Johan's Joy: A SEALs of Honor World Novel (Heroes for Hire Book 21)

by Dale Mayer

  “Any news?” Galen asked, sitting down at his desk.

  “Yes,” Johan said, “but the cops will be here anytime now. According to Doris, Phyllis and Barlow were into theft and smuggling, using the company as a shell.”

  “In that case, it sure would be nice to get into her laptop before the cops get here.”

  “That’s what I was thinking.”

  Galen opened his laptop and said, “Give me a minute.” Very quickly he managed to access her laptop remotely.

  Johan stood behind Galen as they went through her folders, and everything appeared to be pretty standard. “So there’s nothing jumping out at me. How about you?”

  “Hmm. Look at this.” Galen pointed out a folder on one of the servers that had a naming pattern inconsistent with the rest. He clicked on it, and it took him to several more folders, and, by the time he finished clicking through, he found pictures of a little girl. Pictures of a girl growing up but always just pictures of the girl, never with a parent. “Do you think that’s Phyllis’s daughter?”

  “It’s possible.”

  Another folder had pictures of the child at school. The photos had clearly been separated into groups and kept in different folders. One for home, one for school, and one for visits. They found a few pictures of Phyllis with the little girl.

  “Visits,” Johan said. “Probably registered visits, so maybe the child was raised by an adoptive family or a foster home.”

  They got to the end of the pictures, when Johan reached out. “Hold it. Look right there.” They looked at the last photo. “Does she remind you of anyone?”

  Galen sat back and whistled. “Yeah, the woman who just left.”

  They bolted back to Joy’s office to see Joy still sitting there, working away. Johan sighed with relief. “So, we have another connection,” he said. “It looks like Doris might very well be Phyllis’s daughter.”

  Joy stared at him in shock, her gaze going from one empty desk to the other. “Seriously?”

  He nodded. “But we don’t know for sure. We only have photos of her when she was quite a bit younger.”

  “I don’t think she’s all that old,” she said slowly. “I think she dresses dowdy to unimpress, if you know what I mean.”

  “What? She does that?” Johan asked. “On purpose?”

  “Maybe she was blackmailing Barlow.” Joy looked from Johan to Galen.

  Johan shook his head. “Doris blackmailing Barlow? Or Phyllis blackmailing Barlow? Either way, doesn’t fly for me. Barlow’s heartless. He wouldn’t care if the world knew he had a daughter who he disowned before birth. But it would be karmic justice if he were being blackmailed by someone. If so, then he’s blackmailing others so he can get the money to pay his own blackmailer?”

  “It’s possible.” Galen shrugged. “It would explain the cash in his safe.”

  Johan paused. “What seems more probable is that Barlow was stockpiling money and jewels to make a run for it, now that the heat’s turning up on their smuggling op.”

  “Yeah, now I can see that,” Galen stated. “I wonder if he would’ve taken Phyllis with him.”

  “Huh. Doubtful. I don’t see him as the loyal type,” Johan stated.

  “That adoption would have been tough,” Galen noted.

  “Yeah,” Joy said. “On both women. Somehow I think Phyllis cared about Doris, in her own limited way, yet not so much that Doris cared for her mom, who abandoned her early in her life.”

  “Seems Phyllis’s death may have made Doris care a bit,” Galen commented.

  “Too little, too late,” Johan noted. Just then Johan’s phone rang. “This is one of the guys where we set up the cameras at his mailbox.”

  “What’s up with him?”

  “Hello? This is Johan.”

  “We got emails. He wants the money today!”

  “Okay. So go ahead and put the money in the box,” Johan said. “We’ve already got it set up.”

  “Oh, good,” he said in relief. “We didn’t know if it was good to go or what.”

  “Are you at work?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  “Then come home as usual and put the money in the box. We’ll keep track of it and be in touch. Try to keep your cool and don’t do anything suspicious.”

  “Done,” he said and hung up.

  Johan looked at Joy. “I wonder if it’s a coincidence that Doris left here early.”

