Fast Track (24 page)

Both Sophie and Regan laughed. “We didn’t know,” Regan said. “Not then. Not until you told us.”

“I heard the housekeeper tell Aiden he had a phone call from his family’s law firm. I was such a worrier, like you two were, and I thought Aiden might be in trouble, so I listened to the conversation. That’s how I found out.”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Sophie asked.

“I don’t know. I guess I figured that if you wanted me to know, you’d tell me.”

“The driver will be here in a minute. Why don’t we help you get ready for bed before we go,” Regan suggested.

Cordie appreciated the help, and while they were in her bedroom, they continued to chat.

“What’s the deal with Liam?” Sophie asked as she turned down the comforter.

“He and Alec have been friends a long time,” Regan said. She opened a drawer and brought out a pair of pajamas. “I think Alec arrested him once. That might be how they met. I still haven’t gotten the whole story.”

“Cordie, don’t you think he’s gorgeous?” Sophie asked. “Did you notice how he smiled at you and how his voice softened when he was talking to you?”

“No, I didn’t notice, and yes, he is good-looking.”

“I love his accent,” Sophie said.

“He lives in Australia. Would you like me to move there so I can go out with him?”

“Of course not. Make him move here. You’re worth it.”

There was a knock on the door.

“There’s our driver,” Regan said. “Let’s go, Sophie.”

The friends gave Cordie a hug and left.

Cordie was exhausted. She settled into the soft bed and turned on the television. She scanned a few channels and found
Fishing with Larry
on one of the cable stations. Cordie thought the show would put her to sleep, but she actually became interested. An hour later, she decided Larry was turning her into a fisherman.

She heard the outer door open and the men laughing as they came in. Curious to find out what was going on, she got out of bed. It took her a few minutes to put on her robe and sling, but by the time she padded barefoot into the living room, they were opening beers and toasting one another. Aiden dropped a stack of papers on the table in front of them.

“What’s so funny?” she asked.

All three looked at her and smiled.

“Do you want to tell her?” Jack asked Alec.

Alec pulled out a chair for her to sit. “As it turns out, there’s more than just a scandal driving Simone to get rid of you.”

They started laughing again. “Aiden, you explain,” Alec suggested.

He pushed the papers toward her. “When we’re done with the Taylors and the Rayburns, you’re going to own their company.”

Y
ou’re the firstborn,” Aiden explained.

“What does that mean?” Cordie asked.

“When you turned twenty-one, you inherited twenty percent of the Merrick company stock. It was in Merrick’s will.” He shook his head and continued. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I can’t imagine why Merrick set up his inheritance this way. I guess we’ll never know.”

“Twenty percent doesn’t sound like much,” Jack said, “but in fact it’s huge. It’s worth millions. Simone inherited her shares of Merrick Enterprises from her mother, Alice. Simone wanted the perks, but she didn’t want the responsibility, so she handed over the management to her father. According to the will, you now own twenty percent of her share, which is just enough for her to lose majority control.”

“And that’s why Simone or someone else in the Rayburn family wants you out of the way,” Alec reasoned.

“Someone else in the family? No,” Cordie said. “Simone wouldn’t have told anyone about me. She used a fake name when she married my father. She was Natalie Smith back then.”

“She was pregnant with you when she married your father, wasn’t she?” Jack asked.

“Yes.”

“You’re lucky she didn’t try to abort you,” Alec said.

Cordie sat on the edge of the chair, her back ramrod straight, with her right hand fisted in her lap. Thinking about Simone made her sick to her stomach.

“She told me she wanted to get an abortion, but she was too far along. She was past five months.”

No one said anything for a long minute; then Alec commented, “It’s a good thing she didn’t stay around while you were growing up. I can’t imagine what your life would have been like.”

“I don’t understand why your father couldn’t see what she was,” Jack said.

“He wore blinders, I guess,” Cordie replied. “He loved her almost to the day he died.”

“Sounds more like an obsession,” Jack remarked.

“Simone’s sons seem to adore her,” Cordie said. “And she doted on them when they were at the ball.” She smiled when she added, “Until I ruined her night.”

