by KB Winters
Lana stared at me, and then her face crumpled.
Shit.
Tears slid past her lashes. “Please, Mr. Rosen, don’t fire me. I wasn’t trying to make a statement or something…it was just something I was thinking.”
Red hot anger was raging through me, but I held it back as best as I could. “Stay out of my business, Lana. You have more than enough to worry about.”
She nodded and sucked in a gasping breath as she wiped away her tears. “Yes, sir.”
“Go discuss the reopening event. Get some ideas.” I flexed my jaw tight, locking back all the other things I wanted to scream at her.
She trudged away, and I turned to find half a dozen pairs of eyeballs blinking at me like I was some kind of monster that had just stalked out of the ocean and up onto their patio shattering their peaceful seaside afternoon.
Without a word, I stepped off the wooden patio and started down the beach. I needed a minute to get myself back together or I was going to lose my shit entirely. My heart raced and my muscles were tense and tight.
My phone rang when I was ten paces from the cafe. I jerked it free from the pocket of my jeans and stared at the screen. An unknown number. Perfect.
“What?” I answered, my tether had been broken and I was in no mood for whoever was on the other end of the line. Part of me hoped it was O’Keefe just so I could rip him a new asshole.
It would feel good.
“Mr. Rosen, this is Gary, with the FAA. We need you back at the museum as soon as possible,” his tone was clipped and sent a surge of adrenaline through me.
They’d found something.
Chapter Five
“How long have your security cameras been inoperable?”
I turned at Gary’s question, my eyes wide as a shiver of dread ran down my spine. “What?”
He pointed with the ballpoint pen in his hands as we walked through the hangar where a smattering of FBI and FAA agents were working to collect evidence and complete the investigation they’d begun earlier that morning. “That one, and that one,” he pointed again, sweeping the space, “are both out of order. Nothing has been recorded for days. We had our tech guys use all the tricks in their bags to retrieve the footage, but there’s nothing. So either your cameras are busted, or someone scrubbed the footage.”
“Shit.” I scrubbed a hand over my face. “So we have nothing?”
Gary gave me a long look. His face grim. His jaw set. “Not exactly. Come this way.”
I cast one last glance at the cameras, recalling the thousands I’d sunk into security equipment when I first started making money back on the business. The museum contained millions of dollars’ worth of planes, memorabilia, and electronics. I’d written the check to the security company without hesitation. It was worth it to make sure my investment was safe and secure. The fact that someone could have so easily wiped that out both rankled and nauseated me.
Whatever was going on was getting darker and more sinister by the minute.
“Spears, bring me the images.”
Gary’s barked tone snapped me back to attention. I took the steps to close the distance between us and arrived at his side just as an agent was rushing up, a tan manila envelope in his hands. Gary gave him a curt nod, dismissing him, and then dumped the contents out. “What are these?” I asked, watching over his shoulder as he rifled through the glossy images.
“These are photos from the mechanical inspection. My guys searched these other planes top to bottom.” He handed me the orderly stack of pictures. “Every single plane in the hangar had the same problems—the fuel lines. Whoever did this wanted to ensure that no matter which bird you took up, it wouldn’t be coming back down in one piece.”
“What?” The word left my lips with all the air that had been left in my lungs.
Gary dropped his eyes to the pictures and I followed his line of sight. My head spun and the activity and noise in the room around me faded as I went through the pictures. Just as he’d said, each plane showed the same signs of tampering. The full reality hit me like an out of control freight train.
“Oh my God. Anyone could have taken these planes up. This one…” I held up a picture of a Beech 36 “…holds six people! Six lives could have been lost? And all for what?” I stuffed the pictured back into the envelope. “Some fucking condo…greedy son of a bitch.”
“Wait,” Gary reached for the envelope to stop me from damaging the photos that were now evidence in a mounting pile. “Condos? What are you talking about?”
Shit.
