Emma hadn’t stood up for anything. She’d told the world the senator was her father, but only to take away the blackmailer’s power. Too much damage had been done. It hadn’t been about saving anyone.
She couldn’t even stand up to her own mother. The woman had forced her into the rhetoric her entire life, and Emma hadn’t stood up to her. Not once. The past few weeks had been scary and lonely. She’d also learned more about herself than at any other time in her life.
Plus, she’d met Mint.
She glanced over at him.
A frown crinkled his brow and he said, “What?”
“Thank you.”
“For what?”
Where did she even start? She shifted to face him and said, “For being here. Finding me in the hallway.” She paused for a second, trying to figure out what to say. “There was a man here. He said there’s going to be more. I didn’t fix anything.”
Mint’s eyes hardened. “I was distracted by your mom, and he got to you?”
Emma pressed her lips together. She wasn’t going to give him guilt when he’d been amazing the past few days. Still, she couldn’t help asking, “What does he want?”
Chapter 18
Bradley had taken Alexis so she could be with Rachel. Steve’s attempt to visit her had been unsuccessful; she’d refused to let him in. But if there was anyone who could get through to her, it would be her best friend and sister-in-law.
Which left Mint with Emma back at the warehouse. He didn’t even know what to say to her. Your mom is a piece of work. Or how about, You’re crazy if you think that helped. She’d tried to force the blackmailer’s hand by revealing the information he held about her personal life. He knew she’d done it because it was what Alexis and Rachel had done, and it worked for them.
Steve sat at the conference table with his laptop open. The man’s face was haggard. But then, they were planning services for two men on their team. Plus, his visit to Rachel hadn’t succeeded.
Mint also sat, while Emma paced to the corner waiting for the kettle to boil. He said, “Any idea who that man was?”
Steve didn’t look up. “I’m running our facial recognition software on the surveillance footage we got from security.”
Mint said, “Good. Thanks.”
“You can find out who it is?” Emma was still in her dress, though she’d taken off her heels, so she wandered over and stood beside him in bare feet. With her blond hair down around her shoulders, she looked far younger than she should.
Even though he tried to steel himself against all the feelings that welled up inside, she’d broken through. He needed to face the fact he had no safeguards against her. He said, “That’s the plan.”
“But it’s not the blackmailer, right?” She glanced between him and Steve. “We’re assuming he is just another minion, like Aaron Jones. Someone to be his public face. He said, ‘our mutual friend’.”
Mint nodded. He pushed out the chair beside him. “Sit.” When she did, he said to Steve, “Do you have the profiles on everyone invited to the fundraiser?”
“In your email.”
Mint grabbed his iPad from his locker. When he walked back into the conference room, Emma was chuckling at something Steve said. His boss’s face was purposely blank, but the edge of sadness since he’d told them about Craig and Drew was still there. What had they been talking about?
He sat down. She lifted her chin. Uh-oh. He figured whatever this was, he probably wasn’t going to like it.
“I’m going to the fundraiser.”
“That’s it?” he asked. “No lead in. No attempt to butter me up. Just a flat statement? There’s a blackmailer out there with people willing to get in your face to threaten you, and you want to waltz out there again and put your neck on the line?”
She opened her mouth to speak, then closed it.
“Again.”
“Do I have to say I’m sorry?”
He blinked. “That might help.”
“You were there. You had my back.”
“That doesn’t mean you get to be reckless.”
Mint looked down at his iPad and scrolled through the names of people invited. A few he knew. Some he’d never heard of. Doctors linked to the charity, and government staff. Wealthy businessmen and women. A Texas oil man. No one who really stuck out as vulnerable to a blackmailer looking for new targets, or who he could pinpoint as being the possible victim of some kind of attack.
They had to view this as possible terrorism. It wasn’t as likely as other factors, perhaps, but it was on the list.
Mint mostly figured the blackmailer was after money, but probably also wanted to further his agenda.
His gaze snagged on one name. “Huh.” He clicked on the bio and flicked his finger to send the page to the huge screen on the wall at the end of the room. Then he set the iPad down and walked over to scan the information so he could pace at the same time.
His iPad screen filled the wall.
“Who is that?” Emma came to stand beside him. “Brent Caulder.” She read from the screen, where the name was listed above a picture of a fifty-something man who smiled at the camera, with clean-cut blond hair and a button-down shirt.
“Says here he’s a researcher. A scientist in the field of auditory research, studying the effects of sound on the environment.” He’d been flagged because of a note Steve’s assistant had left tagged on the profile. “But his security clearance level is insane.”
“What do you mean?”
Steve piped up from behind his laptop. “He means it’s abnormally high.”
“Kind of like yours,” Mint said.
Steve chuckled. “That’s need-to-know.”
And Mint didn’t need to know. Except when he did. Mint said, “How do we find out what he’s working on?”
Steve got up. “Keep an eye on my laptop. I’ll go make a call.”
Mint nodded, but his boss was already walking out of the room.
