Blood

by Ivy Nelson

  Elijah shook his head in disgust as the door to the interrogation room opened and Austin Yates stepped in.

  “I hope you’re not questioning my client without his attorney present.”

  “No questions asked. Just presenting what we have.”

  Austin snorted. To Elijah she said, “Jeremy asked me to step in until he can get here.”

  “I wouldn’t bother having him come. I’ll be out of here by tonight.” He slid the folder over to Austin, who whistled as she read.

  “This is ridiculous. If there were a case, why wasn’t he questioned when he was seventeen?”

  The agent leaned against the blank wall in the stark room and shrugged. “We weren’t on the case then. We have no way of knowing what the local police were thinking when they investigated but we do know they never caught the killer.”

  “Are you charging my client?” Austin asked.

  “Not at this time. But we are keeping him for twenty-four hours.”

  Elijah leaned back and nearly smirked to himself because he knew Austin was about to unleash on them. It was fun to watch her work her magic.

  “Let’s get something straight, gentlemen. You’re not keeping him for any amount of time. This is a wild goose chase and I feel quite certain we all know that. I wouldn’t be surprised if I didn’t find some kind of donation from Nicholas Sutton on the books. You have no evidence, and my client and I are leaving.”

  An hour later, Elijah and Austin were in the back of a car on the way to his hotel.

  “How’s Holly?” he asked.

  “She’s holding up. Your phone is blowing up and she’s fielding calls as best she can. As you can likely guess, it’s already been leaked to the press that you were picked up. Don’t be surprised if you lose some business over this. As for Holly, don’t be surprised if she pulls away from you a little bit. She’s confused, and she needs some answers.”

  Elijah nodded solemnly, knowing all too well the gravity of the situation.

  “I’ll take care of her.”

  “We’re putting you both on a plane back to California tonight.”

  Elijah had no arguments with that.

  Once on the plane, Elijah sent Holly to the bedroom to take a break and get some rest. She tried to protest, but he tucked his fingers under her chin and said, “It’s going to be a long couple days, baby. I’m going to need you. You’ve done really well tonight but now it’s time for you to get some sleep. I’ll handle the phone calls for a little while. We’ll be home soon.”

  They were both back in the office doing damage control by six on Sunday morning. By Monday, the software company Elijah was trying to buy, pulled out of negotiations and London wasn’t sure they wanted to continue their negotiations either. He still had a chance to save that deal though, he would just need Patrick’s help. They were eating sandwiches in his office Monday afternoon when Jax came for a visit.

  Holly was in Elijah’s office with him when the tall cowboy stepped into the room.

  “Can I get a minute alone with Elijah?” he asked, tossing his hat back and forth in his hands.

  Holly nodded and kissed Elijah on the cheek. He had assured her over and over again since last night that he had nothing to do with her mother’s death and as far as he could tell she believed him.

  “What’s going on?” he asked Jax when they were alone.

  “I don’t think you should trust her.”

  Elijah scowled. “Not this again.”

  “Did she have your phone last night?”

  Elijah felt his gut tighten. “She did.”

  “And she’s had access to all of your data on lab produced diamonds, correct?”

  “She’s my assistant, Jax.”

  His friend shook his head and tossed a folder his direction.

  With shaking hands, Elijah opened it and felt his heart shatter into a million pieces. “God fucking damn it.”

  “I’m sorry. I have no other way to explain this other than Holly was sent here as a spy by her father. I know we didn’t want to believe it, but I don’t know what else to make of this.”

  Elijah picked up his phone.

  “Claudia, I need you to terminate Miss Sutton’s employment contract immediately and have her escorted from the building. Jackson Fischer will be down in five minutes with a folder you can give her if she needs a God damned reason for termination.”

  His head of HR was silent for a moment. “You technically can’t do that, Mr. Barrett. The employment contract you both signed says you can’t fire her, and she can’t quit for the first six months. I could move her to a different department.”

