by Sky Winters
“Is there more there?”
“Books? No. I don’t think so. Cash? Yes, but we don’t know how much.”
“You know I’m going to have to bring some guys in and gut the place, right?”
“Yes, I’m counting on it. In fact, the more visible you make yourselves, the better. Announce it to the press when you’re done.”
“You know this could blow back on you.”
“I’m not worried about that. I’m cooperating, and I’ve got great lawyers. Plus, I have you on my side.”
“Yeah, but you’ve already said you don’t want it known that you brought me this stuff. How am I supposed to say I came about it?”
“An anonymous source always works pretty well, doesn’t it? Besides, those books go back for years before I owned Turner and Hood Construction and stop before I bought it. No reason for anyone to think I was involved. I’m just an unknowing third party caught completely by surprise.”
“Alright, brother. I’ll do what I can with it. I’ll give you a heads up when the raid is going down so you can make sure your construction crew isn’t caught in the middle of it unnecessarily. Nothing to do with them, I’m assuming. None of them worked there for the previous owners?”
“Not that I know of. If they did, they lied about it.”
“We’ll double-check. Alright. I’ll be in touch,” he said, standing to shake hands.
Crosby left through the back exit, the briefcase in his care. Dane could only hope for the best now. It was the only way he knew to end this. If he sold it, they would buy it and continue business as usual. It getting raided by the FBI would put an end to that. They wouldn’t dare go back in knowing they might be watched, so they’d give up interest in getting it back.
He just hoped they’d end it with that and not seek further revenge for him fucking them over. If they didn’t let it go, he could still have a problem on his hands. For now, he just had to keep Adriana safe until the FBI had a chance to look over the books he had given them and do their thing.
When he arrived back at his apartment, Adriana was up and about. She had showered and was running around in a cute little summer dress and sandals he’d never seen before. He was instantly disapproving, clucking his tongue against the roof of his mouth as he entered.
“Didn’t I tell you to stay in?”
“I did.”
“I don’t recall having that dress in my wardrobe.”
“Oh. Yeah. I didn’t have any clothes. I didn’t want to be sitting around in your boxer shorts and a t-shirt when the doctor came by. I called up a friend who owns a boutique and had these delivered to the front desk. Berta brought them up to me.”
“Shit. I’m sorry. I should have offered to go by your place and get you some clothes. I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s okay. You had other things on your mind.”
“So, the doctor’s been by and checked you out then?” he asked.
“He did. He says it sounds like ketamine that they gave me, but he took some blood to run tests and confirm.”
“And the fatigue is normal, I take it?”
“Yes, just a residual from having been so heavily sedated and then compacting that effect into a much smaller form, though even as a mouse, my healing properties outweigh those present when I’m in my human form.”
“Good. Did you eat?”
“No, not yet.”
“Hungry?”
“Starving.”
“How about a big, juicy steak and a baked potato with everything on it?”
“A man after my own heart, but I thought we needed to stay in.”
“We are, sort of.”
She raised a single eyebrow at him.
“Come on; I’ll show you,” he said, leading her around the corner to the roof exit. It was somewhat hidden by a door that looked as if it went into the bathroom but led to the stairs behind it instead. He lifted the panel to punch in a code that unlocked it, and they walked up to the rooftop garden.
“Wow. I had no idea this was here.”
“It’s not easily visible, not even from the sky,” he said, pointing upward toward the large canopy that reflected back at anything above it or just slightly below. It had not been his design, but that of the previous owner. It did provide some privacy for when he was on the roof, though.
He looked back at Adrian, who had a strange look on her face.
“What is it?”
“I just realized how you got to dinner so quickly the first night we met and why you had to leave so early. You flew into here from your parents’ house and changed for our date but had to get back out while visibility was low.”
“Are you ever not a journalist?”
“Nope,” she laughed.
“Come on, let’s get this grill started and then I’ll go back down and work on food to go on it.”
She sat in a nearby chair and watched as he pulled a bag of charcoal from a cabinet to one side of the rooftop where he kept things that needed to stay dry and watched him load up the grill with it before spraying on some lighter fluid and tossing a match on it.
“Alright, we’ll let that get going while we get the steak and potatoes ready downstairs.
“Can we sit up here in the fresh air while it cooks?”
“Sure. You want some wine?”
“No. I think I’ll pass on that. I still feel a little nauseous.”
“But not so nauseous that you can’t eat a big steak?”
“Oddly enough, no. I could gnaw on a whole cow right now.”
“That’s my girl,” he told her, kissing her softly and then taking her hand to lead her downstairs.
She sat on a stool nearby while he tenderized the steaks and wrapped the potatoes in foil, handing her a bottle of wine and a bottle of sparkling water while he carried a tray with the food and a couple of glasses back up the steps to the roof.
