“Beeks,” he said into the phone. “Yeah… Okay. Give me a minute.” He hung up and stood. “There’s a problem at the door.” He took his suit jacket off the back of the chair to put it on. After that, he reached down to press a button on the keyboard, switching the screen to black again. “Can I trust you alone in here for a few minutes?”
“Sure,” she said, bouncing aside when he began to walk away.
“I’ll just be a few minutes,” he said, fixing his collar. At the door, he stopped to look back at her. “Please, Whisper.”
She smiled and dropped into the seat. “Take your time.”
With little other choice, Beeks opened the door and went out into the noise and humidity of the thumping club. Once the door was closed, she smiled and planted her hands on the desk. She might not have bothered with the computer if he hadn’t been so quick to lock it in front of her. If there was something he didn’t want her to find, she planned to make the most of her few minutes alone.
The camera feeds were tempting. Rather than amuse herself watching whatever trouble Score’s horny drunks were getting themselves caught up in, Whisper minimized the program and began to look through the rest of the system.
Accounts weren’t that interesting. Employee files weren’t either. Checking out the browser history was enlightening. Someone had been doing a lot of research on the Doherty family. Not only that night, but on previous nights, like around when she and Zay got married.
Not shocking or incriminating. Whisper already knew that Score was the type of guy who liked to be prepared. Just like she’d said to Shyla, his street name came from his reputation. Score should want justice. His own brand of it. But unless his status was just complete bullshit, she couldn’t imagine he’d just walk away from what Parker had done to him.
The guy still had buttons, still had a temper, she’d provoked him enough to see that. Yet…
The word processor yielded more in the way of results. A file near the top of the recent documents simply called “Chrono” drew her attention. Opening it up, she began to read. Drawn closer to the screen, she frowned. Everything in the list related to the McDade family. To what had gone on recently. Whisper hadn’t been around for everything. Some of the details came from before she and Zay were married. Reading the dates and the notes in the table, she recognized the weekend the McDade-Doherty alliance intercepted the Byrne shipment. The weekend she’d cleaned up men from both sides.
Score hadn’t been a part of that. As far as she knew. Whisper hadn’t heard his name often in the McDade house, yet there was information about deals and conversations that took place there. Not only did it include events Score hadn’t been a part of, it also included notes of contact he had with Burl. Phone calls. Emails. What was discussed. What was advised. On top of that was detailed information about tasks carried out for Burl including figure amounts of cash cleaned through Score.
Whisper didn’t like it. She didn’t like scrolling through pages and pages of information laid out for anyone to see. Anyone to find. Score should know better than to commit any of it to paper. Especially on a computer. Paper could be burned and destroyed, files on a computer were never really gone. They could also be accessed by anyone on the outside. Anyone who wanted to amuse themselves by hacking into his system would have years’ worth of blackmail material. Sure, going against the McDades meant taking one’s life in their own hands, but delving into a McDade system in the first place suggested desperation.
More than a few minutes passed; Beeks still didn’t return. In the back of her mind, Whisper was aware that could mean he was doing more than just defusing an altercation. At the same time, she wanted to maximize her opportunity to read the details of her spouse’s family presented in the document.
Printing and stashing it would be the best route. Trouble was, she couldn’t see a printer around and the document was almost a hundred pages long. That would take some time to print… maybe more time than she had.
The phone would be a great help. Except she’d left her own cellphone at Score’s apartment and didn’t know either Zay or Bosco’s numbers off the top of her head. They could be saved on the phone itself, though she doubted it. Before finding the document on the computer, Whisper would’ve thought Score would be too smart to leave evidence of his connections lying around. Apparently, she’d have been wrong.
Skimming the text, it became obvious that she’d never be able to read it all. Quickly opening the internet, Whisper logged into her own email and sent the document to herself. Zay probably had email, but she didn’t have his address. Sending the information without explanation would confuse the hell out of him and he could get the wrong idea.
Thinking of her husband made her search the file for his name. It didn’t appear, not in any of its forms, full or shortened, not his street name either. Parker’s name was there, in all of its configurations. Like Zay, Doran’s name was absent.
She didn’t get it.
Zay had been involved with the operations. For sure at least one of them because she’d been with him that weekend. That was the same weekend Doran had been hurt, so he’d been involved too. Why would Score be cataloguing the events yet omitting his brothers’ names. Two of them anyway. Why would he include his father and Parker, but skip over Zay and Doran’s contribution?
It wasn’t a boastful document. The facts were presented in a detached manner. Business, not personal. Few observations were noted. The details were fascinating, but laid out in a fashion that suggested they were being relayed to a stranger. There wasn’t any familiarity or anything that gave any hint as to the author’s opinion.
With the way it was written, she could only guess that Score was the author. Maybe Beeks, definitely not Fish. Shyla? Could be, but how often was she at the club? Whisper didn’t imagine it was often. The place didn’t have any female flare. If it was another employee, it had to be created at Score’s instruction. Notes like the ones she read were so incriminating, it would—
The office door opened. Torn from her reading, Whisper turned to see Beeks in the doorway. Standing still, his brow drawn down, he was absorbing her position and what was on the screen. The noise and scent of the club behind him carried to her. She didn’t flinch. Apologies weren’t on her mind, not from her side. If he wanted to, Beeks could sure apologize to her.
