Page 46 of Diamonds & Deception

Fuck. Yeah. It is. She seemed so innocent when I had her wear the clit stimulator. But there’d been the drawer of sex toys. Toys she claimed were gifts she didn’t use.

Nolan turns his laptop toward me and slides it down the table. I cross the room and brace my hands on the table on either side of it and look at the photo he’s brought up.

I snap my head back. “That’s not her.”

“Yeah. Not the woman I saw in your penthouse an hour ago.”

“Find out who she is.” I storm out of my office and past Nancy without another word. My brain is shit for focus right now. I can’t hold my weekly manager’s meeting. I trust the Aces to reschedule or hold it without me.

Right now, I don’t give a fuck if the casino is losing money and my top dealers are stealing from me. I need to know whoNorais. I swipe my card and code into the elevator and work on regulating my breath as it carries me to the top floor.

I don’t expect her to still be there. Fuck, I hope she isn’t. I don’t even know what I’d say to her. It won’t be pretty. I won’t be nice.

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I’M HALFWAY THROUGHa bottle of tequila when the guys come bursting into my penthouse. I’m holed away in my home office and can hear them storming down the hallway. I pick up the bottle and take another swig. I hadn’t bothered with a glass. No point when I plan on drinking the entire bottle.

By the stoic expressions on their faces, the news can’t be good. “I’d offer you a drink, but something tells me I’m gonna need the rest of this.”

I get up, and the room sways a little to the left. I right myself, snake my fingers around the neck of the bottle and follow them to the living room. I make myself comfortable in one of the side chairs and prop my left ankle over my right knee in a poor attempt to appear not bothered by whatever Nolan has drudged up.

Trey and Ryder sit on the couch, and Nolan looms over me. “Just to confirm, this is her.” He hands me a printout of Nora. Or whatever the fuck her name is.

Her stunning blue eyes pop on the page, even with a crappy computer printer. Her smile is wide and bright, even in the professional picture.

“Yeah. That’s the woman I’ve been fucking.” I can’t care about her. Not when our entire relationship, as brief as it’s been, is built on lies.

“Her name is Nora Winters.”

“Nice to know the name I’ve been calling out as I fuck her is correct.” It’s not like me to be this crude and disrespectful over a woman, it’s also not like me to be drunk before noon on a Wednesday.

“She graduated from Boston College eight years ago. Roommates with Lenora Jane Sumner. Both were journalism majors. Nora moved back home to Philadelphia after graduation and works as an investigative reporter. Freelances, mostly.”

Why the hell pretend to be someone else? I don’t need to ask the question. The guys have already gone through all the information. They’re breaking it to me slowly, for which I’m semi-thankful. Although I want to get it over with.

“She doing a story on the casino?”

Nolan licks his lips and hands me another piece of paper. “Most likely. I’m guessing she’s looking into the death of Carly Gould.”

Okay, so that sucks, but it still doesn’t explain the secrecy. Having one of my employees—two, actually—murdered made the news a few months ago. It was a tragedy, and I compensated the families, which I know doesn’t take away the pain.

“None of this makes sense, Nolan.”

He sits on the coffee table and points at the paper in my hand. “Carly Gould is Nora’s stepsister. Drake, it looks like Nora’s been investigating her sister’s murder. She thinks you had something to do with it.”

My stomach drops, and the tequila sours, threatening to come back up. It’s all been lies. The conversations, the laughter, the fucking orgasms. Hell, she seduced me to get into my house. That’s why she was in my office this morning.

I snap my eyes at Nolan, and he gives me a regretful nod. I trust him with my life. I trust his research and his intel.

Nora fucking Winters, I don’t trust. She seduced me, convinced me she was a sweet girl, made me believe she liked me forme, and tore my heart out.

The first conversation we had in the park comes roaring back at me. I’m pretty sure she planned that accidental run-in as well. I trusted her, told her about Kelsey and being tossed aside because I didn’t come from money, then became sought after because I had money.

She was the first woman I met who made me feel like she liked me for me, not because I had something she wanted. It was all lies though. She used me for information. What information she thinks she has, I have no idea.

But I’ll get it from her.

I crumple the paper in my hand and toss it across the room. I jump to my feet and wish I was in the gym so I could pound a punching bag. I can’t stay cooped up in here.

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