Fool Me Once (First Wives #1)

“I’m an attorney, I always ask questions.”

Diane laughed, drank the rest of her wine.

Andrea spoke for the both of them. “A mother as wealthy and wise as our dear sister Alice always did her homework. She knew the reach of her daughter-in-law’s friends. And knew, ultimately, that Trina would be safe.”

“And considering there are two very large and I’m sure very armed men sitting behind us, she wasn’t wrong,” Diane added.





Chapter Twenty-Two




Reed caught the whites of Sasha’s eyes as they walked into the lobby of the hotel. She slipped into the hotel bar while he and Carl, Trina’s bodyguard, walked the women up to Trina’s suite.

Lori had made it clear she needed to talk with Trina alone before the meeting with the board. Once the three of them were in the room, he made his excuses and made his way to the hotel bar.

“Here to buy me a drink?” Sasha asked, tipping her amber-filled glass in his direction.

Reed waited until the bartender moved away to get him his beer. Watered down liquor was a better idea than anything hard he might be tempted to slam. “You work for Petrov.” It wasn’t a question.

Her sigh might be seductive to a man who didn’t already feel the need to protect another one.

“I work for the highest bidder, just like you.”

“I’m not like you.”

“Which is why you’re down here talking to me instead of watching over your woman.”

His back teeth started to strain under the pressure he placed on them. “The man hiring you is a murderer.” Or so his research pointed to.

“You assume too much. And even if the man you believe I’m working for is in fact a person who reduces the population by one or two, remember, politicians start wars. So please, leave your self-righteousness at the door.”

He hated that she might be right about that. Hated even more that this woman knew who had hired him. “Why are you here?”

“Same reason you are.”

He doubted that.

She leaned in. “The difference is, I have what I need.” Sasha lifted her glass. “Cheers.” After finishing her drink, she offered a half smile, placed money on the counter, and walked out of the bar.

He finished his drink and reached into his pocket.

The electronic skimmer captured her credit card. “Gotcha.”




Lori leaned over him, fully dressed.

Reed lay under the sheets, completely naked, and grabbed a handful of her butt as she kissed him good-bye. “You sure you don’t need me to go with you?” he asked.

“Carl is driving, and there is plenty of security in the Everson offices.”

If he didn’t have a goal for when she was gone, he wouldn’t allow her to blow him off. “Is Avery going with you?”

“Yeah. She is going to try her hand at a little spying.”

He stiffened. “Oh?”

Lori gave him a quick kiss as she lifted her blanketing frame from his. “She’s going to try and score a tour of the offices and talk to some of the employees to gauge morale.”

He had a hard time seeing Avery doing anything other than flirting with the sexier members of the male staff. “Is there a question about morale?”

“Anytime management shifts in any way, people worry.”

He wanted to ask if Lori thought Trina would take a role in the company but decided to wait for that information. “I suppose that’s true.” He shifted up in bed. Lori’s gaze traveled to where the sheet rested against his hips.

His cock twitched.

She turned on a heel with a groan.

Someone knocked on the door.

“Saved by the bell,” she said, laughing.

“I can wait right here, like this, until you get back.”

Two steps and she was back over him, her lips on his, her hand resting quite comfortably in his lap.

The knock sounded again, with Carl calling her name.

Reed bit her tongue before breaking off their kiss. “Go to work, woman.”

She wiped her smiling lips before walking out of the room.

The second the door closed, he tossed back the sheets, pulled on his shorts, and went to work.

Okay you Russian spy, where did you hide the bug?

In silence, he started at the window and systematically searched. A tiny set of tools helped him open up vents, disassemble lamps, the back of the TV.

Nothing.

Leaving the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door, he took his tools, crossed the hall, and picked the lock of Trina’s room.

Without saying a word, he started his search again. Only this time he started with where he’d place a bug and worked out. He was putting a lamp back together when his eyes landed on the sculptured art on the wall. Texans loved their cowboys, and the art in Trina’s room had a three-dimensional scene with a cowboy roping cattle on the wall across from the bed.

Reed ran his hand along the back of the metal art, and then found it.

The tiny little device with a mic shoved between the neck of one artsy cow and a rope.

Instead of destroying the device, Reed took his time and searched the rest of the room, and then moved into Avery’s and started again. It was close to noon before he slipped out of Avery’s room and back into his own.




If there was one thing Trina felt she deserved an A in over the past year, it was in her ability to pretend she belonged where she knew damn well she didn’t.

Andrea walked them around the executive offices, introducing her to a few people as they passed by.

Several offered their condolences on Fedor as well as Alice. Both of which infused a level of guilt in Trina’s gut. It didn’t feel right to have people feeling sorry for her when she and Fedor were never destined for a long and happy marriage.

Instead of dwelling on the facts, Trina accepted the sympathy and channeled it toward the genuine heartbreak she did feel about the entire situation. The reality was, the life she’d been leading before Fedor’s death was now completely gone. While she might be able to start her own company to help out her fellow flight attendants like she’d planned, the chances of her ever waiting on anyone, in the air or on the ground, weren’t likely.

“How active was Alice in the company?” Trina asked as they settled into the boardroom an hour before the meeting’s scheduled time.

“She was here several times a month before she became ill.”

Diane had joined them and sat across from Trina and Lori. They’d dropped Avery off with an executive secretary who didn’t seem to mind babysitting her. It helped that the secretary was six two and looked like he could bench-press her.

“What did she do?” Lori asked.

“A little of everything. She spent time in meetings with the engineers, marketing, public relations, you name it. She wanted to know a little about everything.”

“And she did,” Diane finished for her sister.

“Do either of you have a role in the day-to-day operations here?” Trina asked.

“We don’t sit at desks and crunch numbers or decide where we should be selling the oil, if that’s what you’re asking.”