For the Night: Complete Box Set (73 page)

Lucas

I heard my name being called and turned around to
see Mr. Le Grand striding across the lobby, making a beeline directly for me. I
smiled and reached out my hand to shake his as he approached.

‘Bonjour, Mr. Le Grand. Cą fait longtemps que
je vous ai vu.’ It had been a long time since I’d seen him, possibly two years.

‘I have a meeting with some clients in an hour,
I’m running early,’ he replied in flawless English, but his accent made it
impossible to think he was anything but a Frenchman.

‘As usual,’ I laughed. ‘You’ve always been a
stickler for never being late, something I’ve always admired about you. This is
Summer Beresford, my girlfriend,’ I advised, as I slipped a protective arm
around her waist. Mr Le. Grand had a very similar effect on women as I did.
They tended to bat their eyes at him and go all flushed and giggly in his
presence. He was a very good looking man. In fact if I didn’t have so much
confidence, I might be intimidated being in the same room as him. He had all of
my cockiness and charm, but with an extra five years practice on me, given he
was thirty-five. He also worked out and would give many men body envy, I wasn’t
entirely sure who’d be able to bench press the most, or do the most press ups
in a competition if we were pitted against each other. Though I’d love to find
out. We’d had this male posturing rivalry thing going on ever since we met and
I’d love to put it to bed once and for all. ‘Summer, I’d like you to meet Mr.
Le Grand. He owns the largest management investment company here in France, he
and my father are serious business rivals.’

‘Well, I won’t hold that against you,’ Summer
replied, as she hit him with her best movie star smile and held out her hand.

‘I’m very pleased to hear that. Enchanté,
mademoiselle,’ he responded, as he lifted her hand to his lips and I felt a
surge of jealousy tear through my body. He was known for his charm and
suaveness and right now I could see women walking past completely confused as
to which of the two of us they should gawp at, or fantasise about in the
comfort of their rooms later. I dug my fingers into Summer’s waist, marking my
disapproval, as I noticed her fluttering her eyelashes and her cheeks turning a
soft shade of pink. ‘Why don’t you both join me for a quick drink?’ he asked,
as he reluctantly dropped her hand and tore his eyes away from her to look over
at me.

‘We’d love to, but we have some urgent business of
our own to take care of,’ I responded.

‘You must let me know next time you’re in Paris, I
would love to take you and your beautiful lady out for dinner,’ he smiled,
showing a flash of perfect white teeth. If there was one man in the world who
could damage my ego it was him. He was dressed in an immaculately tailored, and
obviously expensive, three piece suit by Armani, his dark hair ruffled in the
way Summer said was sexy when I did it. I really didn’t like the idea of her
being in his company again, he had a way of making women fall for him, though
from what I’d heard he never abused the fact, if anything his personal life was
rarely mentioned in the tabloids, other than the wedding event of the century
when he tied the knot five years ago with Myrtille Bouchon, heiress to the age
old Bouchon banker family. That was a marriage of convenience if ever there was
one, she wasn’t exactly an oil painting, and I did find it rather amusing that
the English translation of her name was Blueberry, and her maiden name Cork.
That unison however saw one of the most powerful mergers of finances in French
history. They were a force to be reckoned with.

‘I’ll be sure to do that. Apologies for running,
but we must resolve a serious matter before we leave for the airport.’ I shook
his hand again and bristled as he picked up Summer’s hand, kissing it again,
even more when she fucking giggled and blushed. I gave her a glare, hidden
behind the dark frames I was wearing, but it sure as hell made me feel better.

‘Au revoir, mademoiselle.’

‘Au revoir,’ she nodded, as he strode away. I
pulled at Summer as she watched him leave.

‘If it’s not too much trouble, your
actual
boyfriend would like you to come with him, thank you very much,’ I muttered,
throwing just the right amount of sarcasm her way to draw her attention back to
me.

‘Sorry, he’s just very … wow, he’s just …’ She
stalled as she looked back over her shoulder, anger riling me up immediately at
the thought of another man turning my woman’s head.

‘You find him attractive?’ I growled.

