerald, Sly. I’m looking for Mr. Lambert. Have you seen or spoken to him?”

“No, ma’am. The last time we spoke, he was going to Vegas then San Diego.”

“He came back this morning and said he was finishing up a case. Do you know anything about the case he’s working on?”

“No, ma’am, but I’ll call the others and starting searching for him too.”

“Tell him to call me if—?”

The ping of an incoming phone interrupted her. She was about to ignore it when caller ID flashed Ken’s name. Relief followed by anger washed over her. “Sly. He’s on the line right now. Sorry I bothered you. Have a happy Thanksgiving.”

“You too, Ms. Fitzgerald,” he said.

“Ken, where are you? I’ve been worried sick. I even called Eddie.”

“You shouldn’t have done that.”

The floor shifted under Faith. “Deidre?”

“We have your boyfriend, Faith, so do what we ask you and he’ll be fine.”

For a few beats, Faith opened and closed her mouth like a beached fish. “Where is he? I demand to speak to him.”

“You’re in no position to demand anything, Faith.”

“You’d better not hurt him, Deidre. I will forgive the designs you stole from me and the vandalism on my store, but if you hurt Ken, I swear I will use my family’s resources to hunt you down like the lowlife you are.”

“Lowlife? I’m a survivor, Faith, but you wouldn’t know anything about that,” Deidre snarled. “Trust funds girls like you have it so good. You spend a few years pretending to struggle to make ends meet but as soon as the going gets tough, you run home to Daddy to bail you out. You have no idea how hard it is to struggle every day and never catch a break, to be a meal away from starvation year after year.”

“I don’t need a lecture on social injustices, Deidre. We barely had enough money when I was growing up either, but my mother never stooped to stealing and hurting people, or acting like the world owed her something.”

“Get off your high-horse and see reality for what it is, you selfish bitch. I’m talking about a lifetime of poverty, not a few years of your childhood. You had a chance to help me launch my jewelry line and chose to do nothing.”