by Lexi Blake
He had to get her out as soon as possible. He had to get her out now.
His whole body felt tight. His throat had practically closed and he couldn’t see straight as they led him down the hall.
It didn’t look like a single person was left in a cubicle. They were all up on their feet, all talking and a few women crying. The tension was palpable. They would be worried about their jobs, their futures.
Yeah, he’d done that, too.
He should have been the one being walked out in handcuffs. They’d all watched her humiliation.
“You bastard.”
He looked around, expecting to see Ellie. They were in front of his office somehow. How had he gotten here?
Lily was standing there, tears flowing down her cheeks.
Lily, who hated him. Lily, who had figured him out way before Ellie had.
He looked up at his escort. “May I grab my things?”
The larger of the guards nodded. “But you keep that door open.”
He gestured for Lily to join him. He wasn’t surprised when she practically ran into the office. She was begging for a moment alone with him. She likely wanted to flay him alive.
He didn’t have time for that.
Lily looked back at the guards. “Please, Carl. Please let me have a minute alone with him. For Ellie’s sake.”
The shorter of the guards looked up at Carl. “Do you honestly believe Ms. Stratton stole from the company?”
“No,” Carl replied, his eyes on Riley. “But I believe that motherfucker is the reason she’s in trouble.”
So everyone loved him.
Lily didn’t give him a chance to defend himself. She softened and turned big eyes on Carl. “Please. We’re the only chance she has. She made sure you got paid paternity leave when your wife and baby were so sick after the birth.”
Carl held up a hand. “Two minutes.”
He would take it. Riley slammed the door and turned on her. “Stay quiet. We have two minutes before they shove me out the door. I need you to find out everything you can. Work whatever magic you have and call me.”
“I would rather rip your balls straight off your body and feed them to my cat. How could you? How could you hurt her like that?”
He went to his desk and grabbed what he needed. He’d kept most of his information on a single thumb drive, and then there was his personal laptop. He left the company one behind. All the good information they’d gotten had come from hacking anyway, with the exception of that accounting info that he’d copied a long time ago. His cell was trilling, but he didn’t have time to answer it.
“I know you hate me, but I’m the only one who can save Ellie right now. Unless you have a multibillion-dollar corporation backing you.”
Lily frowned, crossing her arms over her chest. “Why would I believe a word you say at this point? I saw that tape. All the admins have, you bastard. They kept it from me until a few minutes ago.”
And she likely hated that fact. Lily liked being in a position of power and she loved Ellie. He had to use that because she might be the only ally he had left.
“I love her.” He said it. It didn’t matter now how stupid he sounded.
Stupid? He loved Ellie Stratton. That wasn’t stupid. That was everything. Yes, it made him vulnerable. Yes, it made him weak when it came to her. But he loved her. He would trade anything to make sure she was all right. He finally understood what that damn word meant. Love. It meant he would sacrifice himself for her. It meant it didn’t matter that she never wanted to speak to him again. He loved her. He would do anything to save her.
Lily stopped, her eyes going wide. “Are you serious?”
So she understood. He moved to her, trying to show her how damn serious he was. “I love Ellie. I came here under false pretenses, but she’s all that matters now. I will do anything to make sure she’s safe.”
Lily’s jaw turned stubborn, tilting up. “Even if it means hurting yourself?”
Even if it meant giving up the revenge he’d dreamed of since he was a child. He finally saw the future his father had wanted for him and it didn’t include hate—though he hated that fucker Castalano now more than ever. “I promise if I can trade myself for her, I will. I’ll do anything. I love her more than my own life. More than anything.”
Lily moved in, scooping up the files on his desk. “Take it all. I’ll steal whatever I can before they walk me out. I have allies here, too. And Ellie is loved. If I can get the truth in the ears of the right people, we might still be able to sway things. I’ll get on the phone to the board members who are close to Ellie. I swear if you’re playing me, I’ll find you and my cat will feast. Do you understand?”
Apparently, Lily’s cat really had a taste for testicles. “Yes. Get as much information as you can. Try not to get walked out. Play dumb. You had no idea. You’re shocked. You’re a true StratCast girl. Throw us under a bus if you have to, but try to keep your job. We need eyes and ears here.”
He needed something. How had it gone so wrong? How had he underestimated Castalano? Ten years. Castalano had been planning this for ten years. They’d known he was skimming, but they hadn’t suspected he’d had a fall guy in place.
Fall girl. His girl.
God, she hated Riley. She hated him and he loved her.
He shoved it all aside. All that mattered was getting her out of lockup.
“She can’t stay in jail.” Lily handed him the file folders to stuff in his briefcase.
There was a knock on the door. “It’s time to go.”
They needed to move.
“I’ll have her out in a few hours. As soon as I can. I’ll call a defense lawyer as soon as I walk out the door.”
“Maybe I should do that,” Lily offered. “Ellie can afford it.”
