The Tycoon's Temporary Bride: Book Four (44 page)

Damn!
His DND had kicked in
automatically. With his cell in hand, Adam left the bedroom and
walked down the hall to his office. Not caring that it was three
o’clock in the morning, he picked up his private line and dialed a
number.

“Somebody better be dead,” a groggy voice
said.

“Mr. Wallace.”

“Who’s that calling at this hour, baby?” Adam
heard a female voice ask.

“Go back to sleep, Sandy. It’s business.”
Pause. “Sorry about that, Mr. Andreas,” Eddie said.

“I apologize for calling at this hour, but
due to the nature and urgency of the matter, I’m sure you
understand.”

“Yes, I do. I called earlier, but it went
straight to voicemail. I didn’t leave a message for obvious
reasons.”

“So, were you able to question this private
investigator who’s been asking questions about my wife?”

A deep sigh echoed through the line. “I’m
sorry, Mr. Andreas, but when I got to his office, he was dead.”

As the blood drained from his body, Adam
dropped down onto the edge of his desk. “Dead?”

“Yes, sir. Somebody put a bullet in his
head.”

“Well, were you able to retrieve the file or
any other information he had about my wife.”

“No, sir. There was nothing about her lying
around.” Pause. “I have a friend on the force. You want me to—”

“No. No one is to know you’re involved with
this man.” No one!” he ordered.

“I understand. If I hear anything else, I
will call you immediately.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wallace. You’ve been most
helpful.” Adam hung up the phone and dropped his head in his
hands.

Why the hell was that private investigator
asking about Tashi? Adam asked himself for the millionth time since
Eddie first called him. Could it be about the trust fund Tashi had
told him she hadn’t touched since she fled New York? Could it be
about an insurance policy her uncle had left for her? It was a year
and a half since she disappeared from New York without a trace. And
naturally, people would want to know what happened to her. But she
had no family or friends in the city. And if the private
investigator was legitimate, why was he killed, and by whom? Did
his death have anything to do with Tashi? Or was it related to some
other case, and it was just a fluke that he happened to be the one
investigating her?

The only person who might have the answers to
the questions swirling around in Adam’s head was Jake Fletcher.
Keep secured
.
Trust no one. Won’t be long
.
Cease
contact
.

Jake, where the hell are you? What’s
happening in New York City
?

Pushing off the desk, he left the office and
made his way back to his bedroom. Tashi was still fast asleep with
moonlight kissing her face. He eased back into bed and spooned
her.

She snuggled against him and sighed.

Adam tightened his arms about her. The one
thing he could do, was keep her safe.

***

One week after he’d received that cryptic
message, Jake was exiting the underground garage where he’d just
briefed his allies about the shipment of girls later that night
when his cell phone began to ring. He picked it up from the
passenger’s seat and checked the ID. The identity of the caller was
blocked.

He raised it to his ear as he made a right
turn on to Centre Street. “Jake here.”

“The boss wants to see you,” the voice said
before the line went dead.

Jake’s gut crunched tightly. There were only
two reasons Boris would summon one of his men to his den. He had a
job he thought no one but that particular man could do, or he was
about to take him out. Four months ago, Jake had replaced a man
Boris had no more use for. To say that he wasn’t scared brainless
would be a lie. He was scared. He’d been careful when he met with
his allies, but Boris was a smart son-of-a-bitch whose identity was
still unknown to Jake.

On a sigh and a prayer, Jake crossed the
Manhattan Bridge and drove to the prearranged location where
Boris’s men would meet him. If they blindfolded him, he’d live. If
they didn’t, well...

***

“I can’t believe you’re actually married to
Adam Andreas. A month ago, he wasn’t even your boyfriend,
Tashi.”

Tashi and Mindy shared a booth and a large
veggie pie at Big Boy’s Pizza shop, the place from where Tashi had
ordered takeout on a weekly basis last winter. Even though they
hadn’t been close when they lived next door to each other, Tashi
had developed a liking for Mindy, and she did adore her
children.

