Deception (Carrington Hill Investigations Book 1) (10 page)

Marco stepped out from behind the tree
, and she followed, pointing her gun at the men kneeling on the ground. Blood oozed down from one man’s nose. The other man’s lip was busted. Both of their faces were red, either from the heavy exertion or pissed they’d been caught. Marco’s men stood behind them with their guns pressed against the men’s heads.

Marco
placed his hand over her weapon, lowering it to the ground. “I think we’ll take it from here.”

Sh
e shoved the gun back in her waistband and walked closer to the thugs before glancing back over her shoulder. “You aren’t going to kill them, are you?”

“
I haven’t decided.” His eyes narrowed. “They used you for target practice, so maybe I’ll do the same.”

The thugs
’ eyes widened as obscenities left their lips. Cursing a string of words, they tried to yank free of their captors.

“Marco.” Her voice was a warning.

He chuckled. “You’re no fun.”

She raised her brow.

“I’ll deliver them to your director, and they’ll still be breathing…that’s the best I can promise.”

Marco walked her back to where she
’d left the car. The front bumper of the blue sedan was crushed and locked onto the Mercedes’ back bumper. The huge dent in the rear made her cringe. He threw his arm around her shoulder. “Oh, man, hope that car wasn’t yours.”

Lexi grimaced as her stomach rolled. “No, not mine…my husband
’s.”

Lexi spent the next hour
arranging to have the Mercedes impounded by the FBI forensic team to check for anything left behind from Catherine’s attack. If they were lucky there was blood left behind on the driver’s seat. One way or another, she was going to find who attacked Catherine, and the car was a good starting point because of the surveillance. Having to explain it to Trip was going to be a whole new set of worries for a later time.

Lexi and Marco went back t
o the main headquarters for Carrington Hill Investigation where she explained her impromptu marriage and the newly discovered footage, getting him to agree to help. Even with the FBI on the case, his resources were going to be useful. His personal assurance that he would be the one handling the case set her mind at ease.

“Why are you still with the FBI? You
’re already partnered with me, and we could use you.”

It was an age
-old discussion between them. Only now did she see it as a possibility. She loved her job, but with the threat of her identity being blown, everything was up in the air.

“
That time might be coming quicker than you think, considering I’ll probably lose all my privacy that I’ve tried so hard to protect.”

He grinned.
“It’s about time.” He leaned back in his chair. “Considering you own half the company anyway, it’s about high time you started to contribute.”

S
tanding, she chuckled for the first time since leaving the house that morning. “Can you give me a lift to my house? I need to get one of the cars, and I don’t want to have to worry about wrecking another one of his.”

“Why don’t you already have yours? I don’t see you as the type to like being stranded.”

“His limo took us back to his house. I didn’t have the option of driving. So can you take me?”

“Sure thing
, luv.”

****

Throwing on a nice
black pant suit with a crisp pink shirt she normally reserved for meetings, Lexi grabbed the keys to the Beemer that normally never saw the light of day. She still had an appearance to make, and it had to be a good one. A fifteen minute drive and she arrived and pushed through the double glass doors into the tall building that housed Hathaway Enterprises and stopped at the reception desk.

A pretty brunette glanced up. “Can I help you?”

Lexi gave the lady a sincere smile. “Can you inform my husband that I’m in the lobby dying of hunger?”

The lady chuckled and picked up the phone. “Who’s your husband?”

“Trip Hathaway.”

The phone slipped from the receptionist
’s hand, but she caught it before it crashed onto the desk. “I’m sorry.” A blush tinted her cheeks. “I didn’t know.”

Lexi
tapped the desk. “It’s okay. It was very recent.” Recent was an understatement. The lady dialed the extension quickly, and Trip showed up minutes later, strolling into the lobby like he owned the place… Oh right, he did. A memory of the kiss he’d given her this morning flashed through her mind.

“
Mrs. Hathaway, I sure hope I’m the reason for that blush.” He pulled her into his embrace and placed a tender kiss on her lips.

She made a show of running her hands over his chest.
“Just remembering last night.”