He needed Lily to understand. “She can’t. They’re freezing her assets as we speak. She has nothing. She won’t be able to make her mortgage next month. Castalano will take everything from her.”
Lily stifled a cry.
He put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m going to take care of her. Stay here. Be our eyes and ears. I will make them all pay.”
She nodded.
He grabbed his briefcase and laptop and nodded as the door came open. “I’m ready. Lily, get the fuck out of here. I don’t want to hear your bitching anymore.”
Lily seemed to understand. “I hate you both. I can’t believe you did this.”
He strode out with his head held high. Until he saw Castalano. He stood in the hallway, watching everything.
The guard reached out and held Riley’s arm. “It’s time to go.”
He was led past Castalano. Hatred welled. He wanted to stab the man through the heart and watch him bleed.
Castalano merely watched him, a smirk on his face. “Good-bye, Lang. You know, you have your mother’s eyes.”
Riley stopped, his whole body suddenly a live wire. What had he said?
But he was dragged to the door.
Castalano had played them all.
Nine
Ellie straightened her skirt as they walked her out of the holding cell. She’d been processed hours before and then left in a cell with five other women. She’d sat there, looking at her hands, fingers stained with ink because that tissue they’d given her didn’t get rid of the residue left from her fingerprints being taken. She’d been booked, and that would follow her to her dying day. There would be a picture of her holding up a police sign with her name and number on it.
It would likely be in the news tomorrow since the bastard had reporters waiting on her as she’d been hauled out of the building.
The better to report on you, my dear. The better to send the stock price tanking . . .
“Your lawyer is here, Stratton,” the dour-faced guard explained.
For the first time in h
ours she felt something. Anger. It hummed through her like a fire warming her icy blood. Her lawyer? Had he really come here? Did he think she was so stupid she would keep him on?
Or had he come to explain himself? She didn’t need an explanation from him. She’d already figured it all out. The funny thing was he’d told her the first time they’d met. There was no real loyalty in the world that couldn’t be bought. He’d been Castalano’s man from the beginning. He’d been sent to seduce her and make her look like a fool. To give his boss the tools he needed to easily wrest the company from her because she was weak.
That was what her father had called her. Weak. Pathetic. If he’d had anyone else to leave his place to, he would have. She was a waste.
Maybe he had been right all those years.
“Tell him to go away.”
The guard’s brow rose. “Are you that stupid? You get one shot at talking to this guy and then you have to face that judge on your own. You really going to send his ass away? Because from where I’m standing, princess, you need all the help you can get.”
She stared at the door she was supposed to walk through. “I didn’t ask for my lawyer to come here. My lawyer is kind of the reason I am here.”
The guard frowned. “Seriously? Because Henry Garrison is known for getting rich people out of jail. Not putting them in.”
Henry Garrison? “Not Riley Lang?”
“Princess, I don’t know who that is. I do know that the most expensive criminal defense attorney in Manhattan is sitting inside that room waiting for you and you’re out here. Do you like bologna sandwiches that much?”
She didn’t need any more prompting. Lily must have done it. Oh, she was so going to get a raise when they got out of this.
Because she was going to get out of this.
As she’d sat in her cell she’d realized she had two choices. She could give in and let that man take everything from her. She could be the weak-willed girl her father had always seen. Soft and too compassionate for her own good. She could likely give Steven what he wanted and pray she could cut a deal.
Or she could fight like hell and let the chips fall where they may. She could burn his house down around him.
She felt like lighting a match.
As for Riley, well, he really didn’t matter anymore. He’d been a mistake. One she didn’t intend to make twice.
She steeled herself and walked in.
Henry Garrison was a shockingly handsome man in a three-piece suit, his jet-black hair slicked back, with piercing blue eyes behind a set of designer glasses. He looked a little like Clark Kent.
She might need Superman.
“Ms. Stratton, my name is Henry Garrison. I’ve been hired to defend you against these charges.” He held out a hand.
She looked down at hers. “I don’t think you want to do that.”
He reached over and took her hand. “I’m surprisingly resilient.”
He was made-for-TV handsome and known as a shark who could get a murderer off even if he was found with a smoking gun in his hand and a body at his feet.
Lily had done well, but Ellie wasn’t sure she would be able to afford him. She would have to sell the condo in Brooklyn. She would have to sell everything.
She sat down in front of him. “I know you probably hear this all the time, but I didn’t do this.”
He shrugged. “I don’t care. My job is merely to represent you to the best of my ability. It doesn’t matter if you did it or not, but don’t ever tell me you did. It’s best if we’ll be entering a plea of not guilty that you continue to affirm your innocence.”
This was the world she’d landed in. Or maybe it was the world she’d been in all along. It didn’t matter that she was innocent. All that mattered was the game and winning it at all costs.
