The Enemy Within (Daughters of the People Series Book 3) (2 page)

He rubbed a hand
along his chest, over the ache he’d lived with for fourteen years. There was no
other woman for him. It had been a hard lesson, one learned when he was barely
a man. Now if he could just come to grips with it and her rejection, maybe they
could both have some peace.

The intercom
buzzed, interrupting his mood’s downward spiral.

“Mr. Upton?”

Laura
Ellenburg’s voice drifted through the line, as clipped and efficient as the
rest of her. She’d been the first person he, Hiro, and Drew had hired when
they’d started BDH. They’d snagged her right out of business college, impressed
by her composure and organizational skills,  though she’d barely been twenty at
the time. In the two years since, they’d never had a reason to regret it. She
was always on time, kept the office running like a top, and, with her waif-like
figure and doe eyes, was easy on the eyes to boot. Laura was like the little
sister none of them had ever had, and they treated her that way whenever she
let them.

Bobby scooted
his chair closer to his desk and punched a finger at the phone. “Yes, Laura?”

“There’s a woman
here to see you.” Her voice held a prim, disapproving edge under the stiff formality
she seldom dropped. “A Ms. Indigo Dupree. Should I have her make an appointment?”

A sudden heat
filled his veins, enough to have his blood humming under his skin. He stifled
it ruthlessly. She was probably there about India, damn them both. “Send her
back, please.”

He walked around
his desk and watched her through the open door of his office as she strode past
the reception desk, her heart-shaped face set in the lines of someone
undertaking an unpleasant task. Her long black ponytail swished with every step
and her eyes glittered like sapphires against the pale ivory of her skin. She
wore drab olive cargo pants and a loose white cotton shirt, and carried herself
with the innate confidence of a woman who knew how to handle herself.

His traitorous heart
skipped a beat, taking his breath with it, and he cursed low and long. When
would he learn?

She stepped into
his office, shut the door, and caught his gaze with her own. “I’ll help you
find India, but I have conditions.”

He leaned back
against the edge of his desk and crossed his arms over his chest. That was a
Daughter for you. Always laying down the law and expecting the man in her life
to toe the line. If he hadn’t gotten tired of it at the age of ten, it’d be
funny. “Such as?”

“I work alone.”

“No,” he said
flatly. “No one here works alone.”

“Then I work
with anyone but you,” she shot back.

The pleasure of
her presence evaporated abruptly. “Sorry, Indi. Everyone else is taken.”

“How can you
possibly know that?”

“Because I do.”

“Fine,” she
gritted out. “Then promise to keep your hands to yourself.”

“No can do.”

She turned on her
heel, heading for the door. Hell with that. He was damn tired of her walking
out on him, pushing him away, letting his heart rot in the dank heap of
loneliness he’d endured nearly half his life.

He caught her arm
and jerked her around. “Why don’t we just get it over with?”

Her eyes widened
with what he would’ve sworn was panic. “I don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

“Another kiss,”
he explained patiently. “We’re both thinking about it. Let’s just do it so we
can move on.”

“In your
dreams.”

A muscle twitched
in his jaw at the snap in her voice. She had no room to talk about dreams, no
leave to remind him of everything he’d lost when she’d pushed him away. He
yanked until she fell into him, hissed in a breath when she struggled against
him, trying to break free. Goddess, it was so good to have her there, to feel
her once again the way a man always wants to feel the woman he desires. He
hardened his grip, tightened it until their bodies were melded together, and
called himself ten kinds of fool for enjoying her weight pressed into him.

She stilled as
something very Daughter-like flashed through her expression.

“Don’t do
anything you’ll regret later,” he warned.

“I doubt I would
regret it.”

Her hands
gripped his waist hard enough for her fingernails to dig into his skin through
his shirt. She raised her head to look at him, and his gaze zeroed in on her
lush, red mouth, so close to his own their breaths mingled. The world went
still and faded around them, and he lowered his mouth to hers, slowly enough to
give her time to pull away, and not nearly fast enough for the desire raging
through him.

When his lips were
a hair’s breadth from hers, she murmured, “The blinds are open.”

He tore himself
away from the temptation of her sweet lips and the promise of another taste,
and glanced up. Margaret Mary stared at them through the windows separating his
office from the main hallway, her eyebrows raised. Of all the people in the
office who could’ve caught him fondling the woman of his dreams, it had to be
his sister. By the Lady Ki. A Son couldn’t do anything without his female
relatives knowing about it.

