Page 31 of Seductive Secrets

“So they brought me up to distract you and you lost a hundred grand.”

Angela shrugged. “I figured out what they’d done. They haven’t tried that trick on me since.”

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Remind me not to play poker with you guys,” he told her then pushed away from the counter. He didn’t release her. Instead, he slung his arm over her shoulders and led her over to the large, sectional sofa. “Tell me more about how you met your ‘guys’?” he prompted.

Angela’s mouth tightened but she settled down next to him. “I don’t know what you want to know. Marco was the first to find a ‘home’ in that warehouse. He doesn’t have a college education, but he’s brilliant at his business. He’s grown his importing and exporting business into an international powerhouse and is doing better than men who graduated from the Ivy League universities.”

“What about thewomenwho graduated from those schools?” he teased

She shrugged, not laughing. “The women who graduate from most universities have something to prove. Men…they’re pretty much guaranteed a job in whatever industry they choose. But women, and people like Marco, have to claw their way to the top.”

“You mentioned that Kasim paid for you all to attend college. Does Marco regret not taking him up on the offer?”

“Not even a little,” she replied immediately. “He’s proud of the fact that he doesn’t even have a high school degree. He did eventually get his GED,” she explained. “However, that was only because he lost a bet. He didn’t study for it. He just walked into the testing room, paid the fee, and sat down to take the test.”

“I agree that he’s brilliant.”

She rolled her eyes. “He’s not just brilliant. He’s astonishing. We bet him that he couldn’t pass the college entrance exam as well.” She chuckled at the memory. “He beat every one of us, getting only one question wrong.”

James nodded. “I was…am…impressed by all of your friends. Including you. You’re no slacker in the intelligence arena either.”

She shrugged. “I lucked out. My friends are amazing people. And if one is surrounded by strong, powerful personalities, one has to step up and produce. The guys challenged me. We all challenged each other. That’s one reason why we all succeeded. Because we didn’t leave each other behind.”

“It must be nice to have that kind of a support group.”

She nodded, smiling faintly. “It is.” Angela was about to say something more, but a text message came in. “We should order the food. Everyone is coming back.”

He nodded and they stood up. But before she could turn away, he wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her closer. “We’re not done talking, Angela. I’m curious about you.”

She smiled, bracing her hands on his arms and nodded. “That goes both ways, James. You’re a bit of a mystery, yourself.”

He nodded his agreement and pulled out his phone. They ordered several pizzas with various toppings. Angela knew what the guys preferred on their pizza, but she wasn’t sure about Rosalee and Chloe since they were new to their group. And James liked anything and everything, so he was easy.

Fortunately, the group seemed to arrive en masse and must have connected with the pizza delivery person because Callum and Dash walked in carrying the boxes and, a few minutes later, Kasim and Rosalee showed up, quickly followed by Marco and Chloe.

Since everyone was starving, they took a few minutes to freshen up, then sat down on the sofa to feast on pizza and beer.

Initially, everyone simply ate and relaxed. It wasn’t until most of the pizza was gone that they began to discuss what they’d discovered.

“Rosalee found Dr. Abernathy’s wedding page. Apparently, it’s a thing to set up a webpage now for the engaged couple. From the comments on that site, several of her friends are trying to reach her.” Kasim reached for another slice of pizza, then leaned back, waving the slice as he spoke. “We called her office and the receptionist said that the good doctor was out on emergency personal leave, but we couldn’t get more details than that.”

Dash took a long sip of his beer, then nodded. “So Dr. Abernathy had enough time to at least call in for emergency leave. That’s a good thing.”

Chloe lifted a finger. “Unless she wasn’t the one that called in. The phone call might have been from someone else.”

Dash nodded. “Good point.” He looked at the others. “Anything else?”

Kasim shook his head. “DuBreck doesn’t have a social media presence so we weren’t able to find much on him there. However, he was very active on some of the professional sites. We found some interesting articles written by Dr. Abernathy. Unfortunately, nothing has been posted there recently, nor didwe find any clues as to what DuBreck was up to or where he might be now.”

The room was silent as everyone absorbed that news. “In my estimation,” Dash inserted, “we actually have three different mysteries. First of all, there’s DuBreck and Abernathy’s disappearance, then there’s the mystery of whatever the key opens up, and finally, whatever that blue powder is.”

Dash turned to look at James. “When do you think your friend will get you results of whatever the blue powder is?”

James shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’m guessing some time tomorrow, we’ll hear at least a preliminary analysis.”

Dash nodded. “Good. That should give us an idea of what might be behind all this.”

While the others brainstormed, James reached out and took Angela’s hand, lacing his fingers with hers. He felt her jerk of surprise, but didn’t relent. He wanted…no, heneededto touch her. After a few moments, he felt her fingers tighten around his.

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