Second Chance, Baby

“Ty,” she whispered, trying to turn away from him. She knew what was coming, and no matter how much she wanted it, she knew that it would be a mistake. That kiss they’d shared before dinner had been brief but still potent enough to leave her off-kilter.

“I love you so much, Felicia.”

At his words, she could do nothing more than sigh. “You said we would take this slow.”

“We’re not supposed to do this tonight. Just dinner, remember?”

He feigned innocence, which was a blatant lie considering that devilish look in his eyes. “We’re not doing anything.” His lips touched hers in a sweeping fashion that sent tingles all the way to her toes.

Her body was instantly on fire, her tongue anticipating the silky feel of his. “This doesn’t solve our problems.”

“No,” he answered, then used his tongue to stroke fire into her mouth, pulling out the moment she was about to give in. “But it’s a damn good start to our reconciliation.”

He wasn’t lying about that, Felicia thought with a groan. Then she felt her body leaning into his. His arms wrapped quickly around her, locking her in place. “You’re not playing fair,” she gasped, then nipped his bottom lip, loving the scrape of his low-trimmed goatee against her face.

“All’s fair in love and war.” He sighed a second before taking her mouth in a scorching kiss that made her remember just why she’d spent the last nine years loving this man.

Chapter 3

S hawnie had gotten involved with Stewart Industries as a result of the siblings’ amateur investigation into the death of their father. Malcolm and his fiancée, Gloria Kingsley—who used to be his father’s assistant—had uncovered the fact that Harmon’s last cell phone call was made to someone named Daiyu Longwei, who worked in the human resources department at Stewart Industries.

Shawnie wasn’t supposed to fall in love with the owner of the major oil company, but looking at the two of them across the table, Shondra’s darker complexion against Connor’s lighter one, proved Ty wrong. His sister was definitely in love. And, truth be told, Ty didn’t begrudge her one moment of happiness. He and Felicia had been like that once, and after the previous night, Ty was sure they were on their way to that point again.

“Connor, did you find out anything about this Longwei person?” Ty asked. He had to get his mind off how happy his sister and Connor looked and fight the urge to call his wife.

Connor was able to look away from Shawnie for a moment to answer the question. “She’s worked at the company for thirty-two years, after a foreign exchange internship while she was in college. In that time, she’s moved up from an HR assistant to vice president of the entire department. Her employment file is squeaky clean. I haven’t approached her personally yet. If she was the last person that Harmon called, she may have something to hide and is probably not real keen on being questioned. I don’t want her to run before we get the information we need. So I’m trying to find an official reason to call her into my office for a conversation.”

Shawnie shifted and crossed her long legs, to Connor’s obvious delight. “I wonder if she was the same person who called Gloria? Remember? The one where the caller said it wasn’t an accident.”

Malcolm took a sip of his lemonade and shrugged. “Gloria checked the caller ID but it read unavailable.”

“Was she able to find out anything about Ms. Longwei from Dad’s records?” Shawnie asked.

“No. There was nothing in his files about her. Not even an old message. Gloria has never heard the woman’s name before, and you know how close she worked with Dad. If anybody would know Dad’s connection to this woman it would be Gloria.”

“That’s true. Why didn’t Gloria join us for lunch today?” Ty asked.

“She’s down at the police station. The cops wanted a list of anything that might be missing from Dad’s office after the break-in,” Malcolm answered.

“Really? She found something missing?” Ty asked.

Malcolm shook his head. “No. But she wanted to go and tell them in person in case they had some other leads to tell her about.”

“And you let her go by herself?” Shawnie inquired.

Connor answered before Malcolm had a chance. “That was probably smarter. A Braddock at the police station might set the reporters off.”

Ty looked from Connor to Malcolm, who was nodding his agreement, and back to Connor again. Was it just a few short weeks ago that he and Malcolm had walked in on the ridiculously rich white man kissing their baby sister? And now look at them, he thought, all sitting at a table having lunch and discussing his father’s case. But Ty knew Connor was a cool guy, especially after he had discovered they both shared a love of cars. Connor’s tastes, though, leaned more toward the expensive, speedy sports cars, compared to Ty’s passion with vintage excellence.

“That’s true. I’m glad we’re all in agreement that this investigation is still on the down-low,” Ty said.

Connor nodded. “Like I said before, I want to help you get to the bottom of this. Something is definitely not right. The phone call warning to Gloria, the response she got to stay away, the break-in and her last-minute travel plans to D.C. the day he died…The things you’ve uncovered so far support that notion. Besides, it’s not that farfetched that there’s been a cover-up. That’s the name of the game in politics these days.”

“You’ve got that right,” Malcolm chimed in. “That’s why we need to be extra careful in the investigation.”

“Let’s face it, guys, we don’t have a clue what we’re doing here,” Shondra said as she forked her salad. “I mean, we’re grasping at straws, accumulating information but have no idea what to do with it.”

“So what do you suggest?”

Shondra picked up her glass, drank and used a napkin to wipe her mouth. “Well, Mom did tell us to hire a PI, and Drey St. John offered to help.”

The men exchanged weary glances.

“What do you know about him?” Malcolm asked Ty.

Ty shrugged. “Nothing much. He was at the funeral. He introduced himself, said he knew Dad and worked with him frequently. That’s about it.”

“Gloria said she has invoices that prove Dad employed him often. He’s a private investigator. What more could we ask?”

Malcolm looked alarmed. “When did you talk to Gloria?”

Shondra was lifting another forkful of salad to her mouth. Ty had often wondered how the girl stayed so thin. Ever since she hit puberty she’d been able to eat just as much as he and Malcolm and still possessed a model’s figure.

“She called me this morning. Why?”

“I don’t like you two teaming up, that’s why,” Malcolm chided.

“Oh, please,” Shondra quipped. “You’re just afraid she might let it slip how you act in bed.”

Ty and Connor laughed while Malcolm tried to suppress a grin. The older brother normally had a dry sense of humor, but Ty had noticed a change in Malcolm since Harmon’s death. The change since he’d admitted his feelings for Gloria. Malcolm was light and unburdened these days. Ty was happy for his big brother, happy for the new direction Malcolm’s life was taking.

“I’ll try and talk to Ms. Longwei before the week is out. I’ll call you guys with what I find out and you can decide what to do from there,” Connor said.

Ty had emptied his own glass and signaled for the waitress to bring him lemonade. “That sounds good, Connor. Why don’t we hold off on hiring St. John until we see if this Longwei has some relevant information?”

“She obviously knows that Dad’s death wasn’t an accident,” Shondra said with a frown.

“Not necessarily,” Malcolm interjected. “She could simply be making assumptions.”

“Or,” Ty added, “she may be involved in whatever is going on. In that regard, Connor, you need to be really careful about questioning her. We don’t know what can of worms we’re about to open up.”

“You’re right,” Connor agreed.

Shondra and Malcolm agreed, as well.

“In the meantime, there’s a cop at the gym where I work out. I can make some casual comments about the accident just to see if they’re still looking into it. The guy and I are pretty cool, so he might just let something slip.”

“You be careful, too,” Shondra said. “You know corruption rarely skips the police department.”