The receptionist drew in a sharp breath. Lexi gave her a quick wink.
“I just can’t keep my hands off him. Can you blame me?”

The receptionist shook her head
, her cheeks turning a deep shade of red. She smiled back. “Have a good lunch, Mrs. Hathaway.”

Glancing over her shoulder
, she gave the woman a smile. “Just call me Lexi.”

Trip stopped outside the door and glanced up and down the street obviously looking for the Mercedes. “Where did you park?”

Gra
bbing his hand, she led him to her fire-engine red Beemer. “We need to go somewhere private to talk.” Opening the door, she glanced over the hood. “So I can explain what I found out and what happened to your car.”

His grin grew bigger as he slid in
to the car. “How about the house? We can have lunch in the bedroom…to give the staff more gossip.”

She chuckled as she pulled out from the curb
. He called his butler and ordered their lunch. They rode in companionable silence during the ten minutes it took to reach the mansion and park in the garage. He led her inside and straight up to their shared room. Tossing his jacket on the bed, he loosened his tie and stalked over to her as though she was his prey. His firm hands pulled her in close as he kissed her with an intensity she wasn’t expecting. She leaned into him, splaying her hands on his crisp white shirt before running them up around his neck. He kissed a trail down to the pulse point in her neck.

“How about we skip lunch?” H
e asked his question against her skin, and she melted in his arms. There was nothing more she wanted to than to take him to bed, even knowing that it wasn’t the right thing to do.  A knock on the door interrupted her warring thoughts. He gave her a quick kiss and held up a finger. “Hold that thought.”

The butler pushed the food cart in and nodded before pulling the door closed behind him. Trip didn’t go to the food but came at her again. Without the sexual haze
that came with being in his arms, she held up a palm to his chest, stilling his advances.

“I need you to be serious
, and I tend to lose my head when you touch me.”

“Is that so?” The blue of his eyes deepened
as he assessed her.

She closed her
eyes; not believing she’d just told him that. She’d given him ammunition for the future and let whatever they had between them start to slip from her control to his. She cursed herself for the stupid move, but the damage had been done. She opened her eyes.

“Y
ou need to keep your hands and, more importantly, your lips to yourself until I finish telling you about my day.”

H
e slid the tie completely free from its knot before sitting down next to the tray. He gestured to the chair. “Have a seat. We might as well eat if I can’t kiss you.”

She tentatively sat down
, wringing her hands in her lap; a move she didn’t do often. She was always on her game, but how she was going to explain what happened was making her nervous and she didn’t like it one bit.

As he ate
, she told him all about the Mercedes on the tape and seeing Catherine escape out the window. When she finished the part about the car chase and running into the woods, his hand stilled above his plate. His face hardened, and his jaw twitched. The silence was deafening. When he started pacing in front of her and still hadn’t said a word, she really started to worry.

He paused and turned
, letting his gaze run the length of her. “Were you hurt?”

She shook her head.

He resumed pacing with his hands clasped behind his back and his lips pulled into a fine line. “How do you know it was my Mercedes?”

“The tag on the front.
It’s one of a kind.”

He nodded
in agreement. “Did you see his face?”

“No, he was wearing
a hooded jacket and limping when he got back in the car.” She stood and placed her palm on his arm. The contact was meant to be reassuring; it was anything but. “You understand what this means, right?”

He cleared his throat. “Someone took my car without permission.”

She shook her head. “It means more than that. It means whoever hurt Catherine has direct access to your car.” Her hand fell away as she debated her next words. “Trip…it has to be a family member or someone who works for you and has access to your house.”

He shook his head.
He stared blankly toward the window as if he were lost in thought. “No, you can’t possibly believe that one of my family members could physically hurt someone.”

Lexi glanced down at her shoes before lifting her gaze to meet and hold his. “I’ve seen people do more for less.”

Trip crossed his arms over his chest. “You’re wrong, and this discussion is over.”

She lifted her brow. “I’m afraid that’s not possible. The forensic
s team already has your car and is combing it for any evidence.”

