To Liam, that meant Atlas might not actually believe in his heart of hearts that Sophia was his enemy. But he needed a bullseye to target his fury.
Wanting to assess Atlas’s frame of mind, to see how much danger still hung over Sophia, Liam chose a different line of approach. “What do you think?”
Atlas offered a humorless grin. “I wish I could hire you to do this full time.”
“Thanks.” Liam shrugged. “But you couldn’t afford me.”
The casino owner tossed his head back and laughed. “Yeah, I know. Isaac told me. You run your own billion-dollar venture. That would be like your cousin, Trey, wanting to hire me as a risk assessment analyst.”
While the similarities could be amusing, the man’s ability to find any humor in this scenario bothered Liam. On behalf of the woman who still sat in a cramped room alone, bearing the weight of an uncertain outcome on her slender shoulders, he was reminded that Sophia needed someone on her side who didn’t care about Atlas’s bottom line. Or his own—no doubt another interrogator might’ve agreed with Atlas, just to assure a future business alliance. Liam held no ulterior motives, but someone else might.
“So, what’s your impression?” Liam asked carefully.
Atlas frowned, the look darkening the smudges underneath his eyes. “The thing is, she didn’t offer anything incriminating.”
Because she has nothing incriminating to offer, don’t you get it? “She did not,” Liam agreed in a steadfast tone.
“All the best guys on my IT team can’t be wrong,” Atlas said, as though trying to convince himself. “The theft was initiated from her laptop.”
Attempting to sound neutral, Liam offered, “There could be another explanation.”
“What other explanation could there be?” the man almost roared.
Liam tipped back on the heels of his cowboy boots. He said nothing.
“Sorry. That was unprofessional. It’s just in all my years as a casino owner, this has never happened to me.”
“I get your frustration.”
Atlas stared at him with blood-shot dark eyes, making him look borderline possessed. “Do you? Do you get how much is riding this?”
Liam pointed out, “Even technology can be wrong.”
Atlas shot him a guarded look.
Liam continued, “Or, technology can fall into the wrong hands.”
Peering at him, Atlas asked low, “Do you think she’s innocent—completely innocent?”
“I didn’t say that,” Liam stated, trying to seem impartial.
“So, this could’ve happened with someone else using her computer, and she doesn’t know about it?”
Liam blinked slowly. “It’s possible. You have to concede that.”
“I’m still in business because I do everything right. I vet my people heavily. Every. Single. One. Especially those in my accounting and financial departments. If she has nothing to do with this, why does all the evidence point directly to her?”
“I don’t know,” Liam admitted. “But I don’t think Sophia is capable of anything as stealthy and intricately planned as this heist. This seems professional grade, in my opinion. Planned by someone who knew what he was doing.”
Atlas grunted in response, appearing to mull over his words.
“This is someone who’s done something like this before, or who’s been planning it for a very long time. Someone who might hold a personal grudge against you.”
Atlas groaned. “Come on. I’ve pissed off thousands of people in my life. You’re saying any one of them could’ve infiltrated my million-dollar system?”
Liam saw his moment and pounced. “Yes, by picking on an easy target. A hard-working, guileless woman who wouldn’t dream of ever doing the wrong thing.”
A wash of pain drifted over Atlas’s expression, and his forehead scrunched. “How can I know for sure? Your interrogation skills are impressive, but you’re still human.”
“What about going to the cops?” Liam crossed his arms. “Let their lie detector test determine the truth.” He had no doubt Sophia would pass with flying colors.
“Hell, no.” Atlas balked. “I’m way too high profile, and the walls of a police station are more porous than a sponge. The news of a heist from my casino would be all over the news tomorrow. Making me an even bigger target. That’s why I talked to my cousin Isaac, and why I hired you.”
An idea occurred to Liam. “What if I have another solution?”
Interest piqued, Atlas sat up straight in his chair.
Damn, why hadn’t he thought of this sooner? “I can take her with me to Denver. Logan Stone, the original owner of the bodyguard company my family bought, has an impressive system in his facility, right next door to ours.”