Aiden laughed. “You did do that.”

“The sons are still in their teens, but they’re already being groomed by the patriarch, Julian Taylor,” Alec said. “Obviously he thinks the older one is the firstborn.”

Jack tapped on the printed pages lying on the table. “The way I’m reading this convoluted document—which, by the way, reads like it was written in the Middle Ages—when you turned twenty-one, you not only rightfully owned part of the company, you completely changed the power structure.”

“But am I a legitimate heir, since she was using a false identity when she married my father?” Cordie wondered.

“There’s no stipulation for it in Merrick’s will,” Aiden told her. “Firstborn simply means the first child born to Simone.”

“Her sons don’t inherit it?” she asked.

“Nope,” Jack answered. “I’m sure they’ll get property and a lot of cash, maybe other assets, but no Merrick stock.”

“You can’t sell it or give it away,” Alec told her. “You’re stuck with it.”

“What if I don’t claim it?”

Aiden answered her question. “There have already been two attempts on your life. Do you think they’ll stop? You could run and hide, or you could walk into Julian Taylor’s office, drop the DNA results on his desk, and tell him you’re going to destroy him and his entire family. I’ll be real happy to help you do that.”

“And Simone gets away with hiring someone to kill me?”

Alec shook his head. “Let us worry about her.”

Jack stood and stretched. “Liam did have a suggestion to speed things up,” he said. “He’s waiting for the right time. We’ll talk about it then.”

She wanted to talk about it now, but Alec and Jack were ready to go home. Aiden walked them to the door, made sure the dead bolt was in place, and then followed her into her bedroom. She was removing her sling so she could take off her robe when he turned her toward him and said, “Let me help you get ready for bed.”

“I am ready for bed,” she told him.

“No, you’re not.”

He removed her robe and began to unbutton her pajama top. In seconds it was on the floor with her pajama bottoms. She was stark naked, and he was fully clothed. She wasn’t at all self-conscious, though, because the way Aiden was looking at her made her feel beautiful. His hands caressed her heavy breasts until the nipples were hard. He kissed her, slowly, leisurely, acting as though he had all the time in the world. He felt her tremble and whispered, “Now you’re ready. Get into bed, Cordelia.”

She lay down and tried to pull the sheet up around her, but he wouldn’t let her. She watched as he removed his clothes and then covered her with his body. His skin was so hot.

Aiden groaned with the contact of his body pressing into hers. “I’ve thought about this all day. You make me crazed.” His arms slid under her knees, and he lifted her. “I’m going to make you as hungry for me as I am for you.”

He kissed every inch of her stomach before moving lower. His day’s growth of whiskers rubbed her sensitive inner thighs. He made good on his promise and proceeded to drive her out of her mind. She begged for him to let her climax, and only when she threatened to hit him over the head with her cast did he give her what she wanted.

Aiden was just as greedy. Cordie lost count of the number of times during the night that he reached for her.

“You’re going to miss me when I’m gone,” she whispered.

A long while passed before he answered her. “Yes.”

 • • • 

Aiden didn’t go out of town the next day. She assumed there was a business reason for the cancellation. She didn’t see him or anyone else except the hotel staff for the next four days and nights. She knew Aiden was still around because she heard him leave in the morning, and late at night, she heard him come in. He slept in his own bed. Maybe he had decided to distance himself from her. She should mentally do the same in preparation for Boston, shouldn’t she?

Sophie and Regan were both swamped at work, and she didn’t want to bother them. It wasn’t their job to entertain her. She did talk to Alec a couple of times. Still no news from Australia. He’d told her Liam had a suggestion for speeding things up, but he still hadn’t told her what it was. She decided if she didn’t hear something today, she would call Liam and ask him.

She was beginning to feel like a caged animal. The walls of the suite were closing in on her, and she was fantasizing about all the ways she could sneak outside for a few minutes.