He cursed
inwardly and let Indigo go, and clamped down on the need roiling through him as
she pushed herself carefully away from him.

She sat down on
the love seat and crossed her legs, fixing him with what he thought of as her
teacher stare, uncompromising, hard, and always right. “And that is why you
need to keep your hands to yourself, Bobby.”

Irritation whipped
through him, mixing with the need still zinging through his gut. “Forget it.”

Her gaze never
faltered. “When a woman says no, it means no.”

“When you say
no, I’ll stop touching you.”

“I said no.” She
took a deep breath, let it out slowly. “Repeatedly.”

“You’ve never
said no, not once. In fact, I’m pretty sure the last time we did this you were
begging for more.”

Her brows
snapped together into a fierce scowl and she stood abruptly. “This is never
going to work.”

A knock rapped
on the door and Laura poked her head inside. She glanced from him to Indigo and
something shifted in her expression, too quickly for Bobby to catch. “Meeting’s
in five,” she said, then closed the door on them.

“That’s my cue
to leave,” Indigo said.

“Wait.” Bobby
held his hands up when she backed away. “At least come to the meeting. You can
always leave after if you decide you really don’t want to help.”

After a long
moment, she nodded and allowed him to lead her to the conference room with a
gentlemanly hand on the small of her back. She didn’t pull away. A spurt of triumph
shot through him at her acceptance of his touch. Small, intimate touches,
delivered so frequently and casually she never gave them a thought, seducing
her so gently she never saw it coming.

Hell, doing that
would be no problem. He slid his hand up her back until the ends of her
ponytail brushed along his skin, teasing him with every step. No, touching her
wouldn’t be a problem at all. Knowing he could never have her, that was the
thorn that kept him from trying for her again.

The rest of the
leadership team was seated around the round conference table when he and Indigo
entered the meeting room. Bobby introduced her first to his partners and former
military buddies, Hiro and Drew. Hiro was the great-grandson of Japanese
immigrants and the son of fierce traditionalists who’d raised him to respect
the customs of their homeland. He was slender and fit, and more disciplined
than any of them, except Margaret. Drew was a Yankee from Boston, a Southie with
the burly Irish build of his forefathers and a brawling attitude to match. The
three of them had been through hell together and seen each other out in one
piece, forging a bond of friendship so strong it bordered on brotherhood.

The two men sat
with their backs to the left wall. Zenalisa Jones, their tech expert, had taken
her customary spot opposite them, her thin frame slumped sulkily in her chair.
Not long after they’d opened, Zena had shown up on their door demanding a job.
It had taken her five minutes to hack their system, and less than that for them
to hire her. When they’d gently probed her background, she’d given them such a
dead-eyed look that they’d backed off. Even Hiro, with his soft touch and
gentle voice, hadn’t been able to pry it out of her.

“You’ve met
Laura, our office manager, and you remember my sister, Margaret.”

“Of course,”
Indigo murmured politely.

Bobby led her to
a seat on the far side of the table and sat her to his left next to Zena. “I’ve
asked Indigo to sit in on this meeting since she’ll be helping us with a job
I’ve just contracted.”

Drew groaned and
sat back in his chair. “We’re overbooked now, Bobby.”

Bobby sat back
in his own chair and drummed his fingers lightly on the arm of his chair. “We
can rotate this in as people become available.”

Hiro pulled his
notebook forward and began making notes. “What kind of skill sets are we
talking about?”

“Whatever we
need to unearth spies and possible traitors,” Bobby said bluntly.

Drew pulled his
lower lip between two fingers before speaking. “Corporate espionage or
treason?”

“That depends on
how you look at it. It’s for the Institute for Early Cultural Studies.” Bobby
caught the slight puzzlement in Margaret’s otherwise blank expression.

“Wait, your Mom
asked you to do this?” Drew’s thuggish face twisted into a leer. “Will she be
coming by?”

“That’s my
mother you’re talking about,” Bobby reminded him.

Margaret leaned
forward and pinned Drew with a menacing glare. “Mine, too.”

“Her, I’m afraid
of,” Drew said, then pointed at Bobby. “You, not so much.”

Bobby narrowed
his eyes. “I can still kick your ass.”

“Here we go.”
Hiro rolled his eyes to the ceiling in a long-suffering look. “You guys
remember we’re trying to run a business here, right?”

