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“Why does this have to be a thing?” Why couldn’t she trust him to take care of it? It was his problem, not hers. Her fretting wouldn’t help the situation one bit.
“Reed,” she warned, all but tapping her foot.
“Fine.” He stripped off his suit jacket and loosened his tie. “It turns out that Senator Kendrick was on a committee that awarded Ellias Technologies a lucrative government contract.”
Her green eyes narrowed. “And they think the senator gave you a heads up.”
“Exactly,” said Reed. “Are you happy now?”
“No. I am not happy now.”
He raised his palms in a gesture of defeat. “And that’s why I didn’t tell you. I want you to be happy. I don’t want you to worry.” Was that so hard for her to understand?
Her lips pursed in that mulish expression that he recognized so well. “I don’t need you protecting me.”
He moved closer, moderating his voice. “The doctor said you should stay calm.”
“How can I stay calm when my husband is lying to me?”
He hadn’t lied to her. He’d omitted a small amount of unnecessary information so that she wouldn’t get stressed out for no reason. “You’re being ridiculous,” he pointed out.
She pulled back. “Is that what you think?”
He could see her warming up for a whole new argument. Well, he wasn’t buying into that at one in the morning.
“What I think is that Collin is on the case,” he stated with conviction. “By next week, it’ll be a footnote in my life. And you have much more important things to think about right now.”
“Like the catering menu?” she repeated.
“Exactly. And your basal body temperature.” He attempted to lighten the mood. “And that little red negligee.”
“I do have a brain, you know, Reed.”
It was his turn to draw back. Where the hell had that come from? “Have I ever suggested you don’t?”
“I can help you solve problems.”
“I pay professionals to help me solve problems.” That way, he and Elizabeth could lead a calm, uncluttered life.
“That’s your answer?”
“That’s my answer.”
Elizabeth waited for him to say more, but he was happy to end on that note.
Reed was the last to arrive at the lunch meeting in the Wellington International boardroom. Gage, Collin, media mogul Trent Tanford and private investigator Selina Marin were already sitting around the polished table when he walked in.
“Did you get hold of Kendrick?” Gage asked without preamble.
Reed shook his head, shutting the door behind him before taking his place at the head of the oblong table. Fresh-brewed coffee had been placed on the sideboard, and a bank of windows overlooked the fall colors of the park many stories below. “His secretary says he’s in meetings in Washington all week.”
“He doesn’t have a cell phone?” asked Collin.
“He can’t be disturbed,” Reed quoted, letting his expression tell the room the excuse rang hollow to him. He’d never had a problem getting hold of Kendrick before. In fact, it was usually Kendrick who called him.
“We need his denial,” said Trent. “At least, we need him to publicly deny having given you insider information. And I’d prefer to have it on videotape.”
“You’ll have it,” said Reed, hoping it would be soon. It was in everyone’s best interest—including the senator’s—to have him on the record in this. In the absence of identifying the blackmailer, Kendrick’s backing was their best chance of stopping the investigation in its tracks.
“Did you get anywhere with the police?” Reed asked Selina.
“I had a chat with Detective Arnold McGray.” She slid a thick sheaf of paper across the table to Reed. “They’ve been surprisingly cooperative. Here’s the list of blackmail victims in the building.”
“The cops are at a dead end,” Collin put in. “They’re hoping the extra manpower will help.”
“Person power,” Selina put in.
“Sorry,” said Collin with an edge of sarcasm. “I keep forgetting you’re a girl.”
“Shall I start wearing pink ruffles?”
Reed contemplated Selina’s no-nonsense black blazer, white turtleneck, short cropped hair and minimal makeup. With those dark brows and that straight slant to her mouth, she’d look ridiculous in pink.
Reed sighed and picked up the letter, reading the names of Julia Prentice, who before her marriage to Max Rolland was blackmailed regarding her out-of-wedlock pregnancy, Trent Tanford for his relationship with murder victim Marie Endicott, and Prince Sebastian who’d also received a threatening letter.
In the prince’s case, the letter writer didn’t ask for any money, and it was eventually proven to be his ex-girlfriend. So, the Prince Sebastian incident didn’t seem to be related.
“Any connection between mine and the other two?” Reed asked Selina.
“Three different threats,” she answered. “Three unrelated incidents. Three untraceable Grand Cayman bank accounts.” Then she paused. “Same bank.”
Reed allowed himself a small smile. So, the three were likely related. That gave them a whole lot more information to go on.
“I’ll start looking for connections between the cases,” said Selina.
“Any guess as to why mine was ten million and the others were only one?” asked Reed.
Selina gave a wry twist of her lips. “Neither of the others paid up. Maybe expenses were mounting.”
“You bet your ass we didn’t pay up,” muttered Trent.
“You should be flattered,” Gage directed his comment to Reed. “The guy obviously thinks you’re solvent.”
“Flattered isn’t exactly how I’m feeling.” He didn’t need this crap in his life. His life was plenty complicated enough.