“Do you think he’s the target?”
He turned to Emma, still looking up at him with those dark blue eyes. If she was strong enough to face Aaron Jones and then go into a service full of people and tell them all—and the general public—her darkest secret, then she was stronger than she looked.
Strong enough to know when to stand.
She pulled at him, making him want to give her whatever she wanted. To believe she was strong enough even for this. Even when fear welled up in him. When it went against all logic and reason.
He liked her, but he didn’t want to lose himself in the process. That just left a person empty when the relationship ended.
“Mint…” she sighed. “Can I call you, Davis?”
“No.”
“Oh.” She took a step back. “Sorry.”
He caught her hand before she got too far away. “My father called me Davis when he screamed at me because I didn’t cook dinner right. Or because someone was coming over, and I hadn’t cleaned up. He screamed all kinds of things, names and insults. My name is no different. At least, in my head, it sounds no different. I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Oh.”
“You keep saying that.” He tried to make light of it, but that didn’t change the look on her face. One that was a whole lot like pity. “Em—”
She leaned over and hugged him. Her arms wrapped around his middle and she laid her head on his chest.
Mint stood still for a second, his mind blank, unable to figure out what he was supposed to do. Then reflex kicked in, and he wrapped his own arms around her.
A sob shuddered through her.
He shook his head. “So much emotion.”
It didn’t feel like pity, and it didn’t make him feel worse accepting it. How was that? He’d assumed opening up would only add to the weight on him. How was it that it made him feel lighter?
She leaned back and slapped his shoulder, but it had no strength behind it. “You deserve it. Just blurting all that out, like you’re telling me the weat
her forecast for tomorrow.”
“I don’t want you to know about him,” he said honestly. “I don’t want that staining you or what you think of me. Living with that for so long.” He shook his head.
“When did you leave?”
“The minute I turned sixteen. I had a friend who’d moved from Indianapolis, where we lived, to Chicago. I took the money my father gave me to get groceries, and I bought a bus ticket instead. I lived with my friend until graduation, and then I joined the army.”
A quiet moved over her. “I’m glad you had that friend. I could have used one of those. Someone like what Rachel and Alexis have.”
He nodded.
“But I think I’ve realized that it doesn’t matter what we came from or the mistakes we make now. It’s what we do with it all that shows our character. I don’t want to be someone forced into a box by my mother. Or dictated to by a blackmailer out for his own gains.” She paused, then said, “I want to be someone you respect. Someone you consider worth having in your life. And that means going to the fundraiser.”
There was a lot there he liked and a whole lot he didn’t.
Mint lowered his arms and sat on the edge of the table. “Putting yourself in harm’s way isn’t the answer. I know you want to and that’s enough.”
“But it doesn’t help find this man.”
“Double Down will figure out who it is. Your job is to stay safe.”
**
“I don’t want to be hidden away and protected.” Was he going to listen? Like, really listen and actually hear her?
“I know.”
He thought he did, but the truth was they didn’t know each other that well. Neither knew the extent of what drove the other. Only time would reveal that. Time, and getting to know each other.
“I want you to know me,” she said. “And I want to find a new job. Maybe buy a house, because I’ve been renting for way too long. It’s time to start the rest of my life.”
Mint’s lips twitched. “You jump around from conversation to conversation faster than I can keep up.”
“Double Down has lost two people this week. Perkins is hurt.”
“And Walker will help her. What’s your point?”
She folded her arms. “That you need all the manpower you can get. Or, in this case, woman power.”
“And I’m supposed to let you?”
“I’m not sure you’re going to ‘let’ me do anything. It’s not like I need your permission to step outside.”
“You want to go to the fundraiser and put your life on the line.”
“It’s for a good cause.”
“Not one that’s worth your life.”
He really wasn’t going to budge on this? “You can’t stop me.”
Mint leaned toward her. “If you want protecting, then I’m afraid you’re going to have to suffer the indignity of submitting to some of my dictates. Like, for one, not going off on your own without cover.”
“Children.” Bradley filled the doorway, his comment both a reprimand and a greeting.
Were they behaving like children? Emma was just trying to get Mint to see reason. She ignored Bradley and turned back to Mint. “I knew you were going to throw that back in my face. Well, you know what? The funeral turned out fine. So pardon me for wanting to honor my father.”
He winced. “Nice for you.”
She folded her arms. “And now I’m going to help you all figure this out.”
“I’ll take you,” Bradley said, still in the doorway. The small smile on his face didn’t reach his eyes—Double Down had lost too much for that. Still, was he getting amusement from the fact she was confronting Mint?
“No, you will not.” Mint shook his head. “I’m not going to be forced into a corner and be distracted at the fundraiser. My focus will be split between protecting you and getting the job done.”
Emma didn’t like the sound of that. “That’s what you think I’ll be doing? Distracting you?” Maybe she didn’t want him to answer that question. Her emotions were far too close to the surface right now. She would say something she didn’t mean, and she would end up regretting it. She was trying to stand up for herself. He thought she was being a bully, making him do things her way?