  Shit. That’s what he got for thinking with his dick instead of his brain. “No. I want her gone. I’ll deal with the legal ramifications if she sues. I want her out of my fucking building within the hour.”

  He motioned for Jax to leave and go to HR. “Fourth floor,” he said as he walked out.

  Elijah pounded his fist on the desk when his door was shut. How could he have been so stupid?

  Ten minutes later, he heard a commotion outside his door. “You can’t go in there, ma’am. Please don’t make us call the police.”

  “I didn’t do this, Elijah! You have to believe me,” Holly shouted through the door. He could tell she’d been crying.

  It twisted at his heart for a minute, but he pushed it aside. She’d been sent to trick him. There was no place in his heart for her anymore.

  Chapter Thirty

  “I didn’t do this, Patrick,” Holly cried as she handed him the folder. “I would never. I’m in love with him. That makes it look like I had him arrested and stole company property. He thinks I’m a God damned spy.”

  She paced and ranted as Patrick flipped through the folder of supposed evidence against her. “Stop. Holls, stop. It’s going to be OK.” He laid the folder on his coffee table and pulled her into a hug. “If he’s going to treat you like that, you don’t need him.”

  Holly felt like she was going to be ill again. Being thrown out of Elijah’s office that morning had done a number on her stomach, and she’d spent most of the plane ride to San Francisco in the bathroom.

  “Is he going to try and have me arrested? The things I’m being accused of in that folder are illegal, Patrick. Listening devices? Sending private documents to Troy Wilson? You have to know I would never…” she trailed off.

  “I know you wouldn’t, sis. I think deep down he probably knows that too. I’m going to give him some time to cool off. But then I’m going to beat the shit out of him for breaking your heart. I warned him not to hurt you.”

  “Can I stay here for a few days? I can’t stand the thought of going back home.”

  Patrick squeezed her shoulder. Of course. Stay as long as you need.”

  “Thank you,” she whispered.

  A week later, Holly was still playing hermit in Patrick’s penthouse. He offered to put her to work at Eastman Enterprises after he talked to David, but he couldn’t promise her that they wouldn’t be interacting with Elijah, so she turned him down.

  Patrick talked her into replacing her cellphone since she’d never gotten hers back from Jax. She regretted not changing her number almost instantly. Her father and Grant both tried to call multiple times, but she refused to answer. When Grant resorted to guilt trip text messages, she finally told him she needed time alone and they would talk soon.

  Food was repulsive. And the thought of reading one of her romance novels was too much, given what she’d shared with Elijah. Sleep was out of the question because his face haunted her in her dreams.

  So, she did research. Hours of it. On day two at Patrick’s, she discovered she still had all of her access to the computer system. For hours, Holly would pour over data for the past fifteen years at the Sutton Foundation. It all seemed to add up on paper, but she couldn’t get Patrick’s words out of her head.

  At the end of the day though, she wasn’t a numbers person and the spreadsheets were making her eyes glaze over. Her intern
et research told her she needed a forensic accountant.

  That sparked an idea. An idea she hated, but she didn’t know where else to start. With shaking hands, she picked up her cell phone and dialed a number.

  “Fischer,” the familiar voice drawled after three rings.

  “Mr. Fischer, it’s Holly Sutton. I need your help.”

  There was silence on the line and for a moment, she thought he’d hung up on her.

  “Miss Sutton, I’m not sure it’s a good idea for us to be talking, and you should know that I’m recording this for security purposes. I’m still working for Eli… Mr. Barrett to investigate your father which means I’m investigating you.”

  Holly did her best to tamp down her anger. “Investigate me all you want, Mr. Fischer. I still need your help, and it might help your investigation too.”

  He blew out a breath. “I’m not Mr. Fischer, I’m Jax. And I’m listening.”

  “The first time I met you, I heard you mention having some forensic accountants on retainer. Is that still the case?”

