Fixing Justice (3 page)

He’d gotten a good laugh at the devious way Lacey’s mind worked when she chose an outrageous mermaid style gown that framed her ass because as she’d put it, ‘Cameron was a dog for her backside’. Drae fell over laughing at her choice of words, and the two had giggled like conspiratorial girlfriends plotting his lovesick friend’s downfall.
Serves Cam right
, he chuckled, because there was nothing guys enjoyed more than laughing at their buddies when a woman turned the tables.

Well, the deed was done, and the Justice Family now included a wife. Wonders never ceased. Now that the happy couple had flown off via private jet to an extended honeymoon in Hawaii, some semblance of order and calm would return to the Villa. He hoped.

During the month he’d been gone before the wedding, Alex had finally found an assistant to keep him organized, busy, and out of everyone else’s hair
. Thank fucking God
. Drae had been ready to strangle the man, even from a distance, because Alex without a rudder was like a never-ending shit-storm of angst. He’d gone for months without someone to trot along after him, cleaning up the crap he always seemed to leave in his wake. Luckily, Betty had finally returned, so the office continued to run once Lacey relinquished her temp duties to focus on the wedding.

Making the decision to stay put in Arizona was easy once he started making secret plans to create an addition to the happy couple’s cabin as a wedding present. Cam’s passion for black and white movies and old-time Hollywood gave Drae the idea to create a home theater he knew the couple would enjoy. Starting the very next morning, once his hangover eased, work would begin straightaway as the clock was officially ticking.

Enjoying the post-reception solitude and what was left of his Cristal buzz, Draegyn was startled when movement along the periphery of his vision had him shifting to high-alert. He wasn’t alone anymore although who or what was prowling in the shadows was a mystery since everyone else had long since staggered away to sleep off their over-partied aftermath of the day’s events.

Tori had been quickly scurrying along the outskirts of the courtyard where a family wedding had taken place, on her way from seeing off the caterers to her tiny, functional studio apartment above an old barn that served as meeting space and offices for the Justice Agency.

She was exhausted after a long day of holding down the fort so the entire kit and caboodle of interesting people who made up the Justice family of partners, workers, and friends could join in the wedding festivities.

Having only been at the Villa for a few weeks, she’d been happy to pitch in wherever she could while also managing to stay invisible. She liked these folks, especially Alex, who she’d been hired to assist. With her personal life in shambles, she’d jumped at the job opportunity hidden away in the middle of a desert. Preferring to stay clear of social situations, she’d insisted on taking over on the day of the event so everyone else could enjoy it. Ever since the scandal that rocked her word exploded in the press, she’d been working overtime to stay off the radar.

She hated being the center of attention. There was a reason her dad had lovingly referred to her as his little mouse. Lighting up around his only child, the two had shared a special father - daughter bond. Being something of a tomboy with a serious streak a mile-wide, the times they spent holed up at the library or exploring museums had helped her forget that she was a simple girl. No great beauty like her glamorous mother, as a child Tori had been every inch the quiet, bookish mouse her childhood nickname implied.

When her father had passed away, she’d been too young to understand at the time what having cancer meant. After the shock of his death receded, her day-to-day reality became even more introverted. With a mop of bushy brown hair that never,
ever
did what she wanted it to and a slight frame with little in the way of feminine curves to grab a guy’s interest, Tori was content to disappear behind ugly eyeglasses a shade too big for her face and basically hide from the world. That didn’t however make her a pushover by any means. Schoolyard bullies had been the scourges of her childhood, and she’d learned early to stand up for herself. Along with a fierce determination to level the playing field by leaving her peers in the academic dust, she’d also mastered the art of the scathing verbal put down and never looked back.

Possessing an astute mind and a brilliant reputation for anything having to do with numbers meant she’d been labeled a financial genius while still in grad school and ended up at a world-class investment firm based out of London. Europe had been an eye-opening experience for the plain twenty-four-year-old that included hobnobbing with royalty and an inside view of sophistication and power fueled by the sort of wealth that boggled the mind. That new life had offered exciting challenges and the opportunity to shed some of her natural reserve.

When Tori and her remarkable skills had fallen under the attention of a senior partner who also happened to be an Earl, it seemed like angels had touched her as a fascinating new world opened up. Before too long, she was working side by side with the Earl, Wallace Evingham and enjoying one bold success after another.

At his insistence she’d undergone a complete makeover at an exclusive Hyde Park spa and revamped her wardrobe. In the end she got what she deserved for being so naïve, she thought wryly. Wallace had been using her financial skills while distracting her with a rather public interest that led many, including herself, to believe he was grooming her to be his future Countess. God, she’d been such a twit.

It all blew apart in spectacular fashion. Just when speculation had peaked that an engagement was only days away, she’d stumbled upon evidence that Wallace was up to no good. He’d been raking in tons of cash in schemes that, while not necessarily illegal, were certainly unethical. And she’d been unwittingly helping him by being so trusting and free with her business acumen. Oh yeah, and he had a string of mistresses to boot.
Asshole.