She stood up then. “I need to go…lie down, or something.” She edged toward the door without looking at Mint. Or Bradley.
“Let me know if you need anything,” Bradley said quietly as she passed him.
Emma nodded and kept moving. She didn’t want Mint to think she was bullying him. That was what her mom did, talking and talking and talking until she wore everyone down. They bent to her whim because it was easier than the backlash they would receive if they didn’t do everything the way she wanted it done. Emma and her “father”, the man she’d thought was her father all these years, had always simply given in. Or was that just his method of keeping the peace—and their secrets?
There was no way Emma wanted to follow in those footsteps. And yet, Mint’s words revealed that was exactly what she’d been doing. Guilting him into what she wanted. Falling back on those ingrained skills she’d learned from years of watching her mother. Years of having that very thing done to her.
But it wasn’t the only source of her power. Emma had to think on that for a moment and let it sink in. If she didn’t want to be like her mom—and she absolutely did not—then she had to find a different way to operate.
Had she forced the situation by announcing to the funeral goers that the senator was her father? She’d been trying to do what Alexis had and take the power back. Had she railroaded the situation instead and ended up making it worse?
A tear rolled down her face. Life was such a mess. And it was hard. She didn’t even know how she was going to move forward. It felt like she had nothing anymore. As though everything she knew and relied on, trusted in, had crumbled. Which made her wonder just how solid it had been in the first place.
Emma flopped back on the bed and let herself cry. She needed to release the emotion after the last few weeks. She was safe, but it wasn’t like anything was fine. Far from it, in fact. She reached for a tissue from the box on the bedside table and saw the light on the phone base flashing. It was ringing, though the sound had evidently been turned off.
She blew her nose and sat up. The cordless phone was on its base, and she’d ignored it before now. Was it Mint, or one of the others, making sure she was okay? Maybe they just didn’t want to deal with an emotional woman in person.
She picked it up and pressed the green button to answer the call. “Hello?”
“Look out the window.” The voice was distorted, like a computer.
“What?”
Silence filled the line.
“Hello?”
She looked at the tiny screen, but the call was still connected. Emma shifted off the bed and went to the window.
The voice came back immediately. “In precisely two minutes, the man across the street in that tan van will slide the door open and point a rocket launcher at the Double Down warehouse. I’m sure you’ve seen the destruction I can wreak when I will it.”
Authority rang in his voice, causing a cold to move through her. Emma shuddered.
“Walk out the north entrance now and get into the SUV. Or the three men in the building will burn.”
“What?” Her voice was almost a wail. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?” There was no way Mint—or any of them—would let her leave. The building was secure. “They’ll know if I just walk out.”
“Security has been disabled.”
He was in their computer system? How was that even possible? Emma tried to think. Should she just scream? She looked around for a way to write a note, or something.
“Failure to comply will result in four deaths.”
The voice was void of any humanity. Was it really just a computer, or was the blackmailer some kind of sociopath who didn’t care who got hurt? He’d caused so much distraction.
Mint would try to find her.
After he thought she’d betrayed him, just like her mother screamed at her. He would think she’d tried to force his hand. Split his focus.
Another tear rolled down her face, just when she’d thought her tears all spent.
“One minute remaining,” the voice said.
Emma dropped the phone. It smashed on the floor, the plastic cracked, and a couple of pieces flew across the thin carpet.
She looked out the window again, staring at the van. Was there really a man with a weapon in there? How did Double Down not know about it?
Could she take the risk?
Emma grabbed her purse and strode to the door. She prayed Mint would see the truth of what had happened and not hate her too much. If she went now, maybe she would meet the blackmailer. Maybe she would be able to end this, somehow.
She pushed against the bar on the exit door, praying an alarm would sound. But it didn’t. She wanted one of them to stop her. Mint, Bradley, or Steve. Mostly Mint. Didn’t one of them know?
Parked just beyond the alley was a black SUV.
The door closed behind her. The immediate ring of an alarm inside the building made her jump. The security system had gone off. Mint would know.
Across the lot, the back door to the SUV opened. A rustle of clothing behind her drew her attention. But not fast enough to stop the prick in her neck. A needle? Darkness swept her up, swallowing her like the cold ocean as she collapsed into thick arms. Emma felt herself being lifted.
And then there was nothing.
Chapter 19
Mint worked his way through the crowd. Evening dresses. Plenty of jewelry. Men in tailored suits. He glanced at shoes and saw nothing that would retail for less than five hundred. Most were in the thousands. He’d bought shoes for a mission in the Middle East once, infiltrating people for whom money—and appearance—was everything. Shopping for that had been more painful than the time he’d been captured in Nigeria.
The fundraiser was underway. People with too much money here to schmooze their way through the night, trying to one-up each other on how much they could give. Regardless of whether they actually cared about the kids the fundraiser would be helping.
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