Play to Win (10 page)

“She okay?” I'd need to go relieve her once I got off work.

He nodded. “She's holding up really well.”

“Charlie, Parker and I found some files in the basement about Leo Shea's business about a decade ago, how he was encroaching on Dad, but the files stop after their meeting. Do you know what happened?”

If possible, Charlie looked even older at the question. “It was a rough time,” he said. “Your dad ended up handling it. I know he kept notes on all his business dealings so I'm sure he documented the events.”

“There's nothing more in the box, but Carrie said he keeps a locked cabinet in his office. Do you have a key?”

Charlie nodded, digging in his desk drawer. “Your dad gave me a set in case something happened to him.”

We all grew silent for a moment, since something
had
happened to my dad. It hurt inside my chest to think about it, so I shoved the thought away and cleared my throat, taking the set of keys Charlie handed to me.

I unlocked my dad's office and stepped inside. It smelled so much like him and the cigars he sometimes favored that I stumbled to a halt three feet in.

“You okay?” Parker asked, his hand settling low on my back.

I forced a thin smile. “Yeah. I'm fine. Now let's find out who's behind this.” My gut said somehow Shea was involved, even though technically that was impossible since he was dead. I assumed his body had been dropped in Lake Michigan with a set of concrete shoes, but I could be wrong.

The file cabinet wasn't a large one and it didn't take long after I'd unlocked it for Parker and me to find the right files. We began reading.

“He had an informant,” I said slowly, my eyes wide. “Somehow, he paid off someone in Leo's organization.”

“Your dad isn't a fool,” Parker said. “And apparently not someone to be fucked with.”

He said it with respect, not disgust, and I agreed.

I flipped through the papers but couldn't find a name. “Can you find a name anywhere?”

Parker shook his head. “No. He just calls him
The Informant
. No details.”

“Well, he helped my dad, that's for sure,” I said, reading all the notes on what basically boiled down to corporate espionage.

“And was handsomely compensated,” Parker added, pointing out the payments made. I gave a low whistle.

“Wow.”

“Exactly.”

“But it paid off,” I said. “Looks like my dad bit back at Shea, nearly sending his business into bankruptcy.” Which had been mighty good of him. He didn't have to do that. It looked like he could've crushed Shea and been rid of him for good. Considering what Shea had done to me years later, I would've been okay with that.

“Yeah, but the
way
he did it—” Parker began, flipping through more pages.

Carrie popped her head in. “You have a visitor,” she interrupted.

“Who?” Had Ryker come by with information?

“Not you,” she said. “Him.” She jerked her chin toward Parker, who looked as surprised as I felt.

“Who knows you're here?” I asked him.

“No one.” His expression was hard. He'd brought his weapon with him and I saw him reach from where he'd set it on the desk, sliding it into the small of his back.

Okay then.

He followed Carrie and I followed him to the front. When I saw who was waiting, I didn't know who was more surprised—him or me—though I certainly knew who was more pissed.

“What the hell are you doing here?” I asked Natalie, marching toward her, my hands in fists at my sides. “I don't recall issuing you an invitation.”

She had the gall to look hurt. “I didn't realize you'd mind so much,” she said. “Honestly. I needed to speak to Parker and I thought you'd know where he was. I'm really sorry to bother you.” She gave a little shrug, managing to look adorably helpless in that feminine kind of way that men gobbled up like candy.

I ground my teeth together, realizing she'd effectively outmaneuvered me. If I kept at it, I'd just look like a total bitch in front of Parker. But I gave her a hard stare that said she'd entered my territory and that I didn't like it.

“What's going on?” Parker asked.

“I received this today and I don't know what to do.” She handed him a note.

“Ten thousand dollars. Gavin's Pub. 10 p.m. tomorrow,” he read. He glanced up. “Where did you get this?”

“It was left on the windshield of my car.”

“Did you take it to Ryker?”

Natalie hesitated, and I knew why.

“Of course she didn't,” I said. “Ryker doesn't have ten thousand dollars.” But Parker did.