Once he had the potatoes going, the two of them sat looking out at the night sky while the potatoes cooked. Dane extended his hand toward hers, and she took it. He was content to just sit here with her, not doing anything. No talking. Just being. It was about as comfortable as he could ever imagine being with another person. After a bit, he got up and added the steaks.
“That smells so delicious,” she said once they began to sizzle on the grill.
“It sure does. I don’t know about you, but I’m suddenly starving.”
“Me too,” she laughed.
They returned to their quiet mutual existence as the food cooked, all their worries cast aside—at least temporarily.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Adriana
“Do you think it will work?” Adriana asked.
Dane had told her about his plan while they ate, and it seemed like a good idea, but she wasn’t so sure it would be as painless as he seemed to think. The Black Talons were notorious for their viciousness. They would want revenge for him screwing over their operations.
“I hope so. I guess we will see,” he replied. “I’m more concerned about the backlash I’m going to get on the business front once the construction company is tied in with money laundering.”
“But it all pre-dates you. There’s no reason for the FBI to come after you, especially since you were the one who brought it to them.”
“I’m not worried about the FBI. Even if someone above my contact’s paygrade wanted to try to make more of it than what it is, I’ve got damned good lawyers to take care of that.”
“Then, what is your concern?”
“I’m more worried about public opinion. It’s not like the FBI is going to do much to make sure I’m shielded from this in case they find out that I was more involved than I led on somewhere down the road. So, there will be speculation among the press, investors, banks, etcetera. It could really hurt me financially.”
“Well, that’s where I come in,” she told him.
“You?”
“Don’t forget that I’m the journalist who took down the great Alexander Parquo.
I can clear a reputation just as well as I can expose corruption. Once all is said and done, I’ll get it out there that you had nothing to do with it.”
“I appreciate that, but I don’t know that it will be enough.”
“Just trust me. There are some things that I’m really good at.”
“Oh, I’m well aware of that,” he said with a wry smile.
“Well, that too, but I mean my job. You’ve yet to see me truly in action.”
Dane smiled at her and held up his glass in a mock toast. “You sure you don’t want a glass?”
“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said.
Dane finished his wine before helping her clear away the plates and following her down the stairwell back into his apartment. Adriana still didn’t feel up to par, which was unusual for her. She usually bounced back from any illness pretty quickly.
She found it even odder that she was able to eat such a heavy meal so eagerly, but still feel so bad. None of it made sense, but she’d never been dosed up on ketamine before, so maybe this was just the way it went when it was wearing off. Though she’d not said much about it to him, she’d never been more terrified in her life.
There were large swathes of time during which she was out cold, but each time she woke up, someone was there to dose her again. The only reason she’d come around was that she’d become so groggy that she forgot to react when she came to again. They thought she was still sedated when it was beginning to wear off. They would have probably realized it had been a while since they’d injected her if not for the commotion that had dragged them away and given her enough time to finally regain enough consciousness to shift.
The whole ordeal had made her even more grateful to be with Dane. Though she found his place to be mostly cold and without personality, she loved being with him. She felt safe with him in this glass tower of his. She realized that a twenty-story building was nothing for dragons to overcome if they really wanted to get to her, but the city was far too public, and Dane wasn’t exactly a dragon they wanted to mess with.
Of course, that wasn’t the only reason. The more she thought about it, the more it became clear that she had feelings for him beyond what she’d even considered. She watched him as he sat looking over some work he’d pulled out for review. She admired the dragon that spread across his chest and back. It was an impressive piece of work, just like the man it adorned.
Nearly a week passed after that, and it was beginning to take its toll. As much as she enjoyed her time with him, she wanted to get back to her own life as well. She had begun to feel like she was being held in a very luxurious tower against her will. Though she knew he didn’t intend it that way and it wasn’t safe for her to leave just yet, she still felt caged.
At least he got to go out, though he limited his time, not so much for protection but in solidarity with her. She was lost looking out the window at the city below when the elevator doors opened behind her and he came bolting toward his computer.
“They’re doing it. Right now. They are raiding the construction company.”
“What?”
“They called and told me to send my guys away so they didn’t get in the middle of things, but I had already switched them off to a project out of town for the next few weeks so they were nowhere near this when it went down.”
“So, what are we watching?”
“They took a news crew with them. They want it all very public when they go in. My guy is a shifter, but most of his agents are human. He doesn’t want the Black Talons coming in on them. Cameras will protect them from that.”
“Does the FBI know he can shift? Or do they know about shifters at all?”
“I know they don’t know he’s a shifter, but I don’t know if they know shifters exist. Surely someone somewhere does.”
Dane opened up the computer and pulled up a local channel’s news feed. They were covering a story about the homeless in their community. Adriana found it quite coincidental since one of the events he had invited her to was to raise money for a tiny house village. It was going to be a stark contrast to what was about to unfold.
