by Dale Mayer
Tommy gave him a sheepish grin. “Not enough, that’s for sure.”
Larry sat down at his own desk, but he made no attempt to work. He put his feet up and watched Tommy.
“You know anything about what Warren was doing?” Tyson asked him.
Larry shrugged. “Nope, I sure don’t.”
His tone of voice was less than caring. Tommy didn’t seem to notice. Tyson wondered at the relationship between Tommy and Larry who appeared to be eight to ten years older. Tommy was just young enough and stupid-smart enough to be taken in by somebody. He was geekwise, not worldwise. Tyson had seen it happen time and time again.
He decided to sit back and just watch the two of them. While he kept up via texts in the ongoing conversation with the detective about details and with Levi forwarding information, Tyson quietly took pictures of Larry and Tommy.
He knew Ice could pick up on body language in a spooky way. Even via photos. Merk and Rhodes were really good at that too. But both of them were off on jobs. Stone could read others too yet tended to be home more now. It wasn’t that his leg kept him from doing whatever he needed to do, but more that his security-related skills were needed at the compound. He was doing a big overhaul on the security system to encompass all the new apartments being remodeled.
While Tyson took care of his own business and kept watching the two young men in front of him, Tyson also watched as Tommy worked his way through the system to see if Warren had logged in within the last twenty-four hours.
“He logged out yesterday afternoon before he stormed out of here,” Tommy said quietly. “He didn’t log in again.”
“So that’s good.”
“Why’s that good?” Larry challenged Tyson. “I don’t understand what you have to do with any of us.”
Tyson ignored him. He wanted to see just how aggressive the young man would get.
Tommy looked at Larry who sat beside Tyson, then switched his gaze back. “Do you have any right to know this stuff?”
Tyson nodded. “Yes, I do.”
The relief on Tommy’s face made Tyson realize just how young Tommy really was.
“So you say. You’re nothing but her latest lay,” Larry sneered.
Tyson straightened ever-so-slightly. Larry’s feet hit the floor, and he backed up. Tyson measured the younger man with cold eyes. “Who are you talking about right now?”
His voice was so soft, so deadly, it sent Tommy into a spiel. “He didn’t mean it. He talks about all women that way.”
“He will never talk about one woman again like that.” Tyson pinned Larry in place with his gaze. “Do you understand?”
Larry tried to puff up his chest but caved in quickly. “Yeah, I understand.” His voice was solid but his demeanor was cowed.
Tyson studied him for a long moment. “It might be time to look for another job.”
Both young men stood in front of him. “There is no reason for that,” Tommy said anxiously. “Larry’s really good at what he does.”
Tyson turned his head sideways, looking at Tommy. “What exactly does Larry do here?”
Larry frowned and looked at Tommy. “I do all kinds of stuff.”
Tommy nodded, puzzled. “Why?”
“Because nobody who appreciates their job and understands just what a delicate balance they’re in right now would talk about their boss like he just did,” Tyson said.
“She doesn’t have anything to do with the business. This was Warren’s company. Warren explained it all to me,” Larry said, finding his bravado again.
At that both Tommy and Tyson looked at him. “What do you mean, Larry?” Tommy asked.
Larry looked at Tommy and scoffed. “Hey, you know how it goes. She brought in a little bit of money, and she acts like she owns the place. Now look at him. He’s dead, and I bet she killed him.”
Tommy shook his head. “No way. That’s not how it was.”
“Warren told me how she didn’t pay full price for everything, that she barely gave enough to bail him out of trouble. Her presence here was temporary, as part of the contract that he could buy the shares back as soon as he raised the money.” Larry went back to reclining in his chair, his feet up on the desk. “She killed him. I don’t know why the hell anybody would be looking any further than her. It should be your company, Tommy. Everybody knows that.”
Tommy shook his head. “No, that’s not true. This was Mark and Warren’s company first. I came on soon after so I was there almost from the beginning. But I was just a kid then so not official in any way.”
