“I know that they aren’t concerned with my best interests like you are. And I know Mitch wants something.” She stretches out her fingers and interlaces them with mine. I close my hand around hers. It’s reassuring to hear her acknowledge Hedder’s bad intent. “I can’t deny him the trip, though. Mom wouldn’t want that. Be vigilant but kind, she would say.”
“That sounds like Sophie, wise and generous.” My thumb rubs along hers. “Will you let me come, then? Just as an escort. I’ll stay in the car. You won’t even know I’m there.”
But I’ll be out of the car in a flash should anyone cause you to stumble
. Before they blink, I’ll be on them.
“If I say no?” she asks.
“I’ll follow you anyway,” I admit.
“At least you’re honest,” she sighs. A twinge of guilt causes me to tighten my grip. It doesn’t pass unnoticed by Tiny. “What?” she asks with challenge.
“I might have left out a small bit of information about my earlier altercation.”
“A small bit,” she says sarcastically.
“Infinitesimal.” I roll over on my side to face her, still holding her hand.
“So small you didn’t think it was important to divulge, right?”
“More like, so small I didn’t want to worry you.”
“But you’re going to tell me now, right? Because you’re honest with me?” Her eyebrow is cocked, and I can tell this is a test.
With a sigh, I give in. “I have one of the attackers stashed in Kaga’s basement.”
“
Ian Kerr
. Why didn’t you tell me this before?” She tugs to get loose of my grip, but I won’t let her.
“Listen now. I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to worry you. He might not tell me anything. I promise that he’s been fed and treated properly. Tomorrow we’ll let him go if he doesn’t cough up any information. Now come here and tend to my wounds, woman.”
I tug on her hand. She resists for a moment and then slides down next to me.
“You have to make sure I get a good night’s rest before I confront Big Guy tomorrow.” I settle her into our sleeping position: her head on my shoulder; my arm curled around her back; her leg on top of my thighs.
“Big Guy?”
“They haven’t divulged their names. I dubbed them Big Guy and Small Guy.”
She snorts and all is right in the world. We made love, fought, and now we’re entangled together once again.
THIRTEEN
K
AGA
’
S
HOLDING
ROOM
DOESN
’
T
LOOK
much better in the morning. Down below the Aquarium club, there was little to distinguish between night and day. Big Guy had been provided a candle; its wick was nearly burned out when we opened the door. He didn’t have the look of a hungry man, and less than twenty-four hours had passed. We had done nothing physical to him, but isolation and darkness can be its own punishment.
I lean against the door frame, with Kaga holding the heavy door open behind me. “Ready to talk?”
His face looks uncertain but a glance at the nearly burned out candle prompts a response. “What?” The question is pure frightened belligerence.
“How about we start with your name?”
He relaxes slightly and shakes his head. “You can’t keep me here forever.”
“You’re wrong.” Kaga remains silent. This is my show. “Not only can I keep you here forever, but no one would even know. Except perhaps your brother?” I make an educated guess based on the likeness of their features. He starts, eyes darting around as if worried that we have his sibling locked up in a neighboring cell. “How will he explain this to the police? He can’t very well claim that the two of you were involved in a botched assault that led to your disappearance.”
“Might as well let me go. Not talking,” he says mulishly. He recognizes that if we haven’t called the police by now, we aren’t going to. Yet he’s not smart enough to appreciate what kind of danger he’s in.
“You should have come at me with the knife first. Why pull that out as backup instead of leading with your strong hand?” I ask. That part has puzzled me all night.
There’s no immediate verbal response, but I watch his body carefully. His shoulders slump, and the look on his face is one of worry rather than fear. Kaga and I wait him out. Finally he says, “Didn’t want to kill you. We’re not into that. Just rough you up.”
“No point in giving me a beating if you don’t attach it to a verbal warning. Otherwise it’s just a random attack with no deterrent. So what’s my warning?”
His eyes jerk to mine with surprise, as if he just realized he had missed the most important part of this whole charade. “You got so many enemies you don’t know which one is hiring out a beating?”
Kaga bursts out laughing. He continues to howl so hard he doubles over and the door slips from his grip. I have to catch the metal slab before it slams shut. Straightening, I walk out. This guy needs more time to think—this time without the candle. I start to close the door.