  “It is. Where is this going?”

  “If I told you I have access to over fifteen years of financial data from the Sutton Foundation and I’m willing to hand it over on one condition, would you bring in one of those accountants? I’ll pay whatever it costs.”

  “I think it depends on the condition, but that sounds pretty intriguing.”

  “You can’t tell Elijah you’re doing it. Not until you find something concrete.”

  “That’s a big ask, Holly. He’s my client and you can’t guarantee I’m going to find anything.”

  “So, let me hire you too. You can have more than one client, can’t you? I’m hiring you to look into the Sutton Foundation, and I’m giving you the tools you need to do it. It lines up with your job for Elijah so there’s no conflict of interest. He doesn’t need to know anything about the work you’re doing for me.”

  Jax cleared his throat. “I suppose this is the part where you tell me I’m wrong and you weren’t spying for your father.”

  “I wasn’t, Jax. I swear on my mother’s grave. I know how it looks, I do. I don’t know how, but I was set up. It might have been my dad. It might have been someone else. I really don’t know. I just know that I love Elijah and I would never do anything like that to him.”

  “Jesus, y’all make my life hard. Fine. I’ll do it. But you’re paying me the same rate as Elijah and I don’t want to hear another word about how much you love him. That lovey dovey shit makes me itch.”

  Holly giggled, feeling lighter than she had in days. “Thank you so much, Jax. You won’t regret this. I swear.”

  “I’m definitely going to regret this,” he grumbled.

  The next day, he called her again to say he had a forensic accountant ready to take on the case, and they worked out a time to meet so Holly could pass on her information. She knew the numbers were too much for her, so she started digging into other parts of the Sutton Foundation cloud.

  Her termination notice had cited a listening device and the transfer of documents. The listening device seemed easy enough, she’d given her phone to Troy Wilson the day before her interview with Barrett. She knew the Sutton Foundation recorded phone calls, but there were thousands of hours on the server. Was that the sort of thing they would have talked about on a company phone line? It didn’t seem likely, but she dug anyway.

  When she still came up empty on her own, she wondered if it was time to talk to Grant or her father. It wouldn’t be hard to play the part of the woman scorned. If one of them had set her up, she needed to get close enough to find out.

  The hard part was telling Patrick what she wanted to do.

  “I think you’re crazy,” he told her.

  “I have to do something, Patrick.”

  “Elijah will be pissed.”

  “Elijah already hates me. This may be the only way I can fix this.”

  Her brother glared at her across his kitchen table. “I’m only going to be OK with this if you let me talk to a friend first.”

  Holly shook her head. “I don’t want to involve anyone else in our shit.”

  “He’s family, Holly. You already know him. Lance from Solitaire is a whiz at computers and security. If you’re hellbent on going back to the Sutton Foundation or the house to snoop around electronically, you need to do it safely.”

  Holly knew Patrick was right, and she liked Lance, he was kind. But wouldn’t Lance be on Elijah’s side in all of this? Surely, he’d already told the board members what she’d supposedly done to him.

  “You can talk to him,” she said quietly. “But don’t be surprised if he hates me too.”

  Patrick gave her a kind smile. “Nobody hates you, Holls. Some people are just confused. I’ll call him tonight. He lives in Chicago, but he’ll be here if he can.”

  It was late in the evening, but she called her dad while Patrick was talking to Lance.

  “Can I come home?” she asked in a tearful voice. “Maybe go back to work at the foundation?”

  Her father’s voice was warm. “I knew you would come back to me, princess. You’re always welcome at home where you belong. As for the foundation, they’ve missed having you. I’ll even allow you a place on the board if that will make you happy.”

  Holly couldn’t help but smile to herself. This might be easier than she thought. “Thank you, Daddy. I’ll be home tomorrow night.”

  Patrick walked into the room and scowled as she ended her call. “I still don’t like the part about you going back home. Can’t you tell him you want to live on your own for a while? We can set you up with a nice apartment in L.A. Hell, you can use mine.”

