“How do you—”
“Our experts agree that someone is trying to frame you from the inside. Someone with computer access and a grudge.”
“Did you tie the blackmail to Henderson?”
“No. We weren’t looking to fix your situation. I’m just saying that something bigger is happening to you. I’d watch my back.”
Computers. Access. Very few people fell into that group. That feeling of dread from his old life settled in his stomach. It had been years since the churning stole over him. But it was back in full force.
“Do you still have the papers you took from Lexy’s room on the night of the murder?” he asked.
“Of course.”
“Can I come to the station get them.”
“I don’t think they’ll tell you anything.”
Lexy said Henderson’s initial paperwork was in that stack in the police’s possession. He gave biographical information and took some initial aptitude tests. Noah wanted to see them. He had a bad, bad feeling. He needed to disprove it before it settled in his head and refused to get out.
“I’ll be there in a few hours.”
The detective stayed quiet for a few seconds. “I’ll be there. And Mr. Paxton?”
“Yeah?”
“Come alone.”
L
exy, Dex, and Gray sat around one of the resort dining room tables waiting for Noah to return with a late dinner. He went off to find some pizza or any other food they could eat without choking. They had invited Tate to join them, but he declined.
The activity had died down, but adrenaline still flowed through the room. Most guests had retired to their rooms or were in the main lounge gossiping about everything that had happened that day.
Detective Lindsay came back after the initial arrest and confirmed that Marie had confessed. He had since gone again. It appeared that Marie saw Charlie Henderson, one of her boyfriends, go into Lexy’s room and got jealous. The combination of Henderson being away in San Diego where Lexy lived and his skulking around Lexy’s room sent her anger at potentially being jilted running.
“I still say that detective is hot,” Gray said as he lounged back in his plastic chair.
Dex laughed off Gray’s boast. “She wanted to shoot you. I picked up on her intolerance for you the second I got there.”
“You missed the good parts.”
“There were very few good parts about today,” Lexy said.
Noah walked in the empty room. “You can say that again.”
His angry frown seemed out of place in their big celebration. And he didn’t have any food.
“What happened to dinner?” Gray asked.
Dex agreed. “I’m starving.”
Lexy knew something was wrong. Noah was not giving any of them eye contact. When Detective Sommerville slipped into the room behind Noah, Lexy knew she was right.
“What’s wrong?” She got up from her chair and went to Noah’s side.
“Noah? What’s going on?” Dex sounded as concerned as Lexy felt.
She turned her fury on the detective. “You can’t possibly still think we had something to do with the murder.”
“Lexy,” Noah placed a gentle hand on her arm. “It’s okay.”
Gray nodded at the folder in Noah’s hand. “What’s that?”
Noah stared down at the paperwork. The stare was so vacant. So lost.
“This is the evidence that shows Dex was behind the Scanlon theft. How Dex used Henderson.”
Gray returned his chair legs to flat ground. “What?”
Lexy was as stunned as Gray. “Noah, you can’t be serious.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Dex’s chair slammed to the floor as he rushed to stand up.
Noah dropped the file on the desk. “Henderson came to us to learn advanced combat skills and try out some computer work. He never got to me. Dex, here, got to him first. Put him to work on what Henderson thought were simulated tests.”
“You’re insane.” Dex swore under his breath and did not stop until the detective took a step forward with her hand on that gun.
Noah started pointing. Anger spewed in every direction.
“You used the guy. You showed him how to get information and infiltrate systems. The fingerprints eventually lead back to him, but they belong to you.”
Dex put up his hands in a defensive gesture. “Look, you’ve had a rough few days. Hell, you’ve had a rough time since Lexy dumped you, but don’t lash out at me.”
Lexy wanted to get to the truth before the situation got any more confusing. “Noah, what is going on?”
“Dex has been blackmailing me.”
“What?” Gray and Lexy yelled the word at the same time.
How could that be possible? She and Noah agreed to be open. He talked about his past. Blackmail was not one of those things a guy forgot to mention. If someone had been threatening Noah, she would know. He would not continue to pretend a piece of his life did not exist even when she asked him directly.
But he did. The truth was on his face. He was not doing anything to hide his emotions. He unleashed them all on Dex.
