Fool Me Once (First Wives #1)

“We need our PI to look into the family, see if there are any players that are going to attack. Ruslan won’t take this sitting down.”

“And I’ll have Neil arrange security for Trina in New York.” The Alliance team was tight. Woven from family and lifelong friends. Neil and Rick worked security for Alliance and were physical roadblocks who brought their A game when it came to protecting their charges. “Outside of this, how is the trip?”

Lori instantly thought of Reed. Her smile wavered. “Avery is hooking up with a Spaniard by the name of Rogelio. Doesn’t speak a word of English.”

“Sounds like Avery.”

“Trina is starting to smile. And Shannon . . . I’m worried about her.”

“I feel responsible.”

“We both do.”

“Try and have fun. I’ll let you know if anything is leaked to the media so you know what you’re coming home to.”





Chapter Nine




Reed watched her from across the crowded deck. Lori pulled Trina aside and they put their heads together.

Trina swayed, and Lori caught her arm and guided her to a chair.

Lori looked around the two of them and ducked her head close again.

Reed swept the deck with his eyes, wondered if anyone else noticed the tension between the two women.

From his periphery, he saw someone watching them. A woman, her back was to him. But her eyes followed Trina and Lori just as closely as Reed’s. When she looked toward an upper balcony, Reed followed her gaze, saw the back of a man turning away.

Miguel?

He waited to see if Miguel was going to take the stairs and approach Lori and Trina, only he didn’t. It was as if he was observing, just like Reed.

Just like Reed and the unknown woman.




Lori kept one eye on Trina, the other on the show.

“Is everything okay?” Avery leaned over and asked Lori.

Lori shook her head. Trina was understandably upset.

Finally Trina gave up on the show, stood without warning, and left the auditorium.

Lori followed. And right behind walked Shannon and Avery. Once they were in the bright lights of the ship, they surrounded Trina.

“I don’t want this,” she all but shouted to Lori.

“What’s going on?” Avery asked.

“Didn’t you tell them?” Trina asked.

“Of course not.” She lowered her voice. “I’m your lawyer. It’s not my news to share.”

Trina turned to Shannon and Avery. “My mother-in-law left her estate to me.”

Lori noticed someone walking by turn their way.

“What?”

“Oh my God,” Shannon exclaimed.

“Let’s go up to my room. We don’t want to discuss this here.”

Shannon put an arm around Trina as they wound their way to their suites.

Datu met them in the hall. “Good evening, ladies.”

“Hello,” Avery said.

Lori opened her door, ushered the others inside.

“Can I assist you tonight?” Datu asked.

“A bottle of red and a bottle of white. You pick,” Lori told him.

“Yes, ma’am.”

She winked and closed the door.

“She left you everything?” Shannon asked.

Trina stared at Lori. “Tell them.”

Lori tossed her purse on the desk, moved to open the balcony door. “Everything. I’ll learn the details when we get back.”

“Why would she do that?”

Avery put her hand in the air. “Okay, someone bring me up to date.”

“Alice, my mother-in-law, was from a prominent family big in oil. Her estate was always separate from her ex-husband’s.”

“That didn’t mean that Ruslan wanted it that way,” Lori said.

“Ruslan is your father-in-law?” Avery asked.

Trina nodded. “Before Fedor took the easy way out, he’d tell me that his father was working hard to get on his good side so when Alice died they could merge their money and build an empire.”

“Daddy said it that way?” Avery asked.

“No, but there was a lot of manipulation on Ruslan’s side. Fedor despised the man. Fedor felt that if he were married, not only would it help his mother pass peacefully, knowing he was taken care of, but Ruslan would ease off. And it worked. About a month after we married, Ruslan’s calls were less frequent and Fedor was more relaxed.”

“What did Alice think of her ex?” Shannon asked.

Trina stared at the ceiling. “She called him a manipulative bastard she was wise enough to fear.”

“It sounds as if you had a healthy respect for the woman,” Shannon said.

“I didn’t know her long. But we did laugh and share a few moments.”

“Do you think she guessed about your arrangement with Fedor?” Lori asked.

“I don’t know. Fedor would hold my hand when we saw her. Put on a show of a loving marriage.”

The women nodded. Each of them understood the need to pretend and pull out their best Oscar winning performances for their fake marriages.

“So how much money is this estate?” Avery asked.

She blew out a breath. “Three hundred and fifty . . . million.”

Trina grew pale and Datu arrived with the wine.




He lost the woman on the stairwell between the fourteenth and fifteenth floors. Midlength dark hair, olive skin. He hadn’t seen her face, not all of it. Unless she wore the same outfit again, he’d be hard-pressed to recognize her a second time. Was she a spy? Or did she recognize Trina?

And why was Miguel standing above them, watching so intently? How had the woman noticed Miguel? Were they working together?

A byproduct of being a private investigator was observing others around you and assuming they were PIs, too. Or had hidden agendas at the very least. If someone hired him to spy, it was safe to assume others were watching as well.

His initial investigative target had been Shannon, and Reed’s attention landed on Lori, admittedly because of their attraction. And of all four of the women, Lori had been the most skittish, hovering . . . like she was hiding something. Yeah, it could be nothing more than the lawyer in her trying to keep her clients from unwanted attention while on vacation. But Reed wasn’t buying that theory. It didn’t sit well in his head.

Ever since seeing Miguel watching, spying . . . or whatever he was doing, Reed questioned the Spanish duo’s chance meeting at the singles mixer the first night on the ship. Was that meeting as “chance” as Reed’s?

Reed sat in the small bar in the center of the suites and waited.

“There you are.” Miguel took a seat beside Reed. The Spaniard wore a full kilowatt smile. A man who never frowned couldn’t be trusted in Reed’s book.

He shook his hand. “Where is Rogelio?”

“Probably with Avery.”

No, Reed had seen the women disappear into the crush of people enjoying the show.

“He might need to save his energy, the week is young.”

Miguel patted Reed on the back and signaled the bartender. “Can I get you a drink?”

He shook his head. “Pacing myself.”

“I don’t know what that is.” Still smiling, Miguel ordered a top-shelf whiskey. “You and Lori seem to be getting along well, eh?”

“I think so.”

“The adventure of the chase,” Miguel said. “Almost as sweet as the win, don’t you think?”

“And Trina? How is that going?” Reed didn’t think the woman was available, but perhaps he was mistaken.