“What about Marie Endicott’s murder?” Collin brought up the topic they’d avoided so far.
“I don’t like speculating about that,” said Trent.
Neither did Reed. But ignoring the possibility that the murder was tied up in the blackmail scheme wouldn’t change the facts, and it wouldn’t reduce the danger.
“The police aren’t ready to call it a murder,” said Selina. “But that missing security tape makes my hair stand on end. And I think we have to operate on the assumption that they’re connected.”
“That’s a pretty big assumption,” said Collin.
“Yeah? Well, I’m preparing for the worst-case scenario.” Then she turned to Trent. “I wonder. Did the blackmailer commit murder to set you up? Or did he target you after learning of the murder?”
“My guess would be that he’s opportunistic,” said Trent. “After the murder, he set me up.”
“Generally,” said Selina, “there are two reasons for a murder. Passion or greed.”
“The blackmailer is definitely greedy,” said Reed. “And if he operated on passion, we’d probably have another dead body, not more blackmail letters. He’s got to be ticked off at us.”
“Fair point,” Collin put in.
“But we don’t know anything for sure,” said Trent.
Trent was right. And Reed wasn’t in a position to take any chances. Three people in his building had been blackmailed and one was dead.
He slid the list back to Selina. “Hire as many people as you need. And put somebody on Elizabeth.” Then he paused and drew a breath. “But tell him to keep his distance. Nobody talks to my wife about the blackmail.” He glanced around the room to drive home his point.
Everybody nodded, and he rose to his feet.
He was keeping Elizabeth safe, but it was also his job to keep her calm. When this was over, they had a family to start. And, God help him, it was going to be over soon.
Three
“Your marriage is far from over,” said Hanna as she and Elizabeth made their way past groups of diners to a corner table in their favorite deli off Times Square.
Out of habit, Elizabeth had ordered a thick corned beef on rye, but she was pretty sure her clenched stomach wouldn’t allow her to eat.
“He won’t talk to me about anything important,” she told Hanna. “He won’t make love with me. And when I ask for more information, he gets angry. How can I stay married to a man who won’t let me into his life?”
Hanna took a sip of her diet cola. “Stop trying.”
The answer set Elizabeth back in her chair. “Stop trying to be married?” That wasn’t the answer she’d expected.
“Stop trying to muscle your way into his life.” Hanna took a bite of her sandwich.
“That doesn’t make any sense.” They were married. Elizabeth was supposed to be in Reed’s life.
Hanna peeled a paper napkin from the metal dispenser and dabbed the corners of her mouth. “I say this as your best friend, and as someone who loves you dearly—”
“This can’t be good,” Elizabeth mumbled.
“You’ve grown a little, well, dull lately.”
Dull? What the heck kind of a thing was that for a good friend to say?
“You are way too invested in Reed and Reed’s life.”
“He’s my husband.”
Hanna shook her head. “Doesn’t matter. I know you want a baby. And that’s admirable. And I know you love Reed. And that’s admirable, too. But, Elizabeth, Lizzy, you have got to get a life.”
“I have a life.”
Hanna gave her a dubious look.
Okay, so maybe working out at the spa, buying designer clothes and planning parties wasn’t the most productive life. But Reed did a lot of corporate entertaining. It was important for her to look the part.
“If you had your own life,” Hanna continued, “you wouldn’t obsess so much about Reed’s.”
“I don’t care what kind of a full, exciting and enriching life I’m leading, I’m still going to care that my husband is under criminal investigation.”
“He told you he’d take care of it.”
“Of course he told me that. He doesn’t want me to worry. He’s psychotic that way.”
“I think it’s sweet.”
“Sweet? Whose side are you on?”
“Lizzy, you’ve lost all perspective. It’s not about sides. It’s about your happiness. Thing is, Reed’s life centers around his job, his business associates, his family and friends, and his marriage.”
“Not so much his marriage,” Elizabeth muttered.
“Maybe. But that’s not my point. My point is that your life also centers around his job, his business associates, his family and friends, and your marriage. See the problem?”
“That’s not true.” It couldn’t be true. Elizabeth wasn’t some 1950s throwback without a thought of her own.
“Who are your friends? Your old friends? The ones that have nothing to do with Reed?”
Elizabeth searched her brain, conjuring then discounting those people she’d grown up with or met at college.
“My old friends don’t live in Manhattan,” she finally answered.
After her marriage, it had quickly become difficult to spend time with her old friends. They seemed to think Elizabeth’s life was one long party, that money solved everything, that rich people should never have a single problem. And, if they did, they should shut up about it and go shopping.
“And all of his do,” said Hanna with an expression of triumph.
Elizabeth eyed her corned beef and decided she could use some comfort food after all. “Your point?”
“All of your current friends are really Reed’s friends.” “Except for you.”
“You met me through Trent. You remember Trent? Reed’s friend.”
“This is starting to feel like an intervention.”