But things were different now. She didn’t
have to be scared of letting people into her heart. Mindy was
harmless. She’d proven that she could be trusted since she hadn’t
told one living soul about Tashi’s stolen money. When she’d stopped
to see her at the hotel boutique over a week ago, they’d promised
to get together soon. Mindy had the weekend off, and Tashi was free
for the morning, so here they were having pizza way before noon.
Even though Tashi only had toast and coffee for breakfast, she
still wasn’t hungry. Mindy had eaten most of the pie.

“So how long have you been married?” Mindy
asked as she bit into her fourth slice.

Tashi did a quick mental calculation.
“Actually, today would make two weeks.”

“Are you pregnant? Is that why you guys got
hitched?”

Tashi tried to maintain her composure. It
wasn’t the reason, but it was probable. “No,” she told Mindy. She
took a sip of her bottled water. Her period was due yesterday. It
hadn’t arrived, and although she had no other symptoms to indicate
she was pregnant, she’d made an afternoon appointment with Dr.
Walsh. She couldn’t go another day without knowing.

“So what’s up with you?” she asked to steer
the conversation away from herself. There were still a lot of
things about her past she had to keep to herself, things that the
other wives still weren’t aware of.

Mindy dropped her pizza on her paper plate
and grabbed Tashi’s hand. “Oh, my God? I’m so glad you asked.”

“What?” Tashi stared at her, puzzled to the
bone.

Mindy wiped her mouth with her paper napkin,
then glanced around to make sure the two men in the next booth
weren’t listening.

They probably were, Tashi thought, since they
were her bodyguards who’d come into the joint ahead of her to scope
out the place. Adam had them stationed within arm’s length of her
since the night of the party.

Mindy leaned closer to Tashi. “I met
someone.”

Tashi’s eyebrows raised a fraction, not
because Mindy had met someone, but because of the secretive way she
was acting. For heaven’s sake, the girl had been in love once and
had two children. “Who?”

Mindy sat back and placed her hand over her
heart. “I don’t know if I should tell you.”

Tashi shrugged, and picking up the half eaten
slice of pizza from her plate, she took a small bite. She tossed
Mindy a skeptical look. She was the one who’d brought it up.

“It’s Galen Carmichael. Massimo Andretti’s
half-brother. Your in-law.”

Tashi coughed out the mouthful of pizza. She
took a long sip of water. “Did you say Galen Carmichael?” she asked
once she could speak again.

Mindy nodded as she stared at Tashi.

“Where did you two meet?”

“At the boutique. He came in one morning to
buy a gift for some friend back in London. Then he came back in
like two hours later and asked for my number.”

“Did you give it to him?”

“Hell no. I mean, from the way he dressed,
spoke, and carried himself, I could tell he came from money. I
actually told him that rich boys like him didn’t faze me. I told
him I wasn’t some cheap toy he can play with for one night and then
toss aside.”

“Good for you.”

“But girl, while I was lying my mouth off, I
was quivering inside, melting. No man ever made me feel like that.
And then when I heard that he was an Andretti, there was no way in
hell I was going to let my heart get broken. Those men have bad
reputations when it comes to women.”

Tashi chuckled. “Well, they can be tamed,”
she said, thinking of the love and admiration she’d seen in
Massimo’s eyes when he’d danced with Shaina that night a week and a
half ago.

“Well—” Mindy halted as her phone made a
choo-choo train sound. She pulled it out of her bag. “It’s my mom,”
she said. “She’s watching the kids. I’ll be right back.” She got up
and walked out of the diner.

Tashi smiled as her mind wandered back to
that glorious night. In fact, all the men had had that same look of
utter wonder, passion, and adoration as they’d danced with their
wives. She hadn’t seen much of any of them after that night, except
Kaya who’d helped her turn her studio into a stylish work area.

Since the staff returned to the mansion, she
and Adam had been spending a lot of time at the garden. The acre of
charm and serenity had become their own little world. They
meditated, did yoga, swam in the pool, ate, made love under the
moonlight and sometimes they’d fall asleep on the podium only to
wake and make love again in the sunrise. Sometimes they would lie
on a blanket on the grass and watch the sunset, and then gaze at
the stars popping out and the moon gliding across the sky. At those
times, they didn’t even talk at all.

