Incriminating Evidence (13 page)

He thanked Hans and headed to the meeting with Nicole. When he reached the open double doors to the conference room, he frowned. Only seven operatives sat around the table. He glanced sideways at his director. “Three down? I thought it was only two.”

“Ted Godfrey tendered his resignation yesterday afternoon. I was just about to tell you. Barstow again.”

“Apex made him an offer he couldn’t refuse?”

She nodded.

Alec cursed. The rival company had been cherry-picking his best operatives for eighteen months. He didn’t know what the hell Simon Barstow could be offering, because Alec paid top dollar, and in exit interviews, his former employees never uttered a complaint about Raptor, work at the Alaska compound, Nicole as director, or anything that explained why they’d chosen to leave the company. But he suspected Barstow made his employees sign a confidentiality agreement that was even stricter than Raptor’s.

He entered the conference room and paused by his seat at the head of the table, nodding to the men already seated, among them Brad Fraser and the others who’d invaded the remote cabin just twelve hours ago. Three of them had been with Brad at the Roadhouse earlier. Nicole took her customary seat at the opposite end of the table.

“Because this has been a long day for most of us, I’m going to keep this short and sweet.” He’d intended to tell Nicole before announcing to Falcon, but he’d spent precious minutes looking up infrasound, and by the time he made it to her office, there hadn’t been time. It was entirely possible he’d made a subconscious choice, knowing this would upset her, but she’d keep her cool in front of Falcon. “Tomorrow, Keith Hatcher, a former Navy SEAL I worked with on several ops when I was a Ranger, will arrive at the compound. Keith is coming here to tour the facility, meet my top operatives, and observe the training, because when I return to Maryland, I will officially step down as CEO of Raptor and Keith will take over.”

A few operatives allowed surprise to show on their faces, but only one, a young man Alec couldn’t name, made a low whistling sound as his gaze darted from Alec to Nicole in shock.

For her part, Nicole sat in stone-faced silence.

“I wanted Falcon to know before anyone else, and I ask that you all refrain from sharing this information until the official announcement.”

“Is this because of the campaign?” Nate Sufentes, an operative who’d been on Falcon team since before Alec bought the company, asked.

“Yes. If I win, all my financial assets will be folded into a blind trust. Physical assets, like Raptor, remain my property, but because of Raptor’s government contracts, I’ll be forbidden from being involved in any management decisions. I’ve decided to step down early so I can focus on the campaign during the final days.”

“And if you lose?” Dev Kalla asked. Kalla was from India and a relatively new hire. He was the first Raptor operative to come from a foreign army.

“Then Hatcher’s tenure as CEO will be short,” Alec said.

“So, wait…” the operative who’d whistled asked. “Then who’s running the training this week? You? This Hatcher guy, or Markwell?”

Nicole stiffened and cast a glare at the young operative.

“I’m afraid I don’t know your name?” Alec said to the man.

“Johnston, sir. Chase Johnston.”

Alec remembered him now. One of the few hires who didn’t have a military background. He’d gone through police academy training and was waitlisted for a job in Anchorage when he’d applied to Raptor. That someone without combat experience sat on Falcon was telling. Simon Barstow had swiped too many experienced operatives. “Director Markwell will remain in charge of the compound. There are no changes planned for the structure and running of this facility,” Alec said.

Nicole stood again. “Is that all, Mr. Ravissant?” Nicole hadn’t mistered him in a long time. She was well and truly pissed.

“Yes.”

“Great. We’ll gather again as soon as Mr. Hatcher arrives. Dismissed.” She stood and headed for the door.

“Nic. Wait. I need to speak with you.”

She stopped dead in her tracks and spoke with her back to him. “Yes, of course, Mr. Ravissant.”

The members of Falcon team couldn’t escape the room fast enough. In a flash, only Nicole and Alec remained in the conference room.

“Sit down, Nic.”

Even though she was no longer in the Army, Nicole knew when to comply with a direct order. She sat.

“You’re angry,” Alec said.

“Damn right I am. You know I wanted that promotion. Dammit, Rav. You led me to believe—”

“No. I didn’t. I told you I was looking outside the organization, because I need you to continue as compound director. I said that if I
couldn’t
find a replacement from outside, you topped my list of internal promotions.”

“I could sue. Sex discrimination—”

“Don’t threaten me, Nicole. You know it’s not true. The simple fact is, there’s a lot of upheaval going on in the organization. We’ve lost too many key operatives to Apex; if things don’t turn around in Texas, that compound will be closed. And, I’m leaving. I want you to continue as Alaska compound director to ease the transition. I’ve already completed the paperwork with human resources to raise your salary. You’re being given the title Vice President of Operations in addition to compound director.”

“But my duties won’t change.”

“Not really. Not for the first six months anyway. We’ll see what happens with the election. If I win, Keith will be calling the shots, and I’ve made sure he knows how valuable you are to the company.”

