“So how long have you known him and are you sleeping with him?”
Monica was never one to beat around the bush, Karena thought the moment she stepped into her office and into Monica’s barrage of questions.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, closing her office door behind her and praying none of the staff had been walking by and overheard.
“The P.I., Karena. How long have you known him?”
Monica sat in one of the guest chairs, her long legs crossed, arms resting on the sides.
Karena rounded her desk, dropped the folder then plopped down into her chair. “It’s been a really long day, Monica. I’m not in the mood for your interrogations.”
“Then you’d better get in the mood,” Monica said, glaring at Karena. “Because if Daddy finds out you hired him because you’re sleeping with him, he’s going to go ballistic. And if this man doesn’t figure out what the hell is going on with Leandro and that painting, we’re both going to be out of a job.”
“We’re heirs to the company, Monica. How can we be out of a job?”
“That’s a name on a piece of paper that rides on the fact that our father is still breathing.”
Karena groaned, letting her head rest on the back of her chair. “It is not that serious, Monica, really.”
“So you are sleeping with him,” she accused.
Don’t I wish. “No. I’m not sleeping with him. I met him a few months ago when I went to Maryland to visit a friend.”
“What friend? Oh, that girl who’s always getting herself into trouble.”
“Noelle’s not like that anymore. And this trouble she was in was serious, life-threatening serious. Sam and his partner helped her out.”
“Sounds like you need to get better friends.”
Karena was about to say something else when Monica held up a hand. “Don’t get all uptight. I’m just trying to keep a handle on all this.”
“D&D Investigations has a good reputation. I trust Sam to get to the bottom of this.” And she did. From what she knew of him so far, he was a good investigator and a good friend. She only hoped her traitorous body could keep it together long enough for him to do the job.
“Well, you know how men are, so just be careful working with him,” Monica quipped.
“What’s that supposed to mean? I work with men all the time and I don’t get this type of warning from you.”
“The other men you work with all the time don’t look at you like he was.”
Karena flicked her wrist in Monica’s direction as a way of dismissing her remark. “You’re starting to sound melodramatic, like Deena.”
“Oh, please, nobody is as melodramatic as Deena. I swear that girl lives in a world of her own.”
“Well, she is a writer,” Karena said in defense of their younger sister. Deena Lakefield was the free spirit of the family. Being cooped up behind a desk all day would have the same effect on her as kryptonite would on Superman, she thought with a smile.
“Deena doesn’t know what she is from one day to the next.” Monica stood. “Be that as it may, she’s our lost cause of a sister no matter what. You, on the other hand, are salvageable and I don’t want you getting your head all twisted over some man just because he looks good, smells good and watches you like you’re the only woman on earth.”
Her words had Karena sitting straight up in her chair. “He’s all that, huh?”
Monica was not amused, although the corner of her mouth did lift in a smile. “He’s not bad to look at, but you know my philosophy on men—especially good-looking men.”
Yeah, Karena knew, and it was a damned shame. How a woman as strong as Monica could let one man tear her down and destroy her faith in the entire species was beyond her. “He’s working for the company, Monica. That’s all.”
“Mmm-hmm,” was her response as she walked out of the office.
“He’s working for the company,” Karena repeated once more when she was alone.
He’s working for the company…so why am I am thinking of his strong arms and how they’d feel wrapped tightly around me?
He should have gone back to Connecticut immediately after leaving her office. Bree was there; he’d already called and briefed her on the situation. She would be working on it until it was time for her to leave for the day. Sam could go back to the office and help her or he could go home. Yet, it was almost six-thirty in the evening and he was still in Manhattan.
After leaving Lakefield Galleries he’d stopped at the library, using the Internet to retrieve a list of all art galleries in Manhattan and the surrounding boroughs. He wanted to know which ones were showing Leandro’s work and which ones were trying to get more information on the man.
In the past few hours he’d visited six galleries, three of which had pieces of Leandro’s on display, two that were negotiating to buy pieces and one that had tried valiantly to get in touch with Leandro’s agent with no success.
Now Sam found himself turning into the same parking garage he’d been in earlier, heading back to Lakefield Galleries.
“Hi, we don’t have a showing tonight so I’m just about to lock up,” the friendly receptionist whose name he now knew was Astrid told him.