“When am I going to be arraigned?” While she’d sat in that cell, she’d made her decision. In the end, she was alone. She needed allies. As much as she loved Lily and needed her, she was going to require more firepower if she was going to engage in this war Castalano had started.
There was only one person she could go to, and he might take one look at her and tell her to get the fuck out.
Did he know the truth? Had he been as much Riley Lang’s victim as she’d been?
No. The enemy was Steven Castalano. She had to stop thinking of Riley as anything but a weapon that had been used against her. He was meaningless.
She missed him. She missed his hand in hers, the way he would look at her and she would know that everything was going to be all right. The way he would smile right before he kissed her as though he was so happy to be close. His joy had fed hers.
He’d been very good at his job.
Her lawyer glanced down at his phone. “I’ve pulled a few strings and I’m getting you on the docket in the next two hours. The police are eager to get rid of you. They didn’t think you would get the kind of press coverage you’re getting.”
“Everyone likes to see a failure.” She’d been reduced to a train wreck. Female executive can’t keep her panties on or her hands out of the cookie jar. She could read the headlines now.
“Unfortunately, that’s only the beginning of the process. You understand these charges are serious. After the local judge releases you, you’re not going home. You’re going to be released to FBI custody and we’ll appear before a federal judge in the morning. It’s the best I can do. You’re lucky, because most of the time this is at least a seventy-two-hour process.”
She would have to spend the night here. “I don’t even have my purse.”
“You’ll be given anything you require. I have the phone number for a Lily Gallo. I was told she’ll bring your purse. My assistant will have some things waiting for you after the arraignment.”
“What kind of bail are we looking at?” She probably didn’t want to know.
“I’m not sure. Likely fairly high. With the press watching the case, the judge won’t want to look weak on crime, and especially on a one-percenter.”
She snorted. “Yes, I’m so wealthy. Everything I have was wrapped up in that stock and the liquid I was going to use to buy out my partner.”
“The bad news is your bank accounts are frozen and will remain frozen until the trial is over.”
“I don’t understand.”
Garrison’s eyes bore through her. “You’re being accused of skimming more than ten million from your company coffers. Everything you have is going to be frozen until such time as you’re exonerated or found guilty. They won’t allow you to spend what could be company funds.”
“How am I supposed to live?”
“I’m sure arrangements will be made. I’ll need to ask you a few questions, but we’ll have time after I’ve gotten you out on bail.”
“I can’t make bail if I don’t have money.”
“As I said before, arrangements have already been made.”
So he’d found a bail bondsman. God, she needed a bail bondsman.
She had no cash. She would likely have no home very soon since she wouldn’t be allowed to sell her condo and she couldn’t make the mortgage because she had no cash. She had no job and zero prospects for one.
Her trial could take years.
What was she going to do?
“Ms. Stratton?”
No parents. No boyfriend. For a moment, she’d really felt like everything had come together. She had him. Riley. She’d seen herself the way he’d seen her and she’d been beautiful.
“Ms. Stratton?”
Of all the things Steven had done to her, Riley had really been the cruelest. It all could have been achieved without him, really. Certainly without the seduction routine.
“Ellie?”
She shook her head. “Yes?”
“You’re crying. Do you need some time?” He was holding out a small package of
tissues. Likely he kept them in his briefcase for overly emotional clients.
She took it, pulling one out and drying her eyes. This wasn’t going to help her. “No. What do you need from me? Besides money, which I apparently don’t have any of.”
He stopped for a moment. “My fee has been taken care of.”
That sent a shiver through her. “By who? I thought my admin had called you.”
“I was contacted by Riley Lang. I was given carte blanche when it comes to your defense and paid extra for dropping everything to, as he put it, get my expensive ass down here.”
She shook her head. “Why would he do that?”
Garrison shrugged, the gesture oddly elegant. “I was under the impression the two of you were in a serious relationship. According to the articles I read on the way over, your relationship with Mr. Lang is part of the problems you’re facing, though from what I understand, there was no code of conduct that forbade you from fraternizing.”
“We’re not in a relationship. He was working against me.”
“Then why would he have hired me?”
She remembered Riley’s eyes in those last few moments, how panicked he’d seemed. She’d thought at the time he’d been panicked because he’d gotten caught, but wouldn’t he have known he would get caught? Shouldn’t that have been the plan all along?
“He used up a lot of clout to get me here, Ms. Stratton,” the lawyer said softly. “I don’t work for cheap, and I don’t normally take cases like this because rich people stealing money from other rich people bores me.”
“But making a lot of money is exciting, huh?”
“Having the right people in my back pocket excites me.” Garrison sat back, studying her for a moment. “Do I find myself in the middle of a lovers’ spat? Because I would find that even more boring.”
She made the only decision she could. “He means nothing to me, but I’m in a corner. If he feels guilty about what he’s done, then I’ll use that guilt for as long as I can. Has he asked to see me?”