by Desiree Holt
“Fuck.” He shook his head. “You think I can coax some of that bourbon out of you? I could sure use a shot right now.”
“I think you deserve it. Jim, will you do the honors?”
Vega nodded. “How about a double?”
“Sure. He’s not going anywhere tonight.”
“You know,” Vega said as he fetched glasses, ice and the booze, “that accident you had Liam, plus those near misses before, all that make sense now.”
Liam frowned. “How do you figure?”
“They didn’t want you dead. Too messy and too many questions. But they must have figured if they got you sidelined, Teri would be the one to step up and take over.”
“Not one of the others?” Sydney asked.
“No, Jim’s right,” Liam told her. “Teri’s been my number one person from the very beginning. There has to be something we missed in the vetting process, and I wish to hell we knew how and what it is.”
“Trust the people at Graham and Associates to do their job. They are hard at work on it as we speak.”
Her cell rang just as she finished speaking. Noah again.
“Anything?” she asked, skipping the greeting.
“We’re working on it. I wanted to let you know Taylor’s on the way. We decided to give our pilot a rest so she chartered a ride from a friend. She’ll be here close to midnight and checking into the DaCosta Waterside.”
“She’s dropping everything to come here? Now?”
“This is a big deal to her,” Noah pointed out. “A foreign agent tries to fuck with one of her people. They have no idea the wrath they’ve unleashed. I’ll be working late here at Charley’s, with his team, but breakfast in the suite at eight-thirty in the morning. See you then, unless I call you back tonight with some unearthed nugget.”
Sydney just stared at the telephone after Noah hung up.
“Well!”
“What?” Liam took a healthy swallow of his drink. “If it’s more bad news, I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
“Not bad at all. Taylor Cantrell is on her way here. Breakfast in her suite tomorrow morning at eight-thirty.”
Liam’s eyes widened. “Here? She’s coming here? For this?”
“Actually, I guess I’m not all that surprised. If foreign agents can screw with one of her companies, they could theoretically get to all of them. Show of force and strength here.”
They were silent for a long moment.
“All right.” Liam drained his glass and set it down. “No more pity party here. Let’s get back to the questions. It’s time I pulled up my big guy shorts and dug into this with you. Pull out your questions again. Where were we?”
Sydney swallowed a smile and noticed Vega hiding a grin as she pulled her tablet in front of her again and swiped to another page.
Chapter Twenty
Despite the fact that he’d slept very little, Liam was wide awake and alert at seven-thirty the next morning. By eight he was showered and shaved, dressed for the day and drinking coffee with Vega in the kitchen while they waited for Sydney.
“Glad to see you look like you’ve got your shit together today,” Vega commented. “Be a shame to let those assholes get you down.”
“Yeah, I’m done feeling sorry for myself. Your biggest problem today might be keeping me from murdering that traitorous little shit when I get to the office.”
“She’ll be in today?”
“Oh, yeah. We’re just waiting for Charley Graham’s people to finish scouring her life to find all her dirty little secrets before we confront her.”
“You aren’t contacting the cops?”
“We will,” Sydney answered as she walked into the kitchen. “Just as soon as we’ve dotted all the i’s and crossed all the t’s. I want to be able to go to the prosecutor with proof that will force him to drop the charge against Liam without a big argument. Noah texted a while ago that they worked through the night but it was worth it.”
“Sounds good to me.” Vega rinsed out his mug and set it in the dishwasher. “Syd, you taking your own vehicle today or are we riding as a group?”
“We’ll go together. After we’re finished with our breakfast meeting you can drop me at my office before you take Liam to SBD. If I have to go anywhere, I can Uber. Let’s move it.”
When Liam walked into the Cantrells’ suite it was déjà vu all over again, as they said. For a moment he was back at the dinner that had set all this in motion.
“Nice to see you again, Liam.” Taylor Cantrell held out her hand.
“I wish the circumstances were different,” he told her in a wry voice.