The realization was one more blow. To go from being so euphoric and relieved one minute to being knocked over with shock the next wreaked havoc on her body. Her stomach kept spinning until she thought it would fly out of her body, and her heart throbbed with pain.
“Was the idea to get me out of the way so I wouldn’t find out about the theft, or did you actually intend to set me up all along?” Noah did not try to hide the hurt and fury in his voice.
“There’s got to be a mistake. Another setup.” Gray said the words, but it did not sound as if he believed them.
“Exactly.” Dex knocked his fist against the table. “It’s my turn to be set up.”
“The Scanlon folks say someone has been covering his computer tracks during the past few days and making new ones that lead away from Mr. Paxton and directly to Henderson. They traced the movements to southern Utah.” The detective delivered her information from her position at the door.
“What blackmail?” Lexy shouted out the question that pinged around in her brain.
A fresh flash of pain moved in Noah’s eyes. “E-mails about my background.”
“Since when?” Gray asked.
That’s what Lexy wanted to know. How long had this been going on?
“The fact I never received any payment terms threw me off.” His dark cold eyes meet Dex’s. “I kept waiting to hear what you wanted.”
Dex’s eyes darted around the room. “It wasn’t me!”
“Could Henderson have been doing the computer work?” Gray asked the detective. He was fully engaged and thinking now.
“He was already dead when all of this happened,” Noah said.
With that, Lexy’s last hope at a reasonable explanation died.
The detective turned to Dex. “And the resort security cameras caught you going into Henderson’s apartment right after Marie left this afternoon.”
Lexy’s heart fell to her knees. So many lies and so much deception. “Dex?”
“I was curious, Alexa. That’s all.” Dex was all but pleading now. “You know me. I wouldn’t do this.”
“You were missing in action during the entire time we followed Marie and the police arrested her,” Gray pointed out.
“I stayed in position.”
“I don’t get it, Dex. Why?” Noah’s voice broke on the question.
“You have it all wrong.”
Noah’s shoulders were stiff enough to crack. “You stole from Scanlon. One of our customers.”
“I give up. There’s no talking to you right now. I’m not saying another thing.” Dex sat down and crossed his arms across his chest.
“I think you meant to frame Henderson and something happened. Maybe you figured if you needed to do this again, you wouldn’t have Henderson to blame, so you used me. Made me your security. Tried to tie me up so I wouldn’t be in a position to argue or cast blame.”
Gray dropped his head between his hands. “I can’t believe this.”
Lexy’s body went numb. She stood there, drained and empty. Dex almost ruined their company. She could see the hate in his eyes as Noah talked. Every word Noah said was pulled out of him on a note of pain, but they made sense.
Only the blackmail part did not compute. They had been through so much. She thought he finally understood how she felt about secrets. He promised, maybe not in so many words but by opening up and starting a discussion. Implicit in all of that was the guarantee that they had moved beyond this secretive behavior.
“You know what? I’m out of here.” Dex got back up and started for the door.
The detective blocked his exit. “No, you’re not.”
“You can’t hold me.”
“I actually can. Scanlon is pressing charges. The California police have asked us to hold you.”
The nightmare got worse and worse. Every thought in Lexy’s head turned to mush.
“Noah, don’t do this.” Before Dex could touch Noah, the detective grabbed his hand and slapped a cuff on him.
“Mr. Paxton isn’t doing anything. In fact, he’s refused to press charges against you. But I’m hoping he changes his mind.” The detective nodded to Noah, who nodded back. “We’ll be at the police station.”
“I’ll be down in a few minutes.” Noah’s voice, usually so loud and sure, sounded flat and emotionless.
The detective shoved Dex outside before any of them could react or Dex could complain.
The shock of the moment descended on the silent room.
The ripples were what nearly killed her. Noah being blackmailed. Noah not telling her.
“You okay?” Gray asked Noah.
Lexy knew the question should have come from her, but she did not have the voice to ask it.
“Not really.” Noah did not sound any better than he looked.
She was so torn up inside. Standing next to Noah, she wanted to hold him. Tell him everything would be fine and that Dex’s betrayal was not just one of the many he had suffered in his life.