Slowly, Atlas rose until they stood eye to eye—or close to it, if Atlas had been four inches taller. “I’m listening.”
Here, Liam had to fudge the facts a little, since he didn’t know the full capabilities of Logan’s system. But from what he’d heard from Trey, the cutting-edge technology might satisfy even Alex Atlas’s one-track drive for information. The equipment would prove Sophia’s innocence, beyond Atlas’s reach for any shadow of doubt.
This could clear her name.
“Logan Stone has invented a patented, layered security system that’s gone global. It utilizes artificial intelligence to detect signs of theft or deception. It’s currently used in at least one South American Embassy, probably more by now, plus countless major corporations in the States.”
Atlas brightened. “Go on.”
“There’s a three-dimensional component that’s seriously impressive. It involves fingerprint/touch identification, pupil dilation and respiratory readings, and voice stress analysis. A thousand times more accurate than a police lie detector.”
Atlas rested a firm hand on Liam’s shoulder, as if in the course of a few sentences they’d become old pals. “That’s exactly the kind of proof I need.” He nodded. “Do it.”
Liam swallowed his relief. “Okay, tomorrow—”
“No, you’ll take her with you tonight.”
“Tonight?”
“Yes. As in, now.”
Atlas dusted off his hands as if ridding them of an unpleasant residue. “Thank God, this will be resolved.”
Hearing his cousin Trey’s voice in his head, lecturing about best business practices, Liam said quietly, “It will cost you.”
“Fine. Send me the bill.” Atlas waved away any concern over expenses. “What’s a few grand, compared to fifteen million?”
Point taken. He reminded himself that to Atlas, this was business. He wasn’t a bad guy, Liam decided, he just couldn’t see the bigger picture. Too emotionally and financially invested to remember a woman’s life hung in the balance.
Liam nodded. “Then I’ll take Sophia to Denver with me tonight. I’ll contact Logan Stone on the way, and set up a consultation for tomorrow morning.”
“Perfect.” Atlas eyed him. “I trust her in your hands—no one else’s. Only you. Don’t let her out of your sight.” He added, “I know you believe in her.”
Shades of obscurity acted like mirrors in Atlas’s eyes, reflecting everything, revealing nothing. A flash of curiosity struck Liam. Had Atlas seen the maneuvers with the bottle cap?
The man turned away before Liam could investigate further.
“I’ll take care of her. You have my word.”
As Liam turned to the door, about to retrieve Sophia, Atlas shot a hand out to grip his arm.
Atlas stared at his own hand, as though surprised by the intensity of his gesture. He let go and looked up. “Liam. Please. Prove us both right.”
Did the casino owner also believe in Sophia’s innocence?
Maybe Alex was one of the good guys…
Liam didn’t wait around to debate the subject. He took long strides back to the room where she was held.
Ignoring a lingering suspicion of concern—that something was off, but he couldn’t quite pinpoint the source—he
gladly took up the challenge to prove her innocence.
Whatever the cost. To him, or to Alex.
He didn’t doubt his own assessment, but he suspected Alex’s tech team’s findings were rooted in some foundation of truth.
Even if Sophia didn’t realize it yet, herself.
CHAPTER THREE
If someone forced Sophia to pinpoint one objectionable thing about Todd, it would be his penchant to complain-a-brag. A bragging statement couched in a complaint, so it didn’t come across as boastful as it really was.
She mulled that over in the passenger seat of Liam Soren’s impressive rental Range Rover SUV. She’d never ridden in such a luxurious vehicle. It offered all the bright LED lights, pristine cream leather, and fancy gadgets she’d only heard new luxury cars offered. She drove a respectable five-year-old Toyota Camry, paid off a year early. Todd drove a late model Mercedes, but it was far from glamorous.
She sighed, reclining into the comfortable seat, returning to her thoughts.
