Fortune Favors The Bold

CHAPTER FIVE: CLUTCHING AT STRAWS

What the hell was wrong with him? Adonis thought in alarm as he removed his head from the garden of Eden to place them behind his back. Away from temptation. He’d lost his father two weeks ago for goodness’s sake. And he was no longer a horny teenager who could not keep control over his whims.

Being an extremely attractive male, it was important for him to exert control on his desire, for females swooned over him like bees flocking over honey. It was too easy to get lost in that vortex of lust and never come back.

Didn’t he speak from experience? Wasn’t that what happened to his deceased father Mason? In fact, he was the spitting image of his late father, and being handsome, Mason Fortune had never stuck to one female. It was just a wonder that he’d stayed married to only one woman.

A wonder or a matter of obligation. The matriarch Aurora Fortune had threatened to disown her first-born son if ever he decided to divorce his wife. That had left Mason with no choice than to remain married. But it never meant that he remained faithful to his wife.

Mason Fortune had no qualms about showcasing his panoply of lovers in front of the whole world. Unminding of the havoc he created, he lived by the mantra that any willing female was fair game as long as they understood the stakes. And there was no lack of women who were either attracted to his Greek brooding looks, or his massive fortune.

Adonis had grown up watching his mother nurture a broken heart at a young age, having been forcibly married to a rich man by her parents. That was why Adonis thrived hard not to be tempted by the meaningless females swamping around him.

Then, how on earth had he succumbed to the temptation of that woman? She wasn’t even pretty. Well, she was in some sort of way, but he’d rubbed shoulders with spectacularly exquisite women in life, but none had had that crazy effect on him. What was that insane attraction over which he had no control whatsoever?

Irritated with himself, he took a step back, but a triumphant feeling flitted through him as Alaya seemed still under the effect of that groggy desire. Her pupils were completely dilated, her mind unfocused, and her lips – oh her very delectably kissable lips were swollen with his recent foray.

“I think you should back off my family,” he delivered instead with deliberate meanness, and the words served as a slap right to her cheek. She flinched dramatically, her eyes popping open as all trace of craving fled.

In horror, her hand flew to her open mouth as she contemplated what had just transpired between them.

Taking a few staggering steps back, she was about to whirl around and have a quick exit when Adonis grabbed her elbow to stop her. “Do you hear me? You stay away from my family!”

Eyes squinted at him, she stared back with animosity, appearing to have recovered from the earlier impropriety. “You do not get to tell me how to do my job. My gut instincts is telling me that the murderer is certainly someone from your colorful family. Even if you use every vile method me, I will not stop from snooping around,” she exploded furiously.

With her hair set loose and her brown eyes glowed with condemnation, she made a picturesque sight. Adonis sighed resignedly.

“I am just protecting my family.”

Unconvinced, she crossed her arms across her chest, the action bringing his attention to her breasts under her white blouse. Why couldn’t they have been small perky buds instead of the promising soft mounds which bounced under the garment? He gulped.

“I am not interested in your family’s dirty linen. I am here to investigate a murder, and frankly you are only making my job harder. It’s almost as if you don’t want me to find your father’s killer,” she said accusingly.

He narrowed his eyes menacingly towards her. “What are you implying here?” he queried smoothly, but there was no hiding the menacing tone in his voice.  

“Nothing,” she shrugged desperately, making the fight and anger leave him in that one single display of defeated stance. “I’m just puzzled that you’re not helping me out. You and me, we’re supposed to be on the same side.”

Relaxing his posture, Adonis sauntered towards his bar, pouring himself two large glasses of whisky for himself and for her. Handing her the glass which she declined with a single shake of her head, he deposited the glass on the marble table with a thud.

“I am not supposed to drink on duty,” she informed between clenched teeth.

“Do you always follow the rules, Detective?” he queried mockingly. “Haven’t you ever wanted to break from the norms and do something just for yourself?”

Her eyes shone at the goading, and she was about to give a befitting comeback, but then seemed to think the better of it. The expression on her face was so explicit that it was like reading a book.

“I am not here to talk about myself,” she replied in her curt business-like tone. With a new resolution, she pinned her glorious hair in that awfully untidy bun, pinning all that luscious beauty with a vulgar clip. He felt the loss of the sight like a physical blow.

It was time to stop beating around the bush, her determined expression seemed to convey, so he decided to attack before she pounced on him.

“Why are you here, Detective? Really?” he asked in that sarcastic voice, a layer which hid the way he actually felt. Truth be told, he was terrified that it was indeed someone from his family who had committed the murder. He was not ready to lose another member yet, so he was using everything in his power to blur the trails.