“Yes, well, my husband might have some news on that front, too. Noah?” She raised her voice a bit to call him.
“Right here.”
Liam was impressed that a man who had probably had no sleep was so alert and well put together. But then, Noah Cantrell was no ordinary man. In fact, there was nothing ordinary at all about either Cantrell.
“I had them set up breakfast as a buffet.” Taylor gestured to the sideboard along one wall. “I wasn’t sure what everyone wanted.”
“Lots of coffee,” Noah told her and squeezed her shoulder. “It was a long night.”
“Okay.” Sydney looked across the table at Noah when they were all seated. “I can’t wait any longer. Give.”
“Here’s the highlights. Then I’ll go into details.” She fortified herself with a swallow of coffee. “All our research has turned up the information that Teri LaGrange has a bad gambling habit. An addiction, as a matter of fact.”
Liam looked at him. “How’d you find that out?”
“Doing a lot of digging. Details to follow, but it seems she was well-known at the Hard Rock Café. And people talk when enough money flows.”
“Chinese money,” Taylor added. “It seems Teri was targeted. Word of the Hoffman drone leaked out and Teri was identified as a weak link. Someone they could manipulate and threaten.”
Liam swallowed a bit of sweet roll and chased it with coffee. “How’d they do that?”
“Followed her to clock her habits. Identified her as a gambler with a budding addiction, and fed that addiction.”
“They waited until she had a big night at Hard Rock,” Noah continued, “to entice her into a private big stakes game. Then, very carefully, when they’d extended thousands and thousands of dollars—even hundreds of thousands—to her in credit, they dropped the noose and tightened it.”
“Pay up or you’re finished,” Sydney guessed.
Taylor nodded. “You’ve got it. And to tie it up neatly, Dean Michaels, the forensic data analyst Charley found for us, cracked the code in the Hoffman program, too.”
“And?”
“And he discovered that Teri had gone into the program between the time you signed off on it and the time it was delivered to Hoffman and put in a back door for the Chinese to use. But she wasn’t counting on you being smarter than everyone. Liam, his exact words were, ‘That Liam’s a fucking genius.’ Apparently, none of your staff, Liam, knows that when you assigned each of them to a work station, you coded the computers so any work they do can be tracked back to the person who did it.”
Everyone turned to stare at him.
Then Sydney smiled at him. “Of course, you did. My associates digging up information to help put your defense together said in the industry you’re known as an innovator and security freak. Which is why this whole thing was such a shock to everyone.”
“He finished that at four-thirty this morning,” Noah added. “And, to add a little spice to the recipe, had a program running on the other laptop while he was doing that. We found the original source of the hack.”
Liam’s jaw dropped. “This guy must be something.”
“Something expensive,” Noah grunted.
“But worth every damn penny,” Taylor put in. She looked at Liam. “And not one damn word about the cost of anything. If word got out that one of our companies could be infiltrated and virtually dest
royed, all the others would be vulnerable. This will send a strong message when word gets out.”
Sydney looked at her watch. “What’s the plan for today? I need to get to my office.”
“Charley still has his people following everyone on the SBD staff,” Noah answered, “at least until we can put a pin in this. He’s got Dean writing up a report as well as the agent shadowing Teri. She’ll be posing as a new client when you get to your office, Liam, so she’ll have an excuse to be inside until we can wrap this up.”
“When do you think that will be?” Sydney asked.
“Sometime today. As soon as we’ve got it all in writing, you’ll have it to take to the prosecutor.”
“But they’ve still got the dagger with my fingerprints on it,” Liam pointed out, “as well as Eric’s blood.”
“But what they don’t have is proof that you were somewhere else when Eric was stabbed.”
Liam frowned. “How’d you do that?”
“With a lot of money to pay a lot of people. They tracked down every reporter, photographer, newshound, whatever, who was taking pictures for publicity at the parade. We found three of your float time-stamped over a thirty-minute period, covering the time when Eric was stabbed.”
