by Cari Quinn
Shockingly, she was true to her word and they were on the road a few minutes later. Ricki wore one of her colorful tops, a trio of gold necklaces, and her skinny jeans. Obviously, neither of them wanted to get dressed up again after the service yesterday.
Thirty-five minutes of Los Angeles traffic didn’t help his already burning anger. By the time they got up to the fucking tower, he’d been frisked three goddamn times.
“Mal, calm down.”
“If one more person swipes my balls without giving me a happy fucking ending, I’m going to cut someone.” He stared down the security guy outside of Donovan’s main office. The familiar navy shirt with Roth Defense on the left side of his chest made Mal’s hackles rise even more.
“Well, if you didn’t wear the biggest and baddest chain wallet in the history of man, you wouldn’t keep setting off the metal detectors. And voila, no frisking.”
“What, you would prefer a velcro one?”
She rolled her eyes as they moved through the next checkpoint to the Lewis inner sanctum. Donovan’s version of Miss Moneypenny stood up. “Mr. Lewis and Mrs. Crandall are waiting for you.”
“Fucking awesome.”
Ricki pushed him forward. “Don’t mind him. We didn’t have time for coffee.”
Donovan’s assistant gave her a tight smile. “Right this way.” She led them down a hallway.
He’d only been in this part of Donovan’s lair a few times. They passed a glassed-in area with a desk that world domination was probably planned on, but they didn’t stop there. Nope, the snooty little chick kept on walking until they got to a large room at the end of the hall.
As usual, the view was stunning, but he didn’t really give two shits about the man’s billion dollar view. No, he was more worried about the lineup waiting for them.
Lila, he expected. The dark-haired dude he’d met before. Aidan Roth was the owner of the new security detail who had been crawling around every corner of Ripper. There was another soldier-looking motherfucker standing by the door, his back to the wall, his hands clasped behind him.
Lila crossed to them as they came in. “Do you have any idea what this is about?” She leaned in and hugged Ricki. Surprisingly, she slid her hand down Mal’s forearm with a quick squeeze before herding them both over to the table.
Dex Munroe was sitting at the wide, round conference table. The polished Brit was suited up and sitting straight enough that Mal wondered if he had a pole up his ass.
“What the hell is he doing here?” Mal asked.
Lila frowned. “I’m as in the dark as you are.”
“I know many of you are confused about why I called you into this meeting.” Donovan opened his arm to the seats around the conference table. “Please sit.”
Too keyed up to sit, Mal pulled the chair out for Ricki. She sat down in front of him. Mal curled his fingers around the leather cushion headrest.
Ricki clenched her hands together in her lap.
“I don’t want to have a formal meeting until we clear up a few details. I figured this would be the most expeditious way to do it.”
Lila twirled a gold pen. “Formal meeting about what?”
“As you know, we’ve had a lot of issues with security at Ripper Records lately. We’d hoped to fix a lot of that with the new key cards and new monitoring systems we’ve put in place.”
“Cameras?” Dex’s eyebrows rose. “Since when?”
“I’ve been working with Aidan and his brother Marcus at Roth Defense. They have been testing some prototypes here at the offices and in some of the studios.”
Dex drummed his fingers on the table. “I see.”
“Then there was some new information brought to my attention by Miss Crandall and Mr. Shawcross. It makes some of our issues at Ripper sound less like a few individuals selling information, and more like a specific act of sabotage.”
“Sabotage?” Lila stood. “Why would you say that?”
“You won’t believe it,” Ricki said quickly.
Donovan held up a hand.
Mal bit back a growl.
“Some evidence came to light today and I’m in the process of proving it. I’m confident we’ll get to the bottom of things with the help of people in this room.”
“I swear I’m not lying.”
Lila turned to her. “Lying about what, Ricki?” she asked gently. “We’ll believe you.”
“You won’t. But I swear I’m not lying.”
Mal squeezed her hand. “She saw Snake.”