Indigo leaned
forward to catch Hiro’s eye. “Are they always like this?”

“Usually,
they’re worse.” Hiro gave her an assessing look that had Bobby’s temper
flaring. “I’m the nice one of the bunch. A good lover, too, when you get tired
of Upton.”

“We’re not
lovers,” Indigo said with a small smile. At the same time, Bobby said, “Hey!”
and Drew said, “Dibs on the new girl.”

“Children.”
Margaret’s voice was quiet but firm, and drew everyone’s attention. “The matter
at hand?”

Bobby cleared
his throat and split a dirty look between Drew and Hiro. “I’ve got preliminary
profiles on a list of suspects and info on the possible shark and its victim.
Zena and Laura, I need the two of you on research. The rest of us will divide
up the list of names.”

“I’ll need the
paperwork,” Laura said.

“Everything’s on
the secure internal server and I’d like to keep it that way.” Bobby looked at
each of them in turn, allowing the weight of his gaze to hammer in the absolute
necessity of his request. “That means no sharing anything over the Internet, no
talking about this over an unsecure phone line, and no internal memos.”

“Gonna be hard
to work that way,” Drew said.

“We’ll make it
work,” Bobby said. “Just so you know, Indigo’s twin sister is on that list.
They’re identical, so make sure you’re talking to the right one before spilling
anything.”

Zena snorted.
“If they’re identical, ain’t no way to tell ‘em apart.”

Bobby clamped
down on his impatience. “You’ll figure it out. Our objective is to ferret out
the traitor and bring him or her in for questioning. The people on this list
are dangerous. All of them are trained in hand to hand and multiple weapons, so
use caution. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.”

“What’s the time
frame?” Hiro said.

“However long it
takes. Sooner’s better, though.” Bobby stood. “Tie up what you can this week. Delegate
everything else. I’ll speak with each of you in detail over the next few days,
but plan on devoting time to this contract in earnest beginning next Monday.
Margaret, I need a word.”

The meeting broke
up as it always did, like a flock of noisy geese heading for warmer weather.
When Indigo rose from her chair, Bobby caught her arm. “Stay,” he said, and
waited until she resumed her seat before turning his attention to his sister.

Margaret appeared
to be in her mid-twenties, though she was centuries older, one of their
mother’s eldest children. At five ten barefoot, she was just two inches shorter
than him, though her ice blue gaze regularly cut him down a notch or two. When
she worked, which was nearly always, she dressed in comfortable shirts and
cargo pants and kept her ash blonde hair pulled back in a ponytail. Today, she
was dressed in black from head to toe and appeared ready to take on a small
army.

He was pretty
sure she could do it, probably already had a time or two in her long life.

At his request,
she moved across the room with a lethal grace until she was close enough to
carry on a low conversation.

“What do you
know about the Eternal Order?” he said.

Her expression
remained coldly assessing. “Aren’t you a little old for fairy tales, brother?”

He gave her the
look that comment deserved and pulled a sheet of paper out of his pocket. “I
found this in the file Mom gave me.”

Margaret took
the paper from him, unfolded it, and read the two lines of text it contained
before passing it to Indigo. “And?”

“Don’t play
games, Margaret. Tell me about the Eternal Order.”

“It’s a myth.”
She leaned a hip against the edge of the conference table and folded her arms
across her chest. “A tale used to scare children into being good. Nothing
more.”

“How do you explain
that paper, then?”

“I don’t,” she
said calmly. “There’s not enough there to explain.”

“‘The Eternal
Order. Margaret knows.’” He barked out a laugh. “Sounds pretty straight-forward
to me.”

“Sounds like a
con to me,” Margaret shot back.

“I’ll find out sooner
or later.”

“When you do,
let me know.” She turned on her heel and left the room.

Bobby waited
until the door swung shut behind her before turning to Indigo. She was staring
after Margaret with an odd expression on her face.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her
head. The light danced off her ponytail as it shimmied. “It’s nothing, really.”

“Spill it.”

She pressed her
lips together. “You know what the Eternal Order is, don’t you?”

“I’ve read the
fairy tales,” he said drily, and she frowned.

“They’re not
fairy tales.” She folded the paper in her hands into a precise, even rectangle.
“It’s an ancient order made up mostly of immortal Daughters bent on keeping the
Prophecy of Light from being fulfilled. They were wiped out centuries ago.”

“Are you sure?”

