Endangered: A Delecoeur Mystery #1 (11 page)

The night was proving worse
than Tess anticipated when Daniel's cell phone rang, calling him back to duty
as a police detective just as they arrived. So she stood abandoned and stranded
in the foyer hoping her lunch didn't reappear and mess up the beautiful Italian
marble floor. The things one did in the name of friendship.

She pushed a tendril of chestnut hair
out of her face and hoped that the glass of water the butler was bringing would
settle her stomach until she could figure out how she was going to get home.

“You look beautiful.”

Tess lifted her gaze to find a pair of
brilliant blue-green eyes reflecting back at her through the mirror. She hadn't
thought the night could get worse. She'd been wrong.

Was it too much to hope to go through
the rest of her life never seeing those eyes again or anyone else from her old
life? After all, Jefferson Tavern, Virginia was a long way from Washington,
D.C., not so much in distance as in social importance. There was no reason for
him to be so far from home. Perhaps the man whose reflection she watched move
toward her was an apparition. Maybe the mirror was one of those commonly found
in historic homes in which ghosts appear through the reflection. The only
problem with that idea was that most ghosts in Virginia were from the
Revolutionary or Civil wars. This man was very modern. 

So maybe her brain was as addled as her
stomach and conjured up the vision. Her head
was
feeling a little foggy.
The only way to find out for sure was to turn around and face him.

Gawd
! He was even
more stunning than she remembered. “Jack.”

He grinned displaying a single dimple.
“I was beginning to think you forgot who I was.”

That was laughable. No one ever forgot
Jack Valentine. Particularly women. Even a woman like Tess who'd given up on
men. He was a romance novel's alpha male come to life— gorgeous, rich,
arrogant, and yet somehow endearing. There was a time she would have liked to
indulge her attraction to him. That time was long gone.

“What are you doing here?” she asked.

His brows drew together. Clearly he
expected a different reaction. He probably thought she'd throw herself at him
like she did the last time they were together. She wouldn't make that mistake
again.

He gave her an affable smile. “I'm doing
well. Thanks for asking. You look good. Really good.”

“Still a charmer, I see.”

“You don't believe me?”

She smirked at him. He should have been
a politician, the way he could talk and make you feel it was genuine. She
didn't look good compared to when she last saw him nearly three years ago.
Aside from the fact that she felt like the Crypt Keeper, she'd also put on ten
pounds, which on a five foot three inch frame was significant. “I think you're
being nice to an old friend.”

“I'm glad to hear you still think of me
as a friend. I was worried you were still mad about the last time we…”

“What are you doing here?” she asked
again impatiently.

She saw a flash of annoyance on his
face. It was so fast that she would have missed it if she wasn't staring at his
mesmerizing eyes.

“
Asa
invited
me.”

“I didn't know you knew
Asa
.”

“I don't very well. It's business.”

“You're doing business with him?”

“Not yet. I probably won't.” He shifted,
moved closer. “Are you here alone?”

“No…Yes…”

One dark brow lifted.

“I came with someone, but he was called
away,” Tess clarified.

“Too bad for him.”

“He'll be back.”

“Too bad for me.”

He was standing close, too close. He was
studying her and she did her best to hold his gaze without giving away her
unease. Or worse, blushing. He didn't need to know that after all these years
he still made her insides flip-flop.

“There you are!”
Asa
Worthington’s booming voice echoed through the foyer followed by his immense
body. “Appointed yourself the official greeter of beautiful women, eh?”

“Only this one,” Jack said, maintaining
his gaze on Tess.

Asa
laughed and
like everything else about him, it was large and loud. His blue eyes twinkled
with delight as he reached out and slapped Jack on the back. “That’s what I
like about you. You see what you want and you go after it.”

“Tess! You’re here. Good. Where's
Daniel?” Tom Showalter asked of his son as he came to stand next to
Asa
. The two men were complete opposites.
Asa’s
presence in a room remained even after he left while
Tom could go unnoticed in a crowd of two. He was average in every way, from his
lackluster mud-colored eyes, to thinning brown hair. It always struck her as
odd that as different as they were,
Asa
and Tom were
good friends. Perhaps Tom being married to
Asa's
sister, Helen, helped. Or maybe it was that Tom was
Asa's
lawyer.

“He got called away as we got here,” she
said.

“Oh. Well, hopefully he won't be long. I
see you’ve met Jack Valentine,” Tom said.

“Jack is thinking of expanding his
business in this area in anticipation of a joint venture we’re negotiating,”
Asa
said. “He’ll certainly want someone local to represent
him when he does. If Ms. Madison is as good a lawyer as you say she is, Tom,
perhaps she’d be up to handling Jack here.”

“I’d enjoy being handled by Ms.
Madison,” Jack said, his gaze still on her.

Tess' eyes grew large, then narrowed
with suspicion. It wasn't unusual for Jack to be brazen. What was disturbing
was that it was directed at her. “Have you ever been handled by a woman, Mr.
Valentine?” she said, with bravado she didn’t feel.

A wicked smile spread on his face. “Not
one like you.”

“Damn, it’s hot in here,”
Asa
said with a look to Tess and then Jack. “Let’s get a
drink and move this party into the parlor.”

Tess followed
Asa
with Jack and Tom behind her. Although she’d been to
Asa’s
mansion before, she always marveled at the exquisiteness of his home. The Georgian-styled
structure was built in the late 1800s by
Asa's
great-great grandfather and it held many original pieces. With a fire to offset
the February chill, the room looked warm and inviting, but it couldn't quite
overcome the stiff coolness that was the Worthington family.

