Annihilate Me (Vol. 4) (The Annihilate Me Series) (23 page)

He
moved to speak, but then he said nothing.

“Jennifer,”
Blackwell said.

She
was standing at my right and she looked ten years older to me.
 
Her face was pale and drawn, but there
was an intensity in her eyes that burned with rage.

“I’m
happy that you came, but it was unnecessary,” I said.

“The
hell it was.
 
You know what you mean
to me.
 
I’ve made that clear.
 
So, listen to me for a moment.
 
We’ve seen the surveillance tapes.
 
That woman said something to you before
she knocked you unconscious, but there was no audio, so we couldn’t hear.
 
Do you remember what she said?”

I
closed my eyes and remembered exactly what I was ordered to say to Alex.
 
“She told me that Wenn immediately
needed to drop any deals or takeovers they had in process.
 
Given all that Wenn is involved in, that
could mean dozens of deals and who knows how many takeovers.
 
That’s what I was told.”

“She
wasn’t specific?”

“She
wasn’t.”

“She
was casting a blanket,” Tank said.
 
“Cover everything.
 
Stop
everything in an effort to end one thing.
 
If Alex does that, then whoever is behind this will get what they want,
but there will be no fingers pointed at one particular individual in the
process.”

Alex
turned to Tank.
 
“I just recently
signed deals with Henri Dufort for Streamed, and with Darius Stavros for
Stavros Shipping.
 
They were pleased
with those deals.
 
They wouldn’t be
behind this.
 
We have at least ten
takeovers in play right now through various divisions of Wenn.
 
I know for a fact that six of them are
hostile.
 
I’m betting it’s one of
them.
 
And we’ve already narrowed
that list down by one because Kobus came in and took the lie-detector test when
he was asked to.
 
Legally, he knew
he didn’t have to do it, but he had no issues with it, and he passed the test
hands down.
 
As much as he hates me
for trying to take Kobus Airlines away from him, he nevertheless behaved like a
man with nothing to hide.
 
Do you
agree, Tank?”

“I
do.
 
There’s no way he would have
risked taking that test if it was him.
 
It’s got to be one of the others.”

“Why
have they waited this long to finally tell us what they want?” I asked.
 
“What’s the point in torturing us?”

“That
is the point, Jennifer—to torture you,” Tank said.
 
“Everything that has been done to you in
the past was for their pleasure.
 
At
least that’s how I see it.
 
They
wanted to rattle both of you, and they succeeded.
 
The one exception is when Alex was
abducted in September after the four of us had dinner at db Bistro.
 
I think they planned to kill him that
night, but they failed.
 
Then you
were shot in the arm.
 
Both of you
shrewdly went to the island for a month, but now that you’re back, they’re
obviously prepared to finish this.”

“So,
let me be clear,” I said.
 
“At this
point, we’re dropping the theory that this has anything to do with Donald
North, Nestor Bazin or Adrianna Bomba.
 
Wenn was involved in hostile takeovers of their companies last
year.
 
But after what was said to me
today, we know that this is either about a current deal or a current takeover
that somebody doesn’t want to go through.”

“That’s
right.
 
This isn’t about the
past.
 
It’s about the present.”

Alex
looked at Blackwell.
 
“Please call
Ann and have her pull the names of those on the boards of those five other
companies that Wenn is currently involved in taking over.
 
Give those names to Tank.
 
He’ll look through them to see if any
were at Peachy’s first party where Jennifer’s photo was taken.
 
If any of those people were at that
party, we take a closer look at them and we make sure they get invited to
Dufort’s.
 
It’s still not too late
for him to invite them to his party.
 
That is, if they already haven’t been invited.”

“Alex,”
Tank said.

“We’ve
been friends for too long for you to bail on me now.
 
Come on, Mitch.
 
I need you.
 
What happened to Jennifer today had
nothing to do with your commitment to your job or with your skills.
 
You’re the best in the business.
 
Will you help?
 
Will you stay on with us?
 
I’m asking you as a friend.
 
And I really need a friend right now.”

There
was a long silence before Tank spoke.
 
“All right,” he said.
 
“I’ll
stay on.”

“Thank
you,” he said.

Lisa
was standing next to him and she put her hand on his arm, which seemed to
surprise him.
 
“I also want to thank
you,” she said.
 
“She’s my best
friend.”

His
face had been tense this entire time, but now it softened a bit when he looked
at her.
 
“I hear you,” he said.

“And
I think the world of you.”

He
furrowed his brow at her.
 

“I
do,” she said.
 
“So, there.
 
I said it.”

That
seemed to please him.
 
“Rain check
for dinner?”

“Whenever
you want.”

He
looked at Alex while Blackwell spoke to Ann on her cell.
 
“I’ll go back to Wenn now and look over
the names.
 
Two of my men are
standing outside Jennifer’s door.
 
Should they release her tonight, call me, and I’ll personally come to
make certain you both get out safely.
 
Understood?”

“Understood,”
Alex said.
 
“Call my cell if you
need any help identifying someone.”

