Seductive Reasoning (TASK FORCE HAWAII Book 1) Page 18

“Yes,” he said, his eyes lighting up.

  Most people would not be put off directly by the man. He was attractive, and he definitely knew how to wear a tux. It had to have been tailored especially for him—and from the finest fabrics. However, when one looked into his gaze, there was something else present. Many others would dismiss it, but those people who paid attention would notice the way his pulse hammered in his chest. And his eyes were another tipoff. The quote they were the window to the soul was not far off. His unhealthy gleam should make anyone uncomfortable. Once again, with his money and looks, people would dismiss it and only look at the surface. The expensive clothing, the styled hair, and the perfect teeth would dazzle them. They would never see the sociopath beneath the surface.

  “For you to be successful in that part of the world, you need to make sure that you protect the environment. It is very important to the locals, and it adds to the overall design in the end. What kinds of things do you build?”

  He hesitated. Did he expect her to know who he was? Was it his own self-importance, or the fact that he thought she should have zeroed in on him as the killer already? Either way, she felt a little jolt of triumph. Wanker needed to learn that he wasn’t God’s gift to women. Of course, having to kidnap them pretty much proved that—but still.

  “I build condos and resorts.”

  “Oh, then, it is vitally important to you to make sure you take care of the environment. As someone who grew up in Southeast Asia, I can tell you, they believe in protecting nature. Also, you want to appeal to westerners. The movement to support green business is growing. You add that into your marketing, and you will definitely end up winning in the end.”

  He opened his mouth to argue when she felt a warm hand slide around her waist.

  “Darling, who do we have here?” Del said.

  She looked at him. Darling? It wasn’t a word she would ever peg Del using.

  “I am not sure. He never introduced himself.”

  They both turned to Stanton.

  “I’m so sorry. My name is Richard Stanton. I was just talking to Ms. Taylor about one of her articles.”

  “Oh, how nice.” Del’s tone told her that he thought it was anything but nice. In fact, it sounded like he wanted to beat the bloody hell out of the man.

  “When I saw her across the room, I knew she looked familiar.”

  That caught her off guard. “Really? I don’t think my picture was in the article.”

  “Oh, but I remembered you from the conference here. There was a picture of you and Dr. Harris at a conference here at UH.”

  Damn, she had forgotten about that. “Oh, yes. Odd, but I didn’t think that was a very good picture.”

  “I think it was amazing, and I do have to say you also look beautiful tonight.”

  Del’s fingers twitched on her waist. She knew that he wanted nothing more than to wrap them around Stanton’s neck.

  “Thank you.”

  “I would be very interested in a consult with you about green building.”

  “I am not that much of an expert on it. There are many more experts who might serve you better.”

  He nodded as he completely focused on her. She could see that a woman looking for attention, one who wanted to escape her loneliness, might find it appealing. For her, it made her skin crawl. When she lived on the street, she had learned to be wary of that kind of intense study.

  “True, but you are right here and I am here working at the moment.”

  “I wouldn’t mind discussing it with you, but I wouldn’t feel right if you considered it a consult.”

  He didn’t look happy with that. She didn’t understand it, but maybe it was all about getting his way.

  “I would like to talk to you privately.”

  Again, Del’s fingers twitched.

  “Oh, that would be fine. I just meant I could not have you pay me for it.”

  His features eased and his smile became more genuine. Or, at least as genuine as a sociopath’s could be.

  There was an announcement that she couldn’t quite hear, and Stanton said, “The auction is starting. I would love to catch up with you later if you have the time.”

  She smiled and nodded, not saying yes or no. The sooner he was gone, the better.

  “Good evening,” he said, then walked away.

  She let go of a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding. Her nerves were still jangled, even with Del by her side.

  “Bloody hell, that is one cheeky bastard. Walking up to me like that?”

  Del grunted. “The fucker didn’t even ask my name.”

  She glanced at him. “Because he didn’t care. It was about making contact with me. Do you think he knows I am working on the case?”

  “Hell, everyone in Hawaii knows you are working on the case. Remember, you were caught on camera, barely dressed.”

  “Oh, yeah.” She looked back to where Stanton was. He sat at his table. “I don’t get it.”

  “He went on an Internet search for you and found that article.”

  “I’ve had a lot more articles written about my strategy planning in games. They are easier to find because gamers obsess. Of course, he had to find one that worked for his business. I definitely would know he wasn’t a gamer.”

  “What do you mean a lot more articles?”

  She glanced at him and shrugged. “About six or seven in the last few months. What do you think he did that for?” Referring to Stanton again.

  “Maybe trying to throw us off guard?”

  “He didn’t even bat an eye when you showed up.”

  “He looked like he wanted to fight me for the honor of touching you.”

  She rolled her eyes. “He did not.”

  “He did. He wanted you all to himself.”

  She sniffed at that. “One thing is evident, he knows who I am.”

  She continued to watch the man. A younger man, a little shorter and not as attractive slid into the seat next to him.

