A Beautiful Lie (Unlocked #1) Page 9

  “I’m not going anywhere with you until you apologize to me.” I crossed my arms, refusing to undo my seatbelt.

  He shrugged, shutting the car off and stepping out. “Suit yourself. You’ll be locked in the parking garage all night since you can’t access the building without a key.” He started walking away toward the elevator. “You could be a lot more comfortable if you follow me.”

  He was infuriating, always dangling the next piece of the puzzle in front of me like I was a cat. Still, I hated watching him walk away from me.

  “God damn it.” Just before he stepped into the elevator, I slammed the car door shut, causing an echo to ricochet through the structure. He turned to me, a taunting smile spread across his face. “This better be good, Nolan.”

  Even though he didn’t say a word in the elevator, I wanted to wipe the idiotic grin off his face.

  “What?” I snapped.

  “You’re going to love this.”

  The elevator didn’t slow as we passed the eighteenth floor where his apartment was. It didn’t stop until we had reached the twenty-fifth and top floor of the building. He made a grandiose motion for me to exit first when the door opened. There was a single door in a small entry hallway. The golden plaque read 2500 Penthouse.

  “Here.”

  He handed me a key. Our hands touched as he transferred the small silver piece of metal into my hand, and my entire body shivered. I raised my eyebrows questioningly.

  “Well, open the door,” he urged, placing his hand on the small of my back and giving me a gentle push forward.

  Hesitantly, I approached the door and twisted the key in the lock. When I walked inside, my senses were overwhelmed. The lights of New York City at night surrounded me. I felt small beneath the high-beamed ceilings and immediately warmed by the lush décor.

  “What is this place?”

  “It’s yours,” he responded, putting his arm completely around my waist to bring further into the space. How had I failed to notice how good he smelled until that moment? We’d never been so close together. I relaxed into him and the smell of leather and mint that radiated off him.

  “Mine?” Clearly he had gone insane.

  “Adam bought the building last year,” Luke explained, releasing his hold on me to lock the door behind us. I bit my lip, surprised at the sting I felt when he let go. I focused on his voice which was matter of fact, like all brothers did this kind of thing for their long-lost sisters.

  It was the kind of place I’d seen in movies but never actually expected to see in real life. Only someone glamorous and confident like Gigi could belong in such an incredible space.

  “He was always confident that we’d find you. And he wanted to have something for you when he did. So he saved you the penthouse.” Luke was examining me, waiting for a reaction, but I wasn’t sure what I felt until the hot stain of a tear hit my cheek.

  I turned to face the view so that he couldn’t see me. The last thing I needed was to unravel in front of him and give him any indication that his intrusion into my life was affecting me. But I had no words.

  “You can redecorate it how you want. Adam went a little crazy with the decorators in here.” Luke gave a chuckle. “He always goes a little overboard.”

  Though I couldn’t see him behind me, I could sense how comfortable Luke was in the space, as though he’d visited a thousand times.

  “What is Adam like?” I choked over the massive knot that had formed in my throat.

  “He’s the best person I know. Eccentric, particular, kind, overly generous. But also, misunderstood. He can be complicated and take drastic action on a whim, like disappearing after public embarrassment.”

  Something within me changed. A piece of Gigi’s armor cracked and the tears began falling rapidly. When was the last time I’d cried? I searched through my memory and came up empty. It must have been years. Not even when Tomas would discard me in favor of Eden did I ever cry. Standing there, in the penthouse my long-lost brother had been saving for me, I was less Gigi Noir than I had ever been. So far, everything Luke had said, he’d backed up. He hadn’t hurt me. What was more, he seemed to be holding things together while Adam was gone. But he was still gone.

  I wiped the tears from my eyes and turned to Luke. “How can we find him?”

  He sighed, leaning against a large wooden beam. If he noticed the puffy redness invading my eyes, he didn’t acknowledge it. “I’ve been trying for months. Wherever he is, he doesn’t want to be found.”