Parker shot me a look. “I'll handle this.”

Oh really?

“Is there somewhere a little more private where we can talk?” Natalie asked, glancing around the lobby.

I gritted my teeth. “My office.” I spun on my heel and didn't bother to make sure they followed me.

Sitting in my chair with a heavy desk between Natalie and me seemed like a good idea. I sat in the cool leather chair and watched Parker face off with Natalie.

“We need to call Ryker about this,” he said. “A ransom note is irrefutable, and kidnap cases are automatically under the FBI's purview.”

“No, don't!” Natalie said. “We can't get the FBI involved. They'll know and they'll kill Jessie.”

“We don't even know who has her or why,” I interjected. “If it's just money they're after, why'd they pick your sister?”

Natalie's blue eyes focused on me like a laser. “If I knew that, I wouldn't need to be here,” she retorted.

“I don't think we should try to handle this on our own,” Parker said.

We?

“I can't take a chance that they'll hurt her,” Natalie pleaded. “If they'll give her back for ten thousand dollars, then why can't we just do that?”

“Because it's unlikely they'll stop at just ten thousand,” I said, ignoring her body language that said hearing my voice was akin to setting fire to her hair.

“You don't know that.”

“She's right, Natalie,” Parker said.

There was a rap on the open door and I glanced over to see Ryker had decided to stop by, too. Fabulous.

“Now it's a party,” I muttered under my breath. This day was getting worse by the moment.

“I knew I'd find Sage here,” Ryker said. “Didn't realize Scooby and the gang were all getting together without me.” He fixed Parker and Natalie with a look that would've frozen a criminal at thirty paces.

“Come in,” I said, which was completely unnecessary, as he was already plopping down in one of the leather chairs in front of my desk. My fingernails threatened to make permanent crescent-shaped dents in the arms of my chair. “What can I do for you?”

“We went over the security footage for the attack on your security guard last night,” he said. “They were in black, but wore a mask. We couldn't get a clear shot and the prints we lifted all belong to employees.”

I wasn't surprised. Had I thought it would be so easy as the murderer standing in front of the camera with a sign proclaiming his name, phone number, and current address?

“I just don't understand why,” I said. “What were they after?”

“They came up here and tried to break in to your dad's office,” he replied, “but tripped the security alarm.”

“That doesn't sound like they've had a lot of experience,” I said. Yes, we had decent security, but it wasn't state of the art. “And what would they have wanted in here?”

“The files we just unlocked, I'd guess,” Parker interjected.

“Why now?”

But no one answered. After a moment, Natalie said, “I hate to interrupt, but I need help with this. Jessie needs me.”

“What's going on?” Ryker asked.

Parker showed him the note. “Natalie wants to pay the money.”

Ryker's gaze landed on her. “You can't do that. It never ends well.”

Tears started leaking from Natalie's eyes. “What am I supposed to do? She's my sister, Dean…”

“Let's get the paper to the lab, see if they can pull any prints. Then we'll decide what to do. We have until tomorrow.” He looked at Parker. “Are you fronting this?”

Parker looked grim, but he nodded, and my stomach sank. He was just going to hand over ten thousand dollars, and I still had my doubts as to anything Natalie said. Ryker acted as though he believed everything she said and Parker…well, I couldn't really tell with Parker. Though if he was going to sign over ten grand, he must be feeling there was some truth to this.

Ryker stood. “I'll let you know if we find anything else,” he said to me. “Ballistics haven't come back yet on the casings from here or from you and your dad.”

Nice to know I was such a priority. But I kept my mouth shut and nodded. “Okay. Thanks.”

“Natalie,” Ryker said, “we have some photos for you to look at. You said Jessie had a nasty ex, right, but you didn't have a picture of him?”

Natalie nodded. “She broke up with him a while ago,” she said.

“If you can recognize him from the photos, maybe we can track him down.” He switched his gaze to Parker. “You coming?”