  Joy sat back and stared. “That would be a little too unbelievable.”

  “Not really,” he said. “We’ve often wondered if there was more than just one team at work here.”

  “Well, I think the smuggling was one team, but I’m not sure what is going on now with the blackmailing part.”

  “Exactly.” He held out his hand. “Sounds like you’re done for the day.”

  “I have a lot of work to do,” she said, “and if these two aren’t here, I can—”

  Just then Edward burst in. “What the hell is going on?” He looked completely frazzled.

  “Phyllis has been murdered,” Johan said, “in case you hadn’t heard the news. Likely by the same person who murdered Barlow. Considering the camera down here facing Phyllis, which fed back to Barlow, that would make sense.”

  Edward just shook his head. “I don’t understand,” he said. “I really don’t understand.”

  “Well, according to Doris,” Joy said, motioning to the seat beside her, “the two of them—Barlow and Phyllis—have been smuggling from the company for many years. Westgroup was originally set up as a shell company to move materials that he could then sell on the black market. He had to legitimize it in order to make it survive. Then he moved the smuggling operation into a much smaller scenario. All of that with help from Phyllis.”

  Edward’s skin faded even more and took on a waxy pallor. “This will ruin us,” he said. “You know that? This will ruin us.”

  “Well, this isn’t the first time it’s come up though, has it?” Johan asked, crossing his arms. “The woman who was here before Joy brought up findings indicative of theft.”

  Edward frowned and shrugged. “But she wasn’t here very long.”

  “No,” Joy said. “She was also killed in a hit-and-run before she could do any more.”

  He gasped, his hand going to his heart. With that, he turned and bolted.

  “You know this just might lead to him resigning from the board today too,” she said in a conversational tone. “I feel sorry for the rest of the people who work here, but it sounds like a lot of people will jump ship really fast.”

  “Rats always jump ship as soon as there’s any sign of trouble,” Johan said. “Don’t worry about it. They also have a really good survival instinct.”

  She looked around, sighed, and said, “I have to leave, don’t I?”

  “The sooner, the better,” he said. “So get up and log off. Let’s see if we can sort all this out today.”

  Chapter 19

  Outside in the front seat of the vehicle, she asked, “Where are we going?”

  “We’re just waiting to find out who comes tonight,” he said and nodded toward Galen in the back seat behind him. “The blackmailer emailed the board members to move up the money drop by a day.”

  “What are you saying?” She twisted around to see Galen, watching a laptop. “Ah,” she said. “Are you monitoring who’s picking up the money?”

  “Yep. And so are the cops.” Just then Galen whispered, “And here’s a vehicle.” He held up the laptop a little bit so they could see what the camera saw. “It’s a woman, sure enough. Is that Doris?”

  “Yeah, it looks like her,” Johan said.

  “Watch this.” Galen chuckled.

  Doris walked up, reached her hand in the mailbox, and pulled out two envelopes. She seemed completely unconcerned, as if she expected them to be there, having done this many times. She walked back to her car, and, before she had a chance to do anything more, she was surrounded by cops.

  “Got her,” Galen said,
with a note of satisfaction. He smiled and closed the laptop. “Okay, now what do you want to do?”

  She just stared at him. “So, that’s the blackmail issue, but what about the thefts?”

  “I highly suspect it’s all involved,” Johan said. “And with Phyllis and Barlow both dead, that should take care of smuggling element.”

  “So it’s over then? But I don’t feel like it’s over,” she said.

  “I’m not sure that it’s all over,” he said.

  Just then there was a knock on the window. Johan turned to see Edward there. Johan opened the door, hopped out, and Joy looked on as Edward pulled a small handgun and put it against Johan’s jaw.

  She cried out, “Oh, my God! Edward, what are you doing?”

  “Johan’s ruined everything,” Edward said. “And so have you.” Edward shoved Johan back into the driver’s seat and opened the back door, quickly pointing the gun at Galen, getting him to move over so Edward could get into the back. “Now get us out of here,” he said to Johan, holding the gun against Galen.