“Everything should come to you. But what do you want to bet that bitch there will find a way to make sure you don’t get it?”
Tyson eyed Larry steadily, listened quietly, wondering just what Larry’s role in all of this was.
Tommy sat down. “I’d rather have my uncle than his company. Besides, Kai told the truth. She has a controlling interest in the company, not Warren.”
Larry shoved his chin out. “No way.”
Tommy nodded. “I asked the lawyer yesterday after they argued.”
Tyson filed that away. Interesting Tommy had the smarts to do that.
Larry stared at his friend in shock. “No way! That’s wrong. I know she was lying. Warren warned me how she would spread lies like that. And she did when we talked about it before. No way Warren would give up controlling interest of the company. Who are you going to believe? Her or our boss?”
Of course Larry had never thought of Kai as his boss. Warren had been here first. She was nothing but an upstart to the both of them. Too bad. Kai deserved better.
“He had no choice in it,” Tommy said. “He was in bankruptcy. She bailed him out too, and that meant all our jobs. And I appreciate that she did. I don’t know that I would fit into too many other places. This is the best job for me. When Uncle Warren brought me on, I was delighted. You know what I’m like when I get around strangers or people who don’t know who I am. I’m awkward. I just don’t function well.”
Larry stared at him in horror, then glanced at the closed door. “You mean she actually owns the company?”
Tommy nodded. “Yeah, she has since Mark died.”
Tyson watched Larry’s face as a gray cast suddenly overtook his features. That this was news was one thing. That it was incredibly bad news was a whole different story.
“Now that Warren’s dead, it should be yours. Warren would have a will. Surely he left his half to you.”
“I don’t think it works that way when it comes to businesses.”
“But he had you, Tommy. You’re his nephew. You might not see that bond as blood but he viewed you as family. He said you inherited everything—remember that?”
Tommy looked at Larry. “He was joking. I’m pretty sure it was part of the business agreement. If she died, he got the company. If he died, she got the company.”
“No, that can’t be.”
“Why not, Larry?” Tyson asked. “Because then you killed Warren for nothing?”
Fear stabbed the man’s eyes. He shook his head rapidly. “No, no, no, no. That can’t be. The company is yours, Tommy. You’ll just have to figure it out. This guy’s full of shit.” He waved at Tyson. “You don’t belong here. It’s that bitch you’re with.”
Tyson took a step toward him. Larry jackrabbited out of his chair and raced backward. “Don’t let him hurt me, Tommy.”
Tommy stood, his tall lanky form a beanpole between the two men. “What Tyson said,” Tommy asked Larry, “was he right?”
“No, of course he wasn’t right. I never hurt anyone.”
“Unless hurting Warren would have helped you, Tommy, and then Larry by default. You’ve been friends for a long time, haven’t you?” Tyson asked lightly, his mind suddenly seeing how this would work.
Larry nodded. “We’ve been friends since forever, haven’t we, Tommy?”
“Yes, we have,” Tommy said. “He’s like an older brother to me.” Yet, Tommy stared at Larry as if he’d never seen him befo
re.
Tyson understood why. When one finally understood what people were capable of, it was often a shock. “What did you do when you found out Warren was leaving?” Tyson asked Larry. “That he was running away, out of the country, and leaving everything to collapse behind him?” Tyson heard the door to Warren’s office open quietly. He realized Kai must’ve heard or seen something to make her aware of what was going on out here.
“I went to his apartment, talked to him. I asked him if he was leaving. If he realized the company would collapse if he left. He denied it. He denied he was leaving.
“He had a lot of cash with him. It was a down payment on a contract. But he needed it to start his new life.” Larry shook his head in bewilderment. “He was going to leave Tommy and me, and she couldn’t possibly keep the company going. I knew it would go under. Warren explained to me how she didn’t have any power to do anything. She would lose her job, not that I cared about her, but Tommy and I’d been here for a long time. This was our company too.”
