Mark ran his hand over his head. If it wasn’t so serious, it would almost be laughable.
“He had a Langtry Glen bandanna in the glove compartment of his car,” she said, “which he said a man named Al gave him in case he wanted to disguise his face. He just figured that Ms. Todd had upset an old boyfriend who was looking to get back at her.”
Katie shrugged. “I’ve already given the police a complete personal history. I’ve been on a handful of first dates since moving to Toronto. But none in months and certainly none with anyone I imagine would come after me. To be honest, I’m more concerned about how this is connected to a story I covered years ago.”
Mark squeezed her hand. “You said that someone had been dealing drugs in the building.”
“Yes, and they never caught him. I realize that when Shields Corp demolished the community that at least one drug dealer lost the base of his criminal enterprise. Between the steady stream of vulnerable people coming to the drop-in program and the underemployed relying on government assistance, the place must have looked like easy pickings. He could have easily swiped a box of Langtry Glen bandannas when the buildings were destroyed. And he’d have reason to want revenge on the Shieldses. But that still doesn’t explain why he’d target me or set such a big price on my head. Do we even know why this kid went after Mark this morning?”
“That was apparently all his idea,” the detective said, drily. “Carl noticed you were picked up by a Shields helicopter so figured he’d just stake out the local roads and hope he got lucky. He apparently drove around the back road for hours.” She turned to Mark. “It appears he had no reason for grabbing you other than the hope that he could lead you to her. Although he does remember hearing Al saying something yesterday about taking you both alive.”
“What was he going to with Katie when he got her?”
“He hadn’t gotten that far yet. Said he figured he’d call the number and demand the whole amount. Hadn’t even crossed his mind that the number might not still be in order or that whoever posted the ad might not even have that amount of money, let alone be willing to pay him. He’s not the brightest spark.”
Mark rubbed his fingers against his temples. Sunny’s analysis hadn’t been that far off—someone had hung a Wanted sign around Katie’s neck, and now she was prey to every stupid criminal with internet access. “I’m afraid there’s more. The investigation into the rockslide on the train tracks north of Cobalt has determined it wasn’t an accident.”
Katie sucked in a breath. “What happened?”
The detective’s expression was as still as stone. “Explosives. Crude ones. Someone intentionally sent those rocks falling onto the train tracks.”
Katie’s face paled. Brant reached for her arm.
“But we still don’t know if there’s any connection between someone taking out the train tracks and your attempted kidnapping.” The detective’s voice was kind. “There are dozens of places that someone could have made an attempt to kidnap you without resorting to something so drastic. Why not wait until you reached Kapuskasing? Or try why you were still in Toronto? Why Cobalt?”
Why indeed. Mark’s arms crossed tightly. His fists clenched. “You can’t just expect us to sit here and accept that Katie’s life is in danger from some unknown criminal, for some unknown reason, and there’s nothing we can do about it—while he’s out there amassing a ragtag bunch of petty criminals to help him.”
Brant smiled grimly. “There is plenty that we can do and are doing. We have a forensic team examining the explosives. We are working with internet providers to trace the source of the original internet post looking for amateur kidnappers and monitor any similar ones that may appear. We’ve already spoken to several news sources about the online gossip that appeared about you this morning, looking for a possible connection, and we’ve learned they were all sent an identical email from a dummy email address. We are trying to determine if anyone formally associated with Langtry Glen has a criminal history. We are also working with Shields’s staff here on security for today’s events, which I believe are to begin shortly.”
Mark glanced down at his watch. It was almost eleven. He’d figured he’d be long gone by now. Now here he was, stuck in his father’s home, reluctant to leave Katie’s side again. He turned to Katie. “It’s about time I go talk to my father.”
* * *
The warm, wood-beamed living room was empty now except for Sunny, who was curled in an overstuffed chair behind the fireplace. It was the same chair that had once sat in his grandmother’s sunroom. Her feet were tucked up beside her. Whatever she was reading on her phone was making her smile.
Hard to believe he and his sister had been friends once—or at least joint allies in the craziness of the Shields world. What had happened to them? She’d always been headstrong, stubborn, smart and brave. He hadn’t just loved his little sister; he’d admired her.
“Where did everybody go?” he asked.
She didn’t even look up. “There are two private security guards and two police manning the driveway to this place. Dad is in his room getting changed. The rest have gone back to prepare for his brunch thing.”
“Why aren’t you there?”
“Did you not just hear what I said? This event is all our father’s idea. I’ve had absolutely nothing to do with it.”
“Really?”
She shot him a dirty look. “Is that what you think? That since you left I’ve been running around here throwing parties? I haven’t had a single day off since you walked out of here and everything fell onto me. The responsibilities, the stress, the headaches—it’s all been on my shoulders. Not to mention the endless, worried calls from stakeholders wondering why on earth Shields Corp has suddenly put the brakes on.” She glanced at Katie. “Since my brother seems intent on keeping you around, let me make one thing perfectly clear. You are here as a personal guest of my family and not as a reporter. Consider everything you hear outside of today’s official events as one hundred percent off the record, and if I catch one whiff of you reporting even a single word of my family’s private business, I will sue you for breach of confidence. Is that clear?”