  “Nice .22 you got there, Edward. So what’s your plan here?” Johan asked as he started up the vehicle.

  “I don’t know,” Edward said, “but I’ve got somebody picking up some money for me, and it will help me get away.”

  “So, Doris is working for you?” Johan asked.

  “Of course not,” he said. “She’s my lover.” He sneered.

  “Jesus,” Joy said.

  “She disguises that pretty well, doesn’t she?” Edward said, laughing. “We didn’t want anybody at the company to know.”

  “Of course,” Johan said. “So you know that Phyllis was her mother, right?”

  Edward stopped and stared. “How did you guys figure that out?”

  “You’d be surprised,” Johan replied. “So that’s how Doris knew about the blackmail?”

  “Of course. It’s all in the family.”

  “And how many more people are you blackmailing?”

  “Lots,” he said, “but that’s not your problem or your business.”

  “And the theft in the company?”

  “Well, it’s been going on for twenty years,” he said, “but you’re pretty well bringing that to a grinding halt. Once the cops get involved in it, we’ll be forced to change our plans. We’ll up the blackmail to help compensate. Besides, moving the drugs was getting harder and harder anyway. So that operation was much diminished compared to what we used to have.”

  “And what about Chelsea, the woman who worked my desk before me?”

  He shrugged. “Well, she had to be taken out, did she not? That was easy. Of course Philly took care of her. Even Doris took my truck and tried to run you down. Only she missed.”

  “And what about Ricardo? What’s his involvement?”

  “So you know about him too? He’s my IT guy. Had to have a hacker in my pocket. Just paid him to do some super secret stuff for the company. The kid loved it. Thought he would go far. I’ll have to deal with him too, damn.” He shrugged. “Or not. Once I’m gone, he’ll be the fool who’s been hacking the company database. He’ll take the fall for that. Same as the idiot at the mall. Why would I pay him to do more when he had failed already? He trashed your apartment but was supposed to take you out too, and he didn’t. I had to put the damn bugs in myself. Just like I had to kill Barlow and Phyllis. Still, in for a penny, in for a pound. Of course Ricardo drove a friend’s truck to try and run her off the road.” And he gave Joy a smile that made her shiver.

  “And now? What do you plan to do with me?”

  “Same deal as the others but with its own twist,” he said cheerfully. “You know what? We’ll drive to a nice lonely spot. Three bullets and you’ll all be gone. I’ll leave the gun behind. Doris will pick me up, and we’ll leave. I already resigned from the company, so we’re good to go. It’s not like her job was of any value anyway. Phyllis and Barlow are also gone, and, by the time the media gets ahold of all this, it’ll blow up beautifully.” He laughed and laughed. “So, keep driving,” he said, “or I’ll blow Galen’s head apart.”

  She watched as Johan drove carefully, following Edward’s instructions. “We don’t have much gas, you know?” she said.

  Edward leaned toward the front seat and frowned when he checked the gas gauge. “So pull into a gas station. We’ll have to get some at least. We have a bit of a drive ahead.”

  Johan obediently pulled into the next gas station.

  Edward immediately sat up. “Now watch it,” he said. “Anything funny and he’ll get the first bullet, and she’ll get the second.”

  He nodded slowly, got out, opened the gas tank, and started filling it up.

  She wasn’t sure what he was doing, but it seemed like something else was going on. His hands were a little too busy. He had his phone out, texting. With that, she settled back and smiled, knowing Johan would appreciate it if she were to distract the gunman in the back seat. “So tell me, Edward,” she said. “All this trouble, why?”

  “What do you mean, why? For money,” he said. “Originally we were all planning on getting rid of the company and going off to retire early. Of course Barlow and Phyllis had their weird little relationship thing going on still, but—”

  “What split them up way back when?”

  “Her getting pregnant of course. He couldn’t handle that at all.”

  “Of course not,” she said, with a sigh. “That would be way too much to ask of him.”

  He shrugged and said, “Whatever. It was all fine until you came on board. If you hadn’t been so damn nosy, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”

  “Maybe.”

