“This room,” the woman said, pointing to a large, stained oak door at the end of the corridor. Opening the door, Lena immediately saw her father. He was sitting near the window, behind a desk. His familiar dark-brown eyes bored a hole into her as soon as she walked into the room.
“Lena,” he said, his voice strangely hoarse.
“Father,” she answered, her feet suddenly refusing to move from their spot on his Persian rug. Her eyes took in the man before her. The man who had once been her hero. He had aged well. He certainly didn’t look like a man in his late sixties. His physique was still lean, his skin still tanned, and his brown eyes as sharp as ever. His gray hair was only just beginning to thin out. As usual, he was wearing an expensive tailored suit, though she noted that it was slightly wrinkled.
“It’s good to see you again,” her father said, leaning forward. He nodded for her to take a seat.
“I’m not here for a social visit, Father.”
“How did you know where to find me?”
“Phillip.”
“What are you doing here, Lena?”
“I have a package for you.” Sitting down in the chair opposite his desk, she placed the manila envelope on his table.
“What’s this?”
“You tell me.”
He took a moment to glare at her before opening up the packet. She watched his face carefully as his eyes scanned the documents before him. His eyes widened as they fell across each damning word on the pages.
“What is this, Lena?”
“I was hoping that you could tell me, Father.”
“Is this some kind of a joke?”
“No. It’s not a joke. Your friends, you know, the ones that you are selling weapons to on the black market, asked me to deliver these documents to you. I would guess that you and AnSawar had a disagreement of sorts? And now they want you to sign over your company to them.”
“Lena, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Oh, I think you do, Dad. The millions—if not billions—of dollars that that you would gain from unloading the MX-R09 onto criminal elements that would pay substantially more than the United States government is one hell of an incentive. Especially since we’re virtually penniless now, Father. Actually, I’m surprised that you can still afford to keep the lights on in this monstrosity that you live in. I guess for now, the Westlake name brand still has some pull.”
Wincing, her father closed his eyes. Rubbing a hand across his brow in a gesture of frustration, he let out a deep breath. “You’re right. I made some very bad investments. You and Phillip…well, your inheritance is virtually wiped out. I thought—I thought that the only way out was to make a deal with an entity outside of the United States. But I didn’t go through with it, Lena.”
She scoffed, shaking her head as she swallowed an insult that she was about to hurl at him.
“It’s true,” he continued. “Lena, I didn’t go through with it.”
“If that’s the case, Father, then why does the FBI have evidence of you transferring funds to contacts who are associated with AnSawar?”
“It’s because I sent those wire transfers, Lena. Not Daddy Dearest here.”
Lena turned her head sharply as the door opened behind her.
Steven. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t think. She shook her head multiple times to make sure that she wasn’t daydreaming. No, Steven was there. Alive. He looked strong and healthy, not broken and battered as he’d been the last time she’d seen him. Not dead.
“Steven,” she was finally able to utter.
“That’s right, Lena,” he said, grinning at the look of disbelief in her eyes. “It’s me, in the flesh. Aren’t you glad to see me?”
“No. You’re dead. I saw them kill you,” she said, shaking her head.
“I know, that did seem rather real, didn’t it? Faizal sure knows how to handle a blade, that’s for sure. Luckily, it was a fake one.”
“Why would you do this?”
“Why? Why?” his voice bellowed out in pure rage. “Maybe you should ask Alfred about that, Lena,” he said, seconds before he pulled out a gun and pointed it directly at her father’s forehead.
****
“Who the hell just entered the room?” Jesse asked, worry infusing his voice. As if Lena could hear his unanswered question, he heard her say the bastard’s name. “Steven.”
Shit. Shit. “She’s talking to Steven Cutler,” Jesse said to his teammates as they remained in their strike positions outside of Westlake’s home. Ready to burst in at a moment’s notice. Jesse wanted that moment to be now, he didn’t like where things were headed. Steven Cutler was a variable that they had basically ruled out.
“Whoa, is this guy’s middle name Lazarus by chance?” Luke asked.
“We’ve got to get in there,” Jesse said, his voice hard and tense.
“Not yet,” Malcolm’s calm voice filtered in through the crimson-red haze that momentarily clouded Jesse’s vision. “We need information on where her family is being held.”
Jesse seethed. He was ready to storm the building. But Malcolm was right, they needed key intel on the whereabouts of Lena’s mother and brother. He gritted his teeth. They would have to wait.
CHAPTER
TWENTY
“What is he talking about?” Lena asked her father who was now staring at Steven as if he wanted to rip him apart with his bare hands.
“I’m so sorry that you were dragged into this, Lena,” her father said.
