I peeked around his massive body and found my ex-housekeeper trying to enter the security room.
“What are you doing here?” I yelled. “I could have you arrested for breaking and entering.”
The older lady had her hands up, but she still glared in my direction. “I came to get a few of my things.”
“John, put the gun down.”
He held the gun pointed directly at Ms. Orchard for several long moments before he finally lowered it.
“So you thought you would enter my home and get what you need?” I asked her. “That is not how it works. You were fired. On top of that, you broke an NDA when you recorded my fiancé and me.” When I said fiancé, John tensed beside me.
The older lady sat down on a barstool. “Why do you keep acting like you don’t know? You’re behind this. They told me you were.” Tears streamed down her face.
John looked at me for answers, but I didn’t have any.
“Who?” I asked, confused.
She sniffled a few times before answering. “I don’t know who they are. All I know is I have to do everything they want or they’re going to hurt my son.”
The hair stood up on the back of my neck. I grabbed a soda from the fridge and took the seat next to her. “Ms. Orchard, what is your son’s name?”
John didn’t sit down. Instead, he leaned his hip against the counter and watched the woman like a hawk. He crossed his arms, causing his black T-shirt to stretch tightly over his bulging biceps. He seemed to work hard to always angle himself so the scar on the side of his face was turned away.
“Pedro Orchard,” she whispered.
I hoped the surprise didn’t show on my face. “Did you know your son was dating my fiancé?”
Ms. Orchard’s eyes darted back to the security room. “Yes.”
“Is that why you framed me for Nate’s supposed murder?”
“But they are missing. The men who have been after Nate and Pedro told me you’re working with them as well.”
“I’m not working with anyone who would hurt Nate. He’s my best friend, and I would do anything for him, hence the marriage to a man who is only my friend.” I pushed my soda away. I needed something stronger. The whiskey John had given me the other night would taste good right then.
John leaned forward, his eyes intense on Ms. Orchard. “What did they want you to do with the tape?”
The older woman blushed, but she didn’t answer.
“The police would’ve grabbed the video footage,” I said. “Why would anyone think the footage was still here?”
Ms. Orchard sniffled. “I wanted to look to see if there was something unusual. My boy is missing, and I’m worried.”
Nate had been keeping so many secrets from me—hiring his boyfriend’s mother to be our housekeeper. Every time more evidence came to light, it made me question our friendship. I’d planned to marry Nate because I didn’t think he would hurt me like men had in the past, but apparently I was wrong.
“Is there anything else you can tell us?” John asked. “When did your son go missing?”
“The same night Nate did. I went to Pedro’s house earlier that morning, and his place was turned upside down. When I went to leave, I was approached by two men. They told me if I wanted to see my son again, I needed to go to Nate’s house and call the cops once you arrived. So I called the cops. I figured since they knew your name, you were behind this.”
“If I was in on it, why would I want you to call the cops on me?”
Ms. Orchard’s mouth opened a couple of times as confusion washed over her. “I didn’t think that much about it. I just want my boy back.” She wept into her hands.
John reached over and held her hand. I wasn’t happy she’d broken into my house. I understood she wanted her son back. I wanted my life back. And I really wanted to have a long conversation with my best friend… maybe soon-to-be-ex-best friend. Not only was I suspected for a murder, but he’d taken my jewelry. One of the pieces was my mother’s.
John patted Ms. Orchard’s hand. “How about you come with us? We can help you find your son.”
Wait. What? “I think we should talk about this.”
John leveled his gray eyes on me. “Ms. Orchard might be able to help us put things together faster. Also, someone is working to keep something quiet. Let’s get back to Daisy’s house and talk with the team.”
* * *
Neal, Aaron, and John sat around Daisy’s dining room table, asking Ms. Orchard questions. Daisy walked up beside me and handed me a glass of wine. “You seem more upset than when you left this morning.”
I let out the sigh I had been holding. “She called the cops on me. She’s also the mother of my fiancé’s lover. He hired her and didn’t tell me their connection. Nate and I used to be so close, and over the last couple of months, all he’s done is lie to me and hide things.” I reached into the fridge and pulled out cold cuts and cheese. It was close to dinnertime, and my stomach had started to growl.
Daisy grabbed the bread and set it on the counter. She played with the edge of the bag for a few seconds. “If you find Nate, are you going to go through with the wedding?”
Am I? The answer seemed fairly clear. “No. I agreed to marry Nate to help him. What he did these past few days is uncalled for. The evidence might look like he’s dead, but I know something isn’t right. He cleared out all the money from the safes and took my jewelry. Most of it I didn’t care about, but the necklace from my mom was all I had of her.”
Daisy frowned as she pulled out the bread and laid a few pieces on a plate. “I only met Nate a few times. But he’s a grown man and needs to stand up for himself. You can’t keep being someone for him to lean on.”
I reached into the silverware drawer and grabbed a butter knife then started smearing mayo across the bread. “You’re right. I’m going to find him, prove my innocence, and move on.” My eyes darted to the sexy man sitting at the table. He didn’t seem to care what movies I was in or how much money I had.
“Um, Daisy, is John like Neal and Aaron?”