“I was hoping to catch Ms. Lakefield,” he said. “Karena Lakefield,” he amended when she stepped behind the desk and looked down at her computer screen.
“She hasn’t logged off her computer yet so she’s probably still here.”
“Does she do that often?”
“Do what?”
“Work late,” he said, realizing he’d spoken aloud. He’d been thinking that a woman as fine as Karena should have an active social life. Invitations to parties and friends to hang out with should be taking up the majority of her time.
Oh, no, that was his ex-fiancée’s lifestyle he was thinking about. Leeza Purdy was the queen of Greenwich’s most elite society clique, which meant that most of her time was spent entertaining. That was, when she could pry herself away from Sam’s side, where she tried to dictate everything from the type of underwear he wore to the kind of gas he put into his car.
Breaking up with her had been one of his finer moments, and while his sisters had both readily told him that, he’d known it from the waves of relief that washed over him once it was all said and done.
Astrid shrugged. “Yes, I believe so. I’ll walk you to her office,” she said, picking up her purse and coming around the desk to meet him.
“Don’t worry about it, I remember where it is. You go ahead and have a good evening.”
“Thanks, you have a good evening, too. I’ll put the automatic locks on so when you leave the door will lock behind you. As long as you’re just going out, the security system will stay activated,” Astrid said before slipping through the glass doors.
Sam nodded. He’d been wondering about their security, as he hadn’t seen any cameras or security beacons on his first trip to the office. But now that he’d suspected someone was setting the Lakefields up to take a fall, he was determined to cover those bases.
When Astrid was gone, he moved behind her desk, kneeling to look underneath. There was a panic button. Good. Further inspection yielded a separate computer keyboard that Sam recognized as part of one of the better security systems. This keyboard monitored every employee in the office as they were logged in to their computers. It also monitored each office by using heat and motion sensors so that if someone were in an office that shouldn’t be occupied, a message would immediately appear on a small computer screen.
Sam knew the system well and pressed a few keys before the screen flashed. The seventh floor was dedicated office space, he noted as he looked at the computerized layout. The larger rooms, he assumed, were conference rooms while the smaller ones were most likely employee offices. Of the ten offices, only two were still occupied. Karena and Monica, he knew without a doubt.
Tapping another sequence of keys, he pulled up the eighth floor, the gallery. This had additional security. Laser beams crisscrossed from the floor to the ceiling, in addition to the same heat and motion sensors that were on the office level. There were some smaller alcoves which had more security, coded keypads or locked encasements. He figured these probably held the more valuable pieces. He was just about to tap in another code when her voice startled him.
“What are you doing?”
His head snapped up, his body instantly warming at the sight of her.
“I was hungry,” he said as casually as he could manage. “I figured you might be, too, so I came to take you to dinner.”
She blinked, confusion marring her pretty face. “You’re on the computer.”
“No. I’m checking your security systems.”
“Oh,” she said and came around the desk to stand beside him. “The system was just updated two months ago.”
He nodded. “It’s a really good system, worth the money. How often do you and your sister stay here by yourselves?”
“We don’t work normal hours, if that’s what you’re asking. But there’s a security guard on the lower level of the garage and cameras everywhere. It’s safe.”
“It’s not healthy,” he replied, his fingers moving quickly over the keys as he closed the areas he’d wanted to check.
“It’s after five and you’re still working,” she responded.
“Yeah, but I didn’t leave my house until well after ten this morning. I’m betting you were here a lot earlier than that.”
“That has nothing to do with your job,” she said then moved around the desk.
He smiled at her sarcasm and her attempt to put him in his place. But she had no idea whom she was dealing with.
“You will find that I’m really into details. Whether they directly relate to my job doesn’t really matter. Now, about dinner?”
“I’ll order in. You can let yourself out,” she was saying as he approached her.
“I don’t want to eat alone.”
“That’s not my problem.” Yet Karena got the sinking feeling that it was. His mouth said the hunger he spoke of was related to food. His eyes said something entirely different. The dark brown grew even darker, lust circling his irises with a smoldering ring. He approached her, and suddenly the reception area seemed too small for the both of them.
Inhaling sharply, she backed up, knowing instinctively that having him close to her was a mistake. He continued his trek forward, determination giving his tall, broad form an air of intimidation she wasn’t quite sure she could handle.
“Are you afraid of me, Karena?”