by Dale Mayer
“Oh, my gosh, how can you do that?”
“I’m doing it for your sake and for her sake,” he said bluntly. “And, no, Gerard would not be happy if he knew.” Just then a black limo pulled up in the video.
“See? They all look like that,” she said. “I think Gerard owns three or four himself.”
The driver hopped out, opened up the door behind him, then walked around, and opened up the other door. Several men in business suits exited the vehicle and walked toward the front steps.
“When was this?” she asked, peering closer.
“Three days ago,” he said. “I wasn’t sure how far back to go in a video feed, but three days earlier brings up some interesting possibilities.”
“But this could be legitimate business,” she said. “It doesn’t mean it has anything to do with our kidnapping.”
“Maybe not, but it doesn’t mean it doesn’t either. In order to understand the enemy, we have to understand the people involved.”
She stared at him and said, “I really don’t like the way your mind thinks.”
He turned, flashed her bright white teeth, and said, “Why don’t you lie down and rest?”
She glared at him and leaned closer. “Why don’t you lie down and rest?”
In a surprise move, he stole a kiss and cheerfully said, “Can’t. I’m on duty.”
Stunned at the shock of his lips against hers and the spark that had flashed between them, she sat back awkwardly. She crossed her arms over her chest as she tried to figure out what to do next. A gentle exit would have been nice, but she’d passed that point. She looked at Jax and caught him grinning. She glared at him, then announced, “It’s not funny.”
Immediately he wiped the smile off his face, and, in the gravest of voices, he said, “Absolutely not.”
She raised both hands in frustration and said, “You two are impossible.”
“Hardly,” Griffin said. “You should be grateful to us.”
“Yeah? What do you want as thanks?” she asked suspiciously.
He looked at her, and she could see the anger in his eyes. “Not that.”
“I didn’t think so,” she said.
“You’d better not think so,” he said in a warning note.
She shrugged and whispered, “Everything’s topsy-turvy these days.” Then she rubbed her temple. “And I’m getting a hell of a headache sorting my way through it.”
“Well, you need to remember,” he said gently, “that you’re not alone anymore.”
She thought about that and brightened. “You’re right. I’m not. So you should be able to handle it all.” She got up to check on Amelia Rose.
He called out as she walked away, “That’s what we’ve been trying to say.”
“Oh, and here I thought you’re telling the little woman to go lie down and to not worry her pretty little head about it.”
When she heard an odd spluttering sound, she turned to see Jax barely containing his mirth as he stared between the two of them. “You know, if we weren’t on the job,” he’d said, “I’d suggest you guys grab a hotel for a couple nights and work this through your system.”
She spun around yet again, her hands on her hips, and glared at him.
Jax shrugged and said, “I’m just saying. There’s enough electricity in this room to crack and cook an egg. If you guys ever let loose that firepower, you two would burn up the sheets.”
“I’m not interested in burning up the sheets,” she said stiffly.
“I am,” Griffin said immediately. “So, if you ever change your mind, let me know.”
She gasped out loud and then realized he was teasing, looking at her with the most innocent of looks on his face, but his eyes twinkled. She stormed over and pointed her finger in his face.
“Careful,” he whispered in a low tone.
“No, you be careful. Amelia Rose could hear you.”
Griffin’s gaze hardened. “You should know better than that. I wouldn’t tease you like this in front of the child. And you really don’t want to get me mad on this subject.”
But instead of backing down, she shoved her face against his and said, “Why?”
He grabbed her on either side of her face, tucked her just a little bit closer, and kissed her hard. And, damn, if the passion didn’t arise once again, and sparks flashed all around them. She groaned softly, and he forcibly pushed her away and said, “Jax is right. We’d better watch what we’re doing.”
She shook her head. “What the hell is this?”
“Adrenaline,” he said. “Fear, gratitude, danger. It mixes hormones and passion all together. Now leave. Keep temptation away from me, woman.”
She snorted. “No problem.” And she stormed off to visit Amelia Rose.
It was all Griffin could do to stop the laughter from bubbling up and outward. She’d look shocked, frustrated, and frustrated in another way too. He could relate. He shifted back to his laptop and tried to refocus. He knew that Jax was grinning like a crazy man. Griffin just shook his head at him. “Don’t say anything.”
“I don’t have to say anything, aside from maybe I’m the one who’ll have to go for a walk and leave you two alone.”
“Not with the kid,” he muttered.
“Good point,” Jax said. “Maybe the kid and I will go for a walk then. For just the briefest of moments.”
Griffin considered what that opportunity could mean, and then he shook his head. “Not going to happen. Not while we’re on the job. And definitely need longer than the briefest of moments.”
“You may have to make do,” Jax said, “because, when the job’s over, there’s a good chance you two will be on opposite ends of the earth.”
“True.” He sighed, his shoulders sagging as he thought about it. But he wasn’t a randy teenager anymore, and keeping his own sexual passion in check was something he was used to. He’d sent the photos to his team and had asked them to forward those to Amelia Rose’s father. Within minutes, his phone rang. He looked at it. Gerard. He quickly answered, putting it on speaker. Jax moved closer.