She nodded,
though her expression remained uncertain. “Surely the Council wouldn’t hide
their existence from the rest of the People. They were so powerful then, so
dangerous. No one was safe.”

Which was an
excellent reason to keep their return a secret. “I’ll see what I can find out.”

“No, Bobby.” Her
hand shot out to grip his arm and her eyes went round in her face. “Leave it
be. If the Order’s been hidden this long, exposing them can only bring trouble.”

He considered
her for a moment, took in the fear on her face and in her warm grip. “If I
didn’t know better, I’d think you were concerned for my safety.”

She dropped her
hand from his arm. “I’d show the same amount of concern for anyone.”

“Liar.”

“Think what you
will.” She stood and handed him the paper. “I’ll try to give you an answer on
whether or not I’ll help track down India by this weekend.”

“That’s fine.” He
rose and inched closer to her, lured by the sweet fragrance of her skin. “I’ll
be by later tonight with supper.”

“That’s not
necessary.”

“I insist,” he said
mildly. “You need to eat and we have things to talk about.”

She narrowed her
eyes at him. “You’re just trying to weasel your way into a kiss.”

He held up his
hands in mock surrender and managed to edge closer. “You still need to eat.”

“You’re not going
to twist me around your finger like you do everyone else, Bobby.” She put her
hands up to ward him off. He slid in under her guard and gripped her waist,
reeling her in until their bodies touched from waist to knee. Exasperation
flickered through her expression. “You never give up, do you?”

“Would you
believe me if I said I can’t help myself?” He lowered his head to breathe in
her scent, let himself go dizzy with it. “That no matter how much I tell myself
to back away, something keeps pulling me to you?”

She rested her
hands lightly on his chest and kept her gaze locked there. “That doesn’t make
it right.”

“Doesn’t make it
wrong, either,” he countered. “Now, do you want Italian or Chinese?”

The hesitation
on her face lingered for a long moment before her lips tilted into a smile and
a ghost of a dimple appeared in her cheek. “Barbecue. Sweden has terrible
barbecue.”

He laughed even
as he reined in the happiness zinging through him. “I know just the place.”

“Six o’clock,
then. Don’t be late.”

He let her go and
watched her leave, her gait smooth and sensual as she strode away.

He sat back down
to give his body time to cool off. He must be out of his ever-loving mind to
pursue Indigo, even if she was the only woman to ever hold his heart.

* * *

Indigo visited
her mother after leaving Bobby’s office, then went shopping for groceries and
other essentials. She ran into several people she knew, and said hello, asked
about family and work. It was nice to be back among the People again.

She flipped on
the radio to keep her company as she put away groceries, sang alone with the
songs she knew, and danced to the ones she didn’t. Her mood lightened with
every song. She slipped off her shoes, padded across the wooden floor on socked
feet, threw the windows wide. An early autumn breeze blew in, bringing with it
the smell of fallen leaves warmed under the sun shining brightly in the clear
azure sky. Indigo leaned out the window and turned her face into its warmth,
and smiled from the sheer joy of being home.

With a contented
sigh, she pulled herself back inside and surveyed the work waiting for her. The
number of boxes needing her attention had dwindled by half in the frenzy of
unpacking she’d done after Bobby left the day before.

Her breath
shallowed as she remembered his hands in her hair, his body pressed against hers,
and warmth of another kind heated her blood. Her heart screamed at her to
Run,
as fast as you can
, but Indigo pressed it down with a deep inhale of air.
Her mother needed her, needed the comfort of kin during the last few weeks of
her pregnancy, and Indigo wanted to be at the birth of her next sibling. Bobby
would give up eventually. Perhaps they could forge some sort of friendship when
he did, as she had with the rest of his family.

A little nagging
voice in her head cried
Delusional!
and her heart twisted at the thought
of not holding him again, of never knowing what it would be like to kiss Bobby
without guilt clinging to her.

Not that she
wanted to, of course.

A chill breeze
crossed her skin. Indigo snapped to attention, then groaned at the time on the
apple-shaped clock she’d hung in the kitchen. Half an hour spent mooning over a
man she didn’t want and couldn’t have regardless. It was shameful, how easily
her thoughts slipped to him. She burst into a frenzy of activity to drive him
out of her head.

The afternoon
passed quickly as Indigo puttered. By the time the first shadows of dusk
crossed the room, she’d unpacked everything she could, polished the few items
of furniture she’d kept, and updated her calendar with to-do lists for the
week.