Dangerous Deception Read online

“I assume you’ve hired the very best money can buy.”

  “Naturally. I contacted the Dundee Agency.” Edward eyed Gray inquisitively. “Why would you ask such a question?”

  “It was merely rhetorical.”

  “Was it?”

  “She’s in love with him, you know,” Gray said matter-of-factly.

  “Who’s in love with whom?” Edward asked.

  Tears welled up in Grayson Perkins’s big, beautiful brown eyes. He clenched his teeth tightly.

  Oh, God, he’s going to cry, Cara thought.

  “Speak up, boy,” Edward said. “You can’t mean Audrey and that—”

  “Yes, of course, that’s who he means.” Cara jumped in, wanting to spare Gray further inquisition. “Audrey is absolutely crazy about Bobby Jack Cash. She’s made no secret of the fact that she’s madly in love with him. She even asked Gray for a divorce.”

  “What!” Edward’s face turned crimson.

  “See,” Patrice chimed in adamantly. “I knew it. Your precious Audrey has run off with that scum and they’re fucking their way through Europe or the Caribbean or—” A resounding slap across her cheek silenced Patrice instantly. She staggered for a millisecond as she cried out and clutched the left side of her face with her open palm. “You bastard.” She glared menacingly at her husband, a man who, as far as Cara knew, had never before struck her.

  Edward’s nostrils flared and his eyes closed to mere slits as he balled his hand into a tight fist. “Don’t you ever say anything so vulgar and crude about my daughter again. Do you understand me, woman?”

  “I understand,” Patrice said. “I understand a lot more than you think I do.”

  DOM HAD GROWN UP on a ranch in Texas, lived in a big sprawling old house and shared a bedroom with his older brother Rafe. The Shea family hadn’t been poor, but neither had they been rich. From the time he could walk, he could ride, and from the time he could ride, his Dad had put him to work, just as he had Rafe. Just as he did Pilar and Marta and Bianca when they got old enough. His mother, Camila, had been born and raised in Texas, but her parents had come from Mexico shortly after they married. Camila had raised her children in her Catholic faith, with great pride in both their Mexican and Irish heritages. Dom’s parents had been strict, but loving, giving their children a solid foundation on which to build.

  As he entered the foyer of the massive antebellum mansion on Lookout Mountain, he wondered if being this rich is what had turned Audrey Bedell Perkins into such a notorious first-class bitch. After reading the complete file on her, Dom had come to the conclusion that if she were a member of his family, he’d be glad she had run off and probably wouldn’t want her to ever return. The lady spent her father’s money as if it grew on trees. She cheated on her husband regularly and made new enemies everywhere she went. She was both envied and despised by the whole of Chattanooga’s elite social circle.

  “Good afternoon, sir,” the stiff-upper-lip butler said as he showed Dom into the living room. “Mr. Edward has been expecting you.”

  Before they reached the half open double pocket doors leading from the foyer into the living room, Dom heard the sound of raised voices.

  “Please, let’s not do this,” a female voice pleaded. “Gray shouldn’t have to suffer this way and poor Daddy—”

  “Poor Daddy,” another female voice mimicked, none too kindly. “You’re the one everyone feels sorry for. Poor, pitiful Cara. The ugly duckling. The daughter her daddy doesn’t dote on, the sister Grayson doesn’t even know exists.”

  “Shut the hell up,” a male voice commanded.

  “Mr. Shea, from the Dundee Agency, is here,” the butler announced.

  Silence.

  Cold, hard stares focused on Dom as he entered the room. Then a large, tall man with a mane of thick white hair still streaked with reddish-brown highlights came forward, his big hand outstretched.

  “I’m Edward Bedell. Come in, please.”

  Dom entered the living room, feeling somewhat like an early Christian entering the coliseum in Rome. He extended his arm and shook hands with Bedell. A firm, cordial exchange. “Domingo Shea.”

  “I’m glad you’re here, Mr. Shea. Your employer, Sawyer McNamara, promised me his best man. Is that what you are? Are you Dundee’s best?”

  “I’m one of their best,” he replied. “My boss believes I’m the best man for this job, otherwise he wouldn’t have sent me.”

