Illusion (Billionaire in Disguise Series, #2)

by Lexy Timms

  “There’s another good side to this, though. If you’re getting nervous.”

  “I’m all ears,” I said.

  “This also throws off Jacob. If he’s got someone on the inside somewhere, and I’m almost certain he does, there’s the slightest chance he knows we’re trying to fish someone out. Figuring out who’s corrupt like this might pull Jacob himself from the shadows.”

  “Anything I should be looking for?”

  “That’s my job once I get in there. You stay focused on the bigger threats. Someone charging you. Someone not taking off their mask. Someone being absent. Those are the only thing. You leave the rest to me. Now that this bombing has occurred and been confirmed, it’s proof Jacob’s still after you. If we can cut off his pipelines to you, it’ll make him angry. This might not have been about money in the first place. Simply time to find other ways to get to you.”

  “I know. And I’m glad we’re both on board with this plan because I’m not allowing any other innocent people to get caught in this crossfire. This is getting ridiculous, and I want it over with.”

  “We’re getting close. I know we are.”

  “I’m not going to lie down while people are killed around me because of my negligence.”

  “It’s not your negligence. It’s mine. I’m taking the fall for all that. Not you,” she said.

  “I don’t want people at my company hurt.”

  “They won’t be.”

  “I’m serious,” I said.

  “I know you are. It’s why we’re going to wrap this up, pursue this to the ends of the earth. I’ll fire the whole damn team and do this myself if I have to.”

  “That’s why I trust you. Because you would be willing to take all this onto your shoulders if it meant seeking justice,” I said.

  Sam fell silent, and I repeated myself.

  “I trust you, Sam. I need you to hear me when I tell you that.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “I know those agents don’t, but I do. I know who I hired. I vetted you well. I’ve gotten to know you. I’ve fallen in love with you. I trust you, Sam.”

  “Y-you what?” she asked.

  “We can talk about it later. Don’t get distracted, and don’t let up.”

  “How the hell am I not supposed to be distracted now?”

  “Would it help if I told you I was lying?”

  “Were you?” she asked.

  The silence on the phone was deafening. There was a desperation in her voice like she was looking for any sort of doubt in my declaration. A grin ticked my cheek as I turned away from the window, taking a look at the clock as I heaved a deep sigh.

  Three minutes until the meeting.

  Three minutes until we flushed this son of a bitch out.

  “No,” I said. “I wasn’t. I love you, Sam.”

  “Then let’s finish off this day with a win. Then we can move on and figure out our future together,” she said.

  Wait. What?

  Had I heard her right?

  “Our future?” I asked.

  “Yep. We find the snake in the bush, we trace it back to Jacob, we go find him, and we’re done. Then, we can move on,” she said.

  “With our future. You and me,” I said.

  “Yes, Derek. You and me. Because I’ve fallen in love with you too.”

  A smile broke out across my face. I couldn't believe it. This stubborn, beautiful, hard, collected, graceful woman had let me in. She’d fallen for me just like I had for her, and I allowed her words to ring heavily in my head. All the effort and the hard work and the showing of affection and the chasing around and the needless arguments had finally paid off.

  She loved me.

  Samantha Williams, my insanely hot bodyguard, was in love with me.

  “I guess I have extra motivation to make sure you don’t get killed tonight,” Sam said.

  “And now I have extra motivation to actually use this gun I’m staring at,” I said.

  “You use it if you need it, Derek. Don’t you play that game with me. There’s going to be a period of time where you’re vulnerable, and I’m not with you. That’s the risk we’re taking. That’s why I left that gun with you.”

  “I know. I know. I’m hoping I don’t have to use it.”

  “Me too. But it’s there just in case. Self-defense always holds up in court, especially when you’ve got fourteen specially-trained witnesses. If they’re the men I hired, the moment the rat shows himself, they’ll take aim and try to protect you. If I’ve hired the men I think I have, you’ll have fourteen men on your side and only one who isn’t.”

  “When you put it that way, it doesn’t sound so bad.”

  “I’ve slipped a lot in this job, I’ll admit that. But I hired those men before I ever fell in love with you. I trust the men I vetted.”

  “Did you vet John?” I asked.

  The phone call fell silent as I sat against my desk. It was a logical question. Even though Sam portrayed herself to be hard and unwavering, she was biased. She had emotions, and she had a personal relationship with John. It wasn’t an intimate one, but she had told me time and time again that she trusted that man with her life. Which meant she probably didn’t vet him like the rest of the guys on the team.

  She would’ve assumed he wouldn’t ever betray her.

  Just like I had of Jacob.

  “Sam?” I asked.

  “I gotta go so I can pay attention,” she said. “The guys are coming up the driveway now. Is your front door unlocked for them?”

  “Just like you asked,” I said. “Sam, I didn’t mean to implicate John of anything. It was just—”

  “It was a valid question, and your grievances have been logged.”

  There she was. The cold, calm, collected Sam all of us needed to flush this bastard out, but I knew my question had triggered that response. I hadn’t learned much with Sam around, but I learned enough to know what was going on. She hadn’t vetted John before asking him to come work for her.