‘Of course I do,’ she laughed. ‘I mean look at
him, I doubt anyone wouldn’t, male or female. He just exudes power and
masculinity, but I have to say the whole glossy deep brown soulful eyes thing
doesn’t do it for me. I love my men with reflective grey expressive ones, ones
that look at me and tell me how much more I am to them than just a pretty face
attached to a hot body.’ She looked back up at me with a wink and a smile and I
had to chuckle. She was being funny, but her confidence really was improving.

‘A stunning face attached to a smokin’ hot body,
and trust me he noticed, I just didn’t like the way your tongue was hanging
out.’

‘It wasn’t hanging out, thank you very much. Are
you jealous? You were admiring all of the pretty girls strutting around the
stage last night, I can’t admire a handsome man with a sexy as hell French
accent?’

‘Treading on thin ice,’ I warned, with a sudden
urge to have her back in my room at home, watching her bottom turn the same
shade her cheeks had when he’d kissed her hand.

‘Lucas, since I first laid eyes on you, there’s
been no one else for me. You’re the love of my life, you’re a masterpiece in my
eyes, but it doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate other works of art for their
beauty too.’

‘Works of art,’ I snorted, as I steered her
towards Patrice’s office. ‘Mother’s pug dog has a more attractive face than
him, and that’s before he’d have to replace those damn, white, straight out of
a fucking commercial teeth if he ever looks at you like that again.’

‘Like what?’ she looked up at me, innocence
radiating from her as I felt better for venting.

‘He’d have been booking a room and taking you up
with him, if I wasn’t standing there next to you, angel.’ This time she snorted
with a roll of her eyes.

‘He’s married.’

‘And how would
you
know that?’ I demanded,
as I shot her another unseen glare.

‘He was wearing a wedding ring, all girls look at
the left hand as soon as they see a handsome man. It’s an inherent trait, much
like you jiggling your balls on an hourly basis.’

‘I do
not
jiggle my balls hourly. I jiggle
them every half hour,’ I chucked, as I adjusted them through my jeans pocket,
and my erection which had sprung at the thought of punishing her for looking at
another man like that. I knocked on the door and took my glasses off.

Patrice showed us in, offering us seats opposite
his desk as he turned his monitor to face us. He confirmed that officially he
wasn’t supposed to show the footage, but given what had occurred he felt it was
his duty and he advised that he was going to recommend that the lifts and
stairs could only be accessed in future with a key card. His team had reviewed
all of the footage and had seen the mystery man use the lift, keeping his head
down as if he knew where the camera was, then deposit the box outside our suite
entrance. He’d taken a call and had then quickly marched to the stairwell. I
cursed as I realised I’d run past him on the stairs, not even throwing a glance
his way. It seemed that he was aware that Summer was on her way up, which
begged the question, how?

We watched all of the footage, it was obvious now
that he knew exactly where every camera was, as there wasn’t one shot of his
face. I shook my head as I pinched the top of my nose. Damn it. I didn’t
recognise the guy, besides who was to say it was Mr. Black. Yes, somehow the
flowers had made it from London to Paris, but he could have paid this man to
escort them here and then drop them off with the note. All that told me was
that Mr. Black had a serious amount of cash at his disposal and connections.

‘Does this help? Patrice enquired.

‘Not exactly, I don’t recognise him,’ I replied,
but my mind was working overtime. We were in
The Paris Domville
, a chain
of worldwide six star hotels owned by the ultra-rich Domville family of New
York. The heiress, a spoiled, entitled, and frankly disgusting piece of work,
Camilla Domville, had been my strangers for the night fantasy booking a couple
of years ago. The client before I met Summer actually. She’d tried to capture
me on camera, to blackmail me into becoming her personal fuck toy. Thanks to a
tip off by the head barman Antoine, who had as much distaste for her as I did,
along with assistance from my surveillance camera hacking expert Ian, I’d been
able to thwart her plans. I’d blackmailed her with my own tape of her sexual
shenanigans, which I threatened to show to her father, who thought his darling
princess was still a virgin, along with the knowledge that she taped herself
fucking his key employees to buy their silence. Camilla had the money and the
means to assist with what had happened here last night.

