Lawless

by HelenKay Dimon

  With a minimum of shuffling, both men got up. They exchanged thank you’s and shook hands before he sent them out the door. Tony gritted his teeth through the entire spiel. He wasn’t accustomed to explaining anything to anyone. He gave orders and people followed them. Now with Mark gone and the information buried with him, Tony could get back to the business of running Baxter.

  Through the glass door, he saw Lance and Jeff head out for the night. Tony waved and smiled even as the cell in his jacket pocket buzzed for the fourth time in less than a half hour. He knew who was calling. Knew and ignored it because this was the one problem he hadn’t counted on.

  Tony glanced at the cell screen. He recognized the number because it had popped up all day. The texts, the voicemails. If his unwanted partner was trying to create a discoverable trail, he was doing a great job. The covert part of their relationship seemed to be confusing the man at the moment.

  Tony would explain and set it straight, but not now. He needed a few minutes of quiet to think.

  The man would come calling soon. And Tony would be ready.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The next morning Joel watched Connor do the two things he did every day—sit at the head of a conference room table and pour coffee. Only today, the table wasn’t his table, and neither was the business. This office space and all the resources they needed were on loan from Algier Security, but that didn’t seem to faze Connor or make him look any less in charge.

  He poured a cup for Hope, then dropped the pot on the tray in front of him, leaving Davis and Joel to fend for themselves. After a night in Hope’s bed, making love with her, holding her, Joel didn’t need the kick.

  But Connor was a caffeine addict. Could put away a pot in an hour and keep going back all day. Joel often wondered if he slept.

  Since Connor’s wife had moved out and he refused to talk about why or where she was, Joel doubted it. Connor still wore his wedding ring and referred to Jana all the time.

  At first he insisted she was visiting a relative, but as the months dragged on it became obvious the marriage had imploded. He didn’t even bother to try to explain anymore.

  Joel chalked it up to one more example of how a relationship couldn’t work long term with this job. Everyone agreed Jana and Connor were the perfect couple. Smart, focused, dedicated to each other and the work. And now she was gone.

  “Your father is letting us use his office as our satellite office,” Connor explained to Hope.

  She smiled over the rim of her mug. “Sounds like Dad.”

  “He’s on the way back home and not happy he got stuck because of weather and couldn’t be here to meet you.” Joel knew because he’d had two long, yelling phone calls from the man already this morning. The second ended with an order to marry Hope and be done with it.

  With all his power and money, Rafe Algier had a very basic agenda. He wanted his only child safe and he wanted her with Joel. Both options worked for Joel except that he couldn’t figure out how to make the second stick without endangering the first.

  As if she had read his mind, she slid her hand under the table and rested her hand on his knee. “I’m fine.”

  The simple touch sent fire racing through him. That’s all it took. “I’ll make sure you stay that way.”

  “On that note...” Davis looked at his watch for the tenth time since they’d all gotten there a half hour ago and gotten the video feed hooked up to the Corcoran Team offices. “I’m thinking I should move out to headquarters. I’ll coordinate from Annapolis. Use our resources and Joel’s impressive computer programs to get through all the information we’ve collected.”

  “I’d ask you not to touch my stuff, but—”

  Davis nodded. “I’m going to anyway.”

  “When is your wife due?” Hope asked.

  “Lara.” Davis smiled as he said her name, just as he always did. “And she’s a little more than five months along.”

  “He doesn’t like to be away from her.” Joel knew he was stating the obvious, but he did it anyway.

  “True, but I also want to be back in our office, helping Pax and Ben analyze the data.” Davis winked at Hope. “Being with my wife is just a huge bonus.”

  “Who are the other men you mentioned?” Hope’s hand slid off Joel’s leg.

  He put it back on his thigh again. “Members of the team. There are a few others who mostly work with Cam, but they’re on enforced leave right now.”

  “Enforced?”

  “I demanded they take some downtime because they travel all the time,” Connor said. “Cam happened to be available and can fly, so he headed out to drop Joel off with you.”

  “Which didn’t go so well for me,” Cam pointed out as he slipped into the room and took the seat next to Davis.

  “Okay then.” She exhaled as she took another sip of coffee. “I think I’m caught up now.”

  “I’m sure we’ll lose you a second or third time,” Cam said. “Sorry I’m late.”

  “Why are you?” Joel asked.

  “Checking the helicopter.” When Connor started to talk, Cam waved him off. “It’s fine and the front window is being fixed. We’ll be able to use it as soon as you’re ready.”

  Joel wanted to ask what for, but Cam looked at him and gave a small shake of his head. Whatever the mission was, it looked like it was off the books for Connor. That only intrigued Joel more.

  Hope wrapped her hand around her mug. “At the risk of ruining any image you may have of me as a smart person, let me ask what could be an obvious question. Why do you need an office here at all? Why not just head home now that I’m away from the campground?”

  Home. The word knocked around in Joel’s brain. It meant leaving her. “The job isn’t over.”

  True, it was an informal one, but Rafe made it clear Corcoran had been hired to figure out what went wrong on the retreat. He wanted answers and some assurance his daughter would not be put in jeopardy again.