“Bisexual?”
“No,” I whispered. “Is he into the other stuff?”
Daisy reached up and ran her fingers along her necklace. “Yes.” She shifted her feet. “He took care of me for a few years after they rescued me.”
Jealousy clouded my vision.
“But we never slept together. Don’t get me wrong—he’s slept with many women at Club Sanctorum. You like him, don’t you?”
“Yes. But too much is going on around me to weed through my feelings for John.” I grabbed the sandwich tray and walked toward the table, wondering what it would be like to have John run his hands down my body. If I didn’t think about that, the only thing I would think about was the fact that my best friend was missing. The seat next to John was empty. I placed the tray of sandwiches on the table and took the chair next to him.
He was looking at the photo of Nate and Pedro that we’d taken from Nate’s office. “We need to go here,” John murmured. Then he pulled the picture out of the frame. “We need to check out the address. Was it a vacation spot, or is this where Pedro lives?”
Pedro’s mother traced the photo. “They went on vacation there last year.”
The sound of my phone ringing stopped all conversation. I snatched my phone out of my pocket, and my lawyer’s name flashed across the screen. With Nate being in the wind, I’d hired an attorney my manager had told me about in the past.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Ms. Harper, this is Marty. I just spoke with the judge handling your case. They feel you’re a flight risk and want you to bring in your passport. They set a date for you to appear in court. The DA doesn’t want a circus. There was talk of a plea deal.”
“Plea deal for what? There is no body, and Nate has only been gone for one day. Why aren’t they spending time finding him instead of trying to frame me for murder? The sheriff said I had forty-eight hours to bring it in.”
John reache
d over and squeezed my thigh.
“Ms. Harper, there is evidence against you. The sheriff wants you to come in today. I think you should hear the plea deal out.”
“I didn’t kill anyone,” I yelled into the phone. This was ridiculous. I clicked off the phone and hung up.
“You need a new lawyer,” John urged. “There’s no body. There can be no plea deal. Don’t even think about it.”
I shook my head. “I’m not. I’m thinking about running. I want to get the hell out of here. I just want to disappear for a while. This makes no sense, and you’re right.” I sighed. “The police are out to convict me.”
“Found it,” Neal mumbled between bites of his sandwich. We were all seated in the dining room of Daisy’s house. Neal had overtaken the table and turned it into a war room.
Everyone crowded around the computer. He had a satellite image of a private mansion. The feed was live. There were people there, but it was impossible to tell who. The television crime shows exaggerated the abilities of those types of programs. If this were CSI, they would have found the killer already.
I rubbed my hand down my face. “So let’s go.”
John squeezed my shoulder. “You just had your passport revoked. We need to take it in.”
“Can we run before I have to turn it in? I want to go now and figure out what is happening. If that is Nate there, he has a lot of explaining to do, and I’m not waiting for him to come back here to explain.”
Neal twisted in his seat. “Do you really want to go?”
“No,” John barked. “It could be dangerous.”
“If you go with her, it might not be as bad,” Neal said. “You could go by boat and be there in about a week.”
“Fine. We go by boat. When can we go?” I asked the room.
John ran his hand through his shoulder-length hair. He didn’t have it up in its standard ponytail. “Have you ever stayed in a small boat for days? There are no maid services or house cleaners. It would be me, you, and a boat captain. There might be rough water. And once we get to Nicaragua, we would need to stay under the radar. This means being dropped off and swimming to shore, walking through the woods, and staying in a cabin off the beaten path.”
I didn’t care what I had to go through. “I’m going.”
John looked at everyone else in the room for backup, but nobody answered or said a word. Neal shrugged and smirked like he knew something we didn’t.
“Fine,” John finally said. “We leave tomorrow night.” He got up, grabbed his phone, and stormed out of the kitchen.
8
John
The dark coffee tasted good. I sat the cup down on the kitchen counter in Daisy’s house. I still couldn’t believe I was traveling to another country with Anna. I recalculated the mileage using an online nautical map program. From Los Angeles to Nicaragua, it was 2,400 miles. Even with the two men we’d hired to sail the boat nonstop, the trip would take three days. I ran my hand through my wet hair and pulled it back into a band. I was going to be spending three days in tight quarters with one of the most beautiful women I’d ever seen. And she was engaged.
My phone vibrated on the counter. Gabriel’s name flashed across the screen. He was one of the new hires Brock had brought on last week. He was a quiet guy, and I hadn’t talked to him much.
“Gabriel,” I answered.
“Boat’s loaded and ready to go, boss.
“I’m not your boss.”
Gabriel barked out a laugh. “Okay, sir. Jacob just brought in the last of the groceries. What time do you plan to leave?”
I took another sip of my dark coffee. “We leave at sundown.”
“You think bringing the girl along is the best idea?”
I wanted to scream No! I’d spent an hour on the phone with Brock the night before, talking about my concerns. But for some reason, the man had lost his fucking mind and thought that Annabella leaving town was the best idea in case someone was after her.
“It doesn’t matter. Brock set this all in motion. I’m going to drop her passport off this morning. Neal found someone locally for us to use to get her a change of identification.”