“Wait,” he says with alarm. “This is kidnapping.”
“I prefer to think of it as having a guest, but you can use a different term if you like.” I shut the door before he can say anything else. Turning to Kaga, I resist the urge to shove my knee into his face. He manages to gain control and stands up, hands on his hips. “Thanks, asshole.”
“You have to admit, that’s kind of funny. This guy doesn’t have a message for you because whoever hired him thought you would know who it was.”
“What kind of message is an assault?” I complain. “I’m not some random gambler who can’t pay my debts. Hitting me isn’t going to do anything but make me angry. Frankly, this is the kind of show of force that bookies and drug dealers like to carry out. So while my first thought was Howe, I don’t think the Hedders can be scratched off the list. Anyone else is going to come at me in the boardroom or trading floor with cash and liquidated assets, not with fists and knives.”
Kaga nods in agreement. “You’ll figure it out. What do you want me to do with our friend?”
“Let him stew for a few more hours and then let him go. It’s a crying shame when you can’t buy people off. I didn’t know loyalty existed.”
“It’s probably fear-based silence,” he observes.
I agree. “Then it’s probably Howe, because he got those three women to clam up tighter than a duck’s ass.” Three women I’d tried to buy off to come forward and ruin Howe had all resisted the money I threw at them. That was when I turned to Malcolm Hedder in the hopes of hiring someone who would get me sufficient texts, pictures, or video of Howe to cause his wife to leave him and his family to disown him.
When Cecilia filed for divorce, I’d bring the full power of Kerr Inc. down on top of him. I held the majority of his debts, quietly buying them up through different shell corporations. It would be easy enough to tip him into bankruptcy.
Except I fell for Tiny and couldn’t bring myself to use her in that fashion, which left me without a way to separate Howe from his family. At least, for now.
“Speaking of Howe, what’s Tiny doing this morning?” Kaga asks.
We head upstairs to Kaga’s office. Even on the main floor, it’s hard to know the time of day because of the lack of windows. The only way to mark time inside the Aquarium is by the number of people that are present. The bar is eerily silent as the only inhabitants this morning are Kaga and I. Priya won’t come in until the afternoon.
“Steve took her to Jake’s.”
“How does she enjoy her new job?”
“Seems like she hates it,” I admit.
“Rough.”
“Yup.”
“You having Steve follow her everywhere?”
I nod. “Until I can talk her into getting a bodyguard. It’s just a smart precaution. Kidnapping for ransom seems more popular these days. That’s one of the few upsides to the paparazzi. Hard to steal someone who’s followed by cameras every time she steps foot from the house.” We both look downstairs. “Not to mention the random hate-related muggings.”
I can handle myself but Tiny? She’s tough, but she’d never survive a beating from those thugs.
“Maybe you ought to ease up,” Kaga suggests. We pause outside his office door.
I scoff. “This advice from the man who’s monitoring a certain Columbia student’s every interaction with the opposite sex?”
Kaga’s impenetrable facade eases for a moment, and then he concedes my point with a slight dip of his head. “I have overstepped.”
His stiff formality bothers me far more than his ribbing. Kaga’s honor is what prevents him from pursuing the woman he desires. “We’re both concerned about those we care deeply about.”
The clasp of his hand against my shoulder is his signal that all is forgiven. He pushes open his office door, and inside I find Jake, Gabriel Allen, and Steve playing cards.
I look from Gabe to Steve and back again. Neither should be here.
“What are you doing here?” I ask Steve. He should be with Tiny.
“She’s fine.”
I’m already moving toward the exit when Jake chimes in. “I’ve posted someone outside the door across the street, and there’s another guy, former black ops, inside reviewing some investigative tape. No one is getting to her.”
“And you?” I turn to Gabe.
“Making sure you don’t break any laws,” he says, not looking up from his cards.
“Am I paying you hourly as you lose money to Jake and Steve?” Gabe is my lawyer. He’s Jake and Kaga’s lawyer too. Hell, he could represent Steve for all I know.
“Yes.”
Shaking my head, I walk over to Kaga’s well-stocked bar and pour myself an orange juice with a splash of vodka. Breakfast of champions.