Lila’s cornflower blue eyes went huge and the natural rose color in her cheeks vanished. “What?”
“William Scotsm—” Mal began, saying the name he’d looked up online. To familiarize himself a bit more, he’d read about Snake’s supposedly deadly accident and the Oblivion lawsuit he’d instigated just before his “death”.
“I know who Snake is, Malachi,” Lila snapped.
“Yeah, well, he’s supposed to be fucking dead. So tell me how that happens?” Mal exploded.
“I’d like the answer to that myself.” Lila crossed her arms.
Donovan cleared his throat. “Well, it would explain a few things.”
Dex smoothed his large palm over the top of his head to his neck and shifted in his chair as if he was uncomfortable.
Mal frowned. Before he could figure what that was about, the soldier lookalike stepped forward.
“This is Noah Jordan. He’s one of Roth’s specialists. Some of you might know his brother.”
Lila’s arms dropped to her sides. “Hunter’s brother?”
“Yes, ma’am. As you might imagine, I have a vested interest in this situation.” He circled the desk until he was across from Dex.
Mal’s gaze darted from Jordan to Dex again. Dex’s hands were shaking as he clutched them together. “What the fuck is up with you?”
“Malachi,” Lila said sternly.
“Well, look at him.” Mal gripped the back of Ricki’s chair so he didn’t cross the room and get the answers himself through any means necessary.
“I normally work cases that require a little less finesse than this, so we’ll keep this short and sweet. I have records in my archives of you and an unknown man after hours in the studio on four separate occasions. All of them line up to a few hours before or after recording times for Warning Sign’s latest album.”
“So? I have plenty of clients who use the studio.” Dex arrowed his gaze at Donovan. “What’s the meaning of all this?”
“I was hoping that would be the explanation. Then again, there’s been a rash of leaked information about Warning Sign lately.”
“Anyone could have done that. You said yourself the security was lax.”
“And now it’s not.” Donovan’s jaw tensed.
Noah flicked on the overhead screen with a remote. “After Donovan called us with the new information about William Scotsman, we scrubbed the footage with our facial recognition technology. Took some doing, but we were able to line up a few things thanks to some old photos of our dead friend.”
Another photo came up—grainy to be sure, but even Mal had to swallow against the shadowed eyes.
“That’s him,” Ricki whispered.
Donovan moved to stand beside Dex’s chair. “Is there something you want to tell us?”
Dex shook his head.
Donovan gripped the edge of the table. “We’ve been friends for a lot of years, Dex. Please make this right.”
Dex tugged at his bottom lip. “Van, I can explain.”
Van? Mal frowned.
Donovan shut his eyes, a growl rumbling in his chest. He rose and stalked across the room, then picked up a folder and slapped it onto the desk in front of him. “Yes, you damn well will.”
The whole room went silent at Donovan’s booming tone. He spun the folder around. “Photo upon photo with you and Snake.”
Dex picked up a glossy photo with a shaking hand. “It wasn’t supposed to go this far.”
“Go how far?” Donovan
thundered.
“It was just supposed to be a way to get ahead. To show that Lila the perfect wasn’t so perfect.” Dex’s normally cultured voice was suddenly heavy with a thick British accent. “That you’d see I was the better choice to represent the bigger bands.”
“I’ve been handing you more artists to work with by the mile, Dex. Why would you do this?” Lila’s voice was icy and made the hairs on the back of Mal’s neck stand up.
“You gave me all the no name people and you kept the glory. You’ve got everything here and I just have these shitty little bands.”
“There are no lacking assignments at Ripper Records, but that’s besides the point.” Donovan loomed over Dex. “Why are you sweating? Tell me now before I have you thrown in a hole so deep and dark you never hear another person’s voice, let alone work in this town again.”
Mal moved closer to Ricki. He’d never heard something so threatening come out of Donovan’s mouth before.
Dex backed up his chair and stood. Jordan came up behind Dex, blocking the space between him and the door.
