This wasn't the first time her dad had asked her to help out, but she still wondered about his motives. Did he really think she could contribute to the investigation, or was he just trying to suck up to her? Her relationship with her father was so complicated. She despised him for what he'd done to her mother, but she loved him ... because he was her dad. He didn't like her working as a sex decoy, and in some ways that almost added to the appeal of the job. Which was crazy.
Time to play dress-up again.
This time she needed to look businesslike and professional. Ashlyn hated suits, but she'd bought this one for job interviews. At least it was a little sexy, with a short flippy skirt and fitted jacket.
"Hi, honey,” Brenda greeted her. “Go on in to the meeting room. The client should be here any minute."
Ashlyn strode into the meeting room and found her father, John and Ralph sitting at the long table reviewing some papers. She tossed her portfolio down on the table and pulled out a chair as the men greeted her.
"So what's up, Dad?"
He was about to speak when Brenda appeared in the doorway, showing people in. Ashlyn had her back to the door, so she pushed back her chair and stood, along with the men, to greet the client. When she turned, she was face to face with...
Connor.
No, she was face to face with someone who looked exactly like him.
But Connor was standing right beside him. Her stunned gaze moved from one man to the other.
They were both tall, broad-shouldered and bronze, with streaky golden hair, but Connor's was longer and more tousled, while the other man's was short and neatly brushed back from his face. The other man's face was a little different—same eyes, slightly bigger nose, lips a little thinner—but they could almost have been twins. The unknown man looked more comfortable in his suit, his tie perfectly knotted, while the man she knew had pulled his tie loose and undone the top button of his shirt. And in fact, his pants were jeans, not suit trousers.
Ashlyn's head whirled and there was a roaring in her ears as she tried to make sense of this. She couldn't even hear what her father was saying.
"Holy shit,” Connor muttered. His double shot him a frown and held his hand out.
"Connor Montgomery,” he said, shaking hands with Dave Farrell.
Whoa, whoa, whoa. He was Connor Montgomery? Then who the hell...
"Dave Farrell. This is Ralph Butler and John Massey. And I've invited my daughter Ashlyn to sit in on our meeting. She's just finishing her degree in computer forensics at UC Rocky Harbor, and she may have some expertise that will help us."
Connor said, “This is my brother and business partner, Zach."
Zach shook hands with the men, and then took Ashlyn's hand. “We've met,” he murmured, eyes fastened to her face.
Ashlyn's face felt so scorching hot she was sure everyone could see heat waves coming from her glowing cheeks. She could also sense the glances being exchanged by everyone else in the room and felt Connor's disapproval as he elbowed Zach in the ribs.
"You two have met?” Dave asked with a frown. Ashlyn flashed a sharp warning glance at him, which he quickly picked up on. Thank God for twenty-five years of experience as a PI and good instincts.
"Well, great,” Dave said, all business. “Please, Connor and Zach, have a seat, and we'll get started."
Ashlyn sank into her chair as her knees turned to putty. Shit, shit, shit. Why did this keep happening?
If he was really Zach and that was his brother Connor ... oh my God.
She had made the wrong guy.
She looked from Zach to Connor and back again.
Did he know who she was? If Jessica had shown Connor the tape, she was totally busted.
Double shit. She tried to keep from groaning aloud. Every muscle in her body tightened and quivered, and her stomach hurt.
"I spoke to Connor briefly on the phone, so I have an idea of what their problems are,” Dave began. “Ashlyn, just to bring you up to speed, Connor and Zach own a microbrewery here in Rocky Harbor, which I gather is pretty successful.” Ashlyn saw Zach smile. “They've had a few problems lately that lead them to believe someone inside their company may be leaking information to one of their competitors. Connor, Zach, why don't you give us the whole story."
As they started talking business, Ashlyn tried to focus, but her mind still zipped all over the place. She realized Connor could not have seen the tape. He gave no sign whatsoever that he recognized her. In fact, he seemed to be leading the discussion as Zach sat across from her, his eyes burning into her.
She offered a tiny, tentative smile in his direction, but he just scowled. She sighed.
She was dying to ask if they were twins but forced down the question that bubbled up inside her.
Play it cool, she thought frantically. Concentrate.
Connor glanced sideways at Zach sitting beside him and then leaned forward, hands clasped on the table in front of him. “Well,” he said, “jump in any time, Zach. A few months ago we decided we needed to expand our production, especially our Gold Coast Pale Ale.” He paused.
"That's our best-selling product,” Zach added. “It's where most of our profit comes from, which allows me ... us ... to experiment and be creative with other specialty beers. Some of those are pretty popular too, and we could increase production of those as well."
"Right,” Connor said. “Anyway, we needed financing, so we went to our bank and started talking. We have a few different ways we could go. Since then, we've been working on business plans for different scenarios to take to the bank or to approach other potential investors."
Ashlyn had heard some of this from Zach two weeks ago, but not in as much detail. She tried to concentrate. As the meeting progressed, she realized neither man knew what had happened. Zach must just think she was some slutty disappearing tease. She could deal with that. Maybe.
But then she realized she had a bigger problem. Horror crawled over her skin, seeped into her bones.
She had totally screwed up a case. She'd given a client wrong information. And if Jessica Montgomery had acted on it, that made matters even worse.
Maybe Jessica hadn't done anything. Although Ashlyn did recall Zach saying his brother had personal problems right now.
Had Jessica Montgomery even looked at the video? If she had, she certainly would have realized that was not her husband. The brothers looked alike, and could be confused if all you were going on was a still photo, but there were definitely differences.
This was a major screw up, and she had no idea what to do. Her stomach cramped painfully.
"Then, kind of out of the blue,” Connor continued, “we got a call from Steinbrau Breweries. They wanted to meet with us about a proposal they had. So we met a few months ago. They were willing to invest in the company. Basically they'd have thirty percent ownership, which would more than finance what we want to do, even if we went with our ‘Cadillac’ scenario. In exchange, we would have full access to their distribution network."
Again he glanced at Zach. “We gave the offer a lot of consideration. It was a very sweet deal. But we were both resistant to the idea of selling out to Big Beer."
Seeing the puzzled faces of the others at the table, Ashlyn put in, “That's what they call the big three breweries.” She looked around as everyone's eyes turned to her. “They control ninety percent of the beer market...” she added, her voice trailing off. She slid down a little in her seat.
Zach grinned.
Connor continued slowly. “Uh ... yes. There's a bit of tension between ‘Big Beer’ and us smaller craft breweries. We don't need to go into all that right now."
"Maybe we do,” Dave said. “But for now, go on."