  And just like that, the door opened beside Edward. Galen grabbed Edward’s gun, while Johan hit Edward hard in the temple. He made a weird strangled sound, but he never fired a shot, as he slowly sagged into the seat.

  Within minutes, the cops pulled up and circled them. Joy got out of the front seat, ran around, and threw herself into Johan’s arms.

  “Oh, my God,” she whispered.

  He held her close, kissing her neck, her cheek, and her forehead.

  “Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” She reached up and grabbed his head, then pulled him down and kissed him hard.

  When he lifted his head, he smiled. “Now that’s what I’m talking about.”

  She laughed and then started to cry, and he just held her close.

  *

  Much later that evening they finally said goodbye to Tyson again and walked back to the hotel. They’d gone to dinner around the corner from where they were staying. When she got to her room, she waited for Johan to join her. He stopped at the doorway and frowned. She smiled at him. “Of course you’re coming in, aren’t you?”

  He stepped in and closed the door. “I don’t want to push you.”

  “No, we’re well past that now.” She threw herself into his arms and just held him close. “Do you know how close we came to dying today?” she cried out.

  He nodded and pulled her back into his arms. “I’m sorry. I would have done anything to spare you from experiencing that.”

  “You did everything you could, and the bottom line is, we’re all safe, and that’s what matters.” She reached up and kissed him deeply.

  He tried to slow her down, but she wasn’t having it. Her hands were busy on his shirt buttons, and, before he realized it, she was taking it off his shoulders.

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he said. “We have time.”

  “Good,” she said, “because I intend to make very good use of that time.”

  His eyebrows shot up, and she just grinned as she stepped back, crossed her arms, and lifted her shirt over her head, tossing it. She shucked her pants just as fast, and, just like that, she stood there in sandals, tiny little white cotton briefs, and a bra.

  He reached out, stroking along the top of the elastic and said, “I don’t remember you buying those.”

  “Good,” she said. “Then it’s a surprise.”

  He swallowed h
ard and nodded, his hands going to his belt. But she took his hands away and quickly undid the belt for him. When she went to slide the zipper down on his jeans, her hand slid over the bulge, gently caressing and stroking, stopping for a moment to squeeze.

  He shuddered. “I think this will be a hell of a night,” he muttered.

  “I know it’ll be a hell of a night.” She took off her bra, kicked off her sandals and the scrap of cotton briefs with it, and raced to the bed. Pulling back the sheets, she kneeled in the center of the bed and opened her arms.

  He didn’t know what the hell happened, but she was like a whirlwind. He walked toward her—proud, erect, and dying for the experience he’d been looking forward to since he’d first met her.

  She threw herself into his arms and whispered, “Love me, Johan. Make me feel alive. Remind me why we went through all this shit these last few days.”

  “How about I do even better than that?” he said. “How about I love you and remind you that life is so much more than what we went through this week.” And, with that, he gently kissed her, but the fire and passion between them soared and seared as they came together from hips to chest in a fury of skin and nerves. Myriad sensations shuddered and rolled through them both.

  She sighed, then whispered, “I need you so badly.”

  “Lie down,” he whispered.

  She immediately dropped down on top of the sheet and opened her arms.

  He slowly covered her, but, when she started to pull him to her, she spread her thighs wide, hoping he would come to her immediately. He shook his head.

  “Not just yet.”

  She groaned but lay shuddering under his ministrations as he stoked the fires within her. He didn’t want it over quite so fast. Not their first time, not like that. So he kissed and caressed her, his fingers stroking until he slid one finger inside her, and her hips shoved upward, sending it deeper as she cried out.

  She melted all around him, and he watched with joy as her passion overtook her, and she let go, completely unfazed and natural in her response. When she lay shuddering before him, she opened her eyes.

  “Now I want to be with you.”

  He gently fitted himself against her entrance and carefully slid deep inside. She cried out, her body coming apart yet again. Still shuddering, she reached up and whispered, “Dear God, I don’t know what you’ve done to me,” she said, “but this is too damn perfect.”