They watched as a red line flashed at the bottom of the screen, indicating “late-breaking news” was about to happen.
“We’ve just received word from Saul Fleming on our law enforcement beat that the FBI is now raiding a small construction company owned by billionaire Dane Jensen. We’ll turn it over to you, Saul,” she said as the camera switched to the split-screen showing a reporter standing outside the main building of Turner and Hood.
“Wow, they didn’t waste any time laying that on me, did they? Didn’t even give the name of the construction company, just mine.”
“Sensationalism sells,” Adrian told him, feeling apologetic for her kind at the moment.
They watched the drama unfold, the reporter talking about the disappearance of the construction company’s previous owners and their suspected involvement in a money-laundering scheme. He went on to talk about how, even though Dane currently owned the company, he was not implicated in the crimes.
“That’s good. At least they are trying to keep your name clean right up front,” she said.
“It’s still my company,” he told her.
“Trust me. It makes a difference. It shows they have no intention of trying to smear you in the process of their reporting.”
“I sure hope not.”
“An anonymous tip led the FBI to open up an investigation that led them to Turner and Hood Construction, where they hope to find additional evidence to help them with their case,” the reporter continued. “Though it is unusual for the press to be allowed in as a part of a raid like this, we were told that the feds are hoping the transparency will shed further light on the bigger operation, which they’ve traced back to recently deceased businessman Alexander Parquo. If you recall, Parquo’s body was found apparently mauled by animals after having been exposed by Transformation Magazine journalist, Adriana Guerrero.”
“Hey, I made the news!” she joked.
“We both did. Look at us, a power couple,” he laughed.
“Or something like that,” she replied.
“Listen, I don’t know where this is going to take us, but I want you to know that I’m glad you are by my side through all of it. I love you, Adriana.”
She was a little taken aback, merely looking back at him, speechless. It had been completely unexpected. He looked shell shocked as if he hadn’t intended to say it and was now regretting having blurted it out. As for her, she wasn’t immediately certain how she should respond.
“I’m sorry. I know it’s too soon to be saying something like that. I can’t help how I feel, though. I was looking for an Omega to go to some parties with, someone who would just laugh at my jokes and make it look like I was the kind of family-oriented man my investors expect me to be, and instead, I found you. You’re the most stubborn, outspoken, infuriating woman I’ve ever come across.”
“You know exactly how to charm a woman,” she replied.
He smiled at her, putting his hands on either shoulder and looking down at her softly, temporarily ignoring the action that continued to unfold on the computer screen beside them.
“You are also beautiful, smart, and witty. You are nothing I was looking for and everything I wanted. Why wouldn’t I love you?”
“I don’t know, but I love you too.”
His smile spread. He leaned forward and kissed her, lingering there until four words drove them apart with such force that it felt more physical than reactive.
“What?” they both said in unison.
“Did he just say they are reporting bodies?”
“That’s what he said,” Dane replied, both of them turning back toward the screen, watching hand in hand as the raid continued to unfold.
“I repeat, we’re getting word now that bodies have been discovered by one of the teams working the raid, which I suppose we should now refer to as a crime scene. If you remember, shortly after this construction comp
any went bankrupt, the owners both disappeared. The police believed, at that time, that they might have been involved in some illegal activities, though charges were never brought against them. Now, it appears as if they might have met a much darker end, but we won’t know for sure until after forensic teams have had a chance to examine what we are being told are unidentifiable remains.”
The reporter went on to describe the long history of Turner and Hood in the community prior to their financial troubles and disappearance, but Adriana and Dane began talking between themselves and missed most of it.
“Do you think the Black Talons killed them?”
“I don’t know. It could have been them, or it could have been someone higher up if they screwed up the laundering operation. We know they were carrying two sets of books, one for IRS purposes and another to keep up with the money they were laundering, but what if they had a third set? What if they were somehow skimming from the people they were supposed to be cleaning money for?”
“So, you think those people caught on to them and offed them?”
“I don’t know. I’m just considering the possibilities. Why would they bury them on their own property, though?”
“Why not? Little chance of being seen, and they’ve remained hidden there for quite some time now.”
“You know, you’re right. They have. The FBI went in there to tear out some walls after I told them about the money hidden in it, but what do you think made them look under that pile of gravel? There was no reason for them to check it. Don’t you find it strange that within a matter of minutes after their arrival there, they would manage to unearth two bodies buried under a pile of rocks?”
“Maybe they had another tip.”
“They must have,” he replied.
They turned back to the news but learned nothing beyond what they already knew for the rest of the evening.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Dane
“So, we recovered nearly five million dollars from the walls of the chemical room and two bodies from a shallow grave beneath the white gravel pile at the back corner of the property,” Crosby told him.