The Exhibitionist
Page 30

He wasn’t one to hold grudges, but I’d wound up in a bad situation a few months ago and he blamed Meagan.
“He’s never going to like me, is he?” she asked as I led her into the library.
I decided to treat that as a rhetorical question. “I can’t believe you’re here this early. When you said you’d stop by today, I thought it’d be closer to lunchtime.”
“I spent the night in a little bed-and-breakfast nearby,” she said. “I do that sometimes, just take a night and get out of the city. It clears my head.”
We chatted in the library for a while about work, discussing the show and possibilities for the Web site. She asked to see the house and I was giving her a tour when the doorbell rang.
“Nathaniel’s in a conference call. I need to get that,” I said to Meagan, hurrying from the kitchen to get the door.
“No problem,” she said. “I need to be heading back to the city anyway. I’ll walk with you.”
We made our way to the front door. As expected, Nathaniel’s office door was closed as we walked by and I heard someone speaking on the speakerphone.
“I don’t think he was expecting anyone,” I said. “He would have told me if he was.”
Apollo sat by the front door, waiting, but trotted up to Meagan when he saw her. He was timid around most people, but he liked her. Meagan had told me once that she always had a golden retriever growing up, but her current apartment wouldn’t allow dogs.
I peeked through the peephole, surprised at who I saw. I unlocked the door and opened it.
“Mr. DeVaan,” I said. “Please come in.”
I’d met Master DeVaan the first time Nathaniel and I went to Wilmington. He owned an art gallery there, but I also found out that he was a photographer. One of his specialties was erotic photos.
“Thank you, Abby,” he said. “Sorry to just drop by like this, but your portrait was delivered yesterday. I thought I’d bring it over myself.”
“Luke?” Meagan asked in a voice so strained that I turned my entire attention to her. She was so pale she looked as if she’d seen a ghost. For a second she looked as if she just might be one herself.
DeVaan seemed to notice for the first time that we weren’t alone. “Meagan? Is that you?”
An uneasy silence fell across the room, broken only by Nathaniel coming to the door.
“DeVaan,” he said. “I just got your text. I’m sorry I didn’t reply. I’ve been in teleconferences most of the morning.” He made it into the foyer and immediately noticed the tension between Meagan and DeVaan. “I would introduce you, but it appears you might already know Meagan.”
Meagan smiled a little too sweetly. “Our paths crossed years ago,” she said, and I got the impression she wanted to speak before DeVaan did. “Isn’t that right, Luke?”
So that was his first name. Funny, he didn’t look like how I pictured a Luke. He was quite handsome with blue eyes that always seemed as if they were in on a secret. At Meagan’s question, his voice took on the soft, seductive tone I remembered from when we’d meet in Delaware.
“If that’s what you want to call it, sweetheart,” he said, and Meagan flinched.
Oh yes, there was something there. In the few short moments since I opened the door, Luke had gone from average ordinary man to a hunter and it was crystal clear to everyone that Meagan was his prey.
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “Your text said you had Abby’s portrait?”
Luke held up the package in his right hand. “Yes, would you like to see?”
Nathaniel looked over at me. He hadn’t told me which picture he’d selected from the photography session he’d arranged not too long ago. “Why don’t you follow me?” he said, and the two men went down the hall. Luke didn’t turn back.
“And with that, I’m out of here,” Meagan said.
Of course, I had two thousand questions I wanted to ask her, but she clearly didn’t want to talk, so I only nodded.
I held the door open for her while she rummaged in her purse for her keys. “Damn it,” she said, digging in her pockets. “I think I left them in the library.”
“I can go get them,” I said. “If you want to wait here.”
“I’ll go with you.”
I thought the two guys would be in the office, so I was surprised to find it empty when we walked past. That meant they were probably in the library, because I doubted Nathaniel took him upstairs to the playroom.
And in fact, the two men were standing by the very chairs we’d recently vacated. I glanced at Meagan, prepared to offer to go get her keys by myself. But she pushed her shoulders back and held her head high, and I knew she was going to follow me inside.
She didn’t follow me, though. She walked right past me, into the library, and up to the two men. “I left my keys.”
Luke snorted. “Likely.”
Meagan glared at him. “Don’t even go getting a big head. I left them here before I knew it was you at the door.”
“I thought you might want to see me,” Luke said. “It’s been what? Two years?”
“You know where to find me. I’m at the club almost every weekend.”
Luke crossed his arms and leaned against the table at his side. “You still hang out at that dive?”
“It’s not that bad,” Meagan said. I really wanted to interrupt and say yes, it was that bad, but I wasn’t about to remind Meagan of the bad experience I’d had there the one time she took me.
“It’s horrible,” Luke said. “But not for long. I’ve put a bid in to buy it.”
Meagan almost dropped her keys again. “You what?”
“I’ve decided to diversify. Open up a new business venture. Someone needs to shake that place up.”
“I guess I’ll have to enjoy it while I can then, before you go and ruin it like you do everything else.” Meagan nodded toward me and Nathaniel. “See you two later. Luke, see you in another two years. Three, if I’m lucky.”
She took a step toward the library door, but Luke blocked her. “If all goes according to plan, the club will be under my management in two months. I’ll send you an invitation to the opening.”
“I’m busy that weekend.”
He smirked and then his voice dropped. “We’ll play it your way for now, sweetheart.”