Her boyfriend often spoke at length about growing up as the only child of obscenely wealthy parents. How he’d gone to the best international boarding schools, because his mother was a French citizen. How he’d enjoyed outrageous accommodations and went to extravagant parties most of his life—he’d even name-dropped here and there when he talked, an almost unforgiveable annoyance to her. All that prestige, woven into his DNA, until one day, in his early twenties, his parents had decided to set limits on his trust fund. And how hard it had been, with all those heavy expectations weighing on him to tow the familial line. More than once she’d hidden an eye roll.
There he was, like some nineteenth-century, titled aristocrat detailing the struggles of his entitled life to one of his servants. Not that she was a servant by any stretch, but status-wise she might as well have been. She’d lived in small two-bedroom apartments all her life, with her mom, the two of them making it by—just barely.
Though she and Todd came from diametrically opposed pasts, they shared a vital thing in common in the present. They both planned to start their own businesses. Before she met him, she’d submitted to the online dating scene, and gone out with enough men in Las Vegas—all duds, with no second date in sight—that when Todd bumped into her one day at a coffee shop, she recognized the innate drive they shared was rare.
Although she’d worried about his work ethic, she had seen the passion blazing in his eyes when he talked about becoming the owner of a thriving IT start-up. Making millions on his own, to show his family he could be successful by himself. He’d given detailed descriptions of whom he’d hire, how he was solidifying his funding through personal contacts, and he seemed to have it together. His plans were still a few months away from realization, while she was ready to begin in two weeks. But she couldn’t hold that against him. Starting a business took time, patience, and a ton of effort. Nothing materialized instantly.
Liam drew her attention back to the moment when reached toward the complicated screen centralized in the console. He hit the power button and scanned the radio stations, landing on a country song he apparently liked.
He smiled. “Do you listen to country?”
“Some, not much.”
“This is a great tune. Jason Aldean’s ‘Dirt Road Anthem.’”
The pop-music portions of the song surprised her, an equal mix pop and country. She found herself visualizing the story behind the song. The man sang about his frustration over the stupid things that bothered people, when life could be so much simpler, if one appreciated the little things in life and stayed away from drama.
“I’d love to be chillin’ on a dirt road right now,” Liam said absently.
She watched his expression turn wistful, and his gaze turn toward the purple-hued Sierra Mountains in the distance that barely peeked through the ostentatious buildings lining the streets. A jarring contrast, the backdrop of nature’s quiet beauty set against the bulbs blazing to life around them, lighting up the twilight with an artificial sunset, meant to distract and dazzle.
The man sitting beside her proved a fascinating enigma. Those worn out cowboy boots were in line with his comment about being out in the country, like the song, rolling down a dirt road in a pickup truck. But the suit he wore cost more than the monthly mortgage payment on her condo.
And she liked that.
He was making his way in the world, and doing a stellar job at it—on a similar trajectory as her boss, no doubt—while staying in touch with his humbler roots. At least, she assumed.
Why else would he wear those boots with that suit? Maybe he wanted a subtle reminder to himself of where he’d come from, taking those steps deliberately in an old pair of boots to get to where he’d arrived.
Liam was different. Unexpected.
Complicated. Compelling.
His off-hand comments told her at his core he was a regular guy. They continued to put her at ease, regardless of her questionable status according to Alex Atlas. A lot of money—the amount kept secret from her—had been stolen from Mr. Atlas. How could the man think she had anything to do with it?
Even when Liam had explained the scenario that had confirmed her decision to go with him to Denver, he’d detailed it with average words and described everything she should expect from an interrogation with a man named Logan Stone.
She understood Mr. Atlas’s desire to avoid law enforcement. If she could prove herself, and do Mr. Atlas a favor at the same time, that would look good in her boss’s eyes.
The brutal truth was, her boss had the resources to tie her up in court endlessly—if she requested counsel, and he dug in his heels. She didn’t have the luxuries of limitless funds or time.
So she’d agreed to join Liam on this overnight trip.