‘Could you play it again for me,’ Summer asked. I
looked over at her surprised.

‘You recognise him?’

‘Not exactly, it would be hard for his own mother
to recognise him, given he keeps his head down and has that cap covering his
face, along with those dark glasses. But there’s something very familiar about
him,’ she frowned as she bit her lip. ‘Can you play the first part again, where
he approaches the receptionist? Then stop it when I say and move it forward
frame by frame?’ she enquired. I smiled, she was hot all in control. It did
nothing to help ease the ache between my legs.

‘Qui, bien sur,’ nodded Patrice, doing as he was
asked.

‘There, right there,’ she cried, as she pointed
and leaned in for a closer look. I watched her face as she studied it in slow
motion and then took a startled gasp. ‘I know who it is!’

‘Who?’ I demanded, as I held my ribs and
straightened up in my chair.

‘That’s Daron Beck.’

‘Are you sure?’ I bit, watching her face, looking
for any hesitation, but she’d worked with him for two years, filming pretty
intimate scenes together, she probably knew his body language better than she
knew mine. A fact that didn’t exactly sit comfortably with me. I may trust her,
but it didn’t stop that enormous green eyed monster from rearing his ugly head
on a regular basis.

‘Pretty sure, I mean his face is hidden, but see
how his hand moves up to tug on his ear before he speaks? Daron does that every
time he’s about to ask a question, I had to keep reminding him not to when we
were filming.’ She looked at me and nodded, her eyes were telling me that she
was confident about this, which was good enough for me. It seemed to fit, he’d
wanted her from the start, I’d had to threaten him with exposure of his secrets
and this was his way of getting back at me, while making sure Summer was
available for him to pursue again. I text Ian and Mason immediately, to put
them on alert and to search for his travel itinerary and for any form of
connection with Camilla Domville. If we could prove he’d travelled to Paris and
was here, especially if he knew her, then it was time to confront “Mr. Black.”

Lucas

I paced back and forth in
the meeting room at Davenport Technologies as I waited for Mason to join us. I
was furious. The only time I’d ever been this angry was when I thought that
Summer had rejected me, when I’d accidentally given her the wrong number. Ian
had proof that Daron had flown to Paris on Valentine’s day, returning the same
night on a private plane, owned by none other than Mr. Domville. I’d
immediately contacted Lulu McQueen, nicknamed “The Temptress.” She ran a high
end and exclusive honeytrap agency here in London. We’d crossed paths a number
of times, on a few occasions she had a male client wanting to test the fidelity
of his wife so she’d booked my services. Like her, I’d never failed yet to get
evidence, all of my marks had caved and agreed to return to the hotel with me,
before I had a sudden “emergency” and had to bail. She put one of her younger
girls on the case, one who had Summer’s colouring and body shape, and sure
enough Daron had taken the bait. The girl had managed to get a date with him,
slipping a bug into his mobile while he went to the toilet, then feigning food
poisoning to leave without having to accept his offer to go home with him.
While Lulu and her team took risks, actually sleeping with the client was not
part of their mantra. In fact the three girls who had, were fired immediately.

I liked Lulu, she was a confident, sassy
businesswoman. Very sexy and stunning as well, at one time I’d thought I might
be interested, we were the same age and she fit my preferred type of woman, but
when we had drinks after a successful case, there was just no spark there.
Nothing like I’d felt the first time I laid eyes on my Summer. I’d left her at
her fight trainer’s studio, with Bailey, the new bodyguard James and I had
selected for her. He followed her during the day, with Wayne as back up for the
weekends or any evening work required, but when she was relaxing at home at
night, at mine or hers as we couldn’t decide where to live together, I was the
one who was in charge of protecting her. It was nearly the end of March, and as
my ribs had healed I had Wayne on special training duties during the day,
honing my boxing skills, training me in the art of self-defence and attack.
Until we started looking for a house together, with an official live on site
security team, the three of us were going to look after her, and no way was I
failing on my watch.