Annabella’s face had been all over the news for the past couple of days. Top Movie Star Suspected in Killing Her Fiancé. Every picture that had been taken of her in the past ten years was being analyzed as people tried to figure out if she was capable of murder.
“Okay. See you tonight, boss.” Fucker hung up the phone before I could say anything.
I took the last sip of my coffee when Aaron walked into the kitchen. He grabbed a cup out of the cupboard and poured himself some coffee. “That tastes like shit,” Aaron grumbled before pouring his down the drain.
“I made it on the lighter side.” I glanced at the clock and saw that it was six in the morning. “What are you doing up so early?”
Aaron took the pot of coffee and poured what was left into my cup before preparing another pot. “Daisy woke up from a nightmare. She and Neal are showering. I came down to make coffee and breakfast. Why are you up?”
“Too much on my mind. Is Daisy still seeing a psychiatrist?”
He pulled out eggs and bacon from the fridge. “She talks to her psychiatrist each week and does video calls when she’s out here. It breaks my heart when she wakes up screaming. In the past few months, she’s told me stories about what happened. I wish I could go back in time and kill the fucker.”
I shifted in my seat. The day we rescued Daisy came to mind. The dungeon her captor had held her in in his basement was nothing like a BDSM club. Torture chamber was a more accurate description.
“I still can’t believe Brock is letting Annabella come look for Nate,” I told Aaron.
Annabella stormed into the kitchen and placed her hands on her hips. “Let me? What day and age are we living in? I have every right to be a part of this.”
I sighed. “We don’t know what we’re getting into. And on top of that, if I went alone, I could fly down, check out what’s going on, and be back within a day.”
“This is my life. You can do whatever you want, but I plan to find Nate.”
Aaron rested his hip against the counter and watched Annabella and I talk back and forth. He wore a smirk across his face.
I could feel my jaw tense. “Do you not understand how dangerous this is? When we left Nate’s office yesterday, we saw two mob employees. On top of that, Pedro’s mom was threatened, and the police want to make an example out of you.”
Annabella grabbed a cup and poured herself a cup of the freshly brewed coffee Aaron had made. “I know it’s dangerous. I need this.”
“Why?”
She looked up from her coffee. Her green eyes held sadness for a quick second before she blinked it away. “I don’t need to explain to you why.”
“Fine. I need your passport.” When it looked like she was going to argue, I explained. “The paparazzi have been waiting outside the courthouse all morning.” My phone still had the morning gossip column displayed in the browser. I held it up for her to see. “Let me take your passport in, and you can get ready. We’re going to be on a sailboat for three to four days.”
She rolled her pretty eyes. “I know. It’s not like I haven’t been on one of Aaron’s boats before.”
“Yes, you’ve been on his yacht. But you know that little sailboat that hangs off the side? That is what we’re taking. One of the large yachts needs multiple people to run. We can’t risk hiring people we don’t know. Your image is plastered on every screen. If you flee and someone finds out, there will be a reward to turn you in.”
Annabella grabbed a muffin off the counter. “If you’re so against me going, why are you doing this?”
I was doing it because I couldn’t imagine anything happening to her, but I wasn’t going to say that out loud. “Because it’s my job.”
Annabella’s sparkling eyes dimmed. “Fine. Let me go grab my passport.” She turned on her heel and left.
No matter how badly I wanted to
explain the real reason, which was that she had wormed herself into my heart over the past two days, it was important that I keep her at a safe distance so I could do my job.
“Dude,” Aaron muttered. “Your job?”
“I didn’t lie. It’s my job to get her to Nicaragua and find Nate.”
He stirred the scrambled eggs in the frying pan. “It might be your job, but don’t think I don’t see the way you look at her.”
“Does that matter?”
“Yes. You deserve to be happy.”
I took the last sip of the remaining dark coffee Aaron had poured in my cup. “She’s engaged.”
“To a friend. She also said if we find Nate, the wedding is off.”
Daisy walked in at the tail end of Aaron’s statement and came over to give him a hug before she sat down on the stool next to me. “Are we talking about Annabella calling off the wedding? I think she would be perfect for you, John.”
I gave Daisy the side-eye. “Like I told Annabella, this is a mission.”
Annabella stormed in and threw her passport at me. Then she turned on her heel and stormed back out of the kitchen. Maybe she would be too angry to go on the trip with me.
I grabbed the keys off the counter. Daisy and Aaron meant well, but I didn’t want to sit and listen to any more of their lecture. When we left Daisy’s house the day before, we’d taken her car to Aaron’s. It was parked behind everyone else’s, so I climbed into the sleek two-door Maserati.
The passenger door swung open, and Neal slid in next to me. “Hey.”
I clenched the steering wheel. “I think I can handle taking the passport in by myself.”
Neal ignored me and folded his tall body into the passenger seat so he could shut the door. “I know you can, but the sheriff agreed to meet with me.”
The front gates to Aaron and Neal’s property opened when I neared them. Neal tapped away on his phone as I drove from Calabasas to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. The judge had agreed to let me drop Annabella’s passport off with the police.
Hacker Salvation: White Hat Security, Book 7 Page 6