Filthy Rich Alpha - Virna DePaul Page 0,51
so he forced himself to walk to the door.
She groaned loudly again and flopped on her side. Now her creamy breasts were exposed, and without his consent, his erection moved to full staff.
“Why did you move way over there?” he asked.
She peeled her eyes open and looked to see where she was.
“Oh, on this side of the bed? I have no idea,” she said. Then with a sleepy grin she said, “Don’t take it personally, big guy, I was asleep. What time is it?”
“Four,” he said.
Her eyes widened. “Are you kidding?”
“Nope. It is officially O-dark-hundred.” He gave in to his urge and walked back to the bed, then leaned down and gave her a kiss on the side of her face. He reached out and tucked a silky piece of hair behind her ear and then he kissed her mouth.
“Too early,” she moaned.
“For my kisses?”
“For anything.”
Branden laughed again and went out to let Alex in. When he opened the door the men, including the police officers, were yakking away, not giving any thought to the fact that it was only four a.m.
It was a good thing Branden owned the entire floor.
“We’re going to have to stop meeting like this,” he said wryly to Alex.
Alex looked toward the bedroom and said, “Or maybe you need to stop getting laid on the weekdays.”
“Maybe if you had your own sex life, you wouldn’t have to be so concerned with mine.” Branden looked at the men, who were fiddling with several items. “What are they doing?”
“You see that wire and the little black box on the end of it that my buddy Detective O’Reilly there is holding?”
“What is it?”
“It’s a pretty high-tech little system and it was living in the wall right outside your door. It automatically takes a photograph anytime your front door opens. It saves the photo here on its little hard drive, but it also transmits it out to another system. It turns out that your little day manager, Nate, was getting paid to look the other way as the…renovations…to your hallway were being made.”
“Paid by whom?”
“That’s where it gets tricky,” Alex said. “He says he never got a name, just a suitcase full of cash.”
“Who gave him the suitcase?”
“When Detective O’Dell and I first started talking to him, he wouldn’t say. By the way, that was well after midnight. Do I get overtime pay?”
Branden gave him a look. Grinning, Alex went on. “Anyway, we spoke from around one a.m., when he said that ‘some guy’ gave him the bag, until approximately three a.m., when he suddenly was able to give us a first name of Chuck and a description of a man. The detective is going to introduce him to a sketch artist later on today.”
Branden stifled a groan and said, “What about Cartwright?”
“Uh, well…I have to make a phone call…”
Branden laughed and said, “Where did you leave him?”
“I plead the Fifth. Let me call my brother and ask him to release…um, I mean…excuse him.”
“So how long has the camera been there?”
“According to the day manager, Nate—who by the way is just a lovely man—it was installed just about a month ago.”
Huh. About the time he’d started formally working with his sister and the SEC to set up the investigation into Dubois & Mellan once the purchase went through.
So was this related to Davies, or to his and Deena’s investigation? Had someone tipped off the crooks buried in D&M that the SEC was investigating? Could this be business and not personal, as he’d first assumed?
For a moment, Branden frowned as realization hit. For all he knew, the SEC could have planted the camera. If so, why? To make sure he wasn’t playing both sides?
“Do you think there’s something similar set up at the mansion? That was where the first photo came from.”
“I sweep the place on a regular basis, and nothing’s turned up. But I’ll run out there when I leave here,” Alex said.
“Okay, good. We’re going to have to check the office. And Alex, I want this done discreetly.” Which was Branden’s way of saying he didn’t even want Deena to know about it. He trusted his stepsister implicitly, but he had to rule out an insider at the SEC.
He could tell immediately by his expression that Alex understood him.
“I’m all over it,” Alex said. “Then I’d like to put Lee and my other men in place while I take a little plane ride.”
Energy shot through him, revved him up. But the energy was dark. Heavy. “Davies? Lee found