He grabbed his jacket from the back of the chair and stomped to the door
. With his hand on the knob, he turned back with a look of disgust in his eyes. “I knew this was a mistake.”

Lexi
flinched as Trip slammed the door closed behind him. She sank down into the chair. Her heart busted into a million pieces. Maybe it had been wrong to suspect his family, but that was where all of the evidence pointed. He’d wanted the truth but refused to believe, and there was no way to convince him, although she felt the need to try.

Lexi
took the stairs two at a time, remembering that she’d brought Trip home and if she didn’t take him back, he’d have two cars at the office. Voices inside his office made her pause before she knocked. Her hand hovered over the door. She didn’t need to lean against the door to know what was being said. The argument was loud enough to be heard from outside.

****

“She’s using you for your money
,” Lillian yelled. “Why can’t you see that?”

Trip pinched the bridge of his nose. “Mother, I don’t have time for this now. I’ve got more important things to deal with.”

“You better make time before she spends everything you’ve got and you’re left penniless living in the gutter. She’s rude, and you deserve better.”

His laugh sounded hysteric
al even to his own ears. If his mother only knew what else he was dealing with she’d be screaming about that too. “You’re wrong about her. She doesn’t want my money.”

His mother
harrumphed. “When are you going to grow up? Everyone wants your money. Why would she be any different? She’s nothing but a hussy.”

Trip
jolted to his feet from behind his desk and slammed his fist down. “She has her own money, Mother. She doesn’t need mine.” He narrowed his eyes. “She’s Carrington Oil. I thought you of all people would have figured that out by now.”

He heard a
gasp come from the other side of the door. He hurried around his desk and yanked the door open just in time to see Lexi turning the corner as she stomped down the hall. “Shit.” He slammed the door. “This conversation is over. I will not tolerate you or anyone else bad mouthing my wife in our home.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “Do I make myself clear?”

Lillian stood up in a huff. “Don’t y
ou raise your voice to me, young man. I’m still your mother.” She walked to the door, slamming it behind her when she left.

Running his hands over his face, Trip collapsed into the leather chair behind him. “Great. I managed to piss
both of them off in one afternoon. What else can go wrong?”

The pounding inside his
head wouldn’t stop as he pressed the phone to his ear listening to the director confirm everything Lexi had said. He shook his head when the word
wife
popped into his mind. He hadn’t meant to say they were a mistake. The words had left his lips in a fit of anger, not at her, but from the fact that someone was doing all this crap right under his nose.

He stayed in his office all afternoon as his mind raced
debating who would have attacked Catherine. The director had mentioned Lexi sent him a copy of the video but still hadn’t returned to her office.

Later that night he tried her cell
several times, and it went straight to voicemail. She wasn’t taking his calls, and could he really blame her? Breaking his promise even under duress was no excuse. His mother had thankfully steered clear of him the rest of the afternoon into the evening. The only visitor he had was Ethan, looking for Lexi. He’d give her time for now to cool down, but if she wasn’t home in the next couple of hours, he’d give in to the panic and go looking for her.

****

Lexi
went to her own home, not the one that was broken into, but the one she liked to avoid. It was her way of escaping Trip and his family, she needed time to think and it was evident she wasn’t going to be able to do it at his place. Her phone rang and she glanced down at the caller id, prepared to send Trip’s call to voicemail again, and paused when she recognized the number so she answered. “Hello.”

“We’ve got her.”

Lexi’s heart raced at Marco’s words. She sank down to her knees in her bedroom and hung her head. “Is she all right?”

“She must have been hit on the head
pretty hard. The doc says she’s got amnesia.”

Lexi jumped to her feet. “Where is she?”

“Bayview General, room 213. We’ve got to get her out of here though; it’s not safe for her until you catch the asshole who did this.”

She grabbed her keys. “I’ll be there in ten. Stand guard around her door. They’ll have to release her to me when I tell them she’s a
federal witness. Go ahead and make arrangements for a safe house. I’ll sign the release when I get there.”