While he was at the office, Tashi worked on
her photography, trying hard to create a collage that Adam said she
could enter at Granite Falls’ upcoming annual Photography Premier
Exhibit night. He said it was a time when a lot of new local talent
was discovered. And once Adam got home, they would escape to the
garden.

Tashi knew he was deliberately avoiding
taking her out in public because of the phone call he’d received
the night of the party. And the few times she did leave the estate,
he’d doubled up on her bodyguards. Now, there were four following
her instead of two. Tashi wasn’t complaining. She loved having him
to herself. They didn’t even take their phones to the garden with
them.

Last night, Adam had unwrapped another sex
game. This time, instead of words, the dice had erotic sex
positions etched on them. Tashi squeezed her thighs together at the
memories of her buttocks perched on a folded towel on the edge of
the bathroom counter, her legs draped over Adam’s shoulders as he
stood in front of her, and deep inside her. It was super erotic to
watch multiple images of his jade stalk thrusting in and out of her
in the mirrored walls
. God, that was so good.

This morning, she’d awakened and reached for
Adam, forgetting that he had an early morning trans-Atlantic
satellite conference. He’d left a note and a white rose from his
garden on the pillow.
Darling, it was with regret and reluctance
that I left your arms. I’ll call you when my meeting is over. Sei
amato, Tashi! Adam
. She was loved!

“Is everything okay?” Tashi asked, as Mindy
came back to the booth.

“My mom has to go somewhere, so we have to
cut this short. You don’t mind, do you?”

“No.” Tashi was planning on visiting the
camera shop a block over before she made her doctor’s appointment
anyway. “But you have to tell me more about Galen.”

That made Mindy’s eyes light up. “I really
like him, and he asked me out, but I’m worried about what his
family would think about me.”

“They’re not like that,” Tashi assured her.
“The only thing that matters to them is loyalty and honesty. They
are good people.”

“I told him right up front that I had two
kids, the first when I was seventeen. He told me that he’s
illegitimate, so that didn’t bother him.” She gave Tashi an
animated smile. “I miss having you around. I wish we’d gotten
closer when you lived next door.”

Tashi touched Mindy’s hand. “That was my
fault. I’m sorry, but we still have time to get to know each
other.” She’d cleaned up well, Tashi had to admit. And she’d told
her that she was starting classes at Evergreen State College in the
fall in pursuit of her accounting degree. Andreas International was
paying for it, just as Adam had promised.

Mindy nodded. “We have to get together again
when I get my next weekend off. You can visit me at my new
apartment. It’s in the nice side of town, and you can see what I
did with your furniture.”

“I’d love that,” Tashi said as the women left
the pizza shop, with her bodyguards covertly bringing up the rear,
reminding her of the imminent danger to her life. In the parking
lot, she and Mindy hugged, and then went their separate ways. As
she got into her car, Tashi watched her four bodyguards get into
their two Hummers.

She couldn’t wait for this phase of her life
to be over.

***

Adam ignored the buzzer for as long as he
could. He didn’t worry that it might be Tashi since she was to call
his private number in an emergency. When the ringing began to break
his concentration, he apologized to the three gentlemen in Munich
with whom he’d been conducting a satellite conference and, vacating
his chair at the conference table, he walked to the other side of
his office.

Instead of pressing the button as he usually
did, he picked up the receiver. “Ms. Jenkins, I’m in the middle of
a meeting. I asked not to be disturbed,” he said, with as much
patience as he could muster.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Andreas, but there’s a man in
my office who insists on seeing you.”

“Did you mistakenly book him an appointment
this morning?”

“No, sir.”

“Then I don’t understand the problem. Have
him make an appointment.”

“I tried, sir, but he says it’s urgent he
sees you immediately.”

Adam raked his hand through his hair and
glanced back at the monitor. He was not visible to the men, but
they were to him, and he could see the looks of exasperation on
their faces. “Ms. Jenkins—”