“So you do recognize that first picture we sent you?” Griffin asked.
“Yes,” he said in a harsh tone. “He’s one of the men who threatened me if I didn’t do business with them. I was supplying China and South Korea with special communications, and they wanted the same deal.”
“And you didn’t give it to them, I presume?”
“No,” Gerard snapped. “I didn’t like anything about the deal. And I didn’t like anything about the people behind the deal.”
“With good reason, it’s one of the reasons I went back to the hotel and retrieved their personal belongings,” Griffin said. “But now we’ve got a problem because I think they were behind the kidnapping.”
“You went back to the hotel and got their stuff?” Gerard asked curiously. “I don’t understand why.”
“Because I didn’t want to leave anything behind,” he said honestly. “It’s much better to remove it and not leave bits and pieces the kidnappers can come back for, using them as signs of proof of kidnapping, by sending you a jacket or a skirt or something worse.”
“I never thought of that,” Amelia Rose’s father said. “That’s a little disturbing.”
“I also wanted to see if somebody at the hotel had been ordered to clean out their rooms. Instead, the staff had been ordered by that man to leave everything left behind as it was.”
“They were held in their rooms originally and then moved,” Gerard said.
“And how do you know that?” Griffin asked curiously.
“Because the staff said that they couldn’t raise anybody in the room, but the doors were all locked, and they were told to stay away. But then, when they went back again for housekeeping, the rooms were empty.”
“Likely when they tried to escape out on the beach,” Griffin said, his tone low. “Your daughter’s feeling very guilty for not keeping up with Lorelei as they ran away.”
“She’s ne
ver been very physically active,” her father said with a sigh.
“Well, the good news is, she’s at least eating vegetables now,” Griffin said drily.
Gerard gave a short bark of laughter. “Well, that’s something. She’s pure and innocent,” he said, soft and gentle. “And I want to make sure she stays that way.”
“Until when?” Griffin asked. “You know that she’ll grow up at one point in time. This alone has helped her to grow up a lot more. You do realize that she saw Nurse killed in front of her, right?”
There was silence on the other end of the phone, and then Gerard swore deep and heavy. “My poor baby,” he whispered finally.
“Nurse’s death was to set an example that the two of them behave and follow orders. Nurse was also grabbed and held in the hotel room, the same room that they were in.”
“Yes, they had a suite,” he said. “I always do that.”
“Same suite as for you?”
“No, I reserved my suite across the hall. But it’s not like we’ve traveled to Thailand annually or even every few years, and we don’t stay at the same hotel regardless,” he said, his voice distant. “The girls must have been seen at the reception desk or on their way back and forth to the hotel.”
“Time to get them fake IDs then when they travel, to register them at hotels under those fake names too.”
“Maybe … if she ever travels again. I understand the microchip helped you to identify where they were?”
“Yes. They were being held in a compound owned by that well-known arms dealer the kidnapper works for,” Griffin confirmed. “But the girls were then moved that night, and we caught up with them when the kidnapper’s vehicle was sidelined by an accident.”
“Did you cause the accident?”
Griffin gave a short laugh. “No, not this time. Otherwise the chase would have gone on much longer. As it was, there was a big pileup, and it was a pretty ugly crash site. The kidnappers were at the head of the line. I came up behind, managed to get the girls, and we turned around and got out of there, while more cars drove up and boxed in the kidnappers.”
“Well, I’m grateful for that,” he said. “Have you any idea who else might be involved?”
“No. We’re still running background checks on everybody in your company and your family, especially anyone who would know the arms dealer,” Griffin said smoothly. Then he waited. And Gerard didn’t disappoint.
“My company and my family?” he roared.
“Yes,” Griffin said. “It could be that this is a complete blackmail scheme from the outside, perhaps orchestrated by your denied military man. But somebody had to know your schedule pretty well. Somebody had to understand that the three females would be completely alone on this trip. This wasn’t just by chance that they got kidnapped. No ‘Oh, look. There are three people we can kidnap and run a ransom deal through.’”
“The way you put it,” Gerard said, “I guess that makes sense. But I run heavy security checks on everybody in my company. Nobody would dare cross me.”
“And that just means that somebody already has,” Griffin said with a heavy sigh. “Look. I know that you run communications and consider yourself high-tech. Often though, shit like this is very close to home.”
“How close?” Gerard asked, but his voice held a warning, as if Griffin wasn’t to cross the line.
“Well, if you don’t think that I’ll check in on your sons and your wife, you’re wrong,” Griffin said coolly. “Because this kidnapping event won’t happen again. That little girl’s been through enough shit. And Nurse did not deserve to be murdered on a holiday a long way away from home.”
“No, she didn’t even want to go,” Gerard groaned. “My wife insisted.”
“And I understand that your wife and your daughter don’t have a close relationship.”
There was silence on the other end. “That’s quite true, but that doesn’t mean Wendy would do anything to harm Amelia Rose,” he said briskly, almost dismissing the concept out of hand.