He agreed. She flew down the stair
s and out the door. Sara was leaning against her car. “You weren’t supposed to ditch your detail. Can you imagine my surprise when I didn’t find you at Trip’s house? He wasn’t too happy either.”

She shrugged. “Where’s
Garrett?”

“I sent him home. I told him you and
I would stay in and make some margaritas. He offered to stay until I told him there was going to be a massive amount of girl talk going on.”

Lexi chuckled as she pulled her car door open. “Get in
. We’ve got to go. Marco found Catherine.”

B
arely managing to contain the speed limit in her excitement, Lexi rushed through traffic to get to the hospital, saying a silent thanks to whoever had been responsible for Catherine’s safety.

Flashing
their badges to the staff and nurses, they pushed their way into Catherine’s room. Her pale skin almost matched the color of the sheet covering her. A big bandage poked out from behind her head, and another one was wrapped around her arm. Lexi and Sara took slow, sure steps toward their friend.

“Do you remember us?”
Lexi asked.

Catherine shook her head
, and Lexi’s heart plummeted.

“Do you know your name?”

The crease in Catherine’s forehead gave her the answer. The sound of Catherine’s scared voice nearly brought Lexi to tears. “No.”

“You’re name is Catherine O’Donnell
, and I’m Lexi Carrington, and this is Sara Johnson. We’re your best friends. Someone attacked you and hit you on the head. It’s not safe for you to stay here.”

Catherine
’s nose twitched. “Why would someone do that? Did I deserve it?”

Lexi’s
shoulders eased for the first time since getting the phone call. “No, Cat, you work for the FBI, and you were investigating a case.” Lexi pulled her own badge from her pocket and handed it to Catherine to examine. “We all work for the FBI, and we’re here to help you.”

Lexi wanted to shake
Catherine in an effort to help regain her memory, but she knew that patience was the key. Being around familiar faces would help bring back her memory. There was no need to ask if she remembered the attack since she couldn’t even remember her own name. “If we can get the doctor to release you, will you please, come with us?”

She nodded but still looked like a scared kitten. Sara helped Catherine into a pair of scrubs while Lexi talked to the doctor and signed the release papers. Within fifteen minutes
, they were in the car following Marco to the safe house. Not even  the FBI would know its location.

Convincing Sara to abandon her
surveillance detail on Lexi to stay with Catherine wasn’t hard. They both knew that Catherine needed her more than Lexi did. Lexi had a criminal to catch and wouldn’t dare risk someone following her to the safe house. After getting her situated into the two story white house that was situated in the middle of nowhere and making sure Marco would be staying to ensure her safety, Lexi drove home. She still had an ongoing investigation that needed answers.

Lexi pulled up outside the iron gates of her
family home and rolled down her window to give her usual wink to the guard. Cameras flashed from all directions as reporters swarmed at the entrance, all of them yelling their own version of the question: why had she married Trip.

“Is it true?”

“Why now?”

“Is your company having problems?”

“Was it love at first sight?”

The gate opened
, and security pushed back the throngs of reporters, not letting any of them through. She got out of her car as a helicopter flew overhead with a film crew hanging out the open cockpit doors. Jonathan came out with a shotgun, cocked the chamber, and shot off in the distance, intending to scare off the reporters. She’d never seen him go all commando before. He had such a gentle manner about him, hell she didn’t even know he had a damn gun much less knew how to use one. He rounded the car and hurried her up the stairs until they were safely ensconced behind closed doors.

“He’s here.”

Panic grabbed hold of Lexi’s heart. She knew the answer before she even asked. “Who?”

A
playful grin tilted Jonathan’s lips. “Your husband.”

“How did he get through the reporters?”

“His helicopter landed out back on the pad. I almost shot him until I realized he wasn’t some bloody reporter snooping around.”

“Where in the hell did you get that thing?” Lexi tilted her head to the shotgun.

Jonathan shrugged. “I’ve always had it, just never thought I’d need it. Are you going to stand here and keep asking questions or are you going to go see your husband?”

Her shoulders fell as she released a sigh. “Where is he?”