Ian and Mason had confirmed that they finally felt
they were in a position to present me with a solid case that Daron and Camilla
were working together. About fucking time, Summer’s PR firm had already put
together a statement for her and were ready to alert the media of an exclusive.
She was getting more and more nervous about having to tell her parents. Mason
had pencilled in a meeting for next week for us to review the findings and
discuss how we were going to handle them, but another damn delivery had arrived
this morning at her penthouse, this time, as we’d suspected would happen, with
a single black rose, but only the one card, addressed to both of us.

I’d obviously called an emergency meeting, Ian
confirming that we had approval to use the facilities of Davenport
Technologies, to whatever extent they were required, which had made me smile. I
owed him for this. Mason dropped his other cases and was on his way over. Ian
was in his office, pulling everything together and Summer had given me until
tomorrow morning to either put it to bed, or she’d have no option but to tell
her parents and instruct the PR firm to release her interview to all media outlets
and to have a news reporter at her building where she’d release a live
statement that she’d rehearsed over and over. I couldn’t let her down. I didn’t
want her parents to judge her, or be ashamed of what she’d done. Luckily Daron
was filming his current leading role in London, so I’d tasked Lulu with
convincing Daron to join her girl in a suite at The Dalton this evening, where
I’d confront him, before flying over to New York on the Davenport private jet,
to deal with Camilla.

But first I needed that evidence.

I sipped at the hot black coffee that was brought
in for me, refusing the biscuits, as I looked out at the city, the noise of the
second hand on the clock in the room making me want to rip it from the wall and
hurl it out of the window. Finally both men came in and after a quick
handshake, we sat down and got to business. Ian ran through what he and Mason
had come up with.

We had proof that Camilla and Daron were sleeping
together. Camilla had, as I suspected, recorded their sessions. Ian was amazed
that they hadn’t upgraded their systems, since he hacked them to delete the
recordings of me there with her last time, but it was a blessing that they
hadn’t. We had sworn testimony from staff at The Domville, as well as the time
stamped recordings, that they’d been fucking before the harassment of Summer
and I started. We had phone calls from Daron to Camilla, recorded by Lulu’s
device as well. The label maker used to make the messages, while common, was
actually a standard machine for labelling of supplies in the Domville chain.
Daron used Parkers, as evidenced by his credit card statements, to order all
the flowers he sent to his various women. There was the flight plan of the
plane that had taken him to Paris. The footage of his ear tug at the reception
desk and he’d obviously not worn gloves when delivering the box of roses in
Paris, as his prints were on it. We deduced that they’d seen that we were
staying at The Domville in Paris, from one of the newspaper headlines, and it
had been a rush job for Daron to fly over and leave our surprise. What I
couldn’t understand, was why not simply wait until we got home, to follow the
usual pattern with no risk of getting caught.

‘He’s either in love with her, or thinks he is,’
advised Mason. ‘He’s screwing other women, but his ultimate goal is Summer.
He’d have wanted her to have these flowers on Valentine’s day, that’s why there
was a red one, instead of them all being black. Black would have been the
woman’s idea, a vindictive action. She hates Summer for achieving a
relationship with you, where she failed. These two seemed to have hooked up by
chance, earliest footage shows them at New York Fashion week together. You’re a
celebrity couple now, they obviously discussed their respective relationships
with you both. I’d wager that Camilla was the brains behind the operation. I
don’t think she’s under the illusion that you’ll want her, Lucas, not after
what you did, but neither did she want you to be happy. She appears to be used
to getting her own way. Daron on the other hand wanted the path clear for him
to have another shot with Summer. Two leading movie stars hooking up? It’s a
cash cow which is an added bonus for him. He has a gambling and prostitute
habit and is close to bankruptcy.’

I nodded, we had proof of his financial decline
with bank and credit card statements. Ian had matched a number of large cash
deposits to one’s leaving Camilla’s account at a time that they were together
in New York. We also had proof of payments to a porn site, featuring underage
girls and evidence of his IP address having a fake social media account where
he’d been grooming teenagers as well, and folders upon folders of child
pornography pictures, of both sexes. I felt physically sick. I knew he’d been
looking at gay sites, Ian had dug that up for me ages ago, along with reports
of physical abuse on two girlfriends, so I hadn’t felt the need to dig further.
This was all new disgusting information. This couldn’t just be used as a
warning. He needed to be reported for this. I wasn’t surprised to hear that he
had a large folder on Summer as well. Pictures taken of both of us had been
cropped, removing me from them altogether. He was a serious sicko. I hadn’t
liked him from the start, neither had Summer’s dad. I guessed our instincts had
been spot on.