But she could not manage any of that. All that ran through her mind was a lifetime of these moments. How many times would she sit there and find out some huge chunk of Noah’s life by accident, or through a third party, or after the fact?
“Blackmail?” The word sounded strained even to her ears as she said it.
“It’s a long story.” The exhaustion was clear in Noah’s voice.
“One you didn’t see fit to tell me.”
Noah waved her off. “Not now, Lexy.”
His words lit a match to her temper. “Then when, Noah? Someone threatened you and you kept it quiet.”
“It wasn’t—”
“Do not tell me it was unimportant. You had been framed for a theft. A man was killed practically in front of us. We finally open up about all of it and you still didn’t think that a little piece of information about someone making your life miserable, someone blackmailing you, was important enough to share?”
“Not the sharing bullshit again.” He rubbed his forehead.
“Again? The problem is still, not again.”
“I made a call that I could handle it alone. I wanted to find out more information before I told you and Gray.”
“You knew it wasn’t us, right?” Gray rose to his feet until all three of them stood around the round table.
“Of course.”
“Then what the hell was the problem with sharing?” She was screaming now. “This wasn’t about a past that didn’t matter. This was about our future. The here and now.”
“I had it under control.” Noah made the statement through clenched teeth.
“That is your excuse for everything.”
“Lexy, maybe now isn’t the best time.” Gray reached out for her arm, but she shrugged it away.
She was far too angry, her nerves too on edge and jumpy, to be touched. “You just can’t do it, can you?”
A red burn lit up Noah’s cheeks. “What?”
“Tell me the whole story.”
“You don’t think that maybe, just maybe, you’re blowing this situation out of proportion?” Noah’s temper matched hers now.
“Okay, what information am I allowed to know about the man I’m sleeping with, Noah? The man I’m supposed to be marrying? What do you deem appropriate for me to know.”
“I thought you broke off our engagement.” His hit landed a solid blow.
“Smartest thing I ever did,”
“Christ, Lexy.”
She heard Gray’s muttering and ignored it. Her full focus was on Noah. That handsome face pulled tight with tension and the fists clenched into balls as he fought with his internal anger. He was the problem this time. There were no excuses like classified information or forgetfulness or even irrelevance. He hid a huge secret from her. One that threatened their safety and future.
And he still didn’t get it. He never would.
An ache filled her body. She shook from head to foot. She couldn’t do it. As horrible as the idea of walking away from him was, she could not live her life this way. Not anymore. The endless rounds of secrets. She had done that her whole life. He knew that. He just refused to accept it.
There could not be a future for them if he could not be honest about even his present. “I’m done, Noah.”
“What does that mean?”
“I could figure out a way to accept that you needed to keep parts of your past to yourself. You convinced me that was okay. But this is different. This is you hiding things that affect me and that are happening as we speak.”
“I can’t battle you over this subject now.”
“Not now or ever.” She swallowed the tears that threatened to swamp her. “We’re done.”
“What?”
Gray shook his head. “Lexy, don’t.”
“You made your decision. Being in control and secretive is the most important thing to you. Even more important than I am.”
“You’re going to run again.” Noah’s voice stayed flat.
She shook her head. “No. I’m going home.”
L
exy walked into her brother’s corner office just before noon two weeks later. The floor-to-ceiling glass behind his cherry desk provided the perfect target in case she decided to throw him out the window. And she was considering that option.
She glanced out at the distant ocean as she plunked her portfolio down on his uncluttered desktop. “You summoned me.”
Gray’s hands froze on his computer keyboard, then he started typing again. “Yes, I did.”
When she delivered an “ahem,” he spun his chair around and faced her. “Care to tell me why you demanded an in-person appearance?”
“You wouldn’t answer your phone.”
Not that he was the only who got that treatment. She did not answer for anyone. “I’ve been busy.”
“I stopped by your house and you pretended not to be home.”
“Maybe I wasn’t there.” When Gray shot her a you’ve got-to-be-kidding look, she tried again. “What, a woman can’t have a social life?”
What she really wanted was to be left alone. She loved her brother, but knew his loyalty to both of them and friendship with Noah would compel him to lobby on Noah’s behalf. She did want any part of that sort of pressure. Not when her body hovered on the verge of flying apart.
“You’re telling me you’re dating now?” Gray asked.