She pursed her lips then asked, “How big is my raise?”

Alec smiled. Retaining her would cost him, but he was ready to pay. “Two grand a month.”

The rigidness of her posture slipped a fraction. “I suppose that eases the sting a bit.” She glanced around the conference room. “Although I have no idea what I’m going to do with extra money when I live in a windowless monstrosity in the middle of a frigid wasteland.”

“Vacation in Hawaii?”

She leaned back in her seat and looked at him speculatively. “You have a house there, right? I’m not talking about at the compound on Oahu, but on Kauai. The beach house. The one that was in
Architectural Digest
.”

Alec smiled, knowing where this was going. “Yes.”

“I want the house for a two-week vacation. In February—when this place is so damn cold I feel like I’m going to lose my fucking mind.”

“No problem. I’ll have HR add the stipulation to your contract.”

“Not just this year. Every year.”

He laughed. “Deal.” He rarely visited the Kauai house anyway, and if offering it as an employment perk helped retain a valuable employee, so be it. He’d do anything to keep Apex from stealing Nicole too.

“Fine. When, exactly, do I get to meet my new boss?”

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

She drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Maybe
he’ll
agree to change the format of the hostage scenario…”

Alec smiled. “A week from Monday, you can collude with Keith to change my scenarios all you want, but until then, we do the trainings my way.”

Chapter Ten

I
sabel jolted awake, unsure what had pulled her from sleep. Then she heard it again. Someone was shooting bear bangers outside her cabin. Her first reaction was irritation that the Raptor boys were messing with her again. They’d shot off bear bangers a few times in the past. The first time happened right after a congressional committee investigating safety measures at the compound voted to close the facility for two months so they could evaluate the training safety procedures.

She’d reported the harassment, and Officer Westover had conducted a halfhearted investigation. Alec had made a statement through his attorney that there was no evidence his men had trespassed on her property or, for that matter, that anyone had shot bear bangers outside her windows at all. And that was it.

Now they were at it again. The dregs of sleep left her as they fired a third shot. A loud report, like an M-80 firework, it was designed to startle bears—but it worked equally well on humans, and Isabel couldn’t help but feel more than a little freaked out.

Why would Raptor operatives do this to her
now
? She had a truce with Alec, and the compound was set to reopen in a few days.

For the first time, she considered that it might not be Raptor who’d been harassing her, and the idea that some unknown person or group wanted to scare her sent an extra chill down her spine.

She grabbed her shotgun from the closet and went to the living room to grab the cell phone that had been delivered several hours ago. Her cabin was dark inside, but outside, the gray light of the late summer night made it all too easy to see across the meadow to where a man stood. He reloaded his bear banger pistol, and pointed it directly at her.

She lunged for the phone, then dropped to the floor, scooting backward, away from the window, wondering if the man had seen her, or if he’d just been aiming for the single front window.

If she called 9-1-1, Westover would take his sweet time in getting here. Alec was closer. She hit the Call button as another banger sounded.

His voice was groggy. “I hope this is a booty call and not an emergency, Iz.”

“There’s someone in the meadow shooting bear bangers again.”

He didn’t respond, and she wondered if he didn’t believe her. He never had before, why should this be any different?

“I saw him—” Before she could finish, the window shattered. “Oh my God! The front window—”

Pain exploded in her head. Had she been hit by whatever shattered the window? She groaned as nausea settled in her belly.

“Iz, are you okay? What’s happening?”

“H-hh-hurts. S-s-ooo much…”

I
sabel let out another groan—the kind Alec had heard in combat, when a soldier was in serious pain. Infrasound again? He pulled on his jeans as he kept the phone pressed to his ear. “I’m coming, honey. Hold on. I’ll get there as fast as I can.”

“Gonna be s-s-ick.”

“I know. Hang on. Stay with me. Keep talking if you can.”

“W-wh-what’s that?” She gasped, and the next sound wasn’t a high-pitched screech. It was a low wail of torture.

A crashing boom sounded; then he heard nothing at all.

H
urled by an explosion, Isabel flew backward as a scream erupted from her throat. She slammed into the rear door of the cabin. Pain shot from her wrist, along her arm, and across her shoulder. She grunted and twisted to see the devastation that had been her living room and was stunned to see the room wasn’t filled with smoke.

There was no shrapnel, no smell of gunpowder. Not even a wisp of flame. However, some sort of shock wave had upended her furniture—a 9.0 earthquake confined to her living room.

What the hell was that?
First she’d been struck by pain that made her think her head would burst, and then her cabin was hit with a flameless explosion? Indoor windstorm?

Again, her head started to throb. Just like right before the shock wave, pain shot down her spine. She dropped to the floor, doubled over with nausea. Cold sweat broke out on her skin. She couldn’t breathe.