My mind flickered back to my meeting with Lance Toffer. He hadn’t seen a problem with telling the investigators what I knew, but I had a hard time seeing how I could give them only part of the story. If I brought up O’Keefe’s threats and the contract, they would start asking questions. Questions that would lead to what leverage O’Keefe had over me. And that was where things would get ugly. Especially since Gary struck me as the kind of guy who was like a dog with a bone when it came to his work. He wouldn’t let me talk my way out of it.
“Mr. Rosen? If you have any leads or information about this, you need to tell me. Now.” He didn’t raise his voice, but his tone was even and commanding.
I rubbed the back of my neck. “The man who did this—or at least, would have a motive to—is Henry O’Keefe.”
Gary’s eyes went wide. “The real estate mogul?”
I nodded. I wasn’t surprised that Gary knew the name. As O’Keefe had been dotting the California coast with his multiple million dollar projects, his name was circulating through major media outlets in the business world. If Gary primarily worked cases on the West Coast, he’d have heard of him.
“How do you know?” Gary tucked the envelope under his arm.
I glanced around the room. The severity of it all rushed over me again and the walls started to close in. “Can we go to my office?” I asked, turning my attention back to Gary. “Bring in the FBI guy as well. I’ll tell you the full story.”
He considered me for another long moment, seemingly shocked by my sudden cooperative attitude, and then sprang into action. He snapped for the main FBI agent on the case, a man I’d been introduced to earlier in the day, Peter Montgomery.
“Agent Montgomery, Mr. Rosen has some information he wishes to disclose to us,” Gary said once we were inside my office. He waved for me to take my usual place at my desk and he and Agent Montgomery settled onto the couch.
I rolled the chair to close the gap, leaving just a few feet between us. “I don’t have any solid proof, but I think I know who did this. Henry O’Keefe has been blackmailing me into giving him my business. He’s trying to sink my business so that I’m forced to close down and sell him the land in order for him to build a community of million-dollar luxury condos.”
Agent Montgomery leaned forward, bracing his elbows on his knees. “That’s quite the accusation, Mr. Rosen. I know of Mr. O’Keefe, by reputation only, and while I understand him to be an ambitious, driven man, I find it hard to believe that a man with his high profile would blackmail someone out of their land. At least, not directly.”
I set my jaw. “Here,” I reached into my jacket pocket and tugged out the folded pages of the contract. “This is a contract he’s forcing me to sign. He ambushed me outside my house and told me that if I don’t sign them within three days, he’ll follow through on his threat against me.”
“Which is?” Montgomery asked, taking the pages, his eyebrows raised.
I faltered. “I can’t say…”
“I see…” Gary spoke this time, his tone skeptical.
I was losing them. I could see their disbelief sinking in. Their expressions were hardening by the second.
“Just read the contract,” I burst out, the frustration that had been boiling all afternoon came surging back up.
The men went quiet as they read through the contract. Agent Montgomery finished first. He brought his gaze level with mine. His mouth set in a firm line. His eyes hollow. “It soun
ds like a pretty standard business contract. Unless you can tell us what this leverage is that he’s holding over you, I’m not sure we’ll be able to help.”
I sighed. “I can’t tell you. But, listen to me, he’s behind this. You need to look into him. I’m sure you’ll find the breadcrumbs back to whoever broke in and tampered with the planes. My planes!”
The two agents studied me and it took every ounce of control to keep from jumping up and screaming at them that I was telling the truth. “We’ll look into it,” Agent Montgomery said, rising from his place on the couch. He handed the contract back to me and the two men filed out of the room without a glance back.
“Argh!” I growled, slamming the pages down onto my desk as soon as they were on the other side of the closed door.
The phone on my desk rang, interrupting my tirade. “What?” I demanded, jerking the receiver to my ear.
“Temper, temper. You know, with that kind of greeting, it’s no wonder business has fallen off.”
The hairs on the back of my neck rose to stand on end at the silky, self-satisfied purr that could only belong to one man.