Parker shook his head. “I'm watching out for Sage. I'm not leaving her alone.” The emphasis was on
I'm
and the tone of his voice held disapproval. Ryker's gaze swiveled to mine.

“Hey, don't look at me,” I said. “I didn't ask Parker to play bodyguard.” If he wanted to go support Natalie, I wasn't about to stand in the way, despite the green monster digging its claws into my gut.

A muscle ticked in Parker's jaw.

“We have uniforms watching the place,” Ryker said to Parker. “And you're acting like I don't want to keep Sage safe, too. I'm the one trying to chase down every lead we have on the shooting.”

“I didn't say you didn't want her safe.”

“You implied it.”

Their eyes were shooting daggers at each other, but my gaze was drawn to Natalie. Rather than watching the men argue, she was looking at me.

Well, this was interesting.

“Please,” Natalie added, her blue eyes turned plaintively up to Parker.

Aaaand my fingernails
just
broke through the leather padding on the arms of my chair.

I was the one with a mutilated cat on my bed, a father in a coma, and a dead security guard. But hey, no worries!

I gritted my teeth. “Go on and go. There are three security guys downstairs. I'll be fine.” I wasn't about to try and compete with Natalie and beg Parker to stay. No way.

“Don't leave without me,” Parker said, and his tone made me want to stick my tongue out at him like a teenager. At least he hadn't pointed his finger at me.

I settled for, “I'll do my best,” which was just this side of snotty bitch, but not by much. If I wasn't trying so hard to hide my disappointment, I'd have been embarrassed.

They left, with Parker taking one last long glance at me. I didn't so much as twitch an eye. They both wanted to go running to Natalie's beck and call? They could be my guest.

Bitterness was a sour taste in my mouth as I headed back to my dad's office. It was after six now and people had cleared out for the most part, but I met Charlie on the way.

“I was looking for you,” he said, following me into the room. The blinds were open in here so I moved to the window to start closing them. “I think I know who might be behind this.”

“Who?”

“Steven Shea.”

I paused, turning to look at Charlie. “Shea? As in a relation to Leo?”

He nodded. “His son. He left Chicago years ago, wanted to become some kind of real estate developer out in California. Apparently when he heard about his father's disappearance, he decided to come back.”

His father's disappearance
was a nice way of saying my father had Leo killed, then dropped into the black hole of Lake Michigan, mostly because I'd told him to after the man had kidnapped me and tortured Ryker and Parker.

I squirmed uncomfortably. Yes, I'd been upset at the time and Leo had been seconds away from killing me in cold blood, but that didn't mean my conscience was 100 percent clear.

“So Steve decided me and Dad are to blame for his father's disappearance? How could he possibly know that? Is he just guessing? He still has an ax to grind about what happened a decade ago?” I reached for another blind, glancing out the window.

“That's what I was wondering, too,” he said. “So I started digging. Who all was there that night?”

But I wasn't listening. Instead, I was watching Ryker, Parker, and Natalie in the parking lot. I was only three stories up so I could see them really well. They stood there talking, and it was easy to see an echo of the photograph Ryker kept hidden in his bottom drawer. Ryker swung his leg over his motorcycle, while Natalie and Parker got in his BMW. Both vehicles left the lot. It felt as though I'd swallowed a lead ball, which was now sitting in the pit of my stomach.

“Sage? Did you hear me?”

I yanked the blinds closed. “Yeah, sorry. Who was there? I don't know. All the men were security guys Dad hired. I'd never seen them before.”

“And that was all?”

I forcibly shoved images of Parker and Natalie in his car together out of my mind. Dwelling on them wasn't going to help.

“Um, yeah…I mean, no.” I shook my head, frustrated at my lack of ability to concentrate. “There were two other people there, a woman named Branna and this senator guy she worked for.” I searched my brain, finally coming up with a name. “Kirk? I think? Parker would know how to reach him. Do you think he would've told Shea what happened?”

I'd find that hard to believe. There hadn't seemed to be any love lost between Leo and the senator, especially if he'd sent in Branna to spy on him.