There were a few diversions. The swelling had gone down in her fingers, and she was now able to type with both hands. She received an e-mail from one of the doctors at the Garvan Institute, telling her he had read her dissertation and was quite impressed. He asked her several questions about her research, and a spirited debate resulted, which was fun and challenging. In the end she’d more than proven her thesis, and when he conceded, he offered her a job.

Jayden Martin was another diversion. He called her in a panic. After several weeks in a summer school class, he was certain he was going to fail chemistry again. How did he know? she asked. His reply was direct: The teacher told him so. Cordie, knowing that Jayden was a very smart young man but lazy, was about to ask him if he had even bothered to open his chemistry book when his mother got on the phone to plead on her son’s behalf. Cordie couldn’t say no to her, and the first tutoring session was scheduled for the following afternoon at five. In preparation Cordie called the concierge and requested a few items she would need, including an
Introduction to Chemistry
textbook.

Jayden, like a lot of other teenage boys, never went anywhere alone. He and three other young men showed up at her door fifteen minutes early for the session. Each of them had a book in hand, and each of them needed help.

Aiden had been in meetings the entire day, and all he could think about was getting home to Cordelia. He had barely had a minute to himself the last few days, and he wanted to spend some time with her. Just knowing she was there made him breathe easier. He told himself it was concern for her safety that made him want to be close to her, but lately even he couldn’t buy that one.

He got back to the suite a little after six. He walked through the door and came to a quick stop. There were four teenage boys sitting at the dining table with papers and pens and books strewn in front of them. Cordelia was standing at a portable chalkboard. She introduced Jayden’s friends to him, and after saying hello, he went into his bedroom to change. He was smiling as he walked away. The boys were hanging on Cordelia’s every word, and it sure as certain wasn’t because they loved chemistry. They looked so enamored he wondered if anything she said was sinking in.

By the time he returned to the living room, the boys had left. The chalkboard had been tucked in a corner, and Cordelia was organizing all the supplies and neatly stacking them inside the credenza.

Alec arrived a minute later. “I just talked to Liam,” he reported. “Here’s what he suggested. Julian is taking Simone and Craig to dinner Friday night at the Shade House. Liam is going to be there with gun and badge, and when they get up to leave, he’s going to make sure Simone sees him take a clean cloth and very carefully pick up her water glass. He wants her to see him put it in a plastic bag. He said to tell you he’s going for dramatic CSI stuff. If Simone watches any television at all, she’ll know why he’s taking it.”

“It will send her into a tailspin,” Aiden predicted.

“Let’s see what she does,” Alec said.

“What about Jenkins? Is he talking yet?” Aiden asked. The picture of the bastard’s hands around Cordelia’s neck flashed through his mind, and his entire body tensed in reaction.

“He wants to make a deal.”

“What kind of deal?”

“All charges dropped, and he’ll tell us everything he knows.”

“And?” Aiden prodded. He knew Alec would never go for such a deal.

“We laughed.”

“I was thinking . . . ,” Cordie began.

“Yes?”

“I have to get out of here for a little while.”

Aiden shook his head at her. It wasn’t the thing to do at the moment. She turned to him and grabbed hold of his shirt. “I’m losing it,” she said. She let go of him and took a step back. “Stop smiling. I mean it. I’m really losing it.” She raised her hand in front of his face and put her finger and thumb close together until they were almost touching. “I’m this close to writing Larry a fan letter, for God’s sake. This close, Aiden.”

“Who the hell is Larry?” Alec asked.

She whirled around to face him. “Larry the fisherman.” Her tone suggested he should already know that.

Alec put his hands up in surrender. “Okay, we’ll figure something out.”

His promise calmed her. “Thank you,” she said with as much dignity as she could muster.

A
iden was standing in the doorway of his office reading a printout his assistant had handed him when he happened to look up and see Cordelia walking past. He did a double take, dropped the paper, and rushed after her. “Cordelia.”

She turned around just as Alec caught up with her. “Yes, Aiden?”

“In order to get here you had to take the private elevator to the first floor, cross through the lobby, and take another elevator to the third floor.”

“Yes, that’s exactly what I had to do.”

The muscle in his cheek flexed. “Who let you out?”

“Let me out?”

