Deceived Read Online Free Page A

apologetic tone as he could muster, “Wait. Please. Sit down.”
    Some of the red left Joe’s cheeks and neck. He gave Brandon a hard stare, then plopped into the chair with a sigh.
    In a calm voice, Taylor asked, “Did you know Lisa well?”
    “No.”
    “When did you first meet her?”
    “About eleven months ago,” Brandon said. “Our son is two months old. Lisa and I slept together the night that we met, and,” he paused as Taylor frowned. She tried to conceal her disapproval with an impassive expression, but not before Brandon guessed that one-night stands were beneath her well-bred upbringing. “I didn’t talk to her again until two weeks ago, when I learned about Michael. It was a one-night thing. I’m not proud of this. It’s not the way I ever anticipated becoming a father.”
    The room was quiet as Taylor’s eyes held his with a serious look that made him feel cheap, which was exactly how he had acted with Lisa. Joe’s cell phone rang, shattering the silence. He turned off the recorder, answered his phone, stood, and gestured to Tony to step out of the room with him. Taking advantage of the break, Randall stood, stretched, then turned his attention to his phone.
    Taylor. Marlowe. Bartholomew.
    Any New Orleanian knew that Taylor was oil, Marlowe was shipping, and Bartholomew was shipbuilding. The businesses of Taylor and Marlowe had been sold in the early eighties at prices that had put the families on the Forbes lists. As a Bartholomew, she was also heir to her father’s position in the shipbuilding company, the same company that had been the downfall of Brandon’s grandfather, and, by association, the entire Morrissey family. To Brandon’s knowledge, Taylor wasn’t simply an heir to George Bartholomew and the Bartholomew fortune. She was George Bartholomew’s only heir.
    Now, luminous hazel eyes held his in a steady gaze that reminded him of the distance between his world and hers. He was the grandson of a convicted traitor. The son of an alcoholic, who had never amounted to much and who had taken the coward’s way out of life. With each word that Brandon articulated, the distance between their worlds would grow greater, and, as he returned Taylor’s stare, he realized that her beauty was no competition for her sobering, unsmiling eyes. The focused attention that she gave him was unsettling, and the last twelve hours had been disturbing enough. Joe’s reentry into the room gave Brandon a needed break from her.
    Joe switched the recorder back on. He heard Joe whisper to Taylor, “I’ll take over. We’ve got to hurry and get out of here.” To Brandon, Joe asked, “Where did you first meet Lisa?”
    “At my office. She came with questions.” Brandon paused, then decided that he’d said enough.
    “How the heck does a trip to an office for legal advice become a one-night stand?” Joe asked.
    Randall said, “Detective, we don’t need judgmental attitude coloring your questions.”
    Joe glanced at Randall with more than a little disgust. “Answer the question, Brandon.”
    As Brandon replayed Joe’s poorly-worded question in his mind, he glanced at Taylor. Joe’s question assumed that Lisa had approached him for legal advice, while Brandon hadn’t meant to give Joe that impression. Taylor was staring at Brandon, one eyebrow arched, with a slight frown, as though she knew that Joe’s assumption needed confirmation. Damn it. He had to stop looking at her. She was a distraction.
    Brandon focused on Joe’s dark-eyed, weary gaze. Joe wasn’t asking him whether Lisa had sought legal advice. Joe was assuming that Lisa had been to his office for legal advice, then asking how Lisa’s visit to his office had become a one-night stand. Brandon felt more comfortable focusing on the how and why of the one-night stand than on the real purpose behind Lisa’s original visit to his office. “I couldn’t help her,” he said. “She was disappointed. I took her out on one of my boats for a cruise.