recommending that anyone pay me an unannounced visit. Do you care to amend your reason for showing up at my door, Ms. Parsons?”
Oh, hell, she was made. But she was here. Might as well give it her best effort. She thrust out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Reyes.”
He looked at her hand, then her. Fortunately, propriety appeared to prevent him from ignoring her gesture. He closed his hand around hers and gave it a shake. His was soft but firm. Dark brown eyes assessed her closely, the slightest hint of suspicion lingering there.
“What is it you desire of me, Ms. Parsons?” he asked as he released her hand. “Your bold determination has intrigued me.”
He was intrigued. That was a start. “I’m from L.A., Mr. Reyes, and my gallery would really love to show your work. From what I’ve learned so far, you don’t show outside Key Largo, though your work sells in several neighboring states. That’s such a terrible waste of your potential. I felt the need for a face-to-face meeting any way I could get it in order to plead my case. We want Paul Reyes to become a household name on the West Coast. We can make that happen.”
Jim Colby had provided a cover for her with a gallery owner friend in the Los Angeles area. That cover profile was her one ace in the hole. If it didn’t work, she was on her own.
For several seconds, Paul Reyes appeared to consider her explanation carefully. There was no way to read what he was thinking, but at least he hadn’t closed the door in her face.
“Do you have any credentials to prove you are who you say you are?”
Relief almost made her smile. “Certainly.” She withdrew her fake California driver’s license and a business card from the gallery on Melrose, each sporting the name Renee Parsons. She passed both to him for his scrutiny. She doubted anyone outside a trained professional would recognize the license was a fake, and the card was real. The owner in L.A. had overnighted a number of things to the hotel in Key Largo to help with Renee’s cover.
“I have a contract proposal if you have the time to review our plan for your incredible work.” The proposal, also provided by the L.A. gallery owner, she carried on a BlackBerry in her bag. “We’re willing to work with you in whatever capacity you feel comfortable. We’re impressed, Mr. Reyes. We want you.” This part was true. Once Jim had shown the gallery in L.A. some digital images of Paul’s work, they had shown interest.
“All right, Ms. Parsons.” He handed her license and card back to her. “Since you’ve come all this way, you have half an hour. Convince me that I should consider your gallery’s offer more seriously and we might be able to do business.”
Half an hour. It was more than she’d hoped for. He opened the door wider in invitation. She was in.
Chapter Two
If Renee had thought the exterior of the house was well appointed, the interior was nothing short of lavish. Cool, sleek marble and cypress floors and soaring ceilings. From where she stood in the entry hall, she could see straight through to the endless blue of the ocean beyond a wall of towering French doors.
The floating staircase in the entry hall was at once grand and utterly modern. Somewhere inside the house the windows stood open, filling the air with the ocean’s lightly salted breeze. It seemed strange to her that he would allow open windows, much less the unobstructed view from the rear of his house. Then she remembered that she hadn’t been able to see in from the outside. Obviously the windows were equipped with a special tint or screening. And if the security system was half as state-of-the-art as she suspected, he likely wasn’t worried about an unexpected intrusion, either.
After all, this was Paul. His brother Victor was the one who had to watch his back so closely.
“This way,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. Their gazes met briefly before he turned to lead her deeper into the luxurious home.
Renee reminded herself to keep an eye on the man when her attention wanted to revel in the exquisite details around her. Evidently his artistic talent extended to his taste in design. Either that, or he’d hired himself one hell of a great interior designer.
They took a right at the grand entrance to the great room with its compelling ocean view. This side corridor provided access to several doors; he chose the second on the right—a library. The room was far too richly adorned to be called a home office. The wall of book-filled shelves lent credence to the idea of a library.
He paused in the middle of the room, looked at her and then at the purse she carried. “You mentioned a proposal,” he reminded, his tone openly dubious.
“Oh, yes.” She fished the BlackBerry from her purse. “It’s quite an extensive proposal.” She glanced around the room, her gaze landing on the computer on his desk. “I can download it if that would be more convenient.” She held her breath, hoped he would go for her suggestion.
The three-second pause that followed had her heart missing a beat.
At last he swept a hand in the direction of the desk. “Be my guest.”
Able to breathe again, she moved across the room to his sleek desk. She sat down, retrieved the portable cable from her purse and used it to connect her BlackBerry to his hard drive. A minute later, she had downloaded the proposal. The proposal was legitimate, but imbedded within its program was an interface that would allow her to remotely access his computer from her BlackBerry. Any files stored there might provide valuable information on his brother Victor; then again, they could very well offer nothing at all. She hoped like hell his security software wouldn’t recognize the bug and work to disable it before she could accomplish her mission.
Sam Johnson, the newest associate at the Equalizers, had brought the software with him from L.A. One of the scientists he’d worked with had been a computer buff and had designed the basically invisible intruding interface to check up on what his girlfriend was doing on the Net while he worked the nightshift at the state forensics lab. He had suspected an online romance. He’d found out far more than he’d wanted to know.
“Here we go.” She pushed out of his chair and gestured to the screen where the proposal portion of the program had opened to reveal the first eye-catching page. She needed him impressed.
He searched her face long enough to make her nervous. Surely he couldn’t know already that she was there under false pretenses. She hadn’t made any mistakes. As nervous as she felt, on the outside she appeared calm. She wore what she considered her courtroom face.
“You must forgive my manners,” he said suddenly as if he’d been lost in thought for a moment. “I so rarely have guests that I sometimes forget what is expected. Would you care for refreshments, Ms. Parsons?”
Relief rushed along her limbs. “Call me Renee,” she urged before manufacturing a friendly smile. “A drink would be great.” This was a move in the right direction. She needed him to feel comfortable in her presence. If only she could manage the same. The tension had ebbed a fraction, but it still had her on edge. Maybe that went with the territory.
“Why don’t we attend to our thirst before we review your proposal?”
The idea that putting the proposal on his computer might have made him somewhat suspicious crossed her mind but she’d just have to play this out and see what happened. That her fingers had gone ice cold was not good. In the courtroom, she had gone in with guns blazing and had never once let the competition see her sweat. To a great extent, she was out