She wanted to say yes and end the conversation right there. “I have female friends.”
“The bottom line is you were ignoring me.”
“So you threatened to call a board meeting?” It was actually his vow to drag their parents over to her house for a long chat that got her up, in a suit, and over to the office.
“I needed you to come in today.”
“Tell me what was so pressing that you had to mobilize the National Guard.” She threw out her hands and felt her now too-loose skirt slip down on her hip. “What is so important? I’m here. Tell me.”
He picked up his pen and laced it between his fingers. “And you brought along your nasty attitude, I see.”
If he thought this was bad, he knew less about women than she thought. This version could talk business. Could function and answer a phone. The one who slept on her couch in order to avoid inadvertently inhaling Noah’s scent in her bedroom was the one with the real problem.
“No more games, Gray. Why am I here?”
She preferred to be anywhere else. All those days without seeing Noah had taken a toll. Eating became an afterthought. Going out with friends did not even dawn on her as an option. Her mind wandered. Her heart felt as if someone grabbed it with two hands and squeezed until it exploded.
And all of that desperation came without seeing Noah. She dreaded the possibility of running into him in the hallway or anywhere else in the building. Emotional survival turned out to be a minute-to-minute ordeal. If she physically stood within touching distance of him, with her will weakened and mind scrambled, the rest of her might just wither into a dried-up piece of nothing and blow away.
“You look like hell.” The comment came out as a fact. Gray did not sound upset or worried about it, either.
Like she needed that news bulletin. “I have work to do.”
“Such as?”
Well, nothing. William had stepped in and taken over most of her work as she strained to function on at least a minimal level. “Client meetings. New proposals and plans. My company’s business is booming.”
“Interesting.”
“You never thought so before.” She went for snappy because that’s how she felt in the inside, raw and sitting on the edge just waiting for someone to doubt her.
Gray tilted his head to the side and eyed her up. “Are you looking for a fight?”
Yes
. “I’m not a child.”
If she could verbally slap someone around for a few minutes, maybe something would ignite inside her and swallow up all that emptiness.
“You have work to do, sis.” His phone rang, but he ignored it.
“Didn’t I just say that?”
“What about this company and your responsibilities here?”
No way
. “William is working on—”
“
You
have a PR campaign to develop and sell to Noah. That’s your job. That was the deal.”
Hearing his name sent a shiver rumbling around in her chest. “Still matchmaking, Gray?”
“Hell, no.” Gray threw down his pen and came around his desk to lean against the front edge in front of her. “Believe it or not, I learned my lesson.”
“Doesn’t sound like it.”
“Alexa.”
“What?” She did not realize her hands had balled into fists until Gray took one into his palm.
“Christ, look at me.”
She did. “What?”
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
The stern businessman morphed into the concerned brother. His brows fell and his quick, rude responses fell away. “You’re hiding again. Cutting yourself off.”
Tiny pieces. Losing Noah crushed her heart into tiny pieces. She kept waiting for them to fall and crash to the floor.
“I’ll survive.” That she could stand up and form sentences was a bit of a miracle compared to the weepy mess that left Utah.
Gray dropped his hand. “That makes one of you.”
The matchmaking crap reached up and smacked her in the face. Sure, Gray loved her and was trying to protect her. But he wanted her with Noah and never stopped pushing that agenda.
“I’m not interested in a reconciliation or being chased down, or any other scheme you’re working on in that brain of yours.” She tapped her finger against his forehead for emphasis.
“I told you. I’m sticking to the security business. Someone else can handle the dating business. It’s a thankless job as far as I can tell.”
Lexy knew the resulting silence would not last. Gray had something else to say. He
always
had some other point to make. That tic in his cheek meant the words were piling up in there just waiting to come out…and bite her.
Gray glanced at his expensive watch. “You have a meeting in five minutes.”
And there it was. The Grayson Stuart bombshell.
“With?” But she knew the answer.
The only difference between this time and Gray’s previous attempts to throw her back together with Noah was the absence of a gleam in Gray’s eyes. Except for bursts of frustration, his affect remained flat.
“Didn’t we go over this a minute ago? It’s time to nail down the PR campaign. We need your ideas. You need Noah’s input.”