“I don’t understand,” she whispered, her eyes moving back and forth between the two of them.
“Well since, Alfred apparently doesn’t want to talk about it. I will. Do you know who created Westlake Enterprises, Lena?”
She stared him blankly as she watched the man who she thought of as a father figure detail his betrayal.
“I did. Me. The company should have been named Cutler-Westlake Enterprises because it was my idea. And you know what your father did to thank me for all of my years of dedication and loyalty to the company that I helped to found? He forced me out.”
“What are you talking about?”
“Your father decided to water down my shares in a backdoor merger. Something of a corporate coup d’état, if you will. Do you realize how much I would be worth right now if Alfred here hadn’t backstabbed me? One hundred million dollars. One. Hundred. Million. Dollars. Alfred here has been living in mansions, buying fancy yachts, travelling the world with beautiful women, and here I am living hand-to-mouth. Your father stole my life away from me. And his smug ass didn’t think that I’d do anything about it. But everyone’s chickens come home to roost eventually.”
“I still don’t understand. Why would he shut you out of the business?”
“Jealousy,” Steven laughed, his eyes bright with an almost maniacal gleam to them. “He found out that I had had an affair with his precious Claire.”
“What?” Lena asked, looking over at her father who’d bowed his head and was now staring down at his desk.
“Yeah, I know. Pretty crazy, right? That’s why he started ignoring you all of a sudden, didn’t you know? He thought that you were my kid, not his. The thing is, good ol’ Alfred here was wrong. You’re not my kid.”
“God.” That’s all Lena could say. She really had no words.
“I mean, how could I pass up on Claire?” Steven continued, talking to everyone and no one in particular. “She started flashing her shit all over Hendrix when she found out about your father’s numerous indiscretions. His affairs began even before you were born.”
All Lena could do was look over at her father who was shaking his head slightly, but otherwise not trying to dispute what Steven was saying.
“He ignored you for years because of his own insecurities,” Steven said. He seemed almost intoxicated with his power now. Happy to hurt them just as much as he had been hurt. He was gleeful in his destruction. “Even though he wanted to fire me when he found out, he knew that he couldn’t. I
was his best engineer. I was the heart of that company. The innovative concepts that I formulated in oil technology were responsible for the surge in profits.”
“You sick, murdering bastard,” her father growled out. “You slept with my wife. You attacked my company just to get back at me and killed dozens of people. You kidnapped and terrorized my daughter just to make me squirm.”
“What?” There was so much information coming at Lena all at one time that she couldn’t process it.
“This sonofabitch was working with AnSawar, Lena. Not me,” her father said, his eyes imploring her to believe him. “I didn’t have the ransom money. I tried. But that type of money, I just—I just don’t have access to anymore. There was no way that I could get a loan for that amount, not given my current financial situation. If I had had the ransom money, Lena, I would have paid. You’re my daughter.”
Of course, Lena hadn’t even thought about that possibility. Her father hadn’t paid the ransom not because he wanted to keep his fortune, but because he no longer had a fortune to give away. Quickly blinking her eyes, Lena held back her tears. She stared at the two men who’d been such fixtures throughout different points of her life. In that moment, she realized that she didn’t really know either one of them.
“Where are Claire and Phillip, Steven?” she asked once she found her voice again.
Steven only grinned at her. The kind eyes that she remembered from her childhood were replaced by soulless ones of this fiend standing before her. “Not far.”
“He has them down in the basement, Lena,” he father ground out before Steven slammed the butt of the gun into the side of her father’s head causing him to fall out of his chair.
“Stop it! Don’t hurt him,” she screamed.
“Have you forgotten how much he’s harmed you over the years, Lena? Not being there for you when you needed him the most. I would have figured that you would be just as angry with him as I am.”
“You’re the one that’s hurting me now, Steven.”
“I do regret that. Truly. You’re a good kid, Lena. But this is a necessary evil. I have to make your father pay for what he’s done.”
“And just how are you going to do that, Steven? If my father signs over the company to you, you still won’t have anything. The company isn’t worth what it used to be.”
“Of course, I’m well aware of that. Honestly, I don’t know how your father ever made it is far as he did. His business acumen is severely lacking. No, the papers were just a diversion, my dear. I’ve already received the designs and patents to the MX-R09 with AnSawar’s help. Of course, AnSawar will get the prototype—a finder’s fee if you will—and I’ll receive the proceeds from future sells to other parties.”
“If you have all of that planned out, then why did you even need me here, Steven?”
He gave her another chilling smile before he turned his attention away from her father, swinging the gun around to point directly at her chest. “The same reason why Claire and Phillip are here. I’m going to kill you.”