“You have to know I didn’t want this. I caught the man in Ripper. He was taking pictures and had stashed a recording device outside the studio—in the hallway. He said he was a reporter looking for a juicy story.”
Donovan’s voice was deep and barely restrained. “And instead of reporting him, you let him go?”
Dex swallowed. “I thought I could use him to make a little trouble.” His eyes darted to Lila then back to Donovan. “To show that she couldn’t control things like she usually could. Then when we started talking things got more and more complicated.” He cleared his voice. “Then Will had me by the…” He cleared his voice again.
“The short and curlies.” Mal spit out the words.
“For lack of a better term, yeah.” Dex shoved his hands into his pants pockets. “Then he started asking for more details about the band. By the time I figured out who he really was, I was in too deep. Then he went off the rails and started tracking Elle more closely. I think he tampered with her car.” He swallowed deeply. “Even stalked her and her friend in New York and possibly followed her here as well.” He held up his hands as Mal lurched toward him. “I’m not sure. He didn’t give details and I had to put a lot together myself.”
“If he had hurt her…” Mal broke off. He couldn’t finish the thought.
Because Snake had hurt her, and he’d killed Randy, that fucking bastard.
Dex shook his head. “You have to know I didn’t want any of this. Just a few things going wrong at a show was all it was supposed to be. Not what happened. This guy isn’t right in the head. You have to know that.”
Ricki exploded from her seat. “You have no idea what this guy is like. He hates us. He’s been trying to get back at Nick and the guys from Oblivion for years.” She punched Dex in the chest. “Because of you, he fucking killed Randy.”
“I didn’t. I swear.” Dex stumbled back.
People started talking all at once.
Aidan slammed a baton against the table. “All right, everyone. That’s enough.”
The room went silent. Aidan focused on Dex. “Are there any other listening devices still in the building?”
“Yes,” Donovan said.
Lila spun around. “What? You knew about this?”
Donovan sighed. “I’ve been monitoring the situation. I thought it was just a mole in my company. Nothing like this. But I left one in the smaller studio just in case. Aidan has cleared out the rest and reset the buildings with the most up-to-date security.”
Aidan cracked his knuckles. “You may not like this idea, but I’ve got one. It’s going to take some cooperation from everyone involved.”
Mal stood beside Ricki’s chair. His shoulders bunched with tension. “I don’t like the sound of that.”
Ricki stood. “I don’t care. What is it?”
“Right now, we don’t have a lot of proof to go on. My software is top of the line, but is it enough to prove to the cops that a man came back from the dead? Doubtful.”
“You’re not inspiring a lot of faith right now, buddy.” Ricki clenched her fists at her sides.
“I’m getting to it, Miss. Hang on.” Aidan zeroed in on Donovan. “I think we need to set a trap. See if we can get this Snake character to come to us. It’s a long shot, but if we give him exactly what he wants, he might not be able to resist.”
“Me.” Ricki moved forward. “Me and Nick need to be the bait.”
“Fuck, no.” Mal jerked her back against him. “No fucking way.”
“Mal, you know it needs to be us. Who else would get him to come out of hiding? He’s chased me all over the city.” She let out a soft pained noise. “Even to New York. He knows harming me is one of the easiest ways to make my brother hurt.”
“Exactly why this shouldn’t happen,” Mal growled.
“But it’s the only way it will work.” She turned to Lila. “I know Nick is going to be angry, but he’d be more pissed off if we didn’t include him.”
Lila shut her eyes. “Don’t ask me to do this.”
Ricki crossed to her and gripped her hands. “You think Snake really just wanted to cause a little harm? He wanted to hurt us. He’s been trying to hurt my family for a long time. It needs to end. Now.”
Lila’s usual cool demeanor shattered as her eyes filled. “I can’t lose either one of you.”
“I won’t let that happen, ma’am.” Noah stood beside Dex and clamped a hand onto his shoulder, slamming him into the seat. “And he’s going to help us.”