Alec could almost see smoke coming out of the top of Cordie’s head. “I let her out,” he said. “I promised her.”

“For the record, this isn’t out,” she argued. “I’m still inside the hotel. I would like to go outside.”

“That’s not going to happen,” Aiden snapped.

“This is a compromise,” Alec explained. “Until it’s safe. Come on, Cordie. Let’s go find Regan. She should be in her office.”

Aiden walked down the hall with them. “Let me know when Cordelia is coming back upstairs. I’ll go with her.” He grabbed her hand and pulled her toward him. Frowning intently, he stared into her eyes. He acted as though he wanted to say something to her, but he kept silent.

“I’ll come get you,” she promised.

He let go of her, nodded, and went back to his office. He walked past the paper he’d dropped on the floor, seemingly unaware that it was there.

“I’m making him crazy,” Cordie whispered. “I almost feel sorry for him. He likes a calm, peaceful, uncluttered environment when he’s at home, and since I’ve been here, it hasn’t been calm or peaceful. It’s been chaotic.”

“He’s going to miss you when you leave.”

She didn’t believe that nonsense for a second. Maybe he’d miss the sex . . . the mind-blowing, incredible sex. “When will I be leaving?”

“Soon,” Alec promised. He looked at his watch. “It’s ten in the morning in Sydney, and tonight Liam will be busy at the restaurant trying to shake things up with Simone. He’ll put on quite a show pretending to collect her DNA. I wish we could see it.”

“Will she know what he’s doing and why?”

“Oh, she’ll know. The only reason to get her DNA would be to match it to yours and prove you’re her daughter. Unless she’s a complete moron, she’ll know.”

“Liam told us he already had Simone’s DNA and the results. How did he really get it?”

Alec opened the door to Regan’s reception area. “I didn’t ask, and he didn’t tell. It’s better that way.”

“Liam’s CIA, isn’t he?”

Alec laughed. “No.”

She knew he wasn’t going to volunteer the information, but that didn’t stop her from prodding. She put the issue of Liam’s job aside for now and said, “Simone’s going to freak out.”

“That’s the hope.”

“Do you think we’ll see an immediate reaction?”

“Yes, I think we will.”

As it turned out, he was right. There was an immediate reaction.

 • • • 

Aiden shook Cordelia awake at seven in the morning to tell her Alec was coming over with some news, but before he could say anything, he became distracted. He hadn’t touched her in what seemed an eternity, and when she rolled over and moaned, still more asleep than awake, he couldn’t resist the temptation. She wore a little silk-and-lace nothing that barely covered her, and he desperately wanted to tear it off her. He turned into an animal with her. There was no control, no discipline. He pulled the sheet back, stripped out of his clothes, and made love to her. She more than matched him with her wild and uninhibited response.

After he caught his breath, he leaned up on his elbow. Looking down and tracing the contented smile on her lips with his finger, he said, “Alec should be here anytime now.”

She sat up, pushed the hair out of her eyes, and asked why.

“He said he has some good news for you.” There was a knock on the door. “That’s probably him now.”

She flew out of bed. “Put some clothes on,” she said in a furious whisper. She picked up his jeans and tossed them at him. “Do you have any idea . . . We shouldn’t have . . . I don’t want him to know that we . . . you know.” She took a quick breath. “Do you have any idea how frustrated I am?”

He pulled on his jeans but didn’t bother to close the zipper. Ignoring another knock at the door, he walked around the bed to where she stood. “Frustrated? How many times did you come? Two? Three times? If you’re still frustrated, then we need to get back in that bed and—”

She put her hand over his mouth and started to laugh. “Not
that
kind of frustration. Go open the door.”

Fortunately Alec wasn’t at the door. Room service was delivering breakfast.

Aiden called out to her, but she was already in the shower. She had become a pro at showering with the use of only one hand. By the time she was dressed, she was starving and ready to take on another day in paradise prison. Later, as she was drinking a glass of orange juice and sitting across from Aiden, who was buried in what looked like a stock report, it suddenly occurred to her how surreal it all was. They were behaving like an old married couple.

