Devilish - A Demon Stepbrother Romance (11 page)

Chapter Seventeen

              “Reports on Ron Lawson of RL Co.’s apparent suicide are still coming in. So far sources are saying that Mr. Lawson had taken a large quantity of prescription sleeping pills. It is a shocking development that has rattled not only the business community but the global public at large. Right now we have Francine Douglas with a report from….”

              I stared at the blonde news anchor in shock. Still wearing the dark, bank robbing clothes from the night before at the Hamptons, I sat in front of the TV in the office, just in shock.

              “What the fuck is going on?” I murmured aloud. How could Ron Lawson be dead?

              Liam sat on the edge of the desk, watching the report. There was an aerial shot of Lawson’s house in the Hamptons swarming with cops and ambulance vans.

              “We got the wrong guy,” Liam said, not taking his eyes off the screen.

              I broke away from another shot of the house from a different angle. I still couldn’t believe what I was seeing even though I had seen it for myself in person! I stared at Liam. “You can’t know that,” I said quietly. “He might’ve been the right guy who just couldn’t take the guilt anymore.”

              Liam grabbed the remote and clicked on the mute. He shook his head. “No, we got the wrong guy,” he said again. “Lawson is not a man who would commit suicide. He is not the type to feel guilt and he is not the type to commit suicide.”

              I had to admit, even I had a hard time believing he had done it. Lawson had always been so greedy and territorial in life, I couldn’t imagine that he wouldn’t be the same with his very own last breath.

              “But then what does that mean?” I asked. “Someone
made
him take an overdose of prescription drugs?”

              Liam tapped his fingers against his thigh thinking. “It’s not adding up,” he said slowly. “Your family’s murder was perfectly planned. A bunch of sadistic lackeys sent over to bust up a home and murder a family so viciously it could only be attributed to some freak attack. And I’ll bet you anything, those meatheads are at the bottom of some river right now.”

              I startled at this. I hadn’t thought of that. Even though those three men had been the ones to break our bones and kill us, it had burned me up even more knowing that there was someone sitting far away, in a cozy chair, smiling smugly at what he had gotten away with.

              “But then that attack with the Blue Boy vans. What was that?” Liam continued, thinking out loud. “That was sloppy and completely unprepared, at best. They didn’t even stay long enough to see if they had done a proper job of their drive by. And driving in on such a recognizable van? Who in their right mind would do that?”

              That was true as well. The van had appeared out of nowhere and their shots had been aimed quite poorly. And even Lawson had to have known that I would’ve recognized the Blue Boy vans. I had been more than old enough to remember the Blue Boy acquisition.

              “Then the shooting in the city,” Liam said. “There was something to that. Somebody went whole hog on that one. That was so crazy of an attack it was almost genius. Nobody could get indicted in that attack. It was two armed gunmen in the streets of New York. That alone is all anyone needs in terms of information.”

              Liam shook his head, his chin in his hand. “No, we got the wrong guy,” he said again. “Something is not adding up here.”

              I sat back in my seat. Liam was right. There was definitely something off here. Had Ron Lawson been some kind of pawn in a clever plan? Or maybe he had been apart of the plan but had strayed? Or maybe he was a separate player altogether?

              I looked up at the silent screen and saw a photo of Ron Lawson and his wife. Mrs. Lawson should be thrilled right about now. She was about to enter into a huge sum of money.

              I ran a hand through my hair, feeling like my brain was about to pop. “What is the point of being immortal without omniscience?” I demanded in frustration.

              A dry smile played on Liam’s lips. “I’m now immortal?” he asked, amused.

              I raised a brow. “Oh,” I said, taken aback. “Well, I just assumed. I mean, isn’t God supposed to be…?”

              “But I’m not God,” he said with a full smile now, dripping with dry humor.

              Ignoring his teasing tone, I asked, “So you’re not immortal?”

              “I prefer to just think of myself as having a very long life,” he said vaguely.

              “Ah,” I said shortly, annoyed. “Lacking succinctness as well as immortality, I see.”

              Liam snorted. “I do admit,” he said, “omniscience would be really helpful right about now. Because something is wrong here.”

              I stared at the TV, reading the scrolling headlines of the Lawson death, falling back into thought over this whole mystery when the phone rang. I jumped at the sudden sound.

              Picking it up, I answered, “Hello?”

              “Miss Madewell? You’ve heard the news, I suspect,” Jeremy answered, his tone grim.

              “About Lawson? Yes, of course. It’s terrible and shocking,” I said perfunctorily.

              “It is,” Jeremy agreed quickly. I could hear the stress in his voice.

              “What is it?”

              “Miss Madewell, Harrison Dell has made the push against RL Co.,” he said slowly.