  How could I care so much about someone I had never met? My entire being ached with fear for the brother who had done so much for me already. It was too much not to know whether he was safe or in harm’s way.

  Luke looked up, his eyes brimming with reassurance. He crossed the room toward me and took my hands in his. The now familiar buzz of touching him filtered through my limbs. My hands felt so small encased in his. “Nina, I need you to believe me when I say he will be back. And I need you to believe that I’m trying to help you.”

  Unable to restrain myself any longer, I dropped my head and let the ache pour out of me. I struggled and failed to keep my sobs silent. A gentle hand rested on my waist and before I could remind myself to recoil from it, Luke was pulling me into him.

  “You know everything that I know now.” His voice was calming and his touch was soothing. “I know you have a fancy loft you’re staying at in Brooklyn, but Adam would want you to stay here.”

  I looked up to him and his hands cupped my face. “You certainly are a mystery, Nina Parker.” With his thumbs, he gently wiped the tears from beneath my eyes. I synchronized my breathing to his slow steady breaths.

  “I’ll stay,” I said. “At least until Tomas gets back. Maybe I’ll return to the loft then.” I regretted mentioning his name the moment it escaped from my lips. In response, Luke immediately dropped his hands. Whatever hint of a moment had passed between us just then, I’d crushed with the mention of Tomas.

  “There’s no food in the fridge right now, but if you plan to stay long term we can fix that. I’ll leave the key on the counter. And I guess, holler if you need anything. I have to get going to prepare for my meeting with the Board tomorrow.”

  Without another word, he retreated toward the door. Why the hell did you have to do that? I tried to answer the question before he disappeared. Instead, only one thing came to mind.

  “Luke,” I called across the room. When he turned to face me, I saw the glimmer of defeat in his eyes. “I’ll help you. With the Patrick Blake stuff.”

  A wave of relief washed over me when a small smile appeared. “Thank you.”

  And then he was gone and I was left in the silence of a strange new place. It was strange that this beautiful piece of real estate had been sitting vacant for a few years, waiting for me, while I spent night after night crammed in my tiny apartment at the loft. The space at the loft had always belonged to Tomas and Eden.

  I walked around the apartment, observing each item and claiming it as my own. The mahogany kitchen cabinets. The shimmering chandelier strung above the dining table. The flat screen television. I walked from room to room until finally I came to the master bedroom. A king-size bed was the focal point. I admired the juxtaposition of the deep inviting comfort of the bed against the scrim of city lights that just begged you to stay awake.

  But I succumbed to fatigue. One last time, I checked my cell phone before closing my eyes. Nothing from Tomas. It didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. Instead, I fell asleep smiling, knowing that Luke was only a few floors below.

  11

  Luke

  Alicia was waiting for me when I walked out of the conference room after my meeting with the Board on Friday morning.

  “How did it go? Give me some good news, Luke.”

  Her ass was on the line as much as mine. I had to appreciate that my boss had trusted in me enough to put me in charge of this whole endeavor.

  “Even they couldn’t deny the wealth of evidence we�
��ve compiled against him.” I shot her a reassuring smile. She exhaled a sigh of relief, leaning against the wall. I was glad she hadn’t been in the room when I presented our findings. “They signed off on the Patrick Blake investigation on the condition that we get five additional families to file missing person cases with Watchtower within a week.”

  “Additional, meaning…”

  “Nina is in,” I reassured her, trying not to think too hard about the way Nina and I had been toward each other the previous night. The last thing I wanted to do was acknowledge any level of feeling toward her. “I had to go to some extreme measures to get her there, but she’s in. We’ve got the team together. Everything that needs to be in motion right now is in motion.”

  “What kind of extreme measures?” Her voice accused me of things that I admittedly may have wanted to do, but hadn’t.

  “I didn’t sleep with her. I took her to the penthouse. She’s staying there right now.”