“You killed Warren, didn’t you, Larry?” Tyson asked quietly. He glanced down at his phone to make sure it was recording the video as it played out.
“But I didn’t mean to. I didn’t mean to hurt him. We fought, and he fell. I guess I hit him a bit too hard. I don’t know if it was my punch that made him hit the bathroom counter as he went down. I didn’t mean to hurt him.”
“So why did you put him in the bathtub and cut his wrists?” Kai asked quietly from the doorway. “And then go back and clean up the blood. Why not call for an ambulance and get him the help he needed?”
Larry’s face turned to fury. “Because he was still leaving us. As soon as he got better again, he would still leave us.” He shrugged. “I put the money I found at his place back in the strongbox in the office. That’s where he took it from. It’s where it belonged. The company is Tommy’s. I’d never steal from him.”
“You did steal from him. You stole his family, his mentor—the man who helped pay for Tommy’s education through the years, the man who gave Tommy holidays and helped him when his mother couldn’t.”
“No! You see? It was an accident.”
“It was an accident,” Tyson said, “until you cut Warren’s wrists and let him bleed out.”
“And then it became murder.” Kai’s voice was soft, gentle. But she wasn’t looking at Larry. She was studying Tommy. The young kid had gone from fear to anger, and now he looked like he was ready to burst into tears. She walked closer and put her hand on his shoulder. “Sit down, Tommy.”
He collapsed into his chair as he stared at Larry. “Please tell me that you didn’t kill Uncle Warren.”
Larry held out his hands. “I didn’t mean to, Tommy. And then I panicked. I didn’t know what else to do. He wasn’t bleeding, but he was breathing. He was still alive when I put him in the bathtub.”
“He was still alive when you cut his wrists? In other words, if you’d called the ambulance, you might have saved him?” Kai asked. “Instead, now it’s murder. And you were the stalker, weren’t you? You’re the one driving me crazy? The one texting me, telling me to make a decision? Inputting fake names into my cell phone? Following me, stealing my underwear? Tracking me?”
Larry shrugged. “Yeah, but I did it at Warren’s request.”
Chapter 17
“With Warren’s permission?” Kai asked in shock.
“Yeah, he didn’t want you around. I figured that, if I made life really difficult for you, then you’d run away.”
“So why did he panic and try to run?” Tommy asked, his voice hard.
“Because stalking and fraud carry some severe sentences. And I think he understood he was about to get found out,” Tyson said.
Tommy looked at Tyson in surprise. “What are you talking about?”
“When I brought in Legendary Security to investigate the stalker, we started looking at everyone in this company,” Kai said. “And Warren panicked. He’d hired Larry to terrorize me by making me think I had a stalker.” She shrugged. “It was a shitty thing to do but hardly worth throwing his life away for.”
“It wasn’t just that,” Tyson said in a low tone.
She narrowed her gaze at him, seeing the signs of impending bad news in his careful look. “What did you find out?”
Tyson reached out a hand for Kai. “Mark. His death wasn’t an accident.”
Kai gasped in horror. “Please no,” she cried out. “Mark was a good man. He was my friend.”
“Sorry, Kai, but the police have opened an investigation into his death. Mark left a notepad on his desk where he’d been working through some issues. His sister contacted the police when she read them. Mark was concerned as Warren was really angry when Mark contacted you. Even though Warren needed the money, he didn’t want to sell enough shares to bail out the company, essentially transferring one-third ownership out of his hands. He’d threatened Mark several times.”
Kai, tears in her eyes, said, “By killing Mark, Warren thought he’d inherit Mark’s shares. Which, added to his own, gave him a controlling interest. And, by selling off part to me, he’d get out of the financial hell he’d gotten into, and this way he wouldn’t lose the company. Only Mark lay on his death bed for several days, and, in the meantime, our paperwork was completed, making me a shareholder and, with the way the contract was written between them, Mark now had a choice to leave the shares to me instead of Warren.” She shook her head. “And I had no idea. Poor Mark.”