“Let me keep this simple.” She picked up her portfolio. Almost knocked Gray in the head with the corner of it and wished for a second she had. “No.”
“This isn’t a request, Lexy.”
What was left of her heart fell to the floor. “Excuse me?”
“The proposal we all worked out for this campaign months ago included a date by which you would get started. It’s here. It passed, actually.”
“Sorry, but I was dealing with a murder in another state.”
“Yeah, and I was dealing with the fallout of having a criminal for a business partner.”
Guilt flashed over her. She lost Noah, but Gray and Noah lost a good friend and partner. Dex killed something special when he bargained their trust for quick cash. A mutual business relationship that allowed Gray to find a few hours outside of the office fizzled. With Dex gone, Lexy wondered how Gray managed the workload and how he handled the emotional turmoil that came with that kind of a personal blow.
“I’m sorry about Dex.”
Gray’s cheeks hollowed as his skin pulled taut around his mouth. “Not important.”
“Of course it is.”
His phone started ringing again. The high-pitched sound rang in her ears, then seeped into her brain.
“Are you going to get that?” Hell, she almost reached for the thing.
“No.”
“Someone keeps calling. Your assistant clearly thinks this person is important enough to put through to you.” If he picked up the phone, she could walk out without too much argument.
“One of the benefits of being in charge is the ability to decide which calls I take. This one can go to voicemail.”
“You don’t know who it is.”
“I don’t care.”
“In my office, we answer the phone.” Back when she went in to the office.
“Good for you.”
The fight sparked to life inside her. “You don’t have to be a jackass. Or should I say a bigger jackass.”
“Save the indignation, sis. It’s not going to work.” He waved her off. “The most pressing issue is the PR campaign. A lot of company resources and money have been invested. We need to get started. You’ve stalled long enough.”
She wondered how stark and angry her brother would look with her portfolio stuffed down his throat.
Fine
. Two could play at this game. It was not as if Gray was the only one with the family’s controlling gene. “I’ll have William call and make an appointment with Noah.”
“William is busy.”
“He works for me.” For some reason the men in this office kept forgetting that little fact.
“Your company is on retainer to Stuart Enterprises.”
She negotiated the deal. She knew the fine print. “Do not treat me like a contractor.”
“I’m trying to treat you like a professional.” Gray tucked his pen in his shirt pocket. “We have a contract. Hell, you’re the one who insisted you needed a contract when dealing with family.”
Because she feared her brother would be overly favorable to her despite her wanting to be treated like anyone else who did not own a piece of the company.
Boy, did she get that one wrong.
“That does not mean you own me or my employees,” she insisted.
“I disagree. I’ve assigned William elsewhere.”
“You did what?” She left a space between each word, spoke nice and slow, to make sure he understood her position on this matter.
“He’s working on damage control after the Dex situation. The last thing I need is for clients to get word that our trainers and employees are not trustworthy. It’s a potential disaster.”
Since when did William listen to anyone but her
? “William does what I tell him to do.”
“We can argue about that later, but today he’s not here. You are. You have intimate knowledge of the family business, not to mention a financial interest as a shareholder.”
“This—me and Noah—is never going to happen, Gray. We’re over. Not that it’s your business, but there’s no way to make the relationship work. Not when our priorities are so different.”
“This is business, and you have four minutes to get to your meeting.”
Her fingers ached from the death grip she had on the leather portfolio. “I can’t believe Noah agreed to this.”
“Noah is expecting William.”
The news slapped at her. “Then he should get William.”
Some small part of her figured that Noah stood behind this maneuver. Finding out he was as clueless to all this planning as she was should have been a relief. Instead, the realization hollowed her out even further.
Gray crossed one ankle over the other. “I want the best for this company, and that’s you.”
“Why should I?”
“Other than because your big brother asked?”
“Yeah. Other than that.”
“Because if you really intend to move on, you should move on with dignity. Don’t slink away from the family business this time. Stand up, stake your claim to what’s yours, and do your job.”
All good advice. When she was solidly back on her feet, she would work on that plan. Maybe in two or three years.
“Noah won’t like it.”
“Noah won’t say anything.”
The idea of a silent noncomplaining Noah struck her as odd. “Why?”
“Go see for yourself.”