For the first time since this had happened, Liam felt he could draw a full breath.
“Then I really need to get to my office.” Sydney put her napkin down and stood up. “Noah, can you have Charlie fax everything over to my office?”
“We’ll do better than that, I’ll have him send an agent to hand deliver it.”
“Excellent.”
Liam looked around at everyone. “I don’t know how I’ll ever be able to thank all of you. I’m… I just…” He couldn’t seem to find the right words.
“It’s not over yet,” Noah pointed out. “You’ve got to get to your office and act like nothing’s different until Sydney has the package together, gets it to the prosecutor, and he has the cops arrest Teri.”
“Can they make the murder charge stick?”
“That’s what we’re working on. Okay, get going. And keep your eyes peeled. The Chinese are mighty unhappy about this, if what our agent observed at the restaurant last night is any indication. Keep Vega close to you, and Charley’s agent when she shows up.”
Liam was still digesting it all when they arrived at his office. In the elevator he put on his best worried look, which, when he thought of all the things that could go wrong, wasn’t so far off.
“Oh, Liam.” Rosalie rushed to him and gave him a big hug. “Everyone is stunned that the police would think you did this. But you’ve got the best lawyer in the southeast.”
“Don’t I know it. Listen, I have an expert offsite running those two laptops. If he calls at any time, put him right through. His name is Dean Carmichael.”
“Absolutely,” she assured him. “Anything else?”
“Yes. My luck is not all bad. I have a new client coming to see the place today. Before she talks business, she wants to see what kind of setup I have. Her name is Mary Sirota.”
“I’ll call down to the guard and tell him she’s expected. Also the parking lot.”
“Thanks. And, Rosalie? Thanks for everything.”
“We’ll get through this,” she assured him.
The most difficult thing he had to do was his usual morning walk around, checking on what each of his coders was doing and where they were with their assigned projects. It was especially difficult for him when he stopped at Teri’s work station. He couldn’t afford to give anything away, so he made his stop as quick as possible.
“Liam?” She swiveled in her chair to look at him. “Rosalie told me you wanted me on the Sanchez project today. That one’s pretty simple and won’t take me any time at all.”
Don’t give her anything sensitive to work on, Noah had told him.
“Maybe so.” He made his tone as even as possible. “But it’s still important and I want it done right. That’s why I wanted you on it.”
She studied his face, as if not quite trusting what he said. Then she shrugged.
“Okay. Thanks. I think. I’ll come let you know when I’m done.”
He wanted to tell her that wasn’t necessary but he didn’t want to get into an argument with her so he just nodded.
Vega shadowed him the entire time, and while his employees looked at him strangely, no one asked who the guy was and Liam made no introductions. Still, his stomach was roiling and he was sure his blood pressure was at a peak when he finished.
By the time he got back to his office, Mary Sirota had just arrived. He took her into his office and closed the door so they could have some privacy.
“I’d like you to show me around the place,” she told Liam. “That way I can assess Teri without her knowing why.”
“No problem.”
“I don’t trust her. She’s a slimy little sleaze and capable of anything.”
Liam shrugged. “What can she do? Especially with you and Vega here. She can’t get to any of the secure programs. I took care of that.”
“What’s she doing now?”
“Basic coding. I didn’t want to give her anything sensitive to work on.”
“Good move. Okay, show me what you’ve got. I want to see my target in her workplace.”
But Teri wasn’t at her desk when they stopped at her cubicle. Figuring she might be in the break room, he headed there with Mary on his heels. When they walked in, Teri was standing at the counter, two cups of coffee in front of her, stirring one of them.
She turned when she heard them and smiled. “Oh, Liam. I was just coming to your office. I fixed a cup of coffee for you.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Rosalie usually fixes it. You don’t have to take time for that.”
“Oh! No problem. I can fix one for your guest, too.”