****
Jesse and his teammates entered the building quickly and silently. From the 3D motion cameras that they utilized, they knew that Lena was upstairs with her father and Cutler. From Cutler’s own admissions, Claire and Phillip were being held downstairs. They still didn’t know if any of the AnSawar members were on the premises or not, but odds were good that they were. Jesse encountered the crumpled body of the woman who’d been serving as Westlake’s housekeeper. She’d take one round to the chest and had already bled out by the time he and his teammates breached the interior.
Making his way up the staircase, Jesse was followed by Luke, Will, and Joshua. Malcolm, Hank, and the rest of the team were headed downstairs. Jesse had just made it to the top of the stairs when he heard Steven say, “I’m going to kill you.”
Pop!
No! No! No! A type of horrifying panic that Jesse didn’t even know existed almost crippled him at the sound of that lone gunshot. Moving at lightening speeds, Jesse and his teammates broke down the door. His gaze immediately landed on Lena. She was standing in the middle of the room. Her arms still outstretched, tightly gripping the Sig Sauer P226 just as he’d taught her.
“Give it to me. It’s okay, baby,” he told her softly as he reached for the gun. She was in shock, her beautiful chocolate-brown eyes were wide as she stared up at him. Wrapping his arms around her, he pressed her close, breathing in her scent. He never wanted to let her go again.
“He’s still alive,” Luke reported back as he checked Cutler’s pulse.
Alfred Westlake stood up from where he sat and was about to approach Lena before Jesse blocked his path.
“It’s okay,” she said, placing her hand on Jesse’s arm.
“Lena, I’m so sorry,” her father said as soon as Jesse moved to the side. “What I’ve done. Everything that I’ve built is gone. I was so ashamed. My legacy…” Clearing his throat, he continued. “But what’s worse is what I let happen between us. I let you think that I didn’t care. And I’m so sorry for that.”
Jesse could see the indecision in her eyes. Could see Lena warring with whether or not she should or could forgive her father for everything she’d gone through. He watched her as her gaze moved from her father over to where Cutler was lying on the ground. Lena’s shot had gone wide, but she’d still managed to clip Cutler in his upper shoulder. The man would live even though he clearly didn’t deserve to.
Just when Lena opened her mouth and was about to say something, Hank entered the room with some more good news.
“We’ve found Claire Westlake, Phillip Westlake, and his girlfriend downstairs. They’re alive and well. Faizal Shariff and three other tangos were also downstairs with the hostages. Let’s just say that they’re not doing quite as well.”
Hoo-yah. Jesse could see the relief wash through Lena at this information. Closing her eyes, a lone tear tracked down her face. But when she opened her eyes she gave him a smile. The smile was tight and tremulous, but it was there. And it let him know that she would be okay, that they would be okay.
EPILOGUE
It was over. It’d been a month since the showdown at her father’s home in Cape Vidal. Steven was in jail after having narked on the rest of the AnSawar members after intensive CIA questioning. He would never see another free day again. Faizal Shariff was dead and Mohammad Kareem had been apprehended. She no longer had to fear the men who’d terrorized her for the past few months.
It was still shocking for Lena to think that someone she loved could have been responsible for such an incredible betrayal. Or maybe the biggest shock was that she’d been so wrong about her father for so many years. Alfred Westlake wasn’t infallible. He had a myriad of faults and had made a number of mistakes throughout his life. But he wasn’t a cold-hearted monster either. He was a deeply flawed man who had lost his way somewhere along the road. Lena didn’t know if their relationship could ever go back to the way that it was.
The Westlake fortune was officially depleted, but Lena didn’t care. In fact, it was perhaps a relief. She would forge her own way. And she wasn’t alone. She had Jesse. Any peace that she felt now was due to Jesse’s presence in her life. Her man was worth more than any earthly riches. Her heart swelled and a smile lit up her eyes every time she thought of him.
They had been staying at the guest house on his parent’s ranch in Louisville for the past few days. It was refreshing to be around a family that was functional instead of dysfunctional. She’d been anxious about meeting his parents and siblings at first, but they’d welcomed her with open arms.
And now, Jesse was making her breakfast, bless his heart. She watched him as he not so skillfully flipped the pancake batter over in the frying pan. The bacon that he’d cooked had come out a little on the more than well-done side, and she was expecting a similar situation with the pancakes. As if he could feel her staring at his back, he turned around to wink at her.
“Almost done, hun,” he said, mischief i
n his eyes. It seemed that she fell more in love with this man each day. From the fierce way that he protected her, to the gentle way that he made love to her, from the way that he was always honest with her, she couldn’t imagine being with anyone else. Jesse and she had an amazing future ahead of them. And she couldn’t wait.
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