Drake (Men of Versteck Valley Book 3) Read online

  That’s why she loved Gavin. Not in a romantic way, but because he got her. She believed in following the letter of the law to protect her clients and went an extra mile for them. But she liked Francesca; the woman had single-handedly birthed Faith’s new company allowing her to follow her dreams. The idea that Francesca was somewhere hurt or in need scared Faith to the point she was thinking of doing the unthinkable, going against her client’s specific instructions. Once she opened the green satchel, she would know the name of Francesca’s lover, something her client didn’t want her to know. It could ruin her relationship with Francesca.

  “Yes. I wish it were so simple. Help me walk through the options.” She turned fully to face him. “If I don’t follow her specific instructions by waiting for a trigger to alert me that I need to access the contents in the green satchel –”

  His brows knitted. “Green satchel?”

  She gave him a brief explanation of the safety deposit box contents.

  “Sounds like a smart woman with trust issues,” he said.

  “Focus, Gavin,” she said.

  He held up his hand and nodded. “Sorry. Go on. Contents in the green satchel…”

  “Right. If I do that, I could lose a client, a friend, and hurt my business. She doesn’t want me to know that information unless the situation is awful.”

  “Which it could be,” he said.

  Her heart dropped at that thought. “Yes. It could be. Worst, I would know who he is. Only two of my clients have withheld the names of their lovers.” Should she tell him why the stakes were so high with Francesca?

  “How do you assist them without knowing that information?” he asked.

  “The work I do for them isn’t relationship oriented. Either they’ve signed a CSACA – Consensual Sexual Acts and Confidentiality Agreement that prevent them from ever speaking about their relationships or another form of a Non-Disclosure Agreement. All of them are extremely well provided for, and I assist them in managing their wealth, so they aren’t left in the cold whenever the relationship ends.”

  He nodded. “You review their sexual consent contracts, too?”

  “Yes. Most are pretty standard with few deviations,” she said. Francesca was her only client who never signed any documentation with her lover and refused to consider doing so.

  “He’s a high-ranking public official.” Faith spoke fast to get the words out before she changed her mind. Since he didn’t know the name of her client, technically Faith hadn’t crossed the line of confidentiality. But that bit of information made a difference. The stakes were higher.

  “What?” He leaned back, staring at her.

  “She never told me his name. I don’t know who he is which is why I’m hesitant to open the satchel.”

  He watched her for a few moments. “Do not open it. I have some experience in this area. Follow the safeguards she put in place. His position makes it critical that you follow her lead in this. Do you understand?”

  Relieved to have shared the burden, yet, not entirely convinced his advice was the best path forward, she nodded.

  “This isn’t your field of law, what are the chances you’ll drop this and walk away?” he asked.

  “Zero,” she snapped, offended he would even suggest such a thing.

  He rubbed his head. “High public official? That’s another level of security, Faith. I’ve seen it up close, and you could be collateral damage in a heartbeat. They do not play at the top, seriously.”

  His words struck terror in her heart. She swallowed hard around the ball of fear in her throat as she met his sincere gaze and noticed fear mirrored there. “I can’t walk away right now. Maybe after she’s found, she’ll fire me, or I’ll break the contract. But not now. You wouldn’t do it, and neither can I,” she said clasping her hands so tight her fingernails left imprints.

  He waved down her words with one hand and rubbed his jaw with the other. Silence stretched.

  “What should I do? She’s missing. I know it. How can I not do anything? What if…what if she’s hurt somewhere or dying? How can I live with myself if I don’t do anything? Do you understand?... I need to do something?” She stood and placed her hand on her forehead. “I like her. She’s my friend.”

  “Stay focused,” he snapped as he stood facing her. “You’ll lose more if you open that case before time. There are other ways to help her and ease your mind. Have someone search for her. As her attorney, you can do that without learning things she doesn’t want you to know.”

  Faith thought about it a few moments. “He doesn’t know about me. She didn’t want him to know she had another attorney.”

