Page 51 of The Deception: Hercules Valentine and I
“A good-looking dude like you doesn’t have to worry about that much. If you looked like a toad, then yeah, you’d have to worry. That’s how it was with my last employer. The dude looked like Igor but kept babes who looked like Heartly Rose.”
I stiffen. “What did you say?”
“You know, that model from back in the day. She was smoking hot. She married rich. You got money, man, and that puts you at the top of the totem pole.”
I grunt. I don’t have more money than Paisley Grove. I don’t say that out loud, but I’m thinking it as James gets into his car—which is next to mine—and says he’ll see me tomorrow evening. On the weekends, I mostly drive myself around unless I have an event to go to. I must have one tomorrow. I can’t remember what it is, but he knows my schedule better than I do. I’ll sort out my calendar later. For now, I have research to do.
* * *
I walkinto the kitchen and pour myself a cup of coffee. I can smell food cooking.
“You’re home early,” Barbara, our chef, says. She’s at the oven, shaking a pan as she sautés something. I can smell the onion and garlic cooking. She’s always cooking up fragrant food. She also cooks for Orion and Achilles. This week, she worked in my kitchen. Next week, she’ll be at Orion’s place. He owns the penthouse on the opposite side of the building.
“I’m working from home for the rest of the day,” I say, walking out of the kitchen.
“Would you like a snack?” she calls.
I don’t stop walking. “Nope. I’ve already eaten.”
“How about rice pilaf crab cakes?”
“I’m good, Barb.”
She throws out another suggestion, but I can barely make out what she’s saying. Barb enjoys feeding me and my brothers. I also know that she’s going to have a snack brought to me regardless. And I’m pretty sure I’ll eat whatever it is.
* * *
I lookup from the computer screen and rub my eyes. Seeing the time at the corner of my screen, I grimace. More than an hour and a half has passed since I sat down.
“Excuse me, Hercules.” Sarah, one of the servers Barbara pays to run food between my place and my brothers’, stands in the doorway. She’s young and shy. She just replaced Nicole, who was fired because she was caught having sex with Orion. Nicole had replaced a woman named Lily, who quit because Orion couldn’t keep his cock out of her either. Orion’s not attracted to women under thirty. Yeah, Nicole and Lily were not thirty yet, but they were full-fledged women. Sarah looks like she’s fresh out of high school. Lucky for her, Orion hadn’t given her a second look.
“Humph,” I say, looking at her face and then picturing Lark.
I know she’s Paisley. I just have to prove it.
“I’m sorry,” Sarah says.
I look at the cart she’s pushing. “What did Barb send?”
She stands taller. “Your snack for today is lemon chile verde roasted brussels-sprout chips with creamy carrot dip.”
“Thank you,” I say as she rolls the cart into my office and leaves it beside me.
“You’re welcome, Hercules. Is there anything else I can get you?”
Her voice sounds like it’s far away.
“No. Thank you.” I refocus on my computer screen.
I’m thinking hard. On Tuesday, I found the vacation picture of Paisley with her family, and then it was gone. It’s obvious that Paisley has been sanitized from the Internet but not Max or her parents. There is also her cousin Treasure, and thanks to my last inquiry, I now recall that Treasure’s brother’s name is Lynx. I’ve been doing my search all wrong.
I call up the security footage of Lark as she strode down the hallway on her way to my office.Look at her…I fight the urge to rub one out.Damn, why does she have this effect on me?
I stop the video and close in on Lark’s sexy face. I do a search on Paisley’s mother, Heartly Rose-Grove. I go to one page after the next, trying to find a photo of her, and come up with nothing.
“The hell…?” I've performed a search on Heartly Rose before, and the Internet had plenty of pictures of her. I switch gears. “Treasure Grove.” But my fingers stop as soon as I type theT.
High school.I bought the electronic copy of the yearbook just so that I could see her. She never took class pictures. But since she’s a Grove, I thought there'd be pictures of her anyway. My classmates played their parts well. They ignored her and shunned her, but they admired her too. She had the wealthiest family in our school and the most famous. She was the smartest girl in the entire school district. On top of those advantages, she favored her mother. And in many ways, she was prettier than the model Heartly Rose. Paisley’s mother was a classic beauty, but Paisley—she was a work of art.
