Texas Heroes_ Volume 1(179)
Dev nodded, still not speaking.
“Why are you here, Marlowe?”
Dev waited another long, pregnant pause. “Does the name Allied Drilling ring a bell?”
DeMille’s color paled slightly, but he hadn’t gotten his riches from being a pushover. He recovered quickly. “Doesn’t ring a bell. What’s this about?”
“Does the word fraud help your memory?”
Charles DeMille’s body went rigid. “What are you trying to imply?”
“My father kept working papers. I’m going to take you down, DeMille. I’m going to disgrace you like you disgraced my father.” Dev wanted to wade in with his fists. With immense effort, he kept his fingers loose, his hands at his sides. “You sanctimonious bastard. You set up my father to take the fall, then you rode to the rescue like some knight in shining armor. Had my mother singing your praises when all along, it was you who robbed us of everything.”
He walked closer, testing himself. How close could he get and not smash a fist in the guy’s face? “You played the savior and all the while you knew—” Dev had to swallow back the rage that was darkening his vision.
DeMille wasn’t giving in. “Your father made the entries in his own hand. You can’t prove otherwise.” He smiled. “You can’t afford to fight me, Devlin. I hire lawyers by the gross.”
“It will surprise you to know that I’ve done quite well for myself. I’m willing to spend every dime taking you down.”
DeMille’s lip curled. “You can’t win. My name means something in this town. Yours is tainted.”
“I don’t have to go to court to change that. I can ruin you without ever entering the courthouse.”
“You’re using Lacey to get to me, aren’t you?” DeMille asked. “This is all about me. You never got over getting caught with your pants down, being taken down to size in front of her.”
“Leave Lacey out of this.”
DeMille’s eyes sharpened. “You silly pup. She’s still too good for you. She always will be. Don’t go thinking you can have her now. You’re still a mongrel, however well that mongrel is dressed.”
“I know about Lacey.”
DeMille frowned faintly. “Know what?”
“Does the name Jenny Wallace ring a bell?”
DeMille’s eyes widened. In them, Dev saw his revenge. Fear sparked there. Arrogance faltered.
“You can’t prove a thing,” DeMille bluffed.
“I can, and when she knows, it will be over. She’ll never forgive you. You’ve lied to her all her life. You had the nerve to tell me that I wasn’t good enough for your precious, blue-blooded daughter—and she isn’t even your blood. You told me I was nothing—when it was you who made me that way. You who created the whole nightmare and then framed my father.”
“I won’t let you use Lacey to get to me. You can’t prove anything.”
“Are you going to tell her, or shall I, DeMille? She already knows that you—”
Voices outside the door broke into his consciousness. The voices of women—
Lacey’s voice.
“What are you doing here at this hour, darling?” Her mother stood on the stairs in an immaculate satin robe.
“I need to talk to Daddy. Where is he?”
She looked at the elegant foyer, at her mother standing so straight and dignified on the staircase. She remembered a thousand hours of her childhood, the pride in her father’s voice, the hours she and her mother had spent together.
Surely there was an explanation.
“He’s in the library. Darling, is something wrong?”
Lacey shook her head. “I need to speak to Daddy first.”
Her mother frowned but continued her descent. “All right. But I don’t know what could be so important at this unearthly hour.”
Lacey followed her mother down the hallway. They both stopped for a moment at the sound of a very angry voice.
Dev’s voice. She hadn’t noticed his car outside.
“I won’t let you use Lacey to get to me. You can’t prove anything.” Her father’s voice was almost a shout.
“Are you going to tell her, or shall I, DeMille? She already knows that you—”
She glanced at her mother just as the door opened. Her father stood inside, looking years older.
Dev stood behind him, a stranger to her. His face was all hard, brutal angles. And shadows.
“What are you doing here, Lacey?” Dev’s expression shifted to one of concern. “Go on back home,” he said gently.
But she didn’t like what she felt in the air. What she’d heard. Lacey glanced between the two men. “What’s going on?”