  “I wonder who that is…”

  Del narrowed his gaze. “I think that might be his assistant. Some of the information Marcus found out about him indicated he traveled with one.”

  “Oh, yes, I remember him in some of the pictures.”

  She watched the interaction, and it was...weird. They looked like they were having an argument, but keeping it in low tones, so that no one would overhear them. Suddenly, the assistant snapped his gaze in her direction. She did not look away. It would do no good.

  “I think we need to check out the assistant too,” she said, as she waited for the man to turn back to Stanton.

  “I definitely agree.”

  * * *

  A couple hours later, Del led Emma out of the massive ballroom. He wanted to get out of there and far away from Stanton. The rational side of him knew that she was safe, but getting her further away from the bastard would help his irrational side. Cheeky bastard, indeed. To walk up to her was a bold move.

  Stanton was a man who wasn’t worrying about attracting attention, and that worried him. Men like that did stupid things, because they thought they were invincible. Stupid things like kidnap a woman dating the man in charge of the investigation—especially if she was involved with the investigation.

  “Delano,” the mayor said.

  Dammit. They had almost made it out the door before he had to talk to him. He had avoided the mayor most of the night. The need to scream almost strangled him. The photographers were there, definitely, and an election was coming up. Del knew the mayor wanted to bend his ear, and make it look like he was hard on crime.

  “Mayor.”

  “Oh, and Ms. Taylor, so nice to see you again.”

  Emma said nothing, but he knew she did not like the mayor.

  “I didn’t know the department had tickets to this.”

  “We don’t, sir. The corporation Emma and her brother own do.”

  Something changed in his demeanor. “Oh, I see. Well, it is nice to see you both supporting such a wo
rthy cause. Hope you had a pleasant time.”

  “The food was horrible,” Emma said. “It was for a good cause, though.”

  The mayor apparently didn’t know what to say to that. Mentioning her corporation must have made him dumb. Knowing that he offended Emma, and she apparently could afford a thousand dollar a plate function was probably freaking him out.

  “Of course. These things always seem to have the worst kind of food, and, like you said, a worthy cause.”

  She nodded, then looked around. That was a tell for Emma. When she got bored, there was a good chance she would offend people. She hated things like this, and he knew the number of people in the room was starting to get on her nerves.

  “It was nice to see you this evening, Mayor Smith.”

  They were turning to leave when Stanton and his assistant ran them down.

  “Ms. Taylor, please tell me you didn’t forgot about setting up a meeting.”

  She blinked. Damn, the man had some balls. Walking right up to her in front of him and asking to see her. Granted, he had draped it in a business meeting, but Del knew better. He knew that Stanton was after something else entirely.

  “A meeting?” Emma asked. She had added enough boredom in her voice to tell the man that he wasn’t that important. The woman really did know how to work a suspect.

  Del coughed to cover his laugh.

  “Strictly business, I assure you. As I said, I was looking over your thoughts on the development business in Southeast Asia, and how it is important to work within the environment. I have been implementing green energy ideas with all my newest designs, and would like to bounce some ideas off you.”

  “Oh, well, then, that I can understand.”

  “Tomorrow?”

  She hesitated, apparently taken aback by his forward manner. “Ten? I don’t have a personal office, but I will be working tomorrow at a consulting job, and they give me office space.”

  She was doing what? She hadn’t told him she was going into work somewhere else tomorrow. When Emma rattled off the address, he realized that she had just invited Stanton to TFH headquarters.

  “Until tomorrow, my dear.”

  As they watched the two men walk away, Emma shook her head. “That is one odd duck, that’s for sure. And that assistant is weird too. Did you see the way he stood back?”

  Del nodded. “So, you will talk to him at headquarters?”

  She smiled and patted him on the chest. “I have learned a thing or two in the last few months. We need to get an office ready.”

  He nodded as they stepped out of the hotel and walked to his truck. The hotel had allowed him to park in VIP up front because of his position. He helped her in the truck, then jogged around to his side. Knowing the team was still listening, he talked to them over his earwig.

  “Guys, we are headed in so we can discuss this. We need to be ready tomorrow morning.”

  * * *

  They walked in to whistles from the male team members. Emma frowned, confused.

  “What?”

  “Love, you are dressed up.”

  She looked at him, then at the guys. She shook her head. “Men are so simple.”

  “You do look lovely, Emma,” Elle said.

  “You didn’t need to be here, Elle,” Del said.

  “I wanted to be on call just in case. I didn’t know what would happen, or if we would need a rescue.”

  “I wish we could have taken him to a back room and beat it out of him, but I didn’t think there was a chance we would catch him tonight.”

  “Either way, I wanted to be here.”

  “So, I need an office tomorrow,” Emma stated, trying to move things along.

  Adam nodded, but didn’t look her in the eye. “We could use one of the interview rooms.”

  “No. I don’t think that is a good idea. If we do that, he’ll immediately be on guard,” she said.

  “Let’s just use that extra office Emma uses,” Charity said walking into the room. She held out her hands for their earwigs. “It will be easy enough to set up the monitoring in there. Should take me less than half an hour.”

