Temptation

Part 16

“She’s obviously lying!” Carl exploded.

Brendon drank a bit more of his scotch; he had expected Carl to distrust Tatyana and to put out his anger on him.

“That woman is no angel,” Carl remarked, his face red with fury. “She is listed as one of the heads of the whole filthy organization! Don’t tell me she made your mind!”

“She didn’t make my mind,” he replied calmly. “I did what I was asked to. I looked through her things and found nothing. I spoke to her and she told me nothing.”

“Oh, yes, that’s a relief!” Carl rolled his eyes. “Because of course she’d tell you right away!”

Brendon frowned. “I didn’t just believe in her. I measured my words very carefully. I told you about it.”

“Well, let me tell you something my friend: People lie. Specially if they’re mafia big bosses.”

“Carl, I’ve been trained by this agency for years. I had the best grades and it’s not by chance I am here now, sitting before you,” Brendon said, losing his patience. “I think I was trained well enough to do my job. That includes taking information from people and knowing when they’re lying to me. Tatyana Khabarova might be a mafia boss, but she is human like you and me. I had a conversation with her, a conversation handled the way this agency would want me to handle. She has responded in a way that was possible for me to determine whether it was true or not. I am telling you: she doesn’t know where Donald is and she has no idea what he is up to.”

Carl sighed.

“I’m sorry, Brendon,” he said. “I just have a feeling she is somehow involved…”

“We can always keep track of her moves.” Brendon shrugged. “So we can be sure.”

“Yes, yes, I suppose you’re right… But where do we go from now?”

“We can follow the track Khabarova gave us,” Brendon suggested. “Laura Fallow.”

“Fallow?” Carl frowned, putting his hand on his bald head nervously. “I don’t know, Brendon… Fallow has been removed from the Mafia list years ago… The loss of her son has really affected the woman. She seems renewed. Nothing has been associated to her for the past five years.”

“It’s worth the try,” he insisted. “We don’t have much options. We need to follow every lead we have, Carl. Fallow must know what we thought Khabarova knew.”

“Hmm.” Carl looked away. “I trust your instincts, Brendon. If you feel you must follow this lead, then you have green light.”

“Thank you.” Brendon smiled. “Now listen to my plan.”

Carl didn’t need much persuasion to agree with Brendon’s plan, which was a big relief. But in truth, he was lost. There were many questions he needed to answer.

He didn’t believe Tatyana was having an affair with Theo Lightman; but someone was. Who was Lightman’s secret lover? Who was the one who sent emails under that address? What was Donald’s connection to all this?

On the top of all that, it had been days that Brendon had not seen Eleanor. He needed to go back to Lightman’s house and see her again, to make sure she was alright. He missed her irritated glance, her nervous laughter and her shy smile. More than that, he had to explain to her about what she had seen the last time they saw each other; unfortunately, Eleanor had caught Heather and Brendon in a compromising position just before he had to leave to investigate Khabarova, and he has no time to say anything. He knew she was disappointed; they had had a tense relationship at the beginning, with her resistance to have a body-guard following her everywhere. And finally when they had started to get along well, that had happened. Brendon had dealt with hurt women before; the life of a player included occasional events when one woman found out she was not exclusive to him. He had never had a problem handling such situations, they barely bothered him to the least. However, the thought of facing Eleanor after that gave Brendon all sorts of mixed feelings. He felt ashamed, fearful and guilty.

“Mr. Sullivan,” Lightman greeted Brendon as he entered his office the next day. “Glad to have you back.”

“Thank you, sir, glad to be back.”

“Is your father doing better?”

“Yes, it was all well.”

“I am glad. Listen, Mr. Sullivan, there has been a little change of plans.”

“Beg your pardon?”

“You will be assigned as a bodyguard to my twins instead of Eleanor.”

Brendon felt his heart skipping a beat.

“As you wish, sir,” he replied weakly. “May I ask why?”

“Well… Eleanor isn’t here anymore. I sent her to a mental clinic in San Francisco two days ago.”

“Mental clinic?” Brendon failed to disguise his shock.

“Well, shortly after you left, she had a nervous breakdown,” Lightman explained. “I was advised to send her to get help. Discreetly.”

It took all Brendon’s self-control not to explode at Lightman’s face; he clearly had sent his eldest daughter far away to avoid gossips and don’t call the attention of the media. He didn’t believe for a minute that Eleanor needed mental treatment. For whatever reason, his father wanted her away and under control.

“I understand, sir,” he said finally. “I hope Miss Lightman will fully recover soon.”

“As well as I do.” The Senator sighed, and Brendon realised how great of a politician that man was; he looked honestly sad and distressed, a worried loving father to everyone’s eyes.

“Excuse me, then. I will go back to my duties.”

As soon as he left the office, Brendon ran to the garden, finding himself alone. He called Carl, his hand still shaking with fury.

“Brendon?”

“Carl, Lightman sent Eleanor to a mental clinic in San Francisco,” Brendon informed quickly. “Find where she is.”

“What? What happened?”

“I don’t know but I have a feeling this isn’t right. Just please find where she was sent.”