“What the fuck do you want, O’Keefe?”
“You know what I want, Rosen. Don’t play dumb. It’s beneath you.”
My fist clenched around the phone, wishing I could slam it into the side of his skull. “Well, as you probably already know, I’m a little tangled up right now.”
“Yes,” he replied, sounding bored. “I see you have company.”
See? Were his people outside right now? Did he know I’d just finished a meeting with the lead investigator for both the FBI and the FAA?
“Yeah, so your contract is going to have to wait,” I said, regaining a grip on my control. I had to buy myself some time. Once I signed those papers, it would take a helluva lot more work to get them nullified than pushing the meeting off a few days to give me enough time to prove to the investigators that I wasn’t delusional.
“Sadly, yes, it will. I’m needed back at my home office, in LA.” I rolled my eyes at the way he sounded put-out by the delay. “I’ll be in touch when I’m able to break away. Maybe I’ll have my private jet fly me back over. It seems as though your airstrip will be vacant for the near future.” He chuckled at his own joke.
Which made me hate him all the more.
“Fuck you, O’Keefe.”
“Now, is that any way to speak to your business partner?”
“We are not business partners,” I retorted through gritted teeth.
“No, I suppose you’re right. Although, you can’t say I didn’t give you the chance. Remember, Rosen, I tried to be a nice guy in all this.”
Hot rage boiled up in my veins, rushing into every extremity, until I was hot with fury.
“Come on, admit it. I did you a favor,” he continued, the smile audible in his smarmy tone. “I—albeit unintentionally—took care of Talia for you. I know you didn’t know her very long, but I can assure you, Rosen, she was a very jealous woman. She wouldn’t have liked sharing you with your nurse.”
I broke. “If you ever so much as breathe in her direction, I’ll gut you like the fucking pig that you are.”
O’Keefe’s chuckle cut through the crackle resounding in my ears. “So valiant.”
“I’m not playing a game with you, O’Keefe. You want your deal—you leave her the fuck alone. Don’t so much as speak of her again, and I swear to God, if you have people following her, I’ll hunt you down and even your own mother won’t be able to identify you.”
He continued to laugh. “I’ll call to reschedule the meeting. Be ready.”
I opened my mouth, ready to spill more venom, but the call ended, leaving a hollow echo in my ear.
Chapter Six
It took a solid ten minutes for my nerves to stop sizzling in the hotbed of anger that was left over from the exchange with O’Keefe. When it passed, it was like a riptide, sucked back to sea, all at once, leaving me empty and devoid of energy. I sank into my chair and forced my breathing back to normal. Once I decided I could carry on a conversation without sounding insane, I picked up my cell phone and dialed Gemma’s number, praying she’d be at a point in her day when she could answer.
The phone rang on, each ring dragging out longer than the last, as the silence between was filled with images of Talia hanging limp in the seat beside me in the cockpit of the plane. Only, instead of Talia’s face, it was Gemma’s. I drummed my fingers on the desk and then slammed my palm down when the phone kicked me to Gemma’s voicemail.
“This is Gemma Henderson, please leave me a message, and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.”
“Gemma—I—this is Aaron—shit—” I clicked off the call. What was I supposed to say? Watch out for evil henchmen hiding in black cars? In the bushes? Under your stairs? In your closet? Or, how about, hey Gemma, because you’re with me, you’re now the target of a crazy billionaire who may or may not try to kill you to get to me?
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck!” I jerked out of my chair, stuffed my phone back into my jeans pocket, only to rip it back out seconds later. This time, I dialed the hospital, and after working my way—without losing my shit—through the phone tree, made it to the nurse station in the ER. “Hello, this is Aaron Rosen. I was a patient there a few days ago and was hoping to get in touch with one of my doctors, Gemma Henderson. Is she available?”
“I’m sorry, Mr. Rosen, Gemma isn’t here this afternoon.”