After recovering from his surprise, Beeks came inside and closed the door. “What are you doing?”
“What does it look like?” she asked, slouching against the back of the chair to give him an even clearer view of what was on the screen. “I’d really love to hear your explanation for this.”
Beeks rushed to the desk and went around her to lean over and close the file. Didn’t matter, she wouldn’t get to read any more of it now that she’d been discovered. The whole thing was winging its way to her email anyway.
“How did you get into the system?”
“I don’t think that’s really the issue,” she said, rising from the seat to put space between them. “The issue is what it’s for. Obviously you knew it existed. You didn’t even read it, but you knew from the other side of the room what it was.”
“None of your business,” he said, taking her place in the seat. “You shouldn’t be spying on us. When Score—”
“What?” she asked, stopping on the opposite side of the desk. “When you tell on me, he’ll be mad? He’s mad anyway. I didn’t have to do a damn thing, he hated me on sight.” Because he hated her name. “And what the hell do you think my husband will do when I tell him his brother is keeping tabs on every little thing the family does. What the hell is Score’s plan? Blackmail? I’m guessing it’s something to do with his scheme to ruin Parker ‘cause he was never just gonna let the death row thing go…”
Something about ranting aloud realigned her thoughts. One terrifying prospect chilled her through to her bones. Her words were gone. Whisper wasn’t sure she’d be able to pick them up again even though her mouth was slowly opening.
; “You shouldn’t be here,” Beeks said. “You shouldn’t be here and you shouldn’t be looking at other people’s computers.”
“Oh my God,” she whispered, finally able to speak again. “He’s gonna testify.”
The sentence had come out all on its own. Her mind hadn’t even caught up with her voice. Beeks’ attention snapped from the screen to land on her. For a lawyer, he had a lousy poker face. She’d caught him off guard, both with her actions and with her deduction.
A sudden urge to flee struck her. Getting out of the club would be the first obstacle. She had to get to Bosco then get out of the apartment, out of the state. Zay, she had to tell him and…
“Whisper…” Beeks said.
She’d begun to retreat toward the door, walking backward, maintaining her focus on him. “Stay where you are,” Whisper warned.
“Please you have to stay here, you have to listen.”
“No, I don’t,” she said. “Zay sent us here because he trusted his brother to look after what he cares most about. How the hell does…” She couldn’t wrap her head around it. “How could he do this?”
“To his family?” Beeks asked. “Look what his family did to him.”
“Parker,” she said, pausing a few feet in front of the door. “What Parker did to him and what Burl let his son do. Zay wasn’t involved. Doran wasn’t involved. He plans to take down every McDade for what they did.”
Anger heated every single atom vibrating through her. Whisper couldn’t believe it. All her life, all their lives, they followed a set of rules. The first one was to never turn against the family. Doing anything which could undermine or weaken the family was a cardinal sin.
The instinctiveness of her reaction came from her father. From her brothers. From her family. She shouldn’t care that the McDades would be ruined. Burl and Parker deserved everything they got, but Zay, her husband, the man who’d loved her from afar for so many years…
“You should hear him out,” Beeks said, ascending onto his feet one slow inch at a time. “Don’t jump to conclusions, you have to—”
“Talk to my husband,” she said. “If I can. What’s the plan? When are the feds swooping in for their arrest?”
“It’s not as simple as that.”
“What an idiot,” she snapped, still fuming so much that thinking straight or even listening was difficult. “What kind of an idiot leaves a file like that lying around for anyone to see?”
“No one left anything lying around,” Beeks said. “You were snooping where you shouldn’t have been.”
“Please,” she said, holding up a hand as she exhaled her disgust. “Do not make this about me. All the damn McDades and their buddies are determined to blame everyone else. If that wasn’t there to find, I wouldn’t be this mad and you wouldn’t even know that I’d touched your precious computer. This is about Score, about what he’s doing wrong—”
“And what would that be?”
The bass of Score’s voice so close to her back brought her whirling around. Somehow he’d snuck up behind her. Zay was good at the sneaking thing too, but he didn’t usually have to contend with concealing the sound of a nightclub. She hadn’t been listening, she wasn’t paying attention. The shock of the truth sent her senses careening off in a dozen directions of their own.
“I’m out of here,” she said, snatching for her confidence.
Before she got so much as one step around Score, he had hold of her arm. McDades weren’t gentle, but he had some nerve dragging her across the room to throw her down on the couch. The asshole was turning on his own kin, yet he had the audacity to treat her as the aggressor.
“I should’ve put a bullet in you the minute I set eyes on you.”
Shoving up from the couch, she swept her hair aside and didn’t blink as she sought his gaze. “Maybe you’d have done both of us a favor. Shame your fed buddies wouldn’t like that.”
Without giving up his position of blocking her in, he looked to his friend at the desk.
