Darlene leaned in, pressed a soft kiss below Marise’s ear. “Only the best for you, darling.”
She topped up the glasses, then whispered, “Drink up. Then show me that bed of yours.”
Darlene’s eyelids fluttered as she downed the wine and Marise helped her up. She didn’t protest and allowed herself to be led to the bedroom.
The bed was enormous, with cream silk sheets, and a pile of pillows. Marise pulled back the covers and guided her down ontothe mattress. Darlene murmured something, eyes already shut. Marise pulled the blanket over her before stepping away. Once she was satisfied that she was sound asleep, she left the room to search for Darlene’s phone.
She found it in the evening bag she’d taken to the party. She plugged in the small device in her pocket. Darlene’s password wasn’t complicated and it didn’t take long for the program to open the phone. After she took a photo of her list of contacts and the numbers of her calls in the last month, she replaced the phone where she found it. At the desk in the corner of the lounge, she scratched out a note on the hotel pad.Thanks for the wonderful night. You’re a very sexy woman. I’ll ring you tonight.
Back in the bedroom, she rumpled the sheet where she would have been sleeping, then put the note on the pillow.
She chuckled to herself as she let herself out of the apartment. Darlene had been so wasted she wouldn’t have remembered if they’d had sex or not.
Thankfully, this late, the doorman had gone off duty. She walked a little way down the street before she hailed a cab.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
Kathleen sat at her desk, blinking at the same sentence for the third time. The data log in front of her might as well have been in another language. Nothing sank in.
She tapped her pen once, twice, then gave up and pushed her chair back.
Her mind kept returning to the night before. She’d gone in feeling proud of her work, and having Veronica beside her was the icing on the cake.
But then it had all come undone.
The moment still felt raw: Darlene being a bitch, cornering her parents and telling them Veronica had been hired to accompany her. The look on her mother’s face had been enough to make her tremble with shame.
Then Ted had appeared and called Veronica, Cass.
Kathleen could still see Veronica’s face at that moment: the guilt, the hesitation.
She hadn’t offered an explanation or defended herself. Maybe that was what stung the most. In retrospect, Kathleen shouldn’t have been too surprised. Veronica had told her that she’d been paid to find out what was in the lab, so it was onlylogical that when Kathleen refused to discuss it, she’d try to get it out of Ted.
Kathleen rubbed her temple, feeling the stress headache coming on.
The irony, of course, was that they had agreed that Veronica would get close to Darlene, gather intel, find out when the auction was happening. It was Kathleen’s idea, in part. She hadn’t expected it to feel so... personal. So jealous.
Not only about Darlene— though God knew that woman had a way of turning everything sour—but about the idea that Veronica belonged more to that world than to hers.
So, Kathleen had lashed out, told her to get out of her life.
She closed the data log and leaned back in her chair.
She hadn’t asked if Veronica was even going home with Darlene. Hadn’t waited for the full story.
She glanced at her phone. No text or call. But then again, what did she expect. Veronica was probably packing to leave New York.
Kathleen opened her notebook, flipped past her to-do list, and found a blank page.
She sat quietly, the pen resting in her hand, trying to decide whether to be angry or sad.
The door creaked open, and Ted appeared, holding a take-away coffee and looking unusually serious. “I knocked,” he said, without offering a smile. “Twice.”
Kathleen sat up straighter. “Sorry. I was thinking.”
Ted stepped in and shut the door behind him. “Thinking about Veronica?”
She blinked. “Excuse me?”