“And, for that, I need to understand how the inheritance works, upon your death.” Griffin knew he was crossing some major personal lines here. “A lot of people would benefit if your daughter doesn’t survive either.”
“There’s enough money to go around,” he snapped. “And I don’t want you making accusations against my family.”
“Outside of your sons and your wife, who else stands to inherit?”
“My brother and his family,” he said. “My brother’s been my vice president for a good twenty years.”
“And do they all get a big-enough piece of the pie that they’re all happy?”
“They should be,” he said. “They get a decent voting block now, but that doesn’t change much with my death.”
“And how do your sons feel about that?”
“They are fine with it,” he said, his tone turning bewildered. “You don’t really think somebody is angling for more, do you?”
“The problem with being greedy,” Griffin said, “is that generally you’re too greedy to see where enough is enough.” On that note, he changed tact and said, “I need the name of your brother and the names of the family members that work for you.”
Gerard gave him the list and then said, “You better be wrong about this.”
“I hope I am,” Griffin said. “But, so far, somebody has already kidnapped your daughter, twice, and killed your nurse. I’m sure you feel that something needs to be done after Amelia Rose has been put through so much.”
“Well, as soon as I get my daughter and Lorelei home, Lorelei will get a raise. And Amelia Rose may never leave the country again.”
“And that would make sense,” Griffin said, “but it’s not necessarily the right answer.”
“So, what are you thinking?”
“I’m wondering why you didn’t send any security with the women, traveling to a foreign country.” Griffin stared down at the phone, waiting to hear what response Gerard would give.
In a slow tone, he said, “That was my wife’s idea. She felt that traveling with security was stifling. She never did see that there was any danger.”
But even Griffin could hear the broken tone in the man’s voice. “I know about your first son,” Griffin said. “And I’m sorry about that. I guess that’s partly why it surprised me that the women were traveling alone.”
“Because I got complacent,” he said, his voice returning, vibrating with anger. “Something I won’t forget again.”
“And whose idea was it that the three women travel here on their own?”
“My wife’s,” he said, “but I agreed.”
“And how often does something like this happen?”
Silence. “Not very often. Usually my wife or I travel with them.”
“So, when was the one last time that the two women traveled alone with Amelia Rose?”
“I’m not sure they ever have,” he said, his voice rising.
“And you still haven’t received a blackmail notice?”
“No, I was expecting it anytime now. I was taken with my firstborn son a long time ago, but he was only two years old, and they separated him from me. The kidnappers blackmailed my father, who started this company and was doing quite well at the time. Nothing like it is now, mind you, but enough that the kidnappers figured to cash in on his success. They made him and me sit and sweat and panic for three or four days, and then they sent a note with a ransom demand. Immediately he jumped on it and tried to pay”—his tone turned harsh, unforgiving—“but …”
“And then you were betrayed?”
“Yes, I was betrayed,” he agreed. “The money was picked up. I was released at the gate of the estate, still tied up and a hood over my head, and my son’s dead body was dumped close by. The cops never found the killers,” he said, the old grief still catching his tone.
“So, you assumed that it would be a similar scenario this time?”
“Yes. Only I don’t understand this game. Yes, I was expectin
g a ransom note. Thank God, you have them safe. I need to know what the play is here. I don’t understand, but I can’t lose another child this way.”
“No,” Griffin said. “I don’t understand either. At least not yet.”
Chapter 8
Lorelei had spent some time calming Amelia Rose, especially after hearing her poppy’s raised voice on the phone. The child was soon placated, but she clung to Lorelei. Both girls had moved to the couch in the living room of the apartment, where Amelia Rose soon fell asleep and where Lorelei fidgeted, near enough to hear the conversation on speaker still ongoing in the kitchen.
When the call ended, Griffin leaned back in his chair, his face thoughtful and pensive, she hopped to her feet and ran toward him. She didn’t even question when he opened his arms, and she threw herself into them to give him a hug. “You don’t look so good.”
“I’m fine,” he said. He frowned and noted that Amelia Rose was once again lying down. “Is she sleeping? Through all that yelling?”
Lorelei nodded. “She’s been sleeping a lot lately. I think she sleeps to avoid thinking about the emotional scenarios, like her poppy on the phone just now.”
“Stress will do that to you as well,” he said. He glanced at Jax, hunkered over his laptop at the kitchen table. Griffin swept his arm in that direction. Lorelei sank into a chair next to Jax, Griffin joining them, and all three of their heads bent together as they spoke in low tones.
“Do you have a suspect?” she whispered. “A business enemy or family?”
“I’m not sure,” Griffin said, “but let’s look at this. The brothers gain Amelia Rose’s interest in the estate if their sister doesn’t get home. Her uncle gains as well if she doesn’t get home. And the wife, what would she gain?”
“Depends if she’s setting up the blackmail,” Jax stated. “Imagine if she gets, say, a ten-million-dollar ransom. She ends up with her daughter and gains the money and is free of Gerard, free to live elsewhere, to remain separated informally if not legally. Plus, like any blackmail, she’s free to blackmail Gerard again if Wendy maintains possession of Amelia Rose. It’s the ultimate ATM.”