  She had simply hired him on and used their prior working relationship as a justification for trust.

  And in my world, that was dangerous territory. So I knew it had to be with hers.

  “I’m sorry,” Sam said.

  “For what?” I asked.

  “If my theory’s correct, I’ve done all this,” she said.

  “Sam, what do you mean? What's happening? What's going on in your head?”

  “The guys are headed for the door. I have to go so I can pay attention.”

  “No, no, no. Don’t do this. Sam, what are you thinking about?”

  “I need you to do something for me when those men get in there,” she said.

  “Anything. What is it?”

  “Count their heads. Double count them. Triple count them again and again. Then send me the number via text message.”

  “No calling?” I asked.

  “No calling. Text message. Number only. Got it?’

  “Got it,” I said.

  The line went dead as my front door opened. I heard heavy boots knocking against my marble floor as the men started up the staircase. I felt the hair on the back of my neck standing on end as I picked up the gun. I moved myself to the other end of the room, so no one could maneuver themselves behind me. I moved away from the window like Sam had instructed me earlier. I placed the gun behind my body and shielded it with my relaxed form.

  Then, I watched as the knob on my office door began to turn.

  Chapter 22

  Sam

  I SAW THEM COMING UP the driveway as my head began to bob with their numbers. I hung up my phone before I made my way back to John, counting their bodies again. We were seated in the forest that blanketed the side of Derek’s driveway. I wanted to count the heads of the men going up to the meeting with John, double-checking my numbers.

  Fuck. This wasn’t good.

  “Sam, get over here and count now,” John said.

  I shoved my cell phone into my pocket an
d raced to where he was standing.

  “I know. I did,” I said.

  “Count again. This is serious,” he said.

  My eyes darted along the men walking up the driveway. I felt my breath hitch in my throat as I counted them again. I counted and recounted, making sure I had the number right. But every time I counted them, I got the same number.

  Fourteen.

  There were fourteen men heading up to the house.

  “On the count of three,” I said. “One, two...”

  “Fourteen,” John and I said together.

  “Shit. Who the fuck is missing?” I asked.

  “The new guy. Reggie.”

  “New guy? There’s a fucking new guy, John?”

  “I just hired him on today. Remember the guy with the hives?”

  “Ah, the one allergic to the pesticides. What happened? You never gave me an update on him.”

  “Still in the hospital. I needed to employ someone to take his place.”

  “Did you run his background?” I asked.

  “Yes. Just like the company does.”

  “But did you run it the way I do it?” I asked.

  “Sam, for fuck’s sake I ran the man’s background.”

  “And how did it look? Because right now, he should be heading for a team meeting. He’s new. He’s going to want to make a good impression, so where the fuck is he?”

  “I don’t know, all right? But do you really think the new guy’s trying to kill Mr. Steele?”

  “That was the whole fucking point of this meeting, John. We have to figure out where he is. We have to assume the worst,” I said.

  “So, what’s the plan?”

  “I’m following all the guys in. I’m waiting for Derek’s head count to come through my phone. Then I’m supposed to go in and start questioning the guys. You backtrack and see if you can spot Reggie. With him not being here and this threat looming over Derek’s head, he’s going to need backup he can trust.”

  “He’s got fourteen fucking men in there he can trust.”

  “Right now, I don’t trust anyone,” I said.

  “Not even me?”

  I turned my gaze to John as I drew in a deep breath. I did trust him. With my life. But this situation was spiraling out of control, and now we had a missing new guy who was nowhere to be seen. For all I knew, Jacob was the one who put Reggie up for the job by paying someone off in the fucking company.

  That man could get anywhere if he wanted to. He had already proven that.

  “Now that we know who’s missing, we need to call the police and get them on their way,” I said. “I’m heading up to the team. I want you to backtrack and case the perimeter of the building. See if you can’t find Reggie.”

  “Do you trust me?” John asked.

  “With my life,” I said. “But right now, I’m on a special sort of high alert. Now go. This stops today. We all need to get on with our lives like you said.”

  “Finally, something I can get behind. Keep your radio on you. I’m heading out. And Sam?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be careful.”

  “You, too, John. You too.”

  Once the last body was in the house, John and I parted ways. We hurried from the forest as I made my way for the house, listening as John’s footfalls ran down the driveway behind me. I shook my head, snickering as I bit the inside of my cheek. It was disgusting to me that someone could be a traitor like this. Our line of work was important. Substantial. People’s lives were on the line every damn day, and we were saving innocent people from harm. How could someone jeopardize that for a little money? Jacob was wealthy but not like Derek. And most of his accounts were frozen. Even if he had some sort of secretive account he was drawing from, it couldn’t have been much.

  I had a hard time thinking these men were being paid millions of dollars to betray anyone, much less me.

  This was going to be a huge hit to my reputation. Word would circulate quickly that I allowed a traitor to sneak in onto my team. I personally vetted everyone before I hired them. I used tactics other companies didn’t use to learn about the other person. I drew up psychological profiles and ran their bank accounts. I looked into their medical history and fucking found out who their parents were. Why John would suddenly rip that from me just to hire a new guy quickly was beyond me.