  “Sorry.” Alicia shrugged. “You can’t blame me for jumping to that conclusion, with your history with women. Adam’s going to kill you for taking her there.” The accusation stung, but I knew Alicia was justified in saying that. The reputation I’d built was my own fault. Even though I wanted to figure out how to have a normal relationship, sleeping with a woman ruined everything for me. In a blink of an eye, I was on to the next.

  “How else was I going to convince her to go along with this? She needed something to buy into.” The truth was, I’d been tormenting myself about the decision to take Nina there. After all, Adam had only entrusted me with keeping an eye on the penthouse, not handing it over to Nina.

  “I have to go to a debriefing. Keep up the good work. We need immediate movement on this.”

  We separated at the elevator bank. She walked toward another office on the floor and I stepped in to ride a floor down to my office.

  By some miracle, I’d made it through the meeting with the Board, even though I was bothered from the night before. The name ‘Tomas’ had eaten at me the entire night, preventing any sleep from coming to me. Still, as Adam’s best friend and Nina’s sworn protector, I had to know who she was spending her time with. I had to know what the deal was with the loft in Brooklyn.

  Back in my office, I stared at the computer. Technically, Watchtower employees were only supposed to use the company computers for work. We had unprecedented access to run background checks on anyone and everyone in order to locate the missing on behalf of our clients. During new hire orientation, they repeated over and over the mantra that with great power comes great responsibility. Still, that little rule didn’t keep me from pulling up the property details for the loft in the system.

  Owner: Tomas Perrot.

  Anyone with access to the Internet in the last few years would have known that name. Anytime the acclaimed French artist posted anything online, it went viral. He was famous for his muses – young ingénues he’d cast in a series of provocative paintings. I didn’t know much about him beyond the basics. Still, it only took a quick search to pull up thousands of articles. I clicked one that had been published a few days earlier.

  Clues Point to New Perrot Exhibit

  There is movement at 301 Washington Ave in Brooklyn’s Navy Yard. For the uninitiated, I’m referring to the inconspicuous brown warehouse that houses painter Tomas Perrot’s legendary gallery. Over the last five years, the eccentric genius has gone from cult phenom to mainstream cool with his Muse series.

  For the last week now, construction workers have been busy at work dismantling the existing space, though none would provide any details when asked. As you’ll recall, Perrot’s most recent exhibit this time last year launched the career of Nadine Walker, who is currently starring in the hit television series Black River. It’s been radio silence ever since from the artist. This is the longest period of time he has gone without releasing a new exhibit. Rumor has it, this exhibit is his most ambitious yet.

  If this new exhibit follows the pattern of his previous openings, the public will get short notice before the doors open. Tickets are offered on a first come, first served basis. Previous shows have run only three weeks, and traditionally sell out for each show.

  So, city dwellers, be on the lookout. This is sure to be the hottest ticket of the entire year. And to Perrot’s new muse, whoever you are, the world cannot wait to meet you.

  I leaned back in my chair, digesting the article. My stomach bubbled with sickness. This guy was almost forty years old. Nina was much too young to be dating him. In fact, she was close in age to Nadine Walker. I pulled up a list of Perrot’s other muses. All had been between the ages of nineteen and twenty-three when they posed for him.

  Jumping to the conclusion that Nina was Perrot’s new muse would have been too easy. I didn’t have much evidence to go on, but it did add some complexity to the situation if it were true. I scanned through images of his earlier exhibits. Perrot had a thing for painting young women nude, in compromising positions, or portraying them as extremely vulnerable. Images of Nina spread out before him while he stroked his brush in the shape of her breast flashed through my mind.

  I slammed my laptop shut. I couldn’t think about that. What Nina did in her spare time wasn’t my business. Who she dated, who she fucked, was none of my business. Plus, I had my own things to do. In an act of pure confidence, I had gambled that the meeting with the Board would go well and scheduled a meeting with the sister of one of the missing women I’d identified.