              I paused, trying to make sense of it all. Harrison Dell has made a push? Then it hit me. The contract. We had gotten that major government contract. And by the stipulations of our alliance, if you missed contributing monthly to the production then it could be considered a breach of contract.

              “But the new month hasn’t even come yet. They’ve just found his body,” I said. “How can he push now? There’s been no breach.”

              “He’s gathering support from the remaining members. He said he came to us first,” Jeremy added a little disdainfully. Clearly he didn’t like this kind of patronizing favoring.

              So Harrison Dell was now pushing to sue RL Co. the day his dead body was found. If that didn’t ring several alarms, I didn’t know what would.

              I looked at Liam. “Okay, thanks for letting me know, Jeremy. Don’t commit to anything yet. Deflect until we can see how RL Co. handles this death.”

              “Yes, ma’am. I think that’s the wisest course of action. I’ll keep you updated,” he said before hanging up.

              “Harrison Dell is now playing his cards, huh?” Liam said, rubbing his chin.

              “It seems so.” I felt as if I had entered a hedge maze only to have it turn into a funhouse maze halfway through. I couldn’t figure out what was up or down and everything seemed twisted and backwards.

              For the rest of the day, Liam and I stayed glued to the TV. Although we kept it on silent, we watched the steady and repetitive coverage of Lawson’s mysterious and sudden death. I think we thought if we both kept watching, some kind of clue would maybe come out of it.

              It was nearing evening, the sky turning a soft navy blue, when the phone rang again. Liam had turned the TV off and was lying on the leather couch in the corner of the room. He said so much TV had completely fried his eyes.

              “Hello?” I answered.

              “Have you heard?” Jeremy asked.

              “Jeremy? Are you still at the office? It’s nearly 8,” I admonished. The man was working much too hard these days. I felt bad, knowing he was working so hard partly because of me.

              “Have you heard, Miss Madewell?” he repeated.

              “What are you talking about?” I asked. Liam lifted his head, hearing the conversation.

              “Turn on your nearest TV,” Jeremy said simply. I pointed at the TV and Liam turned it back on. He turned up the volume.

              The blonde news anchor was still on. “This just in,” she said haltingly. “We are now getting reports that T.J. Mackson of Mack & Sons Ltd has died this evening from a heart attack. These are still initial reports without confirmation but sources close to the Mackson company have reported that….”

              I nearly dropped the phone. I stared at Liam, at a complete loss for words. Mackson was dead now as well. This one at least seemed more natural but that was two men out of the alliance all in the space of one day. If I had stayed dead, that would’ve been three out, leaving one remaining.

              Harrison Dell.

              “Miss Madewell,” Jeremy said, making me startle a little. I had forgotten I was still on the phone, “I know this might sound like a bit of an overreaction and a little paranoid but…” he sighed “please be careful.”

              I gripped the phone a little tighter.

              “Something is wrong here and it gives me a bad feeling,” he said. “Just please be careful.”

              “Don’t worry, Jeremy,” I said, locking eyes with Liam. “I will.”

Chapter Eighteen

             
Ring ring!

I jerked awake and nearly fell off the sofa. After staying up most of the night discussing the barrage of events, I had fallen asleep on the sofa in the office.

Ring ring!

I whipped my head around back and forth, confused and disoriented. I tried to pull my arms out from a blanket that had trapped me in its folds. I didn't remember falling asleep with this blanket. Liam must’ve brought it.

Ring ring!

Ok, first thing’s first—phone!
I got up very ungracefully and nearly tripped over the blanket as it clumped down around my feet. My eyes still gluey from sleep could barely focus on the phone.

I stepped blearily towards the desk before running straight into Liam, walking into the office with two mugs.

“Gah!” he cried out as he dropped the steaming hot mugs of coffee as he reached out to catch me at the same time.

“Ahhh!” I cried out, my feet still caught up in the blanket that had puddled on the floor into a deathtrap.

Liam let the mugs drop and he reached out with a swiftness of a ninja, grabbing my around the middle and flipping me around so he could hoist me up into his arms, safely away from the scalding hot liquids below.

Ring ring!

“Oh fuck, the phone!” I muttered, completely forgetting why I had gotten up at all. I tried to scramble down from Liam’s arms but he kept me firmly in place as he carried me over to the desk, bypassing the spilt hot coffee and broken mugs. I was dimly thinking what a gentleman this demon was when he reached my chair and unceremoniously dropped me into it.

Landing with a loud
plop
, I glared up at him. He gave me an unrepentant smile as I picked up the phone.

“Hello?” I answered huskily, my voice still rough with sleep. I cleared my throat. “Hello?” I said again, a bit more clearly.

“Sophia,” Harrison Dell said, sounding relieved to have reached me.