  Holly shook her head. “It needs to be this way. He needs to think I feel bad about ever going to work for Elijah in the first place. Otherwise he’s going to suspect that I’m on to him.”

  Patrick folded his arms. “You just better be careful. He had mom killed, I know he did. If he gets a whiff that you’re trying to gather dirt on him for the cops, he won’t hesitate to do the same to you.”

  Holly shuddered. It was still hard to believe her father was capable of such a thing, but it was looking more and more like that was the case.

  “I’ll be OK. Jax will be there. Did you talk to Lance? I’m still not comfortable bringing him in.”

  Patrick shook his head. “No arguments. You work with Lance or I’m locking you in this apartment. Jax is good at the rough and tough stuff but Lance will keep you safe electronically.”

  “Well I need to book a flight to L.A., so have him meet me there.”

  “You’re not really giving us a lot of time to work with here, but I already cleared the use of an Eastman Enterprises jet for you. It’s ready to take off whenever you are. I’m going with you and Lance will meet us in the morning.”

  Three hours later, they were on a plane to L.A. The short ride did nothing to calm Holly’s nerves about going home. When they landed, they got word that Lance had also fired up his jet and was already in town. The threesome met up at a quiet restaurant where Lance pulled her into a hug.

  “You should know that Elijah tried to have your membership revoked, but we haven’t voted on it yet because he’s a horse’s ass. You’re welcome at the club anytime.”

  Holly gave him a sad smile. “Why do you believe me, but he doesn’t?”

  Lance shrugged. “I think deep down he believes you. But he’s been after revenge for so long that anyone with Sutton as a last name is suspect in his mind. Patrick is the only exception because they’ve been friends and business partners for a very long time. You’ve barely known Elijah for three months. You’re here, taking the right steps to try and fix things between you two even if he doesn’t deserve it. I’ll do what I can to help.”

  For the next hour, he walked her through basic computer safety and how to safely search and transfer copies of files without leaving a trace.

  “I’ll want to get together again tomorrow, and I’ll have some equipment for you t
hat will be useful. If you find yourself in a jam, just call me. I come from a hacking background and I can help you out.”

  “That’s fine. I have an appointment with Jax Fischer in the morning. He’s bringing a forensic accountant if you want to join us.”

  They enjoyed coffee and dessert and Holly wondered if Lance could help her with other things. “They record calls at the Sutton Foundation, and I have thousands of hours of calls. Is there a way to quickly scan calls for specific key words?”

  Lance thought about it for a minute. “I could write a program that would convert a call to text and then scan it. Might take me a few hours to get it up and running though.”

  Holly nodded. “If I gave you access would you do it? I think Troy Wilson or Grant Sterling is the source of any spying that’s going on. There’s no guarantee they used a foundation phone to talk about it, but it’s worth looking into.”

  Lance agreed to work on it that night, and the group stood up to leave.

  “Thank you, Lance,” she whispered when he pulled her into a hug.

  “You’re welcome, Holly. We’re rooting for you.”

  “We?” she questioned.

  Lance chuckled. “Solitaire. We like you, and you’re one of us now. We look out for our family.”

  Holly felt her eyes water. “I figured you would all side with Elijah.”

  “In a lot of cases, you would be right. Not this time. He’ll come around.”

  Patrick gave her an ‘I told you so’ look as he offered her his arm to escort her to their waiting car.

  Chapter Thirty-One

  “Is there no one competent in this building?” Elijah roared at the young receptionist standing in his office trembling.

  “I’m so sorry, Mr. Barrett, I’ll fix it.” She grabbed the binder he’d thrown and started rearranging tabs. It had been Elijah’s bright idea to give the receptionist some of Holly’s old tasks, but she clearly wasn’t up to it. He snatched the binder away from her and sent her back to her desk to answer the phones.