  Joel wanted the same thing, and Connor didn’t even blink at the request. He might have lost his wife, but he was deadly loyal to the team. If one of them needed something, Connor stepped in.

  The light in Hope’s eyes dimmed a bit. “I still can’t believe Mark is dead.”

  Joel squeezed her hand. “Thanks to you spotting him, we were able to recover his body quickly.”

  All of the men nodded. Davis looked more than a little impressed. Joel wondered what he’d say if he knew about all of her skills.

  “Forensics teams are swarming all over the place,” Connor said.

  Cam half stood up and reached across the table for the coffeepot. “Why aren’t we there?”

  “Jurisdictional nonsense, but we get a look at everything. Raw data, samples whatever we need.”

  Davis chuckled. “You convinced the police to do that?”

  Connor smiled. “I can be very persuasive.”

  Some of the building tension that came with talking about tough subjects seeped out of the room, but Hope continued to frown. “I still don’t get the outpost here.”

  “Baxter is in town and I want to be where Tony Prather is right now.” Connor’s smile grew, as if he relished the idea of going to battle with this guy. “Let him know I haven’t forgotten him or the promise I made to solve this mystery.”

  “Plus we have two murders and an explanation that’s half-as—”

  She chuckled over Davis’s sudden stoppage. “Yes?”

  He cleared his throat. “Let’s go with unbelievable.”

  Cam nodded. “Nice save.”

  “The Perry versus Mark fight Tony is trying to sell doesn’t hold together.” Connor scanned the notes in front of him. “How could Perry start the fire in his condition and why would he?”

  Joel filled in the blanks in case she didn’t follow the jumping conversation. As a group they sometimes talked in shorthand and forgot to cut that out when others joined in. “We all know Perry was out of it. Cam checked on him about ten minutes before you smelled gasoli
ne, and the guy was out cold.”

  “So, supposedly Perry sprang up and was oriented and stable enough to go find gas, which he hadn’t used up until then, pour it all over the cabin, light the match, then lie back down and go to sleep.” Cam snorted. “I don’t think so.”

  Davis shrugged. “The police buy it.”

  Hope’s mug hit the table with a sharp whack. “Come on, really?”

  “Tony Prather tells a good story. The man is a natural salesman, after all,” Connor said.

  “He didn’t do anything for me. And this is the same executive who didn’t go along on the executive retreat even though he set it up?” She added an eye roll to the end.

  “Wait, go back.” Connor stilled. “Tony insists Mark is the one who wanted the retreat.”

  “That’s not what Tony told me when we talked about what he wanted on this job.” She took out her cell and started scrolling. When she landed on a specific email, she turned the phone and showed Connor. “I asked why he wasn’t coming along and he gave me some excuse about not being able to take time away from running the company but said it was necessary for everyone else for morale and team building.”

  “The guy is slippery.” Connor finished reading and then passed the cell phone to Davis. “Tony didn’t want to send out a search team and didn’t seem all that concerned about Mark or motivated to get out there for a rescue.”

  “A great guy all around.” Davis slid the phone back to her.

  She put it in front of Joel and returned her hand to his knee. “But why do all of this? The executive retreat is a lot of trouble.”

  “With a lot of moving parts.” That’s the point Joel didn’t understand.

  If you wanted to get rid of an executive or pit two against each other, there had to be easier ways. Out in the forest the control vanished. There was the human element, plus weather and animals and accidents. The list went on and on.

  Connor rested his elbows on the table and reached over to refill his already empty coffee cup. “I think we’re looking at the oldest reason in the world—money.”

  She groaned as she rubbed her eyes. “I was afraid you’d say that.”

  “With the help of a skeptical member of the board who didn’t want Tony hired in the first place, Ben has been back at Corcoran headquarters digging through the Baxter records. He’s had access to notes and files and reports so boring your head would spin,” Davis explained.

  “How’d he get stuck with the job?” she asked as a smile tugged at the corner of her mouth.

  “Newest member.” Joel had been in that unenviable position and celebrated when someone came in after him.

  He was no longer the new guy, though he often felt that way. Still getting his footing and learning along the way. He knew the basic skills coming in and could match, or beat, any of them at shooting and tracking, but strategies and tactics were a different skill set. Connor and Davis excelled at those.

  “And he’s former NCIS, so he’s used to government crap.” Cam waved his hand in the air. “Business crap is about the same.”

  Hope shook her head and mumbled something about men acting like boys. “Tony is pursuing the Mark-as-bad-guy story, I take it.”

  “As far as Tony is concerned, the case is closed.”

  She never broke eye contact with Connor. “But you disagree.”

  “Definitely.” Davis took the question. “We’re going to rip his company apart, look at every piece of paper and check out whatever angle we can find.”

  “We think Tony is at the heart of it all,” Joel said.

  “Then he needs to pay.” Her hand clenched his thigh. “How can I help?”

  Davis laughed, this time full and open. “I like her.”

  “Apparently she can shoot a bow and arrow, too,” Cam added.

  Connor’s eyebrow rose. “That’s impressive.”

