Page 162 of Smoke Screen
He looked down at his shackled hands again, let out a sound. A cross between a grunt and sigh. Disgust, no doubt.
“She liked her life,” he continued. “They kept the situation with Gerry as quiet as possible, but how do you explain an instant teenager? Dad finally admitted it publicly and once the scandal waned, we got back to some sort of normalcy. As I said, Gerry would spend some weekends with us. My mother insisted on it. His circumstances, she told me, were not his fault. He deserved a father as much as anyone.”
“She sounds like an amazing woman.”
“She was. I was furious with my father for blowing up our lives. As we got older, the good news was that Gerry had no interest in the family business. Politics was his game. He stayed in his lane and I stayed in mine.” He met Maddy’s eye again. “We were in an oddly good place.”
“So, what happened? Why steal from the Center?”
He pressed his index finger against the table, rattling the chains, the clanking sound grating against Maddy’s stretched nerves.
“I’m the CEO of Pierre.” he poked at the table this time, clanging the chains again, but seemingly unfazed by it. “A twelve-billion-dollar company. Twelvebilliondollars. It was worth half that when I took over. And somehow, I play second fiddle to my bastard brother.”
Bastardbrother? Ouch. Maddy put up a hand. “Hey, that’s not fair. The man became a president.”
“Not only did he become president, he married the Queen of England’s granddaughter. Unbelievable. I’m the legitimate heir, busting my ass running my father’s business, and all people, including my father, can talk about is what Gerry has done for the brand. Gerry. What about what I’ve done? Gerry has his wife wear a necklace, and he’s the hero. Like Dad, all that fame and attention went to his head. He needed to be knocked off his perch.”
Knocked … what?That’swhat this was about? His brother’s ego?
Madness.
“So,” she said, still trying to wrap her mind around it, “you stole your company’s own jewels because you wanted to make your brother look bad?”
“I know it sounds … misguided.”
It sounded a lot worse than that. “Ya think?”
He gave her a hard look. As ifshewere the nutty one.
“I saw it as my opportunity to be the hero. I hired the Veras to steal the Pierre pieces. They were not to touch the queen’s collection. The plan was to keep the pieces hidden, and then I’d set it up so my investigator would locate them. For once,I’dbe the hero.”
All of this because he wanted attention. The glory that came with being a so-called hero. Pride. Always dangerous.
Maddy cocked her head, tried to see the humanity in this man who’d caused so much trouble. “Your plan didn’t work out, I guess.”
“When they took the queen’s collection, I lost my mind. The Pierres were one thing. That I could control. The queen’s collection took this to another level. I was trying to negotiate a deal with the Veras forallthe pieces when they hadn’t even given memypieces yet.”
Shock assailed her, heating her skin and warding off that damned cold air. “They double-crossed you?”
Misery hollowed out his cheeks, and he dipped his head. “Should have seen it coming.”
“Or, hey, maybe not have done it at all?”
He shrugged, giving her the victory that hardly felt like a win.
She waved it off. “How did I become your target?”
“I panicked. In my initial meetings with the Veras, I told them everything. Security protocols. Staff habits. They needed anything I could provide. I knew you walked the building every day.”
The hits just kept on coming. They had used her dedication to her job against her. She dug her heel into the floor, forced herself to be still while her mind whaled on her. A fool. Good Girl Maddy, so easy to pin a crime on.
No. Nuh-huh.She wouldn’t berate herself for this. For being a decent person. She lifted her chin, pushed her shoulders back. “You gave them information they could frame me with. You really are a horrible man.”
Again, he peered down at his cuffed wrists. “It was their idea to be seen on video with you. When they stole the queen’s pieces and refused to turn them over, you were the obvious way out. I asked Louis to grab your keys. That was his only involvement. He knew nothing about this.”
“You expect me to believe that? Really?”
“He didn’t. I thought if I had the key to your home, it would give me negotiating power. I could give them the key. If one man on the security video went to your house, it would look like you were involved and take more pressure off of them. One morning, I was talking to Louis. He mentioned that you had a tour that day. I knew you’d be out of your office, so I told Louis I had talked to you. That I needed a few other Pierre pieces back that were on loan to the Center and locked in storage. When I told him I needed the key, he didn’t question it. He took your keys and gave them to me. I had copies made.”