My heart jumped into my throat. She wasn’t there? But I’d just seen her less than an hour before.
“At all?” I said, cringing at the desperation creeping into my voice. “I mean, uhm, she’s not there at all?”
“Well, she was,” the nurse confession with a small sigh. “She left a little while ago.”
“Do you know where she was going?”
“No. I’m sorry. Would you like me to get one of the other doctors? I’m sure they will be able to assist you.”
“No, no. That won’t be necessary…thank you.”
Fuck!
I clicked off the call before the nurse could prod for more information. Where was she? She’d left the hospital in the middle of her shift. She wasn’t answering her phone. And the most chilling piece of the puzzle…O’Keefe had just threatened her moments before.
My heart squeezed into a tight ball even as it raced. A gripping hand made of ice and fear had wrapped around it and refused to let go. As my mind ran wild, the intensity ratcheted up, until I thought I was going to collapse.
I gathered myself, shaking off the grisly scenarios running through my mind, at least as best as I could, and forced my focus into making a plan. I had to find her. Maybe she’d gone home sick?
I decided to start at her house. Even if she wasn’t there, it would give me a chance to go and make sure O’Keefe or his henchmen weren’t there watching her.
As I started out of the office, I regretted not asking Talia for more information about the men she’d claimed were following her. If anyone knew what O’Keefe’s men looked like, it would have been her. But no, all I’d seen was a problem that I was eager to get rid of, and had barely listened to what she had to say. The warnings she’d tried to give me.
I shook my head at myself, stalking down the hall, out to the side door.
“Mr. Rosen?”
I stopped walking at the snap of Gary’s voice, but didn’t turn towards it. Instead, every muscle tensed. It was a familiar sensation, each fiber locking into place like plated armor. I hadn’t felt this way in years, but my body remembered it all too well. It was the height before a battle. The second before walking into a hot zone. Weapon drawn. Senses on high alert. Every inch ready for action.
“Where are you going?” His footsteps hurried to catch up to me.
“Out. Last time I checked I wasn’t being held prisoner here,” I snarled.
Gary reached my side and I jerked my chin to look down at him. He squared his broad shoulders. “You’re not. But with everything you just t
old us, it would be good for you to stay close, in case we find more for you to review.”
A hollow laugh escaped my throat. “What for? I just handed you a nice little gift wrapped package with the name and motive of the fucker behind this, but that wasn’t good enough. You’re still here, looking for evidence. A trail.”
Gary sighed and his eyes drooped, showing me the first hint of a crack in his walls. “I know, Mr. Rosen. I know this is an exhausting process and sometimes it doesn’t make sense. At least, not from the outside, but I assure you that we’re not discounting the intel you provided. But, as Agent Montgomery and I said, without something solid to go on, there’s nothing we can do to pursue the lead. Everything is circumstantial. At best.”
“I bet if you searched his bank records you’d find it. Or his contacts. Something is gonna point him back to this…” I threw my hand back towards the hangar. “I’m telling you, Gary, this was him.”
Gary held up his hand and nodded. “I hear you. But no judge is gonna give us a warrant. That’s why we need to keep looking.”
“Fine! But I’m not going to sit around here and wait.” I started off again, my steps charged and furious.
Gary didn’t try to stop me, but when I was a handful of paces away, he called out to me, “Be careful, Mr. Rosen.”
* * * *
Gemma’s house was empty. At least, from the looks of it. The heavily tinted windows on her garage made it hard to confirm, but from what I could see, there wasn’t a car inside. I’d rounded the house, hopping to check every window, and knocked on both the front and back doors repeatedly, but it was radio silent.
Her house was the third house in the quiet cul-de-sac and no one even seemed to notice that I was stalking around her house or banging on her doors. I was relieved to not find a pack of O’Keefe’s cronies outside, or at the end of the block, but it was also disturbing that I could cause such a ruckus and not have even one nosy neighbor butting in.