“Will
do.”

And
with that, he turned to Lisa and took her by the shoulders.
 
“I think I’ve misjudged us,” he
said.
 
“And I apologize for
that.”
 
Then, he kissed her fully on
the lips before leaving the room.
 
Tears streaked down my face in happiness for my friend, but also in
utter fear for Alex and myself.

Hours
later, I was released, and Tank returned to take us back to Wenn, where I spent
the night with Alex.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

The
next morning, Tank was on his game.
 

With
Ann’s help and armed with the guest list for Peachy’s first party, he’d come up
with three possibilities, and one of them was Gordon Kobus, who was already in
the clear, so that narrowed the list to two viable suspects.
 

But
John Welch and Drew Faust were not in the clear.
 
Both were at Peachy’s party with their
wives when that photo of me was taken after I smacked down Immaculata.
 
Did one of them take it?
 
We didn’t know, but they were there.
 
Each was just slightly older than Alex,
with Faust having graduated from Yale two years before Alex.

“Did
you know him while you were at Yale?” Tank asked.
 

We
were at Alex’s apartment having coffee around the kitchen island.

“I
knew him,” Alex said.

“How
well?”

“Well
enough.
 
Never shared any classes
together, but I knew him from going to the same parties he attended.
 
Total bastard.
 
His father hit it big in the nineties
with the dot.com boom, and he was one of the few who came out of it alive when
the bust hit.
 
The reason?
 
Faust’s father was smart.
 
He built his empire offering server
space to Fortune 500 companies, and he locked in deals with them that carried
him through the bust.
 
He was among
the first to offer large-scale website hosting.
 
He built the Faust brand delivering an
excellent product and customer service, and he came out of it a
billionaire.
 
Drew became the CEO a
couple of years ago when his father stepped down.
 
Wenn Digital is currently going after
the company.”

“HostPath?”
Tank asked.

“That’s
right.”

“Would
he do this?”

“No
idea.
 
I don’t know anyone who’s
capable of doing what’s been done to Jennifer and me.
 
But let’s just say that, as with Welch,
the takeover has become extremely hostile.”

“Tell
me about John Welch.”

“Like
Drew and me, his success is a product of his father’s hard work.
 
When his father steps down from from
WHS, or Welch Health Services, John will claim the title as CEO.
 
Through WHS’ subsidiaries, they own and
operate acute care hospitals, behavioral health centers, surgical hospitals,
ambulatory surgery centers, and radiation oncology centers.
 
Their success really comes down to
this—they build or acquire high-quality hospitals in rapidly growing
markets, then invest enough in each facility so that it becomes the dominant
healthcare provider in its community.
 
That’s why Wenn Health is going after them.
 
And I can tell you, it’s been nothing
but ugly.
 
I would imagine that John
doesn’t want to lose WHS for two types of reasons—emotional and
financial.
 
His father built the
company from a startup with zero revenue into a Fortune 500 with annual revenue
that exceeds nine billion.
 
And
they’re only getting stronger.
 
I do
know that he and his father are very close.
 
I think, for John, the emotional attachment
to WHS might trump what it’s worth on paper.
 
For personal reasons, he doesn’t want to
give it up.
 
And believe me, he’s taking
this takeover personally.”

“Each
has his own motive,” I said.

“They
do,” Alex agreed.
 
“But are they
behind this?
 
Is this just another
shot in the dark?
 
I don’t know.
 
So, I’m going to ask again.”
 
He turned to me.
 
“Despite what happened to you and what
that woman said to you, you’ve encouraged me not to drop any of our deals or
takeovers.
 
Do you still feel that
way?”

“Of
course I do.
 
Otherwise, they will
have won and we’ll never find out who is behind this.”

“If
we snub them, if our refusing to drop anything pisses them off, there is every
reason to believe that they’ll come after us with everything they have.”

“I
expect that.”

“But
do you understand the ramifications?”

“Yes.
 
Likely my death.
 
They’ll kill me, not you.
 
They’ll hold my death over you to force
your hand and to try to get what they want.
 
But here’s the thing, Alex.
 
They’ll know that if you die, Wenn’s
board will rise up in a fury and go forward with all deals and takeovers.
 
They’ll do it aggressively in memory of
you.
 
Whoever is behind this knows
that.
 
And because they know that, I
don’t think they’ll come after you.
 
What’s the point?
 
After me,
they know they will have lost.
 
They
won’t keep risking exposure.
 
After
me, they’ll have to accept defeat.”
 

He
was about to speak, but I stopped him.
 
“Look.
 
I’ve thought a lot
about this and I understand the risks.
 
But if we refuse to give in to them, then we have a better chance of
catching them.
 
Otherwise, they’ll
get what they want and they’ll just walk away.
 
Unscathed.
 
No repercussions.
 
And I’ll be damned if that happens.
 
After what they’ve done to
us—after what they just did to me—I refuse to let that happen.”

His
eyes became bright.
 
“I’ve spoken to
the board, and I have their support either way.”