If this was the final hurdle to clear her name, she’d take it in a heartbeat.
The whole time, Liam consistently reinforced his belief in her. She trusted him. Typically wary about assurances from someone she didn’t know, she found it easy to trust Liam. He was blunt and at the same time good-old-boy charming.
She believed this man would help her. He was on her side.
Stuck in the tail end of rush hour traffic, he turned the radio down and suggested they play a game.
“What kind of game can we play in a car?” she asked. “Besides, I Spy.”
“That’s boring.” He made a silly face. “Let’s play, ‘If you were as rich as Alex Atlas, what would you do?’”
She laughed at the suggestion. “Seriously?”
“Yep. If you had access to limitless funds, what would you do?” He waved his hand across the dashboard like a magician in front of an audience. “Anything. Sky’s the limit.”
It sounded entertaining. Though she wondered how far removed from the playful scenario Liam actually was, in real life.
“Sure. Why not? Wow. Um…I’d probably—”
“One rule,” he interrupted, holding up his right forefinger. “It has to be ludicrous.”
A short laugh burst from her. “What?”
“You know.” He spun his wrist in a circle. “It can’t be something you already have that you’d improve.”
“Like starting my own business?”
“No good.” He sliced his hand through the air. “I want stupid. Outrageous. Insane. Off-the-wall. Come on, you know, fun shit.”
“Oh.”
That made her rethink her reply. Well, she hadn’t exactly approached life looking for the outrageous or stupid or fun. That ran anathema to what Mom had drilled into her. God bless the woman. Sophia thanked her mom for those traits of focus and daily hard work.
But…if she had to pick something totally unlike her… “I—I’d go rappelling off a cliff.”
His eyebrows drew together in a frown. “That’s it?”
Annoyed by his dismissal, she added, “In Switzerland.”
He grunted. “That’s better.”
“Or.” She felt herself getting warmed up. “I’d find the longest zip line in in Sout
h America, and tree-top surf through rainforest canopies.”
“Hell, yeah,” he said like a true country boy, southern accent and all. He lifted his hand, and she met it with a high-five. “That’s more like it.”
“What about you?”
He rubbed his chin. “If I was a casino billionaire…I’d fill a huge swimming pool with Jell-O, and bounce on it like a trampoline.”
She coughed.
When he glanced at her, his grin died. “What?”
“Not trying to spoil your fun,” she said. “But you know you’d sink right to the bottom. Probably suffocate.”
He gave an exaggerated eye roll. “Didn’t I say this was pure fiction? Why are you trying to ruin the moment for me?”
“Right. Sorry.” Now she felt bad. “You didn’t specify that my fantasy should have zero chance of becoming reality. So why should yours be impossible?”
A smile crept across his lips. “Thing is, Sophia, yours is rooted in reality.”
She snorted. “Not in this lifetime. I’ll never afford a trip like that.”
“It could happen.” He shrugged, his expression closed, cryptic. “You never know who you’ll meet. Or what opportunities could come your way.”
That sounded like he meant something deeper than their game. What, she couldn’t fathom. So she delved back into their make-believe. “I’d dive off a sailboat into the ocean and swim with sharks.”
“No way.” He sent her a sidelong glance. His eyes glittered with intrigue. “Would you, really?”
“I would,” she nodded. “There are these creatures called whale sharks that are totally harmless.”
“Too easy,” he objected. “If you’d said real sharks, you would’ve had me at diving.”
“Fine.” She fumed, expanding her imagination into the realm of total impossibility. “I’d rent one of those huts off an island in Bali. Like Hollywood celebrities do. One where you have to follow a string of piers to get to it, and the lanai outside my hut opens to the crystal blue ocean. I’d sway in a hammock half the day, have food and drinks are brought to me. I’d dive into the shallows and swim out as far as I could, and feel the bottomless ocean underneath me. I’d swim with sting rays and touch barrier reefs.”
The Billionaire's Seduction (Billionaire Bodyguards Book 5) Page 4