Of course, he’d brought everyone to his study along with the panel of family lawyers from Thompson Pearson to debrief them on what they were supposed to tell the police. There was no way Adonis would allow the scandals in his inner circle to be exposed. Whatever had happened on the night of murder would remain undisclosed whether the Detective liked it or not.

It was no concern of hers anyway. He doubted Aunt Athena or Uncle Victor would have his father so ruthlessly murdered no matter how they fought. Every family had their own dirty little secrets, their dose of jealousy and bitterness. That didn’t mean anyone would be capable of murder, right? Right?

“I don’t know,” she confessed rabidly. “I just drove here by sheer instinct. I wanted to clear my head actually. I am not thinking straight.”

It was clear that she’d reached at a standstill in the case, and that was the cause of her frustration. There was a high probability that the FBI would take the case from her if she didn’t find something soon. As requested by her, Adonis had recommended her on the case, but she was just a window dressing.

However, she was also someone he could easily manipulate. He wasn’t so sure he could have protected his family from the interrogation had the FBI taken over. So, in reality, he was just using her to stall the progress of the case. Not because he didn’t want his father’s murderer to be caught, but he’d figured that whoever had done it would come to confess if he bought some time.

He'd been wrong. None of his family members showed any kind of remorse over his father’s death. Given that the latter had been a lousy human being, but it didn’t explain the lack of compassion amongst his father’s siblings. Aside from Aunt Artemis and Uncle Graham, no one else was showing sincere bereavement.

It was time to give her a piece of bone.

“Not everyone was happy about my ascension to the throne,” he commented in a light tone, but he was gauging her every reaction like a hawk watching its prey. Her eyes flew open in surprise as he’d expected but she refrained from interrupting.

He sighed. “Some members were against the fact that I would become the C.E.O. It was not a very happy family gathering.” He realized that he was intrigued by the way she would react to the news. Contrarily to expectations, she was hardly surprised this time.

“Let me guess,” she inferred sardonically. “Athena Fortune Gallagher? Victor Alexander? And Elijah Fortune?”

He was impressed. “Right for the first two. Uncle Elijah is nothing like the stereotypical villain. In fact, he’s the complete opposite. Let’s just say that he has his own reasons for keeping his distance.”

Her eyes narrowed to dangerous slits over the last statement, and Adonis gulped down his discomfort with great difficulty. That spooky woman gave him the impression that she was reading right through him.

“Go on,” she finally said without showing any reaction.

“Well, Aunt Athena was under the impression that her husband Maddox deserved to be named the next C.E.O as he’d worked his ass for the company. Her words, not mine,” he felt bound to point out. “On the same note, Aunt Helen countered that her husband Victor was the one who brought revolutionary ideas to the business. Both are right from their perspectives.”

“Where do you stand?” she asked instead in a serious voice, and he was stunned by the question. So far, nobody cared about him enough to ask his opinion. He lived with self-centered people who were always on the lookout to cater for themselves first, and they did take the lion’s share in the serving.

“I am not sure I can live up to the expectations,” he murmured, horrified with himself for voicing out his insecurities out loud to his nemesis.

“Bullshit,” she fired unflinchingly and without hesitation. “You don’t want to be saddled with the responsibility,” she deduced insightfully, and he shivered at her perceptiveness. “Because…,” she continued her analysis. “…there’s something else you’d rather do instead. You don’t strike me as a spoilt brat, but it’s obvious that the paperwork bores you,” she rambled on without paying any attention to him.

He was incensed! She was profiling him.

“You are not made to be sitting behind the desk and barking orders to employees. No, you would be the …. brain?” she concluded more to herself. “That meant that you’d prefer designing the jewelries? Am I right?”

Flabbergasted, Adonis was at a loss of how to react. He didn’t know whether he should applaud her temerity or strangle her for her audacity. Of course, she was right on point. He loved playing with the stones, his hands itching to create design after design like any truly inspired artist. But for some weird reason, he hid that aspect of himself from the world.

It had been so long that they’d painted him as a fatuous playboy, and he’d played right along the image that had been carved for him. Very few people were aware that he was the genius behind the Fortune jewelry designs.

And now that chit of a woman had extrapolated the truth with her weird detective theories. A heavy feeling settled inside his chest as he figured he might have underestimated her. She was damned good at her job.

Before he could reply, a familiar voice sounded in the corridor outside the study. When he placed the sound, it was too late for him to stop the catastrophe as the newcomer walked inside the room clueless to the fact that a spitfire was going to rip him to pieces.

It was going to be horrendous.