Alec arrived a few minutes later. He took the cup of coffee Cordie offered and sat down at the table. “I’ve got some good news,” he said. “Charles Kendrick is on his way to Chicago. Liam reported that he boarded a plane in Sydney using the name Charles Ford and is carrying a passport with that identification.”

“And that’s good news? I’m assuming he’s coming here to kill me. Right?” Cordie asked, trying to keep the panic out of her voice.

“Right,” Alec agreed.

“We won’t let him get near you, Cordelia,” Aiden assured her.

“I know that.” She took a deep breath. “So what’s the plan?”

“Jack and I are going to be at the gate to welcome him to Chicago with a gift . . . handcuffs,” Alec said. “We’re taking him in as soon as he steps off the plane.”

“Shouldn’t you catch him in the act? You can’t charge him with attempted murder if he doesn’t try.”

“For the love of God,” Aiden muttered, appalled by the idea.

“No, we have enough to get what we want,” Alec said. Once again he refused to expound, and no matter how much she nagged, he wouldn’t elaborate.

Aiden could see how discouraged she was. Living day to day with the unknown was unnerving. After Alec left, he tried to cheer her up. “It won’t be long now until you can go anywhere you want.”

“That will be nice,” she said, appreciating his optimism but almost afraid to hope.

“Tonight we’ll have a good dinner and watch a movie.”

“Sorry. I can’t.”

“What do you mean, you can’t?”

She picked up a bagel and tore it in half. “I’ve got plans. What did I do with my orange juice?”

“You drank it. What plans? You aren’t going out. Stop messing with me.”

“I’m playing cards with Walker.”

“You couldn’t have just
said
that?” he demanded.

Of course she could have, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun.

 • • • 

Charles Kendrick wasn’t happy to see two FBI agents waiting for him. As soon as he got over his shock, he became surly. Alec thought the man believed he could bluster and intimidate his way out of an arrest. They put him in an interrogation room and let him sweat while they went through his duffel bag. In one of the pockets, wrapped in socks, were three Testor phones. One of them already had a Sydney number programmed in. To Jack and Alec, the find was better than Christmas morning.

Liam had already gone through all the phone logs on every cell phone, home phone, and business phone owned by the Rayburn family, and there weren’t any calls to or from Chicago, which meant the number programmed into the phone they held most likely went to another burner in Sydney. The only way to find out whom it belonged to was to call.

Jack led the interrogation. He sat across from Kendrick at a metal table in a small, windowless room. Wanting Kendrick to feel closed in and trapped, Jack had handcuffed him to the table, and Alec leaned against the wall behind him, observing. Every once in a while he’d circle the room and stand behind Kendrick, all but breathing down his neck. Kendrick fidgeted in his seat. Sweat trickled down his forehead, steaming up his round Harry Potter glasses. The first words out of his mouth were expected. “I’ve done nothing wrong.”

Jack sat back in his chair and couldn’t have looked more easygoing. “You have a unique opportunity here, Charles. You can help yourself by giving us the name of your boss. All we want to know is who hired you to kill Cordelia Kane.”

“Are you crazy? No one hired me to kill anyone,” he blurted. “I’m just here to see the sights.”

“Oh, I misunderstood,” Jack said apologetically. “Well, now that you’ve cleared that up, you can be on your way.”

A flash of relief crossed Kendrick’s face before he recognized the sarcasm in Jack’s comment. He slumped down in his chair.

Alec moved to stand close behind him again. “It would save time if you told the truth.”

“I am telling the truth.”

“Let’s go back to this unique opportunity,” Jack suggested smoothly. “If you tell Detective Buchanan and me now, if you work with us, we’ll help you.”

“I’m not telling you squat,” he muttered. “Lawyer. Get me a lawyer.” There were beads of sweat on his forehead.

Jack acted as though he hadn’t heard his demand. “It’s a sweet deal,” he said. “But here’s the thing. There’s a time limit. Once we call the number you have programmed into the burner, we won’t need your help. The deal goes away then, and Detective Buchanan and I will do all we can to make sure you get the maximum sentence.”