  Edward Bedell nodded. “You know what I want—I want my daughter found. And you also know that money is no object. Whatever it takes, however much it costs, find Audrey.”

  “Yes, sir. That’s what I intend to do.”

  “I’ll answer any questions, provide you with any needed information. All you have to do is ask.”

  Dom glanced around the room. “You can start by introducing me to your family. I assume they’re your family.”

  Bedell cleared his throat. “Yes, they’re family.” He motioned to the leggy brunette with a set of topnotch silicone boobs. When she came forward, he slipped his arm around her waist. “This is Patrice…my wife.”

  Mrs. Bedell smiled at Dom. An I’m-not-happily-married smile. A smile that made a silent but obvious offer.

  “Ma’am.” Dom deliberately avoided direct eye contact with the lady. The last thing he wanted was to give the client’s wife any wrong ideas.

  “And this is my younger daughter, Cara.” Bedell simply glanced at the tall, freckled, strawberry blonde who offered Dom a forced smile.

  There was something sweet and downright wholesome about Cara Bedell’s appearance. But knowing her background, considering the family she came from and the lifestyle she was accustomed to, Dom figured Ms. Bedell was neither as sweet nor as wholesome as she appeared.

  “This gentleman is Audrey’s husband, Grayson Perkins.” Bedell looked directly at his son-in-law. “He’s as concerned about Audrey as I am.”

  “We want Audrey found,” Perkins said.

  Dom studied the much-too-good-looking man. Pity Mother Nature wasted so much beauty on a guy. “Who was the last person to see Mrs. Perkins?” he asked.

  Dead silence.

  “I suppose I was,” Perkins finally said. “We had breakfast together, then I left for the office at about the same time she left to go shopping.”

  “And that was when?”

  “Ten days ago.”

  “And no one has heard from her since?”

  “Not a word,” Bedell said.

  “Your daughter has done this before, hasn’t she?” Dom asked. “She’s just up and left town without telling anyone.”

  “Of course she has,” Patrice Bedell said. “I tried to tell Edward that this time is no different from all the other times, but—”

  “This time is different.” Grayson Perkins’s voice trembled when he spoke. “We suspect that she has gone off with a dangerous man, an ex-con named Bobby Jack Cash. He’s the type who’d do anything for money.”

  In his peripheral vision, Dom noticed Cara Bedell ease steadily closer to her brother-in-law’s side, a pained expression on her face.

  “Do you have reason to believe that he might have forced her to go with him?” Dom asked.

  “We don’t know for sure that she left town with this Cash fellow,” Bedell said.

  “Of course we know,” Patrice corrected. “She’s missing. He’s missing. They were lovers. What other conclusion could you draw?”

  Dom glanced from one person to another, beginning and ending with Grayson Perkins. “I can think of one other conclusion.”

  “Just what would that be?” Bedell asked.

  “Someone with a very strong motive killed Mrs. Perkins and Mr. Cash.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  DOM RECEIVED THE INFO from Dundee headquarters around three o’clock. A routine check on Audrey Bedell Perkins’s credit cards revealed that the lady had been traveling for the past ten days, racking up expensive hotel, limo, and restaurant bills, as well as bills from numerous exclusive shops in
four cities. Apparently she’d gone straight from Chattanooga to Nashville, then on to Memphis before heading for Birmingham. The most recent expenditures on her account came in from West Palm Beach, Florida.

  Ms. Perkins was registered at the Palm Beach Classico Hotel, but from a preliminary inquiry, he’d been unable to find out if she was alone. His guess would be that her latest lover was with her. These rich, spoiled heiresses were all alike. Worthless. And from everything he’d learned about Audrey, she was the worst of her kind. Of course, it wasn’t his place to judge her, only to find her and bring her home to Daddy. If he boarded the Dundee jet by four, he could be in Palm Beach before dinner, make contact with Audrey and have her home in Chattanooga by bedtime. He should have this assignment wrapped up in less than twenty-four hours.

  Using his cell phone, Dom dialed the Bedell home.

  “Bedell residence,” the butler said. Dom recognized the man’s voice.

  “This is Domingo Shea, from the Dundee agency. I’d like to speak to Mr. Bedell.”