But as she turned to grab another cup, she tried to slide one hand into her jeans pocket. In a flash, Mary Sirota reached out to Teri, grabbed her wrist and yanked the hand out. As she did, a tiny vial fell to the floor.
“Don’t touch that,” Mary snapped to Liam. “Get me a paper towel.”
As she reached to take it from him, Teri, who had been trying to pull her arm away, yanked Mary’s arm down, kicked her in the stomach and shoved her, hard. Mary lost her grip as she doubled over and Teri ran down the hall, just out of Liam’s reach. The whole thing had taken mere seconds.
“Are you okay?” he asked Mary.
“Yes.” She sucked in a breath and waved toward the hallway. “Go. Don’t let her get away. I want to get this vial.”
Liam ran after Teri, shouting, “Stop her. Someone. Anyone.”
People stuck their heads out of their offices and cubicles. “What’s going on?” someone shouted. “What’s happening?”
Liam just blew past them to the entrance.
“Rosalie!” Liam hollered over his shoulder as he, too, shoved the stairway door aside. “Call down to the guard and tell him to stop Teri. Right now.”
He took the stairs down two at a time, realized Mary had caught up and was right on his heels. They burst into the lobby and saw the guard looking for Teri.
“I got Rosalie’s call,” he told Liam, “but she didn’t come this way. Check the back and the parking lot.
“I’ve got this,” Liam told him as he and Mary raced for the exit.
Then all hell broke loose, so fast it was almost a blur. They reached the parking lot in time to be nearly sideswiped as Teri barreled toward the exit gate, heading nonstop for the automatic security arm. Mary pulled out her gun, took aim and shot out the rear tires, but the car still kept moving.
As she and Liam raced closer to it, another car, a silver sedan that had apparently been sitting at the curb, hopped the sidewalk, blocking Teri. The passenger side window rolled down and the driver aimed at Teri’s car, fired six shots into it then sped away. To Liam, those shots sounded like a cannon going off, loud and explosive, filling the air. They were punctuated with the sound
of glass shattering and a scream.
As the car accelerated and pulled into traffic, it sideswiped another vehicle, nearly rear-ended a second one and chased a third up onto the sidewalk before maneuvering into traffic.
Later, Liam would realize with shock that the whole thing took just seconds. At the moment, he only concentrated on one thing—seeing how badly hurt Teri was. He wanted her alive so she could be arrested. He reached her car before Mary did and tried to yank open the door, but it was locked.
“Move away,” Mary ordered. She used the butt of her gun to smash the passenger window, then reached in to pop the locks.
“Shit, shit, shit,” Liam cursed as he yanked open the driver’s door. Teri was leaning back against the seat, her side and her shoulder oozing blood.
Mary was right beside him. “Liam, I am so fucking sorry. I—”
“Call nine-one-one,” he snapped. “Tell them to hurry. She’s alive, but barely. I’m not letting her die before I get some answers and she gets a lot of years in prison.”
Don’t you die on me, you traitor. I want you to pay for everything you did.
He yanked off his shirt and held it to the wound in her side. Mary handed him her jacket, which he used on Teri’s shoulder. His ears still rang from the sound of the gunshots, and his hands shook as he did his best to stanch the flow of blood from the wounds. He breathed a sigh of relief when he finally heard the sirens and she was still breathing.
More sirens shrieked and two squad cars pulled up right on the heels of the ambulance. The EMTs nudged Liam out of the way as they went to work with efficiency on Teri. The deputies in the patrol cars had piled up onto the sidewalk and into the parking lot.
When Liam glanced to his right, he saw most of his staff had hurried out of the building, drawn as much by the chase down the hallway as the shots in the parking lot. As he pulled out his handkerchief to wipe the blood from his hands, he saw two of the cops were talking to Mary. He saw one of them ask for her gun, which she turned over without an argument. He was sure this wasn’t the first time she’d been in a situation like this.