Behind Iron Lace Read online

  Darcy turned to face his crew, only to find a rapt audience hovering uncomfortably close by. Most of the women wore identical expressions of interest, Bailey no exception. The scowl on Chester’s face was priceless. “Everyone, this is Caleb Mitchell. The renowned artist and photographer. He’s going to be working with us to set up a new art department and, with any luck, help us take this thing we call a magazine to the next level.”

  “Caleb—well I’ll just let them introduce themselves,” Darcy said, leaving him to make his way into the crowd, his hand out, his smile so wide no one would know his mother lay dying in a hospital across town.

  “Why didn’t you tell me he was gorgeous, Dar?” Bailey was at his side, her voice low as she waited her turn to meet the new rock star on staff. “I would have gone with you yesterday.”

  “How am I supposed to tell you something like that, Bailey? He’s just a guy. If you were interested in anything except your boy toy over there you would have been professional enough to go even if he were a decrepit geezer.” The idea of going home came on full force, he wanted out of here so badly he could taste it. “If you’ll excuse me I have some work to do in my office.”

  Without waiting for her to respond or worse, call him on his momentary lapse of decorum, Darcy simply walked away. Slipping into his office, he closed the door and sank into the chair behind his desk. Turning his back on the office, he went back to staring out the window at the gloomy rain that settled over the city. He pretended the slithering sensation under his skin was just a symptom of homesickness and not something else entirely.

  “Hey, can I come in?” The voice wrapped around him like a warm wet blanket, nearly suffocating him.

  “Yeah, sure, Caleb, my door is always open. Even when it’s shut.” Oh yeah that sounded brilliant. Caleb smiled a genuine smile, which put Darcy at ease. “What’s on your mind?”

  “I’ve been thinking about what my role here should be. And after yesterday, I feel taking on your entire art department is probably not something I can handle right now.” He closed the door behind him, coming to sit in one of the armless easy chairs in front of Darcy’s desk. He propped a booted foot on his knee, the strings from the worn out hem of his jeans hanging down the back of the leather.

  “How can you stand those boots in this heat? You look so hot.” Darcy didn’t know why his mouth had a mind of its own around Caleb. He didn’t understand the gleam in the artist’s eyes either.

  “I bet you didn’t know you blush a pretty rosy red, did you? I like that about you Darcy. And the way you say what you think. And how much you look like a naughty librarian. There’s that blush again.” Caleb said, his voice low and seductive. He raked Darcy with his eyes.

  “I’m not interested, Caleb. I can’t say that any other way. I just don’t lean that way.” Then why couldn’t he look the man in the eye? Why were those incredible green eyes in his dreams, Caleb’s name on his lips when he came this morning, he asked himself. There was no answer. “Okay so, back to the topic. What sort of role do you see yourself in around here?”

  Pure fire roared through Caleb’s eyes as Darcy watched. His smile turned dangerous, the combination was nearly enough to have Darcy on his knees. Caleb seemed to know what he was thinking, and that scared him. Somehow, he knew about the dream, about—

  “I think you need someone to organize and train your existing staff. Which I can do, I can turn a bunch of amateur photographers into professionals and any idiot with a good photo enhancement program can do what I did yesterday, there’s no real talent to that. I can teach everyone here how to manipulate the media at their disposal and you won’t need an actual art department.” The heat never left his eyes, but the words weren’t what Darcy was expecting. Business instead of seduction.

  “You’re not going to be here long are you?” He heard the message between the words.

  “Don’t sound so disappointed, I might take that as a sign you want more than just a working relationship from me,” Caleb said in the same tone, but if anything the heat in his eyes intensified. “But to answer your question, no, the doctors say it’s just a matter of days. So yes, when my mother is gone, I plan to be somewhere else.”

  “Where will you go?” His heart revving into overdrive startled him. It wasn’t his business where the man went.

  “Back to work. I’ve been asked to go to Afghanistan to cover the war in the new decade. One of my publishers wants me to do a retrospective of the Korean War. He’s working on getting me permission to go into North Korea. There’s so much out there to do. My life was never here, it’s always been out there somewhere.”