“I don’t know how she did it,” Beeks said. “She found the chronology.”
“Yeah, and from there it was a quick hop to figuring out what it was for. Parker was the one who screwed you over. Biz acted on his own. Zay told me he didn’t know anything about it at the time and I believe him.”
“So do I,” Score said, his voice no less threatening despite its calmer hue.
Whisper hadn’t expected him to agree with her. “Then why the hell would you take him down? Him and Doran trust you. If Zay didn’t trust you, he wouldn’t have sent me here… Maybe you don’t believe he cares about me, but would he have sent Bosco? They’ve been close for years.”
“Since Bos pulled Zay out of one of his own fires.”
She didn’t know about that. Score still wasn’t looking at her, he considered his lawyer friend who remained tense and wide-eyed. Maybe he didn’t want to witness the murder Score was considering.
“You can’t keep me here forever,” she said, deciding that escape was more important than answers. “Kill me or let me go.”
If he chose the first, he’d have a lot of explaining to do. Bosco would wake in the apartment and ask for her. Zay would eventually call and want to speak to his wife… even if it was from a jail cell.
“I pick door number three,” Score said, bringing his focus back around to her. “I’m gonna make you listen.”
Usually people abducted or imprisoned others to make them talk, not to make them listen. If her brother-in-law thought he’d convert her or force her to turn on her husband, they’d be there for a while. Bosco would wake in a few hours. Score couldn’t keep her there against her will indefinitely. Either he had to present her to Bosco or explain her disappearance.
Score could try to convince him that she’d run off on her own. Zay wouldn’t accept that so easily. Even if he believed it, that didn’t mean he’d let her off the hook. Her husband would find her, one way or another, dead or alive. If it was the former and he found her before Score executed his plan, he’d need divine intervention to save him from her husband’s wrath.
“You can talk at me from this millennium to the next,” Whisper said. “Nothing will change.”
“You think,” Score said, walking away from her and across to the desk.
Despite Beeks being older, he leaped out of the executive chair to make way for Score to sit down.
“What do you think you can say to change my feelings on this?” she asked. “We don’t squeal. No Doherty would even consider testifying against their own blood.”
Whisper didn’t blame him for being angry with his brother. She didn’t know how many exactly, but Score had lost years of his life to prison. Years he wouldn’t ever get back.
A bunch of people on the street, and probably more than a few ignorant civilians, still connected the name Score McDade to death row… with murdering a woman who’d shared his bed. That would be a tough pill to swallow for anyone, especially when it was fed by his sibling.
Zay was quick to reject any notion he was like his father. Hence why he’d refused to kill her on request. It was possible Score felt the same way. Whatever his reason, Score had a right to take revenge against Parker, maybe Burl too. Still, nothing would change her mind about his betraying her husband.
“Few months ago, you’d have said Dohertys and McDades kill each other on sight.”
“A sentiment you subscribed to until today.”
“Sometimes things change,” he said, infuriating her further with his composure. “My brother trusted me. All I ask is that he do the same.”
Whisper didn’t know what was truth and what was baloney. Score was a blank page, fathomless in his intensity. Zay might be able to read him, she hadn’t been close to him for long enough to trust her gut. She’d never have guessed his intention, never believed it, unless she’d seen the evidence herself.
“Zay might do it,” she said, unable to imagine a situation where he’d hang around long enough to hear anything after the phrase �
��cahoots with the authorities.” “He might trust you. But I don’t.”
“You don’t need to trust me. You have to sit down and think about what’s best for you.”
She almost couldn’t believe her ears. “For me?” Glancing Beeks’ way, Whisper didn’t miss the opportunity to be snide. “So much for devotion. This guy can’t know anything about loyalty to a partner if he’s asking me to turn on mine.” Her attention snapped back to Score. “Maybe Parker was right to get you out of the way. What will your precious Shyla think when she finds out your loyalty doesn’t run deep?”
“Shyla knows about all of this,” he said, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair. “I don’t lie to Shyla.”
Didn’t mean he included her in all of his decisions either. Being told or commanded wasn’t the same as being involved or respected.
“I don’t believe it. Shyla loved her grandfather, she told me. She would never have turned on him. But that’s exactly what you’re doing. You’re betraying your family.”
His expression grew harder, his brow strengthened over his dark eyes. “Listen to yourself. Listen to what you’re defending. You’re sitting there, talking about my betrayal, when you’ve done the same thing to your own family.” Her mouth opened, though she said nothing. “Your father didn’t want you, he threw you to his enemy. All he wanted was what he could get. I’d bet this club that he didn’t have a damn clue that Zay felt anything for you.”
The tone of his words implied he wasn’t all that sure his brother really did feel for her. The world was so upside down that she was in no hurry to argue that truth.
“My father chose to hand me over to Zay,” she said. “Just like he’ll choose to kill me if I go back and tell him the alliance is over. My father betrayed me.”
“My father betrayed me,” he said. “My brother did too.”
“So that gives you the right to destroy people who had nothing to do with Parker setting you up?”
Only Yours (A McDade Brothers Novel Book 2) Page 26