  “Which means she probably has an attorney he knows about,” Gavin said. “I like the way she thinks and plans. Chances are she’s three steps ahead of him already.”

  “Doesn’t change the fact she’s missing.” She faced the window, it didn’t look nearly as comforting now as it had earlier. “If I hired someone to quietly search for her so that no flags are raised, that should be alright…right? I mean, I’m one of her attorneys with legal access to one of her bank accounts, current will, and safety deposit box. That gives me the right to search for her, doesn’t it?”

  Neither spoke for a few moments.

  “I believe so. But if you’re not sure and don’t have peace about it. I’ll hire someone to do the search and keep you out of it. If they learn something, I’ll pass it on to you to decide what you want to do from that point on. At this stage, you don’t know anything other than she’s behaving differently which could mean a lot of things. Don’t panic,” he said placing his hands on her shoulders.

  “I won’t panic.” She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “Don’t panic. This too shall pass. Things will work out. Don’t panic.”

  “Good. Would you allow me to hire a company to look into her disappearance on your behalf? No one will ever connect it to you or your firm. You have my word on that.”

  “Is that ethical? I’d have to tell you her name.”

  “Yes, you’d have to trust me with her name,” he said.

  Faith blinked as his words hit home. Did she trust Gavin? Yes. He had always been in her corner as she had been in his. In the back of her mind awareness simmered reminding her that she specifically reached out to him for help. Tension rolled off her shoulders as she dropped her forehead onto his chest. “Thank you, so much. I appreciate your help. I’ve lost sleep and didn’t know what to do next. She’s my soror as well.”

  “A delicate situation all around,” he said as he stroked her back gently.

  “I swore I would never tell anything about her life.”

  “Don’t tell me anything. Keep your word to her. Let’s talk about your soror, not your client,” he said.

  She looked up at him and smiled. “No. That would be the punk-easy way. Eventually, I’ll tell her that I hired someone to find her to avoid opening the satchel, but for peace of mind, I trust you to handle this quietly for me. Her name is Francesca Blake, and I’ll give you three days to find out something, alright?”

  Faith ignored his gathering frown and braced for a fight. Gavin would stall her if she allowed it and they both knew it. She had to stand strong for Francesca and her other clients on this and not allow him to take over.

  “Alright,” he said a few moments later easing her mind. “Hopefully we’ll know something sooner, or she’ll contact you before then. Don’t panic. Can you act as if everything is normal?”

  She didn’t think so. “Yeah, I’ve got work to do for my other clients that’ll keep me busy.” Now that she’d done something regarding Francesca, she felt better and looked at him. “Call me when you hear something. What’re you doing for dinner?” She moved toward the door.

  “Dinner with a colleague, you?”

  “Hanging out with my sorors, we’re having a party afterward in one of the conference rooms if you wanna come by,” she offered with a sly grin.

  “You always invite me to those things, and I never c
ome. They aren’t my thing, you know that,” he said walking with her toward the foyer.

  “I know. It’s fun hearing that frown of disapproval in your voice. Hey, how’s Imani and Theo doing?” She stopped to look at him.

  His face softened. “Imani and the kids are doing well. Theo too. They’re at the family seat in the country this weekend. I plan to go see them after I get home from this. If I wasn’t slated to speak tomorrow on a panel, I’m not sure I’d stay after sitting in on Congresswoman Waters discussion in the morning.”

  “I’m going to that. Save me a seat,” she said and kissed his cheek.

  “If you’re late I’m letting it go,” he warned as she walked to the door.

  “I won’t be; she’s the highlight of the conference for me too.” Waving she left his room and headed to the elevator. Seeing armed security in the halls reminded her of Gavin’s warning. Things were certainly handled differently for people at the top. The guard called the elevator for her and waited nearby. When it arrived, she stepped inside, waited until he punched in a few keys and left her to travel down alone.