Dex clenched his teeth.
“Whatever you do to rectify this situation will go a long way in how much I help you when the police get involved.” Donovan’s voice was pure ice.
“We speak a few times a week.” Dex pulled his phone out of his pocket and set it on the table. “I can’t guarantee he’ll answer. Not if Elle got a look at him.”
“He’ll come.” Ricki lifted her chin. Her hands were shaking, but the resolve in her eyes scared the holy fuck out of Mal. “I know he will. There’s no way he’d resist.”
Mal dragged her against him. “No. You can’t.”
She curled her arms around his waist and locked them at his lower back. “They’ll keep me safe.”
No one would keep her safe like he could.
Mal met Donovan’s gaze then swung around to look at Noah. “There won’t be a corner of the earth safe enough for any of you if something happens to her.”
He’d make sure of it.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Nothing like having to pretend to practice to lure out a killer.
Just a few short weeks ago, playing the guitar had been her happy place. Back then, if she’d had to draw out a maniac, doing it while holding a guitar would’ve been one of the best possible scenarios. Having a more viable weapon couldn’t hurt, true, but at least she could take solace from her instrument.
Alas, that was then, this was now, and even her beloved guitar couldn’t soothe her.
The first night of their rehearsing was long and tense. She didn’t want to touch her guitar because she was afraid what she would find if she tried to play. It wasn’t time for her to even attempt it. She needed to start physical therapy first. But with the damn thing in her hand, it was so hard not to make the attempt. Just to see if any of her ability remained, or if it was one more thing she’d lost.
Her brother was with her, and that helped. The stuff that had gone down at Mal’s apartment was forgotten. It simply didn’t matter. They’d fought and made up and that was all in the past.
Their current reality was that this jam session could end up putting a madman behind bars. Or else he might get a chance to finish what he’d started that night on stage.
He would try at least, but he would not succeed.
“Just a few notes to start.”
She nodded at Nicky, loosely grasping the guitar. She could play leftie too, but not well. It felt weird not to have her sl
ing on.
And to play up her injury so if they were being overheard, Snake would think she was easy prey.
“I’m in a lot of pain,” she said in a halting voice.
Even admitting something that was partially a lie was hard. She had been in pain. She still didn’t know how much nerve and tendon damage she might have. Another reason she needed to begin physical therapy as soon as possible.
No more delays.
No more putting off tomorrow.
Not with her recovery, and not with Mal. Sometimes tomorrow didn’t come, and she didn’t want any regrets.
“I know. You still have to try.”
“I feel so weak.” Another lie that wasn’t. Her strength was growing a little every day, both physically and emotionally. But to be tested this way when she still felt so unsure…
“It’ll take time until you’re all the way back on your feet.” Nicky’s amber eyes met hers and she glimpsed a wealth of understanding there. As if he knew she was both exaggerating for Snake’s benefit and telling the truth. A buried one that wasn’t fully dependent on her injury.
She nodded and pushed her hair behind her ear. Knowing Noah and Mal were in the next room and the team had the building covered helped ease some of her nerves. Some, but not all. The more she emphasized how fragile she was, the more her mind whispered it was the truth.
You can’t handle this. You should’ve said no. This is for Nicky to finish. He’s the strong one.
But she had to be here. She’d been one of the ones who was hurt. One of the ones Snake wanted to hurt, for fuck’s sake, and poor Randy had been caught in the crossfire. There was no way she would stand by and let others be risked when this was her situation to deal with.
Hers and her brother’s. Back to their roots.
“It’s so unbelievable.” She ran her fingertips over the strings, absorbing their feel. “That we’re here in this place.”
She was saying so much more to Nicky than it appeared on the surface. She knew he understood her meaning.
Hard to believe Snake was still a factor. Hard to understand how he could hate them that much.
“Always gonna be you and me.” His voice and his gaze hardened in tandem. “No matter what.”