  Dom glanced at his unpacked suitcase resting on the stand at the foot of his hotel bed. Good thing he hadn’t bothered to settle in since he wouldn’t be staying even one night.

  “Mr. Bedell is unavailable, sir. May I take a message?”

  “Look, this concerns his daughter, Audrey.”

  “Yes, sir, I understand, but Mr. Bedell isn’t here. He’s out for a ride and—”

  “Fine. I’ll try him on his cell.”

  “Mr. Bedell doesn’t take his cell phone when he goes horseback riding.”

  “Okay, tell him that I’ve tracked his daughter down and will probably have her home tonight.”

  “I—er…yes, sir, I’ll give him the message.”

  Dom ended the call, then hurriedly contacted Dundee headquarters. Daisy Holbrook, the office manager answered on the second ring.

  “Daisy, my darling, I need the Dundee jet and I need it now.”

  “Well, you’re in luck. The jet just happens to be free.”

  “Could you send it straight to Chattanooga, like five minutes ago?”

  “Hold on and I’ll set things in motion.” Dom waited no more than three minutes before Daisy came back on the line. “The jet will be in Chattanooga in an hour. Now, fill me in so I can do the paperwork. You know how Mr. McNamara is about dotting all the I’s and crossing all the T’s.”

  “So, it’s Mr. McNamara today, huh? What’s he done to piss you off?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Dom chuckled. “Liar.”

  Daisy huffed. “I have the greatest respect for Sawyer, but sometimes I agree with Lucie that he’s an inhuman robot.”

  “Whew. Come on, honey, tell me what’s going on?”

  “He suspended Geoff Monday,” Daisy said.

  “He what?”

  “I don’t know all the details, but apparently Geoff did something on his last assignment that Sawyer considered inappropriate, so he’s suspended him without pay for a month!”

  “Hmm.” He’d known for quite some time that Daisy had it bad for Geoff Monday, the former SIS agent who’d joined Dundee’s a few years ago, leaving behind a lucrative mercenary career. But Monday seemed oblivious to the fact that sweet little Daisy worshiped the ground he walked on. “Don’t try to fight Monday’s battles for him, even if you do have a major thing for him.”

  Silence.

  “Come on, Daisy, admit it, you—”

  “I like and respect Geoff. That’s all and—”

  “Don’t get mixed up with Monday,” Dom warned her. “He’s a good guy and all that, but he’s not only too old for you, he’s a hundred years older than you are in experience. Listen to me, little sister, find yourself a nice young man and forget Monday.”

  “Did I ask for you advice? No, I did not. Besides, Geoff thinks of me the same way you and all the other guys here at Dundee’s do—as a kid sister. So, don’t you dare ever say anything to anyone about my having a silly crush on him. I had no idea you knew. I thought Lucie was the only one who knew.”

  Anyone who’d seen the way Daisy looked at Monday knew. Everybody except Monday himself. “I’m good at picking up on stuff like that.”

  “Well, keep it to yourself, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  “Now, give me the details of why you need the Dundee jet so I can fill out all the paperwork.”

  DOM ARRIVED at the Palm Beach Classico Hotel at six-thirty, inquired about Ms. Perkins and was told the lady was out, but he could leave a message. No amount of persuasion—even a hint of hard, cold cash—rendered any other information.

  “I’ll wait for her,” he’d said and taken a seat that gave him a view of the main entrance as well as the bank of elevators.

  It was now six-fifty-five and he was still waiting. He would wait one hour, then he’d try his luck at garnering information from other members of the hotel staff. By nature, Dom was an impatient man. He hated wasting time, his own or someone else’s; but his years spent as a SEAL had taught him many things, including, to some degree, patience.

  At seven-oh-three, a small redhead, weighed down by shopping bags, entered the lobby. Dom removed the photo of Audrey Perkins from his pocket, took a good look at it, and then scanned the young woman walking past him. Similar coloring, similar height and build, but different facial features. Apparently, Bedell’s elder daughter had undergone some minor plastic surgery since this picture was taken.

  “Do you need some help, Ms. Perkins?” one of the bellhops asked as he scurried toward her.

