Page 34 of Ravaged With You
He frowns. “Unless she’s the coolest female on the planet, she didn’t have a thing going on with Mel. And as far as I know, she’s happily married.” He sighs. “Then again, I assumed you and Mel were, too.”
I look away, shrugging uncomfortably. “Yeah, well. Nobody ever really knows anybody, do they?”
“No,” he says. “They don’t.”
I tilt my head up to look at him. “Most people tell me I’m a horrible pessimist when I say that.”
“I’m not most people.”
For a moment, it feels as if the air has been sucked from my lungs. Then I’m forced to draw a breath, and the moment evaporates, leaving me to wonder if it had been there at all.
“Here are the last two. Patrick Kline and Martin Corveau. Either ring a bell?”
He shakes his head.
“Then we go further.” I click on Patrick first, only to discover that he’s deceased. “That leaves Martin. Cross your fingers.” I hit the button to open up his information, then hear Red whisper, “Bingo.”
He’s right. From what little I can see on the intake file, Corveau made a significant amount of money investing in a tech startup, then used it to buy a hotel about nine months ago.
“The Hollywood Terrace,” Red reads. “He would have gotten a good deal.”
“You know it?”
“Not directly. There were some stories in the news. Stark Security was involved, actually, though that part wasn’t public. Apparently some bigwig bought it, fixed it up, then used it for high-end prostitution. And worse. He lost it, it sat empty, and then it was bought up recently.”
“By our Mr. Corveau. Concidence, or do you think he’s dirty? And if so, how? What are we even dealing with?”
“I haven’t got a clue.” He tapped the screen. “Until now. What do you say I buy you a drink at one of old Hollywood’s poshest hotels?”
Chapter Ten
“This is seriously impressive,” Jo said as they stepped inside the Art Deco lobby of the historic Hollywood Terrace Hotel. “The former owner really held wild sex parties here?”
Red shrugged. “So Ryan tells me. Apparently Quincy met Eliza at one. Or, rather, they met again.” He’d met Quince, the former MI6 agent through Renly, as he’d met several of the Stark Security operatives. But keeping track of their various adventures was a job in and of itself.
He took a step forward, only to realize that he’d lost Jo. He turned back, amused by the perplexed expression on her face.
“What?”
“Granted I only met them that one time when they came with Renly for drinks at Swift Red, and they looked head-over-heels in love. But are you telling me they actually met at a sex party?”
He had to laugh, and almost considered leading her on, weaving a steamy and decadent story before giving in and telling her the truth. It was something he might have done in college. Now, though, with his desire for her so close to the surface, he wasn’t about to open that door.
“They were both undercover,” he explained.
She snickered. “Oh, I bet they were.”
With a laugh of his own, he took her arm. “Come on, let’s go see if we can track down Martin Corveau.”
They crossed the elegant lobby to the gilt registration desk, then asked to speak to a manager. The woman who came over wore a 1940s-inspired suit, and smiled at them with professional politeness. “Welcome to The Terrace. How may I help you?”
“We’d like to speak to the owner,” Jo said. “Martin Corveau. Is he on property?”
“Oh, I see. If there’s a problem, I’m sure I can assist you.”
“No problem at all. I’m from Kline and Rosenfeld. We were doing an audit of our records and realized that there were a few minor corporate papers that needed updating. As I was going to be in the area anyway, I thought I would come by and save him the trouble.”
Red tried not to wince. That wasn’t part of the plan they’d discussed during the drive, and if Corveau called the firm to check, they were sunk. Still, if it worked, it would certainly be the most expeditious way to approach the man, especially if he was dirty and paranoid of strangers.