  Emma nodded. “And, more than likely, he will be there with that creepy assistant.”

  “Did you find anything else on him, Adam?” Del asked.

  Emma realized that Adam still wasn’t looking at her. He punched a few keys on the computer, and the giant screen in the middle lit up.

  “A little. Morgan graduated from Vanderbilt, so he’s American. Not English. Came from a pretty affluent background. He was hired by Stanton six years ago.”

  She nodded as she studied the pictures. He hadn’t changed much in the last six years. “They looked like they went everywhere together. And he was none too happy about me being there, I will tell you that. He did not want his boss setting up that meeting either.”

  “Yes. It was almost...not jealousy, but something else,” Del said. “Weird does not even begin to describe those two.”

  “Well, they have been joined at the hip for years.” Adam punched a few keys. “There have been rumors about their relationship, but I don’t think they are sexually involved.”

  “If there is someone who will know about things, it’s Morgan,” Del said. “We definitely need to look at him as an accomplice.”

  “He might suspect and not know,” Elle said.

  “What the bloody hell does that mean?” McGregor asked.

  “It means, reading over this information Adam found on him, he would not question. He came from an affluent background, but other than a trust to send him to school, his family had no money left when he went to college. His father died when he was in high school,” she explained. “The family didn’t realize that the money was gone until after his father was dead.

  “And?” Del asked.

  “He might want to live the life he previously had so badly that he would just ignore those feelings that told him Stanton is a sociopath. I am not saying that means he should not be investigated, but it might help you to know that. He might have just wanted to pretend nothing was wrong.”

  “We can use it against him,” Del said nodding.

  Emma shifted her weight again. How did women wear heels all the time? One night in them and she was ready to take them off, find the designer, and beat the person to death with the stupid little tiny heel.

  “Is there anything else?”

  “No.”

  Adam refused to look at her still. She opened her mouth to ask him why, but Del stepped in. “I say we call it a night.”

  “I’ll be here in the morning around seven,” Charity said. “I’ll make sure it is all in working order before the bastard shows up.”

  * * *

  As they walked into her flat some time later, she sighed in relief, flinging off her shoes.

  “They might be pretty, but they hurt like the devil. How do women walk around in them all the time?”

  Del shrugged as he toed off his shoes. “Rosaleigh avoids them, but she doesn’t like to dress up. Marlena will wear them when she has to. Abs lives in them. But then, she’s the crazy one.”

  She laughed. “I thought you were.”

  He shook his head and slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her closer. Damn, it felt good to finally have her to himself. The tension in his back eased as they stood there. It seemed that the long day had worn on forever. And the fact that he felt they were treading water in the investigation did not help. He had never been fond of Jin Phillips, but he hated that she’d gotten tangled up in this mess. Granted, part of it was due to the fact of her reporting, but it didn’t make what was happening to her right.

  “Did I say something to offend Adam?” Emma asked.

  He thought back over the night and shook his head. “No. Why?”

  “He wouldn’t look me in the eye.”

  He had to fight the smile. Apparently, she had forgotten the entire team was listening on their evening. “It isn’t something you said. It’s what he heard.”


  “That makes absolutely no sense at all.”

  He sighed. “Love, they heard us on the balcony. As in what I wanted to do with you.”

  She blinked. “Oh.”

  “Yeah, oh.”

  “But they all made bets on us going to bed.”

  “Adam has always seen you as sort of a little sister. Making a bet on something like that is okay. Hearing it is different.”

  She thought about it for a second or two then nodded. “Okay, I can understand that. I am pretty sure that Randy and Sean would probably try to hurt you if they heard what you said to me. Which, if you ask me, is very hypocritical.”

  “Is that a fact?” he asked, as he kissed her neck. She smelled divine. He knew that Jaime must have sprayed her with stuff, but it mixed with Emma’s natural scent, and it was driving him insane.

  “I told you about the kitchen incident.”

  He chuckled. “Ah, yes.”

  She bent her head to give him more access to her neck. He raised his hand to her hair and slipped his fingers through it. Small pins fell from it as her curls tumbled around her shoulders.

  “Oh, that feels wonderful. They were giving me the worst headache.”

  She was smiling at him, with all those curls lose, and he couldn’t help himself. He cupped her face.

  “I love you, Emma.”

  She blinked, then tears filled her eyes.

  “Oh, don’t cry.”

  “I’m sorry. Since my parents died, there has only been one other person who told me that. No man has ever said that to me in the romantic sense.”

  It hurt his heart to hear. This woman was so sweet, so fragile, but people didn’t see it. They didn’t look past her quirkiness and her big brain to see that she needed love just as much as everyone else.

  He leaned in close enough to kiss her, but she set her hands on his wrists. He opened his eyes.

  “I’m not good with things like this. With emotions. I know I care for you, Del. It hurts so much to know how much I do. But I am not sure just what I have to offer you. I don’t do well at long relationships.”

  He knew what it cost her to say that. She needed to learn to trust him, to learn that he would always be there. The only way to prove it was to do just that.