  They didn’t know the half of it. She could guide them all and outhike them. They were in shape. The job demanded them to be, but she had stamina that beat them all. Joel was man enough to admit that...and then there was the part where he found it more than a little sexy.

  Cam spun his mug around on the table, letting the bottom clank as it turned. “And she managed to date Joel without killing him.”

  “Amazing.” Davis shook his head as his voice filled with awe.

  Talk about a mood killer. Joel stepped in to end the conversation before it got completely out of hand. Last thing he needed was this group rapid-firing questions at her about his love life. “That’s enough.”

  “In case you’re wondering, he dumped me.” This time she moved her hand and put it on the table where everyone could see it.

  Yeah, that was definitely enough of this conversation now. Joel knew they were one step from him losing all control over it. “Can we not have this discussion right now?”

  Davis’s mouth still hung open. “No way he dumped you.”

  “I didn’t believe it either,” Cam said.

  Connor’s expression suggested he thought Joel needed serious counseling. “Always thought you were smarter than that, Joel.”

  “I’m starting to wonder.” Joel mumbled the response before he could think twice about it.

  If Hope caught it, she let it slide because she was already off to another topic. “There’s one more thing. The... What did you call them, riggings? There’s no way any of the men on the trip set those up.”

  Davis eyed her up, the appreciation growing with each passing second. “That leaves a rogue angry person or—”

  “Charlie.” Joel dropped the one name that kept kicking around his head.

  The man blended into the background and didn’t cause trouble. He also knew the area and could have hooked up the riggings and set the whole thing up. The question was why.

  “My dad vetted him. Except for some financial issues due to down business like almost everyone else these days, he was fine.” When a slap of silence hit the room, she looked around at each of them. “What?”

  And there was the answer to Joel’s question. “Money.”

  Davis blew out a long breath. “His background is a place to start. We’ll run through it all again.”

  The room erupted in action. Connor started shuffling papers and Davis reached for the laptop. Even Cam grabbed a file and started looking through notes. Except for Hope’s shell-shocked expression,

  Joel loved this part of the team operation. They had a mission and a direction. From here they could spin it out, look over everything and run through scenarios.

  “Look for recent payments.” Connor handed Davis a paper with a list of items on it. “See if anyone is helping Charlie pay his bills.”

  Hope finally snapped out of it. Her expression morphed from blank to furious. Those cheeks turned pink and she clenched the mug with enough force to break it in her hands. “I trusted him. He was out there with a gun, right with us.”

  “Kind of makes you want to punch him, doesn’t it?” Cam asked.

  Joel reached over and took the cup out of her tight grip. “Stand in line.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Tony slammed his car door and walked to the designated meeting spot. He passed other cars in the parking area under the Whitehurst Freeway and kept going until he hit the gravel spot at the far end, away from the bulk of the foot traffic.

  It was the middle of the afternoon and traffic whizzed by. Georgetown was a mass of tourists and students. People talked and screamed as they fought for coveted parking spaces and swarmed in a large swath from the waterfront to M Street, where most of the stores and restaurants sat.

  Charlie had insisted they meet or he’d start spilling everything he knew. Tough talk for a man with all of the blood on his hands.

  After taking the last few steps with his dress shoes clicking against the pavement, Tony stopped. This close to the water the fish smell hit hard, but Tony didn’t plan to be there long.

  Have his say, issue his threat and go.

  Charlie leaned ag
ainst the driver’s side door of his dark truck as he glanced around, looking at everything but Tony. The dismissal made Tony regret ever making a deal with this guy.

  Tony didn’t wait for small talk. After a quick look around to test for privacy, he jumped in. “We agreed not to contact each other right now.”

  Charlie dropped his cigarette on the ground and stomped it out with the heel of his hiking boot. “Yeah, well, a lot of our plans got mixed up.”

  “Which is why it’s even more important you lie low and keep quiet.” If he refused to do that, Tony would have to make a new plan, one that included taking Charlie out.

  The man was older but still fit. One of those guys who could fall anywhere in a twenty-year age range and grizzled from all of his time outdoors.

  The choice of Charlie made sense at the beginning. The man needed money and Tony needed a particular expertise. One of the tech guys mentioned his uncle in terms of providing an extra hand for moving storage data. Talked about the man being discreet and taking odd jobs. How he was a loner and very private.

  Apparently the nephew should have added ruthless extortionist to the list. Charlie had information and thought holding it over Tony’s head was the answer.

  Never mind Tony was smart enough to cover his tracks and divert the trail away from him. He even added in a bribery message from Charlie to suggest the old man made it all up for a big payday and Tony was nothing more than a victim.

  He definitely covered his bases. Even now, he had a signal blocker and a gun with him for protection to keep Charlie from getting the jump on him. In a battle of his word versus the loner’s, Tony would win. He made sure of that. No one would blame him for killing a crazy stalker if attacked.

  Charlie crossed his arms and legs as he leaned back against the door. “You’ve been ignoring me.”

  “I’m letting the heat die down.” That was only half a lie. The other had to do with moving the money out and burying a paper trail.

  “Interesting comment in light of Perry’s death.”

  “You didn’t have to touch him.” Tony shook his head. “Fire, what were you thinking?”