I shot up in my seat, completely alert, all traces of sleep gone. “Harrison!” I said in a louder voice than I meant to. I looked up to find Liam standing next to me. It was funny how now my natural instinct whenever a new development occurred was to look for Liam.

“Sophia, I’m sorry if I woke you,” Harrison said, clearly having heard my raspy morning voice. “I wanted to speak with you as soon as possible.”

I had spent the better part of last night with Liam, trying to cobble together all the ways we had missed targeting Harrison Dell. True, Mackson’s death seemed to be of natural causes but even still, it was quite suspicious how fast Harrison was moving with the alliance and our government contract.

“I’m sure you’ve heard the news about Lawson and Mackson,” he said in a solemn voice.

“I did,” I said. Wanting to see what would happen if I threw him off kilter a bit, I added, “So I heard you were preparing to sue RL Co. for breach of contract. Will you be preparing now to do the same against Mack & Sons?”

There was a tiny pause but Harrison recovered quickly. “Oh well, I was just making sure all three of us were on the same page about what to do after Lawson’s death. The contract is a big one and sometimes people can get greedy or sloppy.”

Greedy or sloppy. Could he have chosen better words to describe the entire situation? Someone had been greedy and someone had also been sloppy. Whether these someones were the same person was now the question.

“I hadn’t gotten a chance to speak with Mackson but now I guess it was because he had been rushed to the hospital,” Harrison said.

Liam leaned a hip against the desk, listening to the call.

“Anyway, I was hoping that we would perhaps be able to talk. Tonight,” Harrison said, smoothly moving on to the next topic. “There’s a lot to discuss, especially with half of the alliance now dead.”

This wasn’t really a matter he needed to speak about with me personally. There was Jeremy. And he knew that.

“Where? Your office?” I asked.

“No, I can come to town. Why don’t you come over to my place?” Harrison asked.

My eyebrows rose at the invitation. Harrison Dell also had a house in Connecticut, like most wealthy New Yorkers. It was on the opposite end of town and was quite a palatial home.

But this meant he wanted to meet with me in private. Less witnesses. I pursed my lips. He wouldn’t be so stupid to murder me right in his own house, would he?

“Does around 8, suit you? We could have a late dinner,” he said.

I flicked my eyes up at Liam. “Fine,” I said. “8 tonight.”

“Oh but one thing,” Harrison added. “This is a private meeting with very sensitive topics that will be under discussion. I’d feel more comfortable if your brother didn’t join us.”

My whole body felt like a huge siren that had just been turned on. Red flags were popping up all over my brain. I stared at Liam whose lips had tightened in suspicion.

“Liam knows about the alliance and most of the details of the negotiations. I don’t think any of this will be news to him,” I said calmly. Harrison Dell wanted me to come to house the day after half the alliance had died and he wanted me to come
alone.

“It’s not just that,” Harrison said, his voice dropping a note or two deeper. “There are certain other matters I’d like to discuss with you as well. Regarding your parents, particularly your father.”

“Well my father was more Liam’s—”

“Yes but Liam wasn’t chosen to succeed Madewell!” Harrison hissed over the phone. “You were! And as such, there’s information—
vital
information—you need to know and I’d prefer to tell it to you and only you.”

I looked up at Liam, a question in my eyes. What should I do? For all I knew, it was suicide to go into that house alone. I had to imagine it wouldn’t just be Harrison Dell in that house alone.

Liam seemed to be thinking quickly. His fingers tapped against his thighs as he thought. Finally he looked at me and gave me a short nod.
Go.

“Fine, 8 o’clock tonight at your place,” I said, trusting Liam’s direction.

“Good! Good!” Harrison said, sounding relieved. “I’ll see you tonight.”

As soon as I hung up the phone, I turned to Liam. “I hope you have a plan,” I said.

“You’re not going in there alone,” Liam reassured.

“But you heard him—”

Liam raised a hand. “I’ll drive us there and then I’ll find my own way in,” he said. “I’ll just be on standby, in case something happens. But I
will
be there, Sophia. You won’t be alone.”

I shook my head. “Harrison Dell will have a security team around his house. He has money. He could very well have his security system on around every door and window of his house. How will you make it—”

“Sophia,” he said calmly, his gaze fixed on me, “you won’t be alone tonight. I promise. I will be there.”

I breathed deeply through my nose, letting his words sink in. “And if tonight, if I can find out if he is the one who….” I took another deep breath.

Everything was happening so quickly, so suddenly, I just couldn’t seem to be able to maintain my footing on the situation.

“You’ll have your gun. You’ll have your knife,” Liam said in a steady voice. “And you’ll have me.”

I nodded.

“Tonight, you’ll get your revenge, Sophia,” Liam vowed.