“Poor Mark, indeed.”
“Jesus, Mark was awesome. That sucks,” Tommy whispered. “Was anything about Uncle Warren like I thought it was?”
“Don’t think that,” Larry said. “Warren wasn’t a bad man. He was desperate.”
Tommy turned to look at Larry. “How can you say that? He killed his partner. He helped you terrorize Kai. Then he tried selling one of our products to one of the worst companies possible.” He shook head. “He was about to run and leave the company hanging.”
“He should have killed Kai. Then he’d have had the money and all the stock in the company,” Larry cried out.
“And looked guilty as hell too,” Tyson said quietly. “That would have triggered an investigation he couldn’t afford.”
“No way. He’d have done it so no one knew. Like he killed Mark.”
“I would have investigated,” Tyson said, his voice hard and cold. “I’d have turned every stone to make sure I got the answers I needed. Then I’d have made damn sure he paid.”
“Which is why Warren panicked when I brought in Legendary,” Kai said quietly. “Warren knew his chances of escaping punishment were damn small.”
“So he decided to sell his place and run.” Tommy turned to stare at his uncle’s office. “I feel like I never knew him at all.”
“Don’t worry, Tommy,” Tyson said. “With Warren’s death, we’ll track down all related bank accounts, looking for any hidden deals.”
“You won’t honor the contract? Was that hush money Larry brought back? A prepayment or maybe a bribe?” Tommy asked, surprise and hope in his voice. “Can we get out of it?”
“I never signed the contract,” Kai said. “Warren had no right to sell or make an agreement without my signature.” She hesitated. “As for the money I don’t know. I doubt Burning Edge will say it was from them. A deposit wasn’t mentioned in any of the paperwork.”
“But can Burning Edge still enforce the contract?”
She shrugged. “Not sure how they can, not when I have controlling interest in the company, and Warren was only a partner.” She smiled at Tommy. “We’ll sort it out.”
“I don’t want any contract with them.”
She nodded. “I’m in full agreement. But we have a bit of a mess we need to sort out now.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means, we’re not taking anything to market for at least another six months, until this thing blows over,” she said calmly. “We may end up with some legal issues we have to figure
out first, but then we will rebuild bigger and better. And, when we talk about gaming companies, we’re not going with Burning Edge. An awful lot of bigger, better companies are out there, like Viacom.”
“Absolutely. So you’re keeping the company going?” Tommy asked hopefully.
She smiled. “With your skills, I’m sure we can take the company far.”
Larry shouted. “It should be his company.”
Tommy shook his head. “I don’t know anything about business. I just want to do what I do.”
“And that’s why you do what you do, and that’s why I do what I do,” Kai said with a smile. “Obviously I will need to hire some new staff.” She looked pointedly at Larry. “You do realize you’ve ruined your future and your life as a whole?”
He turned to look at his friend. “Tommy, you’ll get me out of this, right?” He inched toward the front door. “I did all this for you.”
Tommy looked at him. “Larry, you’ve been like a brother to me, but, dude, when you mess up, you mess up big.”
Larry’s face twisted in anger. “After all I did so you’d get your damn company? You’re the genius behind the company. It should be yours. I know for a fact you could run it.”
“How would you know that?” Tyson asked quietly.
“Because I talked to Warren about it. He and I were good friends, and I was one of the few who knew about his and Tommy’s relationship. He assured me that Tommy got everything.” He glared at Kai. “And that means everything.”
She shook her head. “And how is it that you can still believe Warren after all he did? Tommy will likely inherit something, but I think the company is now mine, one hundred percent.”
Larry’s face filled with such rage that he was probably contemplating attacking her. Tyson had yet to move. She wanted Larry to try something so she could beat the crap out of him. But of course, cowardly to the end, he turned and raced for the front door. He threw it open, and, as he headed out, several policemen surrounded him.