Katie nodded. “Got it.”
Sunny looked back to her phone.
“Hang on,” Mark said. “What has Father been—”
A door behind him closed. They turned. Jonah had walked in behind him. Gone now were the muddy work clothes, replaced instead with a steel-gray suit and navy tie, which made him look every bit the man and leader that he was.
“I’m glad you’re here.” He gestured at Mark and Katie to sit. Then he sat down in an armchair across from his daughter. “I had been hoping to talk to you both before the guests arrived. As I’ll be outlining in more detail shortly, I’ve been doing some major restructuring of Shields Corp—”
Sunny snorted. “Cancelled projects, sold properties, paid off debts and gotten rid of staff. You do realize people are convinced that you’re getting ready to sell the company?”
“Actually, today I’ll be announcing my retirement.” He glanced from daughter to son. “Congratulations. You two are now the new owners of Shields Corp.”
FOURTEEN
Both Mark and Sunny leaped to their feet, but it was Sunny who found her voice first. “You mean we’re supposed to share the company? But you can’t! Mark doesn’t deserve half of Shields Corp!”
“And I don’t want it. Honestly, I don’t.” Mark could feel the old, familiar panic rising up his back, pouring tension into his shoulders. Was this his father’s way to force him to his “rightful” role in the family company, whether he wanted it or not? Call a press conference? Announce to the world that Mark was now part owner of Shields Corp? Even if the tabloids hadn’t exposed his identity, his father’s press conference would have sent dozens of reporters scurrying to find the long-lost heir—and that was p
resuming his father wouldn’t have inadvertently leaked the information himself—destroying TRUST’s ability to fly under the radar. So much for thinking his father had changed. So much for everything Mark had done to escape the stigma of the Shields name. “Please, just give it all to Sunny.”
“My decision is made.” Jonah stood. “It will be an equal split. The paperwork has already been drawn up. As of tomorrow, the deal is done. I’m keeping this home and a small living allowance. The rest of the assets will be divided equally between the two of you with the exception of the main property, which you will share ownership of. Hopefully it’s big enough for you to somehow share. But if not, Albright has the details of an interested buyer.”
“But Dad—”
As the old, familiar name slipped across Mark’s lips, the man’s eyes met his, and Mark saw something there he’d never seen before. Sadness. The hard edge he was used to seeing was gone. Maybe his father wasn’t trying to hurt him. Maybe he just didn’t understand.
Mark took a deep breath and started again. “I appreciate the generosity, Dad, and I’m sure you must mean well. But I honestly love the work I’m doing now and don’t want to give it up.”
Jonah paused. His hand slipped over his chin as if willing his mouth to find the right words to say.
“Really,” Mark added, “I don’t want anything to do with the company.”
Jonah’s shoulders sagged. “Then tomorrow you are free to give your share to your sister. Although I hope you will at least consider sitting down with me tomorrow to discuss other possibilities. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a press conference to give and a retirement party to enjoy.” He glanced at each of them in turn. “I am hoping to see you there.”
Jonah walked back into the other room and shut the door neatly behind him. Sunny turned to Mark and gaped like a fish that’d just been yanked out of water.
He put a hand on her slim shoulder. “It’s okay, sis. We’ll figure something out. Trust me.”
She took a few shallow breaths. Then she shrugged off his arm without meeting his eye. “Come on. I’ll give you a ride back to the main complex. I presume you’ll want to get changed before the brunch. It sounds like it’s going to be rather...memorable.”
After a quick word with Detective Brant, they followed Sunny down the path to a yellow convertible. Mark opened the passenger door for Katie. Then he hopped in the back. Sunny slid into the driver’s seat. She grabbed a pair of mirrored sunglasses from the glove compartment and snapped them on before pulling out. A police car was following at a respectable distance.
“Where’s your bodyguard?” Mark asked.
Sunny tapped the soft flesh between her shoulder blades.
He felt a sudden wave of sympathy surge through him. “Really?” It had come to that?
“What?” Katie asked.
“I have a personalized GPS tracker implanted in my skin,” Sunny said. “It monitors not only my location but my heart rate and vital signs.” She glanced at Katie. “Go ahead and take a swing at me, and see how long it takes security to find me.” She yanked on the steering wheel, swerving them around a corner and onto the main road. She gunned the engine and then grinned as the police escort disappeared in the distance.
“Oh, sis,” Mark said. “I’m so sorry—”
“Why? That you weren’t here to talk me out of it? Dad already tried.” She glanced at Katie. “Do you know that when I was a kid my martial arts instructor kidnapped me? Ironic, right? The person my esteemed father hired to teach me how to protect myself threw me in the trunk of his car and left me in there for hours. I was six.”