  A frisson of fear traveled down her back, and she wasn’t sure if it was for her or Francesca.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Drake and Gavin dined at the Buckhead Club later that evening. Earlier, Drake had taken a nap and watched television while waiting for the call from his friend. He had high hopes for the night and wanted to meet a fine, sexy, woman to spend the night with. He looked around the elegant dining room after they placed their orders. “No women.”

  “Business first,” Gavin said picking up his glass.

  “You’ve been quiet, distracted since we left the hotel,” Drake said, all business.

  “This is a delicate situation. I’ve got to be careful about how I handle it. I could lose a good friend if I mess up and that bothers me.”

  Secure in the knowledge Gavin didn’t mean him; Drake sought to lighten the atmosphere. “No matter what, we’ll be cool, you know that.”

  Gavin smiled, although it didn’t reach his eyes. “That’s good to know. I was thinking of someone else. She’s entrusted me to handle this matter for her, and that was difficult for her to do. I promised results and anonymity; now I’m not sure either will happen.”

  Curious, Drake leaned back and watched him. “You’re scared?” The idea shocked Drake. During all the time he knew the man, Gavin rarely showed emotions and had a reputation of being a fierce debater in court. He hadn’t lost many cases while practicing law. Very few things got under Gavin’s skin.

  “Concerned is a better word. She’s fierce, loyal, and possibly over her head with this. Next to Theo, she’s one of my oldest friends. I can’t let her down.”

  “How can we help?” Drake asked.

  “I’m hoping you can.” He looked at Drake for several moments and then nodded. “You’ve always shot it to me straight. That first year in law school, you walked up to me after class, introduced yourself, and told me you enjoyed something I’d written in the group chat. Asked if we could study together for a test.”

  Drake remembered. “Never understood why you were shocked. You were the smartest one in that class, only made sense to ask you for help.”

  “That’s what you told some of the others, they didn’t like it,” Gavin said.

  Drake frowned. “They didn’t? I don’t remember that.”

  “Because you didn’t care one way or the other. Like I said, a straight shooter. You never played games and said what you thought. People didn’t know what to do with you. You danced to the beat of your own drummer,” Gavin said smiling. “Strange white dude. Seems my gift in life is to befriend white guys who don’t give a damn what other people think.”

  “I know you’re not comparing me with Theo.” Drake frowned at Gavin.

  Gavin laughed, drawing attention to their table. “The two of you are so much alike it’s not funny. That’s part of the reason you bumped heads back then.”

  “He’s opinionated. Thinks he knows everything,” Drake said remembering the heated discussions they had when Theo visited Gavin at school.

  “You’re opinionated,” Gavin said. “Everyone knows Butch Cassidy should’ve been strung high for all the banks he robbed, people lost money and —”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. If you understood his upbringing, the things he suffered, then you’d see—” Drake stopped and rubbed the back of his neck when he noticed Gavin’s satisfied smirk.

  “Like I said, opinionated just like Theo,” Gavin said.

  “Maybe but I deal in facts and don’t make them up as I go,” Drake said realizing he had lost this round. Gavin had always laughed when Drake and Theo went at it, not that they had done it in years.

  “Good to see both of you’ve outgrown the need to always be right,” Gavin said before sipping water from his glass.

  Drake tossed back his beer and remained quiet. Who didn’t want to be right? Why say something if you didn’t believe in what you had to say? To say it was a need might be a tad strong. More like, he preferred to be right in his opinions.

  “This job…I need someone found. Right now she’s missing, or at least she hasn’t responded to messages or phone calls in the past three days. There are a lot of reasons this has to be done quietly without raising red flags, and I’m not at liberty to share any of them. Will that be a problem?” Gavin looked at Drake.

  Interest peaked, Drake thought of past cases he worked with Asher on. “I don’t know. I’ll need to run it by Asher first. He’ll want to access the level of danger or exposure to our team. You know we keep a severely low profile as it is. Sounds like you want us blind on this,” Drake said and leaned back as the server placed his seafood platter on the table.