  Still, it was worth monitoring the situation, so I set a news alert on my phone to keep tabs on any other headlines related to Perrot or his exhibit.

  “So tell me everything you know about the events surrounding your sister’s disappearance.”

  I was sitting in a small, cramped walk-up on Staten Island on Saturday morning. The faint aroma of fish lingered throughout the space, reminding me of the shithole I was raised in. Mindy DeLuca set a saucer with a cup of coffee before me on the dining table.

  “Cream and sugar?” she asked.

  “No, black is fine, thanks.”

  She settled in the seat across from me and sighed. “God, my parents would kill me if they knew I was dragging this whole mess up.”

  The disappearance had obviously taken a toll on everyone involved. It looked like she’d stopped combing her frizzy black hair altogether. Unidentifiable food spilled over the top of her trash can, spoiled beyond recognition.

  Mindy was an obvious first choice to visit. I had scoured social media to find family members or friends of the women who were still active in their searches. She had posted in the ‘Disappearance of Angela DeLuca’ group every day since her sister went missing. The important thing was to identify people who wanted help and who would be easy to convince to sign on.

  And Mindy DeLuca desperately needed my help.

  “Well, I remember the day like it was yesterday,” she said. “We both still lived at home at the time, and she had gotten this job working at the Jasper. Angie would go to school during the day and work at night. Eventually, she convinced my parents to let her move out and get a place closer to school and work.”

  “How long after she started working at the Jasper did she move out?”

  “Had to be about a few months.” Mindy nodded.

  “And did you notice any changes in her during those few months? Her personality? The way she looked? Did she start having nicer things?”

  She took a long time to think back. “Ya know, yeah. Now that I think about it, she was different.” She shut her eyes and nodded her head again, an action I took to mean she was letting it all come back to her.

  “Different how?”

  “Well, she had these mood swings. Sometimes she’d come home and be in the best mood ever. Other times, you could barely get her out of bed she was so tired. Angie told Mom and Dad that was why she needed to move. The commute was too much.”

  I wouldn’t exactly call the trip on the Staten Island Ferry into the city a terrible commute. “Anyt
hing else?”

  “Yeah, I remember she got this pair of blue Louboutin lace-ups. She swore they were fake, and I don’t know much about fashion or any of that so I believed her.” She looked up from her coffee, startled. “Luke, maybe they weren’t fake.”

  I was starting to get nauseous from the smell and wanted to get out of the sad apartment as fast as possible. The smell was too familiar. I half expected to see my mother walk around the corner, strung out and frazzled. I glanced through the small arch into the living room and imagined Uncle Ted with his feet up on the coffee table, reaching into his boxers while looking at me. With a shake of my head, I chased the hallucination away. It was crucial to get as much information out of Mindy as possible.

  “I’ll note it.” I scribbled the detail in my notebook. “What else can you tell me?”

  “Well, eventually she quit the Jasper and found a new job at a clothing store. Or at least that’s what she said.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “After she disappeared, we found no record of her working in any clothing store. She had allegedly been working there for two months when she disappeared.” Tears welled in Mindy’s eyes and she let out a sad laugh. “I’m sorry, it’s hard to know. Her visits home became non-existent and her calls were few and far between. And then she was just gone. It’s been almost three years now.”

  If I stayed much longer, my gag reflex would kick in and I’d have nowhere to throw up on the floor since the garbage was stacked so high. Still, Mindy was all I had.

  “I want to help you.” I tried to get to the point and shoved the paperwork to the other side of the table. “If you decide to open a case with Watchtower, we will dedicate all of our resources to finding your sister.”

  She stared at me, before letting out a full sob. “I appreciate that Luke. But my family doesn’t have money to spend. We spent everything we had trying to find her the first time around.”

  My stomach was not going to last much longer. Mindy needed to sign the damn papers and sign them now. “It’s all free. I just need you sign.”