“You’ll be pleased to hear that I didn’t touch him.”
“He tell you anything?”
“No. I did find out that he assumed I’d know who sent him.”
“I’m going with Howe, then,” Gabe answers, throwing down his cards and striding over to the one-way mirror that allows Kaga to survey the entire club. “Cards should never be played while the sun is up. We’re toying with the natural order of things, which is why my hand is so bad.”
“We’re going to let the guy go this afternoon. Jake can send a man to shadow him. No harm, no foul. You can continue to represent me without any ethical conflicts.” I slide into Gabe’s abandoned chair and pick up his cards. No matches and no face cards. I wince. That is a shit hand. Turning to more pressing business, I tell Jake, “I need a fulltime bodyguard for Tiny. Preferably female.”
“We call them ‘personal protection service providers’ in the business, and she’s not going to like that,” he says absently, his attention on the pot—which looks to be about a couple grand. Low stakes. He glances at Steve, who doesn’t look up from his hand. “See your five and raise you five.”
Steve matches with his own chips. “Call.”
“It’s just a precaution,” I repeat the excuse I gave Kaga earlier.
“Can I be there when you explain this to her? Because I can’t wait to see how you finesse this. She’ll eat you alive.” Jake lays down his hand. It’s a straight, with a queen high. Steve fans out his cards. Four of a kind, ten high.
“Motherfucker.” Jake curses and pushes away from the table. “Ten grand in three hands. How do you do it, Steve?”
Steve has unholy luck at the card table. It’s unexplainable, and if I didn’t know him, I’d argue he cheated. It’s one thing to have the cards fall in your favor for one round, but with Steve, it’s such a common occurrence that no one really wants to play with him anymore. Except for Jake, who views it as a challenge, and Gabe, because he thinks he can win at everything. He usually does but not against Steve.
Steve just shrugs and pulls in the chips.
“When are you going to ask Tiny to marry you?” Jake asks. “You are going to, right?”
“Tiny works for you for a few weeks and already you think you have the right to ask me about my intentions toward her?” I say incredulously.
“She’s a woman alone,” Jake shoots back. I can see his white knight complex is fully engaged and he’ll be like a dog guarding his bone if I don’t give him what he wants. He’s fiercely protective of all the women in his circle. His little sister gets the brunt of it. I doubt she’s even had one date since Jake got back from the Middle East.
“I haven’t asked because her mother died, and I didn’t want her looking back later thinking I proposed because she was in a bad state emotionally. And before. . .” I stretch out my legs, “before she was busy resisting my obvious charms and would have said no just to spite me.”
“Sounds like you two have a healthy relationship,” Gabe observes.
“Given that all you assholes are single except for Steve, you haven’t the first clue what a healthy relationship is.”
“Oh, we know. We’re just incapable of being in one,” Jake retorts.
“Speak for yourself,” Kaga interjects.
He and Jake stare at each other for a long time before Jake says softly, “Sorry, old man, but I know you too well. We’ve shared too many experiences. You’re a good man, but you’re not for her.”
Kaga tightens his fists and takes a step toward Jake. We all tense, preparing for a fight. It’s a showdown that’s been a long time coming, but with visible effort, he loosens his fists and dips his head slightly. “If you say so, Jake.” With that, Kaga turns and leaves, abandoning us in his own office. The tension is thick enough to choke on.
“Ready?” I ask Steve. He nods. As we exit, I turn back to Jake. “You’re going to regret keeping them apart for so long. There’s no one more decent than Kaga. He’d do right by your sister.”
Jake’s mouth tightens, but he says nothing.
“Where to?” Steve asks as we climb into the Bentley.
“Office. I’ll change there.”
“What will you do about Howe?”
“It’s time to ratchet up the pressure, not just in his social life.”
Despite the appearance of Mitch Hedder, the attack was most likely orchestrated by Richard in response to the first round of pressure. If he was behind the assault, though, it meant direct and swift action must be taken. Not just for my sake but for Tiny’s.
In the office, changed and prepared for a full day of analyst reviews and meetings, I call Tiny to give her the rundown on what happened this morning.
“He wouldn’t talk. We’re letting him stew for a few more hours and then releasing him. Jake’s got a guy who’ll follow him for a couple of days.”