Katie’s hand rose to her throat. “I’m...I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah.” Her voice was matter of fact. “Me, too. So don’t blame me if I’m not about to trust my safety to a bodyguard. Anyway, as soon as the technology was available, my brother and I were expected to wear GPS everywhere we went. Twenty-four-seven, someone in a shiny metal room knew where we were. It started off as something we wore, but when the implants hit the market a couple of years ago, I upgraded.” She glanced at her brother in the rearview mirror. “As you can imagine, it caused a pretty major stir when yours suddenly became active. That was one rescue I wanted to see myself.”
They pulled up to the gates of Shields Corp. A guard waved them through. “Although our overall security staff has been reduced as part of Dad’s big downsizing operation. We’re down to a dozen or so. Yes, there’s still a guard at the front gate, but the days of having a fleet of security patrolling the wider woods are long gone, and he hasn’t had a personal bodyguard in ages. At least he seems to still know I’m worth protecting, even if he’s stopped caring about whether random hikers walk on the edges of our property.”
“I’m all for selling this place,” she added. “It’s hardly overflowing with happy memories for me. But you’ll find it’s not in the state you left it in. Dad’s closed off three of the four main buildings. We’re on a skeletal crew staff-wise. Ever since our grandmother died, Dad’s been having some kind of spiritual crisis. He now insists on doing almost all the ground’s work himself—which means over eighty percent of the green space has been left to go wild. No one has run a boat on the lake for so long the shoreline has gone back to its natural muddy state.”
She glanced back at Katie. “You remember seeing the golf course and lake from the helicopter? It’s outside the main complex. We used to host private tournaments on it for our company partners. We had thirty-six holes, not to mention the clubhouse. Now? No one’s stepped foot there for years.” She stopped sharply in front of the townhouse. “I trust you can find your way from here.”
Mark hopped out and then opened the door for Katie. “Thanks for the ride.”
His sister nodded curtly. For the first time in a long time, he felt the urge to hug his little sister and let her know that everything was going to be all right.
He sighed. “I’m sorry for leaving the way I did and not staying in touch. I never meant to leave you. I just needed a break from Dad and the company—and from all of this. I never meant to leave you behind.”
Sunny stared at him for a moment. Her mouth set in a thin line. Her eyes stayed hidden behind sunglasses. “I would ask you what your intentions are, but really it doesn’t matter. I deserve this company. I earned it. And one way or another, I’m going to end up with all of it. Even if it means suing you or convincing some lawyer that our father is not in his right mind and does not have the mental capacity to be making such a decision.”
The car peeled off. Mark shook his head. “She doesn’t trust me.”
“It doesn’t sound like she trusts anyone,” Katie said.
Yeah, that was true enough. Did anyone in his small, fractured family actually trust each other? If only his father had told him he was planning on retiring and asked him if he’d wanted a share of the company. But it seemed that with a son who wouldn’t answer his calls and a daughter who was so fiercely dedicated to looking out for herself, Jonah had just gone ahead and made the decision without them.
For a moment, he wondered what life must have been like from the other side of his father’s desk. How must it have felt to pour his life into his work for so long only to wake up one day and realize the beast he’d created had swallowed up everyone and everything it touched?
It seemed no one liked what Shields Corp had become—including the Shieldses. Well, the most important thing to worry about now was doing whatever it took to make sure his own company was going to survive.
What had his father even been thinking offering him half of Shields Corp? And what was he going to do about it? He could still hear the voice of the angry young man he once was, urging him to throw the gift back in his father’s face and leave. And yet, is that what he should do? After all, he’d come up here hoping to be able to squeeze a couple thousand dollars out of his father fo
r the small island he’d gotten from his grandmother. If he could talk his sister into giving him something for his side of the company, it could make a huge difference to TRUST. But now that Katie’s kidnappers had leaked his identity online, would it even be possible to keep the company going, or would his worst fears about being blacklisted come true? And if Sunny went through with her threat to sue, the bad publicity would ruin TRUST.
Not to mention, he still had a plane to catch.
“I need to find a lawyer,” he said. “Someone who can get me out of this mess and sort things out while I’m overseas. Until I know how this is all going to play out, I should probably shut down the TRUST office for a while, really batten down the hatches and wait until all this blows over. The last thing I want is for the press to start chasing down people I know for comment. Or Nick to get caught up in an impending lawsuit when he’s got a wedding to worry about. I’ll disconnect the phones, tell Nick to take a few months off and tell everyone I’ve worked or associated with recently to keep their distance and watch their backs, including Zack. Should’ve really done that the moment I realized the kidnappers could link me to TRUST.”
Katie turned to face him. Her hands brushed his arms. “What if the people who care about you want to go through this with you?”
He started to pull her in for a hug. But then he stopped himself and held her at arm’s length. “I’m leaving the country the day after tomorrow. Won’t be back for months. I don’t want anyone putting their lives on hold waiting for me to get back.”
“You make it sound like you’re on your own in this. Like you’re the one with the sole responsibility to be strong for everyone else.” She rolled her shoulders back. He let her go. But to his surprise, instead of moving away, she stepped in closer, until he could almost feel her heart beating against his chest. “But you’re not alone, Mark. People care about you. They respect you. They love you—because of who you are, not because of what name you were born with or who your father is. Let them choose if they want to go through this with you.”
Killer Assignment Page 13