  It was very unlike John to do something like that.

  But even though my reputation would take a hit, losing a client would be even worse. So whoever the fuck this Reggie guy was, he had to be found and neutralized. Losing Derek was not an option today.

  Not for my professional life, and not for my personal life.

  My phone vibrated on my hip, and I stopped to pick it up. It was a message from Derek, and the number made me cringe. Fourteen. Just like John and I had counted fourteen men walking up the driveway, Derek only had fourteen men in his office.

  Down one guy.

  One lone threat who could ruin this for everyone.

  But then, I heard footsteps falling quickly behind me. Heavy boots and panting breaths running at a tremendous pace. I put my hand on my gun and whipped around, watching as a man decked out in full tactical gear came racing up the driveway. He was sweating bullets, and his face was red, but he seemed familiar.

  I picked up my phone and rifled through the pictures I’d sent Derek until I landed on the one for Reggie.

  Him.

  The man running up the driveway.

  He was man number fifteen.

  “So sorry,” Reggie said. “It’ll never happen again. There was a wreck. Had to run here to get here on time. I don’t think we’ve met.”

  I stood there, flabbergasted as I eyed the man closely. This was the new guy. This was body number fifteen.

  This was the threat I thought had been posed.

  “Reggie,” I said.

  “Yes, ma’am. You must be Williams. Honor to meet you. It’s gonna be great working with you,” he said.

  All fifteen were accounted for. The entire team was here. My mind started to spin as the world started to tunnel. If the threat was on this property, and everyone had shown up for the team meeting, then it only meant one thing.

  John.

  John was the one who was betraying us.

  “Do me a favor, Reggie. Get upstairs as fast as you can and relay a message to Mr. Steele.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said. “What’s the message?”

  “Tell him mission accomplished. Then, whatever you do, don’t let him leave that room,” I said.

  “Mr. Steele? But I thought—”

  “Show me you can take orders,” I said flatly. “Or I’ll have your job.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Going now.”

  I turned around, watching as Reggie ran up the driveway toward the house. My head felt like it was in a vise grip. My heart felt like it was shattering into pieces. It was the only logical explanation. We had ruled out everything else. All of the fifteen team members were accounted for, and now John was nowhere to be found.

  John was the only person on this team no longer accounted for.

  How the fuck had I been so stupid? It was so simple. So easy to see now that I had removed my own personal biases. If John was being paid by Jacob, then that was how Jacob had been attacked in the garage. He paid his own bodyguard to attack him. John would’ve had access to the boat. To the luggage. To the security guard he knocked out and stuffed in that closet. For all I knew, that security guard had caught him planting something. Wrong place, wrong time.

  That would also explain how I was unable to see any of this. John wasn’t simply being paid by Jacob to run his plan, he was probably being paid to cover his tracks using his knowledge of my own tracking skills he’d acquired over years of service to me and using it to blind me. He was being paid to use my own tactics against me, tactics he had been privy to on jobs because he had always been my second-in-command.

  How the fuck could I have missed this?

  I know exact
ly how I missed it. I didn’t fucking vet him like all the other guys. I relied on our past history, on my trust in him, to stand instead of running a background check. Instead, I relied on the fact that the company kept hiring him and substituted the rest with all the jobs we had taken together, all the lives we had saved together, and all the good we had done together.

  I had to find John.

  I had to figure out where the fuck he went.

  I was buried waist deep in my thoughts when I heard it behind me. The sound of a car accelerating before my body went flying. There was a searing pain my side as my body came crashing down, my head bashing against the pavement. My ear was aching, and my head was ringing. It felt like my body was on fire as I lay there on the concrete, stunned and confused. I tried to get up. I tried to push myself upright as the world spun around me. The ground was undulating, my hands were trembling, and I felt like I was going to throw up all the contents of my stomach.

  Then a searing pain ricocheted up my leg.

  A gunshot rang out, piercing through the ringing in my head. My trembling hand reached for the gun on my hip, but another gunshot rang out. It ricocheted off the gun I was holding up, tossing it to the ground and out of reach. It was a dented, mangled mess, useless to me as I lay there on the ground bleeding from my leg.

  I slumped, my morning breakfast rise up my throat as a dark shadow loomed over me.

  “I’m really sorry about this,” John said.

  I tried to focus my eyes as the barrel of a gun came into view.

  “I’ve always liked working with you,” he said. “Getting to know you. Watching you do all the things you know you’re good at. It’s inspiring, really. But I can’t let this go any further.”

  I squinted my eyes, my head hammering with pain as John’s face came into view. The traitorous fuck whose windpipe I wanted to crush. My body was surging with anger and shock and sadness. My friend. John had become my friend.

  What the hell was my friend doing pointing a gun at my face?

  “John, please—”

  “Don’t do that. Don’t beg. It’s not a good look on you,” he said.

  I swallowed down the sour bile, grimacing as I tried to roll over.

  Derek.

  I had to get to Derek.