  “Not blind. It’s an attorney confidentiality thing, she can’t tell me more, so I can’t tell you. But if I don’t search for her client, she will, and I do not want her to do that,” Gavin said, his tone hard.

  “Dangerous?” Drake asked.

  “Possibly down the road, not at this stage. At least I don’t think it’s dangerous at this stage,” Gavin corrected.

  “Dude, we need to know how to handle this. You know that,” Drake said.

  “Right now, gather information. Find out where she went without raising flags. If she’s alright and discovers you’ve been looking for her, give her some kind of lottery prize or something, I don’t know. Just find her,” Gavin said.

  Drake ate a grilled prawn. “Find her without her knowledge, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “I’ll let you know what Asher says.”

  “Contact him now. I need to know now if this is something you guys can do,” Gavin said sounding like the C.E.O. he was.

  Drake pulled out his phone and sent Asher a detailed text about the job. Asher responded moments later. “Do you want pictures of her?”

  “No. Yes. That would be good,” Gavin said, his brow furrowed in concentration.

  Drake sent the response. Asher responded. “Proof of her current condition without approaching?”

  “Yes, that’s correct,” Gavin said sounding more like himself. “Can he do that?”

  “Yes, he can,” Drake said. “Once he locates the target, he will fly someone in to take her picture and send it to you.” Drake knew Asher could easily handle the job, he hadn’t been sure that he would do it.

  “One more thing, you have three days to do this,” Gavin said meeting Drake’s gaze.

  “Three days?” Drake typed the request and sent it to Asher.

  “Yes. That’s what she gave me,” Gavin said.

  “And you’re just mentioning this?” Drake said while watching his phone, waiting for Asher’s reply.

  “Must’ve slipped my mind,” Gavin said.

  Drake glanced at him and shook his head. “Nothing slips your mind, Dude. Good thing; this isn’t a rescue that might take longer.” He read Asher’s reply.

  “He’ll do it and let you know if there’s a problem with
the time limit, but he doesn’t think so,” Drake said.

  “Good. Here’s her name.” Gavin slid the name to Drake on the back of a business card. “Ask him to start immediately, it’s already been three days. My friend is concerned something bad has happened.”

  Drake typed in the name and sent the text to Asher before returning the card to Gavin. “This friend of yours, is she your lady?”

  Gavin’s eyes widened before he smiled. “She’s a really close friend I met in school. We kept in contact over the years and get together on occasion. She has her own law firm.”

  Drake’s brows drew together. “She was in law school with us?”

  Gavin nodded. “Now that I think about it, I can’t recall the three of us being in the same classes other than large lectures. Either I was with you or her in a class.” He whistled low. “Never realized that until now.”

  When he didn’t say more, Drake asked. “What’s her name? I might know her.”

  Gavin looked at him.

  “Is she black? There weren’t many black women back then. No more than 15 by the time we graduated. In our class, there were only two? No three, I think. Is she one of them?”

  “Yes. She graduated with us.”

  Drake frowned in concentration. None of the women in law school caught his attention. Most were stuck up or steeped in some kind of drama he avoided. “I don’t remember anyone,” he said after a few moments. “I dealt with women off campus most of the time. Ate some of the best meals that way.”

  Gavin smiled. “Just as well. She’s got this thing against attorneys. Refuses to date them. Had a couple bad experiences and crossed them off her list.”

  “Pity,” Drake said, his tone making it clear he didn’t care one way or the other.

  “Yeah, it is,” Gavin said with a slight smile. “She’s the type of woman you’d go for.”

  Drake’s gaze sharpened. “Really?”

  Gavin nodded. “Yeah. But like you said “pity.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  The next day, Faith sat up front next to Gavin to listen to Congresswoman Waters speak. The woman kept them enthralled and ended the discussion with a call to action, asking everyone to get involved in their communities across the country. Both Gavin and Faith joined the others with a standing ovation. The applause was deafening.