  “You would put yourself in danger just for the sake of a few pictures?” Somehow, Darcy knew the photos of the war in Iraq weren’t taken from a safe distance. The gritty realism of an exploding ordinance and the soldiers lying injured seemed like something out of a bad dream, yet Caleb had taken those photos. He’d been there when the bomb had ripped through a military transport as if it were a tin can.

  “I eat danger for breakfast—what movie did that come from? I can’t remember. Hell, Darcy, it’s what I do. I’m a fucking thrill junkie. I get off on adrenaline racing through my body. I live fast and hard. I will die fast and hard.”

  “Sounds like a suicide mission to me.”

  “That’s because you play safe too close to the vest. You probably came from a middle class family, a couple of siblings, parents, braces, music lessons, college, marry your sweetheart, settle down and raise a bunch of kids inside a white picket fence. Safe, boring, predictable. Hell, you even dress like an old man. You have a nice body under your casual Friday office uniform but no one knows it because you are too safe.”

  “Listen, Caleb, I appreciate the attempt to psychoanalyze me but really, what my life is or isn’t is none of your business.” Darcy leaned forward in his chair, heat radiating up his neck as he stared the man down.

  Caleb just smiled a smug smile, dripping with satisfaction. “I was wondering if you had a temper stashed somewhere under this mild mannered Clark Kent façade. I guess you do. Anyway, I have a list of equipment I require. I’ll pick most of it up and bill you for it; I do suggest you invest in a large touch screen computer. It doesn’t have to be fancy, just something to make page design easier. And I want to meet with your field reporters in the morning to go over some photography basics before they go off on assignments.”

  “Anything else, Mr Mitchell?” He hated how Caleb could bully him so easily and then, as if nothing ever happened, change the subject on him.

  “Yeah, I’m not sorry for yesterday, just so you know. And now that I’ve had a taste of you, all I can think about is tasting you again.” The bold statement sent Darcy spinning. Caleb’s smug smirk told him he knew. “Okay, then, I guess that’s about it. I’m going to get with your girl Bailey. She’s a beauty, by the way. I can see why you keep her around. Smart and tall. I like that in a woman.”

  “I didn’t think you liked women.” Darcy aimed low.

  “Best time I ever had was with a couple of Asian beauties while I was in Japan, those little school girl dresses they wear over there are just this shy of illegal. And there was the time I went skiing with a few lovelies from the Swedish women’s Olympic team. Just me and ten blondes, I could have died a happy man right then.” He grinned, pushing his hair back with a flick of his wrist. Darcy decided he knew what kind of reaction that move stirred in people and did it on purpose. “Let’s just say I am very in touch with my sexuality and leave it at that.”

  Darcy didn’t know what to say. He just watched in uncomfortable silence as Caleb left his office, and for the first time since he met him, he wondered if having him on his staff wasn’t the biggest mistake he would ever make.

  The girl, Bailey, really was a stunner; so was her boyfriend. Caleb could see why Darcy didn’t trust the little prick. He was a brownnoser to the nth degree. One thing about Darcy Caleb found fascinating was his understated talent for seeing through people, yet h
e was clueless how to process what he saw. Chester was going to be a problem for him in the future, but how, Caleb wasn’t going to hazard a guess.

  Chester looked him up and down the moment he walked into the office, his hazel eyes greedy and calculating. Bailey on the other hand only had eyes for Darcy. Caleb could tell they’d been arguing by the tension between them. And then all he could see was Darcy, it was almost as if they were the only two people in the room. Caleb did not like that at all.

  He didn’t like being attracted to the man. His Clark Kent good looks sent him for a loop every time he saw him. His polite manner and the innate curiosity about him made Caleb weak. That he had no idea how attractive he really was killed him. No, this thing with Darcy scared him. The attraction was too strong, too powerful, hell he couldn’t even remember the last time he’d been attracted to a man. Kissing him had been too large of a temptation and a mistake.