She hadn’t hesitated to alert the authorities. The blowback had been dreadful, and a major scandal ensued. Wallace was detained and their relationship paraded through the nightmarish British tabloids with headlines like ‘Billionaire Earl Tricks American Plain Jane’. A particularly vile tabloid reporter had referred to her as a spinster as if being twenty-six and unmarried qualified for such a loathed status. One minute she’d been the darling of the financial sector and the next a laughingstock.

To make matters worse, it came out that the mistresses knew about each other and were all too happy to join together and cry foul at her betrayal of poor Wallace. The whole thing was embarrassing, sordid, and ugly. She’d been the injured party yet, as the American outsider, she was shunned and ridiculed by everyone. Within weeks, the firm had paid her off handsomely to just simply go the hell away. That was three months ago.

And now here she was, tucked away in the Arizona desert with a bunch of ex-Special Forces men. Her mother had some connection to the Justice Agency and through that association had asked for a favor. Discovering that Alexander Marquez was in need of an assistant with experience in technology, it seemed a perfect fit. Tori needed to fly off the radar for a while and losing herself in the desert with some nerdy computer geek seemed like the perfect solution.

When her new boss turned out to be more of a handful than the dweeb she’d imagined, Tori had welcomed the intense, thrown-in-the-deep-end quality of work she was confronted with. Alex was a brilliant man but something of a mess when it came to practicalities. She spent just as much time trailing behind him, and the loveable dog that followed him everywhere, keeping things organized and running smoothly as she did working with the mind-boggling array of technology and cutting edge electronics that the agency had.

Right now, though, she was exhausted and feeling cranky. Knowing that Alex had been fully invested in making sure the intimate wedding event was something unique and special, she had been tap-dancing on the head of a pin all day, running from one challenge to the next. She was beyond tired but satisfied with how everything had turned out. Thank God she knew a bit of Spanish. Came in handy when she had to put out a particularly vexing fire between the obnoxious and uppity caterer and the troop of ladies from town who’d come out to work the reception.

There was an intense camaraderie amongst the people at the Villa that she privately envied. The radiant bride and handsome groom had smiled and kissed to the satisfaction of one and all before going on their merry way to a honeymoon that was so perfect it sounded like a movie producer had planned it. Their guests had been partying hard most of the evening. The place was a mess now that the festivities had wrapped up. Tomorrow would be soon enough to set about putting everything back in order.

She’d been stomping along, unconcerned that she looked like holy hell in a pair of sensible flats and a non-descript skirt outfit, when she came up short spying what had to be the most beautiful man she had ever laid eyes on. Holy shitballz, the guy looked like a movie star!

About forty feet away and sitting on a swinging bench, he was staring at the sky. An empty champagne flute was on the seat next to him. She actually put her hand on her chest in both surprise and instantaneous attraction as she took in the whole of him with hungry eyes that missed nothing.

Wearing the same style black tuxedo that Alex and the groom had worn, he had opened the collar button and left the formal bowtie hanging around his neck. Bright silver cuff links, sparkling at her under the twinkling lights, adorned the sleeves of his impossibly white shirt. From where she stood it was easy to see the exposed skin on his neck as his head lolled on the bench’s high back. The chin angled up at the stars suggested a take no prisoner’s attitude. Even without seeing his face, she knew he’d be gorgeous. And dangerous. Everything about him screamed of something wild and exciting.

She must have made a sound because quite suddenly his head lifted and searched the shadows. Not having more than a second or two to school her expression into passivity, she found herself trapped in the laser-like beam of his stare when ice-cold blue eyes zeroed in on her.
Uh oh
.

Draegyn hadn’t needed night vision goggles to find the movement in the darkness that interrupted his solitude. He’d found his quarry in less than a heartbeat, instantly intrigued by what he saw.

It was a female. At least he thought it was. The small figure lurking along the pathway was covered up by a hideously bland outfit that was so awful it almost hurt his eyes, along with a pair of ugly shoes that were better suited for a nun. Hovering along a path lit by the moon and strands of twinkle lights, the creature locked in his stare had a fey quality that got his blood pumping.

“Who’s there?” he barked in an authoritative tone he used to scare the shit out of the agency’s recruits. When no sound came, he moved into the shadows with a cat-like swiftness honed during his decades of training in the martial arts. It was unlikely that an unauthorized person had found their way past the Villa’s elaborate security system so Drae was more than curious as to who was prowling in the darkness.

“Show yourself.”

When he came upon her, the first thing he noticed was an enormous pair of oval shaped, chocolate brown eyes blinking up at him in the dim light. His initial reaction was that a man could easily become lost in their sweetness.
What the fuck
? When had he become a poet, waxing lyrically about some pretty brown eyes? Goddamn wedding must have addled his brain!

She wasn’t very big at all – almost waif-like in stature. Her face had high cheekbones and a straight nose that drew his eyes to a mouth that could only be described as pouty. There was an ethereal quality about her made even more fascinating by the fact that she wasn’t wearing a lick of makeup. Most of the women he knew preferred a somewhat lacquered appearance. The fresh face before him had a pale coolness that shone in the moonlight.

Even though he’d barked at her, she didn’t look frightened at all. Mostly she seemed stunned. And intrigued. They were sharing the same reaction. She wasn’t anyone he’d seen around the compound before. Drae was dying to know who she was.