Jonathan’s gaze went to the stairs.

“Tell me you did not let him in my room!”

Jonathan shrugged. “He’s your husband. I didn’t see any harm in it.”

She jogged
up the stairs as she called over her shoulder, “If I didn’t love you, you would so be fired.”

“Promises…promises
,” Jonathan mumbled, disappearing in the direction of the kitchen.

Lexi pushed the door open to her room and froze. Trip was
sitting on her bed leaning against her headboard dressed in a tuxedo. Her mouth watered as her gaze ran over him until she remembered what he’d done.

She pushed the door close
d and crossed her arms over her chest. “What are you doing here?”

“Uh
uh uh, wife.” He wiggled his finger. “The question is what are
you
doing here.” His playful attitude earned him a glare.

“
If I remember correctly…” She moved to her closet and grabbed clothes to change into. “…I believe you said we were a mistake. But don’t worry, Trip. I plan on correcting that for both of us.”

He slid his legs off the bed and leaned his elbows on his knees. “Lexi, I’m sorry. I was mad
, but it was never at you. I was mad at myself for allowing all of this to happen right under my nose.” He glanced up. “Can’t you forgive me?”

She clutched her clothes tightly to her chest
and walked to the window, glancing down at the reporters camped out below. She let the curtain slip from her fingers. “Trip…I think you were right.” She turned around, bumping into his chest. His arms wrapped around her. “We didn’t think all of this through.”

H
e pulled her tight to his chest, the only barrier was the extra clothes in her hand.“We may have been brought together because of the case and Catherine, but you’re wrong, Lexi.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “We do belong together, and I’m tired of fighting it.”

He pressed his lips to hers, coaxing her mouth open. A low moan vibrated through his chest as he deepened the kiss
, entangling his tongue with hers. He caressed her back as he made love to her mouth. He leaned back, “Aren’t you?”

She pushed against
his chest, “You broke your promise and told your mother.” She stepped out of his embrace and crossed the room to put some much needed distance between them. She placed the clothes that were in her hand on the dresser. “I can’t have a relationship with someone I don’t trust.”

Trip pushed his tux jacket
off his shoulder and threw it on the end of the bed and climbed back on it, he yanked the tie loose from around his neck. “Lexi, I said I’m sorry. If it takes the rest of my life making it up to you, I will.”

Lexi’s
hands dropped to her sides. “You can’t be serious.” She gestured between them with her finger. “This is a temporary merger,” she said, throwing his own words back in his face. “I found Catherine, and I’ll find out who hurt her and the criminal who’s stolen your money. There’s no use in keeping up the charade.”

Trip jumped off the bed and pulled her into his arms. “You found Catherine
?” His voice rose in his excitement. “When? Where is she? Is she okay? Why didn’t you tell me?”

She pushed
unsuccessfully against his chest, but he refused to release her. “Slow down, Hathaway.” Lexi let out a sigh, knowing she wasn’t going to escape the captivity of his arms, not really sure if she wanted to move away from him anyway. “She has amnesia, but she’s safe. That’s all that matters.”

“Where is she?”

Lexi shook her head. “Oh no, you don’t. She doesn’t even remember us, and I can’t take the chance of you telling
any
one of your family members. Everyone is suspect at this point, and they might plan to finish the job. She stays put until I catch your thief.”

Cupping her cheek
, he placed a gentle kiss on her lips. “Get dressed, and let’s go celebrate.”

F
or a brief second, she entertained the idea, but then her gaze traveled to the window as she remembered the reporters. “They’ll follow.”

He shook his head and grinned. “No they won’t.”

She glanced down at his clothes. “I’m not going anywhere that requires me to wear a dress. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll just pass altogether. I’d planned on ordering a pizza and going through some of your books.” She patted his chest. “But don’t let me stop you.”

Pulling his dress shirt from his pants, he kicked off his shoes a
s a lazy grin hovered on his lips.

“What are you doing?”

“Getting comfortable. If you’re staying in, then so am I.”

She glanced back to the door. “Here?”

He shrugged. “Why not? We’re married.”