  “No, thanks, I can manage,” she replied, her voice soft, ultra feminine and Southern sweet.

  Dom studied her intently, then glared at the photo. In person she was even prettier. Thanks to plastic surgery? And she most definitely had a new hairdo. In the studio photograph Edward Bedell had given Dom, Audrey wore her straight, shoulder-length, red hair in a smooth pageboy. Today a mane of thick, unruly, dark strawberry blonde curls fanned out and down almost to her shoulder blades.

  When she brushed off the bellhop and went straight to the nearest elevator, Dom jumped to his feet and rushed after her, catching up just as the elevator door started to close.

  “Wait up,” he called as he dove toward her. He managed to stop just short of knocking her down, his body colliding with the bags she held in front of her. “Sorry.” He stepped back, looked into a pair of startled, moss-green eyes and smiled involuntarily.

  Without hesitation, she smiled back at him, then glanced away, as if she’d just realized her smile could mistakenly be construed as flirting with a stranger. Odd, Dom thought, that a woman with Audrey Perkins’s reputation would care.

  “Need some help with those packages?”

  “No, thank you.”

  That voice should be illegal. It was the kind that gave a guy ideas. Hot, sweaty, body-heat ideas.

  “Have you been in Palm Beach long?” he asked.

  “Two days,” she replied, then lifted her gaze and connected with his.

  This time neither of them looked away, and she smiled at him again. Tentatively. Almost shyly. He couldn’t seem to take his eyes off her and it wasn’t simply because she was a damn good looking woman. There was something about her, an air of vulnerability, a hint of wariness.

  She was lovely. No doubt about that fact. Creamy smooth skin, with only a hint of freckles across her small nose and over her high, sculpted cheekbones. Full red lips that made a man want to kiss her or made him think about all the wicked things that gorgeous mouth could do to him. But it was her eyes that drew Dom to her and held him enthralled.

  As a connoisseur of women, he found the opposite sex utterly fascinating. He’d been a ladies’man since puberty and had endured years of kidding from his brother Rafe.

  “All the girls have the hots for you, little brother, because you’re so damn pretty. Heck, you’re prettier than our sisters and almost as pretty as Mama.” Rafe had inherited their father’s rough, rugged looks, even
Dad’s Irish blue eyes and ruddy complexion; whereas, except for the Shea height and broad shoulders, Dom’s basic appearance was a replica of their beautiful Mexican mother.

  Dom had known his share of lovely, fascinating women, but he couldn’t recall ever being as instantly attracted to a lady as he was to Audrey Perkins.

  Hell, man, you’re a damn fool. The lady is not only married, she’s a rich, spoiled brat. And a slut to boot.

  “Are you all right?” she asked.

  Dom suddenly realized that she’d been talking to him and he hadn’t responded, that he’d been too busy drooling over this small, elegant piece of fluff.

  “Yeah, fine. My mind just wandered. Sorry. Business matters.”

  “Are you here in Palm Beach on business?” she asked.

  Dom nodded.

  Without warning, the elevator doors opened and someone entered behind Dom and it was only then that he realized neither he nor Ms. Perkins had punched in a floor number. They’d been talking while the elevator rested at the lobby level.

  “You two getting out?” the bald, middle-aged man asked.

  Audrey giggled. “No. I—I’m going to the sixth floor.”

  “What about you, buddy?” the guy asked after he punched in the fourth floor for himself and the sixth floor for Audrey.

  “Seventh, thanks.” Since he wasn’t registered at this hotel, Dom said the first thing that came to mind.

  The three of them remained silent as the elevator lifted; then after the man got off on the fourth floor and the elevator door closed, Dom and Audrey burst into laughter.

  “We were just standing here in the elevator and hadn’t even punched in our floor numbers,” she said. “He must have thought we were crazy.”

  “Probably.” Dom reached out and grasped two of her four large shopping bags. “Those look way too heavy for you. Let me carry them to your room. I swear you can trust me to be a gentleman.”

  Her smile vanished instantly. “Thank you. They were getting a little heavy. But as far as trusting you…I don’t know you and I learned the hard way not to trust anyone.”

  “You’re too young and beautiful—” he surveyed her from head to toe “—and rich to be so cynical.”