‘Lucas, you can’t bring this up if you confront
him. We’ll bring this to the attention of the Police, making sure it can’t be
traced back to you. He’ll be arrested, imprisoned and put on the sexual
offenders list. Summer’s career might withstand the news that she hired you,
but his career will be dead in the water. If he even suspects it’s you that’s
leaked it, he’ll definitely hit back by telling your story,’ Mason advised.
Just confirming the conclusion I’d already reached.

‘So how the fuck do I get him to back off and not
release these damn pictures of me, if I can’t tell him what evidence I have on
him? He already knows that I found out about his domestic abuse charges and
looking at gay porn. He knows that I have the ability to find things out.’

‘Sorry, Sir, I can’t answer that one,’ sighed Ian,
as he ran a frustrated hand over his shaved head. I resisted the urge to hurl
my empty cup of coffee across the room.

‘I know, thank you,’ I sighed. ‘So, what we’re
saying is if we get him locked up for his sick and disgusting acts, then all of
this has been for nothing, the truth about Summer will come out regardless,
because I no longer have any leverage to hold over him?’ I looked at them both,
praying for a miracle answer, but they both shook their heads, Mason covering
his face with his hands. ‘Fuck,’ I uttered, as I sank into a chair and did the
same. Daron couldn’t get away with what he’d done, but by allowing the Police
to arrest him, we couldn’t stop their intended aim. For a second, the briefest
of seconds I thought to hell with it. Bribe him into silence. But the thought
of someone doing that and one of my kids being his target nearly had me vomit
in my hands. I thought of Summer, of what she’d say and I knew she wouldn’t
even hesitate for a nanosecond. She’d call the news crew and make her statement
and ensure that Daron went to jail. ‘What about Camilla?’ I asked Mason.

‘My advice would be to do nothing. She has nothing
to gain once the news breaks, your blackmail material is only useful as long as
you hold it. You play tit for tat and you’ve lost any leverage over her for
good. You never know, the day may come when you, or someone you care about
needs that. Use it then.’

‘I agree,’ nodded Ian. ‘If you release the
information on her, she’ll have even more of a reason to come back at you and I
get the feeling that this is one crazy chick who you really don’t want to fuck
with.’

‘I’d say her fixation on hurting you by making
Summer leave you, could escalate to hurting Summer to get back at you,’ agreed
Mason. ‘I’d suggest leaving well alone too.’

‘
Damn it.
So basically we’re fucked either
way?’ I asked, as my fist curled into a tight ball on the table.

‘You get to keep the woman of your dreams,’
shrugged Ian. ‘When you look at it that way, does it seem so bad?’

I sat quietly for a while as I looked at him,
pondering that statement. I guess when you put it like that, it really didn’t.
Not to me anyway. I just had to trust that I was the man of Summer’s dreams,
that backing her into a corner, where she had no choice but to tell the truth,
wouldn’t end us.

‘I need to speak to her. Can you give me the
room,’ I sighed, with a heavy heart. They nodded, throwing sympathetic looks my
way. I waited until they’d gone and picked up my phone, my hands shaking.

‘Angel,’ I breathed, closing my eyes as I heard
her sweet voice answer her phone.

‘How’s it going?’

‘Where are you?’

‘In the studio. Don’t worry Bailey’s here with me,
showing my trainer some extra moves for the film,’ she laughed. She sounded so carefree,
how could she be like that, today of all days, when I was beating myself up for
pulling her into this fucking mess. ‘Lucas, what’s wrong, I can tell from your
tone that you’re not happy.’

‘We’ve come up against a problem,’ I sighed.

‘Give it to me straight, don’t sugar coat it
because I’ll be furious if you lie to me,’ she demanded. I did as I was told,
recounted our findings from A to Z and heard her take a deep breath.