“Where is Walter?”
Asa
asked in a clipped tone. An older gentleman appeared, looking like he stepped
out of a 1930s whodunit-novel, complete with a black butler suit and white
gloves.

“There you are. Champagne for everyone,”
Asa
said with a wave of his hand.

Walter made no acknowledgment of his
boss. Instead he handed Tess a glass of ice water.

“Thank you.”

Walter gave her a brief nod in response
and then headed to the bar in the corner, presumably to get the champagne.

“We're waiting for a few more people,”
Asa
said. Despite the abundance of seating, everyone
remained standing in the middle of the room.
Ready to flee at a moment's
notice
, Tess thought.

“While we're waiting you can tell us
what this dinner meeting is about,” Jack said.

“In time, Jack. In time.”

Jack's eyes narrowed and he looked as if
he was going to press
Asa
.

“You've got a beautiful woman at your
side who has been stood up by my nephew. Why not take the time to enjoy the
company?”
Asa
added.

Tess didn't much like being pimped out.
She could only hope that Jack wouldn't take the bait.

He glanced her way. “Just don't draw
this out too long,
Asa
.”

Tess rolled her eyes. 

“Finally,”
Asa
said as Walter handed out flutes of golden bubbly. Tess passed on the
champagne. She was beginning to feel more wobbly and didn't need people to
think she was drunk.

“More water, Ms. Madison?” Walter asked.

“No. Thank you.”

“Stop flirting with the guests,”
Asa
said.

Tess bristled at
Asa's
treatment of his butler. She looked to the others to see their reaction, but
there was none. That's how it was, Tess reminded herself. Few people ever
really looked at or noticed the help. Her own parents treated the servants more
like furniture; functional when needed, forgotten when not in use.

“To big business and even bigger money.”
Asa
held up his glass. Everyone joined him, raising
their glasses then sipping the champagne.

“As usual,
Asa
,
the champagne is wonderful,” Tom said.

“I’d never be able to serve less than
the best champagne.”

“Oh, I don’t know. I imagine you could
get away with whatever you wanted,” Jack said with a hint of accusation.

“He usually does,” Tom said.

Asa
laughed, “You
know me too well, Tom. But as my lawyer and brother-in-law you've shared in the
fruit of my efforts. I don’t hear you complaining. You know there’s way too
much of that in business today. I marvel at the new breed of entrepreneur
pushing the business envelope. Too bad government keeps poking its nose in with
regulations and antitrust acts.”

“Seems to me that without the antitrust
act, young entrepreneurs would have a difficult time being allowed in the
game,” Tess said trying to sound matter-of-fact instead of annoyed. It always
bothered her how rich people felt entitled to special treatment.

Asa's
smile was
patronizing. “I believe Darwin’s theory exists in business, Ms. Madison. The
strongest succeed and survive no matter what. That’s the point I was making
earlier. Too many whiners running large business today.”

“Good evening everyone,” a young man said,
as he entered the room alongside a woman who did the Posh Spice look better
than Posh did.

“Philip,”
Asa
said looking at his watch. “I’d have thought with you and your wife staying
here for the weekend that you’d be on time.”

“Mother called as I was coming
downstairs.” Philip’s eyes asked his father not to embarrass him.

“Needed more money, no doubt,”
Asa
said in disgust.

Philip was a duller version of
Asa
with lackluster gray eyes and black hair. Even the
sophisticated wife with the severe haircut and pout did little to enhance
Philip's presence.

“What does it matter to you,
Asa
?”
Posh's
look-alike said.

“I would think it matters to you, my
dear. The more she takes, the less there is for you.”

“There's plenty for everyone,” Philip
said.

“That's why you'll never run the
business!”

There was a noticeable silence at
Asa's
venomous tone. While it was known that Philip wasn't
the bulldog in business that his father was, he did work alongside his father,
and as a family run business since its founding by
Asa's
great-grandfather, it was assumed that Philip would be the next leader. The
only Worthington not to run the company was
Asa's
father, who instead had gone into politics. He'd been a Virginia senator for
nearly forty years and would likely die of extreme old age in his D.C. office.

Or maybe everyone's shock was the fact
that
Asa
made no attempt to hide his contempt toward
his son. But anyone acquainted with
Asa
knew that he
had high expectations and low frustration when those expectations weren't met,
even by his family. Especially by his family.

“Have you met everyone, Philip and
Shelby?” Tom interceded. “You remember Tess Madison, Daniel's friend. This is
Jack Valentine from D.C.” Everyone exchanged pleasantries.

“Philip’s wife and mother, and Helen, my
wife, along with a few other of their friends just got back from New York on
their yearly girls weekend out. I understand y'all made out pretty good this
year,” Tom said, clearly trying to steer the conversation into a more pleasant
direction.

“We did alright.” Shelby said, in a tone
that made Tess think she didn't make out nearly as well as she would have
liked. She wondered if
Asa
had them on a tight
allowance.

“Just what is it that women do when
they’re together?”
Asa
asked looking at Tess.

“I couldn’t tell you.” Tess forced a
smile. “I've been too busy with my practice to socialize much.”

“Damn right!”
Asa
boomed. “You’re dedicated to your career. Good for you! You prove my theory.
Hard work will make you a success no matter what.”  He glanced at Philip. “You
aren’t riding someone’s coattails to get to the top.”