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"Nik." Maddix opened the door and stepped inside. "They're all here." "They" being the two city council members, chief of police, and mayor, as well as Maddix's son, Luke.
Nik followed Maddix through the quiet, understated luxury of the house to the back of the house where the office was located.
Nik stepped into the room, paying particular attention to the heavy, closed drapes, the dark wood walls.
"Nik, Councilman John Cooker, Mayor Dempsey, Chief Daniel Riley, Councilwoman Caroline Faulkner, my wife, Glenda, and my son, Lucas. We were all here the night Eddie was killed."
"This is ridiculous, Maddix." Glenda Nelson, Maddix's younger second wife, was clearly his trophy bride. At thirty-three the former model with her dark chocolate skin and rounded dark eyes was an exotic beauty who was clearly put out at being asked to attend this meeting.
His son, Lucas, sat slumped in a chair in the corner, his brown eyes narrowed with spoiled defensiveness. His expression bespoke a man who considered himself far beyond being required to attend to anyone else's schedule.
The councilman and -woman watched in interest from their places on a love seat. There was a heavy sense of familiarity between the two that bespoke of lovers, despite the fact that they were married, to other partners.
The chief of police sat in a chair next to a cold fireplace, his lips set in a thin line, his hazel eyes watching Nik suspiciously as Mayor Dempsey nodded his head in greeting. The gang was all here.
"Thank you for meeting me," Nik said, making an attempt at a polite greeting.
"It wasn't as though some of us had a choice," Maddix's son sneered.
"No, it wasn't," Nik agreed. "But I'm certain we all appreciate your cooperation." Cooperation his ass. Nik had warned Maddix he would drag the son there by his 53
hair if he wasn't in attendance. It was a threat Maddix had evidently relayed.
"Why must Luke and I be here, Mr. Steele?" Glenda crossed her arms over the soft pale cream blouse she wore with stylish white shorts. "I'm certain we weren't needed."
"You were all here the night Eddie Foreman died," Nik said. "I have some questions I wanted to ask."
"Yes, we were all here, which means Maddix obviously killed no one," Glenda continued to protest. "That makes this an exercise in futility if you ask me." So much for cooperation.
"Did I ask you?" Nik queried with cool softness.
"Enough, Glenda," Maddix growled. "Let Nik do his job. If he asked you to be here, then it's for a reason."
"We should have invited Mikayla." Luke's lips tightened into a smile of clear male appreciation. "Then perhaps I wouldn't be so bored." Nik turned his head and stared at the other man. "And why do you say that, Mr. Nelson?" he asked.
The smile shifted to one of anticipation. "Once this is over, it would be nice to take what's owed me. The little bitch was teasing the hell out of me before she dropped me cold after she accused my father of murder."
"Shut your damned mouth, Luke," Maddix ordered his son furiously before Nik would make a move to shut his mouth permanently. "I told you to stay away from that girl before any of this happened. She's too good for your spoiled, whorish ways." There was an edge of contempt in Maddix's tone that surprised Nik. Luke was Maddix's only child, a son at that, and obviously spoiled past redemption. The fact that Maddix was taking a stand when it was obviously too late made no sense to Nik.
"His mother raised him," Maddix explained with a glare toward his son. "Until she couldn't do a damned thing with him, either."
"He's twenty-seven years old. Throw his ass out and let him figure it out on his own," Nik stated coldly. "For now, he can sit tight and keep his mouth shut or he'll deal with me."
He slid Luke a cold, hard look as the other man opened his mouth to speak again. Just as quickly, Luke settled back and merely glared mutinously back at them.
"Why are we here, Mr. Steele?" the councilwoman asked then, clearly as bored with events as Nik was becoming.
Nik turned his gaze to her, revealing nothing. "To satisfy my curiosity, perhaps," he stated.
The real reason was to gauge the honesty of Maddix's alibi. Guilt was never as cleverly hidden as others believed it was. Bringing them all into the same place as they had claimed they had been the first time gave Nik a chance to decide if they were lying or if that meeting had truly taken place.
"I wasn't even in this damned room," Luke muttered. "I was upstairs. If I remember correctly, Dad was rather insistent that I not stay." Maddix's lips tightened as his expression turned reproving. "He was drunk."
"I was." Luke smiled sardonically.
"I was by the pool." Glenda waved a graceful hand toward the pool outside the office. "I don't involve myself in Maddix's business affairs." 54
No doubt. Not for the first time Nik was amazed at familial interactions. They were nothing like his family, back in Russia, before he'd lost all he held dear. His may not have been willing to stand up to their government to help Nik, but they all knew better than to disrespect their parents. He and his brothers and sisters had worked from an early age and learned to take care of themselves. Nik had never been able to make sense of men and women like Luke Nelson and Maddix's trophy wife.