  As the afternoon wore on, Caleb came to regret sparring with Darcy in his office. He’d only wanted to spend a moment alone with him, but just like the day before he pushed him too far. Darcy didn’t emerge from his cave of solitude, Bailey came and went, but she never looked pleased when she left him.

  Caleb did like to watch her walk though. Her long legs would feel nice wrapped around his hips, but she just wasn’t what he had a taste for, not this time. And frankly, Chester’s possessive glares when he caught him looking bothered him just a little too much.

  The group of kids, and yes they seemed like kids to him, were more than enthusiastic about having him on board. His basic tinkering with their work left an impression that astounded Caleb. For a bunch of techno-geeks, he expected at least one of them to have some working knowledge of photographic enhancing programs. All of them seemed to be more like Darcy, interested in the power of the written word so much so that they couldn’t see what a little color could do to enhance their words.

  Caleb didn’t really care how words worked. He’d never needed to know where a comma went, or the difference between who and whom to create an image so powerful no words were needed. He guessed they were even on that score at least.

  At four the office began to shut down, a shiver of anticipation filled the air as the crew twittered amongst themselves about the midnight launch of this week’s edition. Caleb stood with the one reporter with any real photographic promise, Amber; at least that was what he thought her name was. Amber could barely look at him as he showed her how to work his digital camera, the sensitive shutter, how to select the correct speed, to focus in on a shot until she had the subject perfectly framed. Then he showed her some tricks with the cheap ten-pixel model she had at her disposal to get the best possible photos.

  At the end of the session, she seemed to grasp most of what he’d told her, though she was still unable to look at him directly without giggling. He suddenly felt old.

  Other than him, Bailey and Darcy seemed to be the oldest of the lot. Maybe thirty if he guessed right, the rest were early and mid-twenties, straight out of college. Hell, they were all so young, they still thought they could save the world. Far be it from him to dispel that notion. He’d thought that way once upon a time too, he just couldn’t remember when exactly. Maybe eighteen years ago when he was still an art major at LSU, maybe a couple of years after he dropped out to chase rock bands around the world. Could have been when he was an embedded photographer in the first year of the Iraq war. Whenever it was, he hadn’t noticed that innocence was missing until today.

  “So how’s it going, Caleb?” Bailey slipped up beside him and latched her arm around his. She looked him straight in the eye, which was something of a shock. Not many women were his height or as aggressive as Bailey.

  “Pretty good, Amber and I are going over some basics. She has a good eye. With some decent equipment I think I can turn her into a regular Jimmy Olsen.” He smiled, letting her caress his arm. “What can I do for you, Bailey? It is Bailey, isn’t it?”

  “Right on the nose.” She laughed a husky seductive laugh he was sure she thought was sexy. “We are just so happy to have you here. Darcy was so excited when you contacted him the other day. He was actually giddy, if you believe that. And I must say after spending the morning looking over your credentials I am so happy you found us. Anyway, on Thursday nights we usually meet at a club or someplace and have a little celebration, sort of our version of a wrap party if you will, and we would be so happy if you joined us.”

  Amber seemed to get a kick out of something Bailey said, but she hastily concealed her snort behind a neutral smile. Ah, trouble in paradise. Who was the snake and who was the apple? “Sounds like a good deal. Any place specific? I have something to do later but I can certainly meet you there.”

  “No place special, really, we try to go someplace new as often as we can. Darcy likes O’Doul’s down the street. He’d go there every week if it were up to him. He’s such a stick. So I was hoping you might suggest some place, being a local and all, something off the tourist route maybe.” She was laying it on thick, letting a bit of mimicked southern charm slip into her voice.

  “I know a place, it’s a blues bar out in Storyville, the area can be kind of rough but they have the best music and oysters in town.”

  “Ooh, sounds delicious Will there be dancing? I love to dance.”

  “I can tell, darlin’, you have the natural grace of a dancer. Sure there’s dancing, pool, mixed drinks, and real N’Awlins cuisine.” He scrawled the address on a notepad and handed it to her. “Just make sure to keep an eye on each other and everything will be fine. I’ll call the doorman, he’ll know to expect you. Just tell him Caleb called him a dirty whore and he’ll know who you are.”