“For what? You’ve got nothing.”

“Let’s start with a forged passport,” Jack said. “That alone will put you away. If you don’t cooperate with us, we’ll see that you go to prison for a very, very long time.” He pushed the chair back. “I’m going to go get you a lawyer now.”

Alec followed him to the door. He turned back and said, “You’ve got five minutes before we make the call.”

They left Kendrick to sweat—and hopefully panic—and headed to another interrogation room, where Jenkins waited. They’d had him brought up to the fourth floor so they could have another chat with him . . . or, as Alec called it, round two. The plan was to play one suspect against the other.

In the hall Jack said, “Five minutes? You gave him five minutes to decide what he wants to do? Where did that come from? We agreed to tell him he had twelve hours, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember, but five minutes sounded more dramatic. Twelve hours didn’t have the same kick.”

Jack laughed. “You’re right.”

“I want to call that number now.”

“Me, too, but we have to wait. We’re working blind here, but doesn’t it make sense that Kendrick wouldn’t call his boss an hour after landing? He wouldn’t have anything to report. So we wait a little longer, maybe five or six hours. If the boss is spooked and doesn’t answer the phone, we’re screwed, and easy becomes hard.”

“Unless Kendrick and Jenkins tell us what we want to know.”

The rest of the day Alec and Jack rotated between the two interrogation rooms, hoping to wear down one or the other of the two suspects, but neither Jenkins nor Kendrick was giving up anything. Threats of longer prison sentences for their crimes didn’t seem to faze them. As though they had rehearsed their denials, each separately insisted they were not taking orders from anyone.

Jack was the last to question Kendrick. When he walked out of the room, Alec was waiting for him. “The tech is ready.”

A minute later they stood next to a technician as he played a recording that sounded like electrical static. “Will that work?” he asked them.

“Perfect,” Jack told him.

“Kendrick’s going to cry entrapment, you know,” Alec said. “This will never fly in court.”

“That’s true,” Jack admitted. “But it might give him the motivation to open up.”

“Time to make the call,” Alec said as he picked up Kendrick’s burner phone, touched the screen, and laid the phone in the center of the desk so everyone could hear.

The men hovered over it, listening. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five . . . the phone kept ringing. They glanced at one another. No one was answering. Six . . . seven . . . eight . . . Alec shook his head and was about to pick up the phone when suddenly there was a click. A few seconds of silence followed, as though whoever was on the other end was waiting for the caller to speak first. Finally, the silence was broken.

Julian Taylor answered. “Is it done?”

 • • • 

Jack and Alec couldn’t wait to have yet another chat with Charles Kendrick. They were both smiling as they entered the interrogation room. Kendrick was sitting next to his attorney, a forty-year-old man with a sour face and a disposition to match. His posture was that of someone who had been beaten down by disappointments.

“I’m not telling you anything,” Kendrick stated defiantly. “My lawyer here, Mr. Kale, says I don’t even have to talk to you.”

Alec and Jack pulled out chairs and sat facing them. Kendrick’s smug expression was about to change.

Addressing the attorney, Jack said, “We’re going to be adding to the charges.”

“What charges are you adding?” Kendrick demanded before his attorney could say a word.

Alec answered. “We know you came here to kill Cordelia Kane, and we can prove it.”

Kendrick leaned forward. “How?” he asked with self-righteous indignation. “How can you prove it?”

“Glad you asked,” Jack said. “We called the number on your burner and talked to Julian Taylor.”

Kendrick didn’t look so cocky now. “He talked to you? I don’t believe it. He talked to you?” he repeated.

Jack answered. “He didn’t actually talk to us.”

“No, he didn’t,” Alec confirmed.

Jack explained. “He thought he was talking to you. He made the assumption, and we didn’t correct him.”

Kendrick seemed confused. “You’re lying.”

“We’re FBI agents,” Alec stated authoritatively. “We never lie.” He was somewhat surprised he got that out without laughing.

“We recorded the conversation,” Jack told the attorney. “Would you like to hear it?” He put the phone down and pushed the button.