  “Are you teasing me? I really have to say that?”

  “Sure, it’s my special password, he made it up himself.” He didn’t, Caleb just wanted to see if she was as gullible as she looked. She stared horrified at him for a moment before she smiled.

  “You had me going there for a minute. I’ll tell him what you said, just to see what he calls you. I bet he has a good name for you. See you tonight then, Caleb, around seven.” She patted his hand and flitted away, waving the note as if it were something special.

  When she was out of earshot, he turned his attention back to Amber. “So why don’t you like Miss Bailey?”

  Amber had the good sense to turn red, her adorable freckles stood out against the rosy hue, making him smile. “You weren’t supposed to notice that.”

  “I notice everything. I could tell you where everything is in this room after one minute inside. It’s a curse really. But it’s made me famous. Now spill, what’s up with Bailey?”

  “She broke Darcy’s heart when she started sleeping with Chester. Nobody likes Chester. He’s a nasty little guinea pig, but then that’s just cruel to guinea pigs, isn’t it? She used to be nice. Now she’s just catty.” Amber fiddled with the telescopic lens to Caleb’s camera. Her voice was so low he had to strain to hear her.

  “And you are loyal to Darcy?”

  “We all are, this magazine is his brainchild, it might not seem like it but he puts a lot of energy into keeping it running. Bailey runs around as if she’s a queen with Chester the Jester on her heels. But we know Darcy is in his office working the phones, following leads until he knows what stories he wants to feature and then he sends us where we need to go. Bailey just does PR and she can work a computer like nobody’s business but she doesn’t often. She likes to network. She looks like one of those models in magazines, skinny and tall. I hate her.”

  “For what she did to Darcy?”

  “Because he’s not happy, he doesn’t like it here. We wouldn’t even be here if it weren’t for her. Actually now that I think about it, today when you came in, was the first time I’ve seen him really smile in weeks. You must be something special to get Darcy to smile like that.” She looked at him then, really looked at him, her shrewd eyes taking in every detail until Caleb wanted to squirm.

  “Me? I’m nothing, just a
bum who knows a thing or two about art and that’s what impressed him. Right now, I’m Cinderella at the ball, he’ll find out soon enough I’m really an ugly stepsister.”

  “You know, Caleb, I was set to dislike you just because you remind me of Bailey, too beautiful for your own good. But I see now that you have the heart of a poet.”

  “Now that, Amber, my friend is going way too far, I’m just a shit kicker at loose ends. Don’t let the face or the glib tongue fool you. I’m nothing but a petty little man who needs entertainment and right now, for better or worse, the Bailey, Darcy, Chester circle is too interesting to pass up.”

  “Just so long as Darcy doesn’t get hurt,” she said softly, meeting his gaze with a forceful glare. “I’ll have your back. Hurt Darcy and I’ll do my best to ruin you.”

  “And you could do it too, couldn’t you?” He smiled when she nodded. “Amber, I can see you and I are going to get along just fine.”

  “You might want to give me the address. Bailey sometimes forgets to pass along meet ups to those of us she doesn’t like. And I for one would love to see the seamier side of New Orleans.”

  “You got it,” he wrote the address down again just as his phone buzzed in his pocket. He checked the text and returned it. “Well, there’s the bat signal, I’m needed downtown. It was nice meeting you, Amber. And remember what I told you and you’ll do fine.”

  “I’ll do that, Caleb. See you tonight.” Still engrossed with his camera she waved him away. “And I’ll get this back to you Tuesday.”

  “No hurry, I have ten more at home.”

  He found himself standing in front of Darcy’s office once again; this time he didn’t knock, he walked in unannounced. Darcy, with phone to his ear, looked up at him but continued his conversation. He jotted down flight information on a notepad and hung up. He took off his glasses and tossed them on the desk to rub his eyes, he looked tired. “Sorry about that, last minute change in one of the assignments for next week. Are you heading out then?”