Hidden Threat (32 page)

But that wasn’t the problem. The end numbers didn’t add up. She had to be missing something.

Finally at four o’clock she gave up and dialed the one she’d been avoiding all day.

Peter Carson picked up on the third ring. There was a long pause when she told him why she was calling, but then he told her he’d be more than happy to come up and go over everything with her again.

And so, she waited.

At four-thirty, almost half an hour after she’d called him, he walked into her office, closing the door. Cali smiled at him. “Please leave the door open, Peter.”

“I don’t think so, Cali.”

Cali’s smile froze. His voice was smooth, but there was something in his eyes as he looked at her. Then it struck her. Peter Carson, the one her father trusted and the one her father was grooming to take over, was the mole. She didn’t know exactly how she knew, but she did.

Cali didn’t answer right away as her mind raced, going over her options. As far as she knew, Matthew wasn’t back yet. There was the camera, but if he was at the police station going over reports, he may not be looking at his phone. Or worse still, he may have it off. No, her best hope was Lisa. Her assistant must have stepped away or something. When she came back, would she notice the door was shut?

And if she did, then what? What could Lisa do that she couldn’t? There would be an element of surprise, yes, but how much time would that buy her?

Peter began to walk toward her. Well, walk wasn’t exactly right; stalk was more accurate. Cali knew she needed to stall, get him talking. “Why, Peter? I mean after everything my father did for you, why?” She slowly stood up, trying to put herself in a better position in case she needed to react.

He snorted. It was a menacing sound. “Yes, sticking me behind a desk with a measly salary for the last ten years. He really did so much for me, Cali.”

“But he took you under his wing, showed you the ropes. How could you do this? How could you steal from him?”

He laughed. “Stealing was the easy part.“

Cali shook her head. “What are you talking about?” 

He closed the distance between them and stood behind her. “Sit down, Cali.” She did.

He remained behind her but leaned in so his voice was no more than a whisper. “I guess it wouldn’t hurt to grant your last request.” She swallowed hard and felt him smile against her cheek.

“You see, I had everything planned out. After a little persuading on my part, the former CFO stepped down, and I graciously offered to take his place. It was perfect. I set up a rather complex plan to redirect a small amount of the profits to an offshore account. With all the business Stanton Enterprises did in the course of a year, that small amount added up to a nice little bonus to supplement my income.”

Peter stepped back and twirled her chair around so she was now facing him.

“Things were going well, but then they passed those stupid laws saying that CEOs had to take personal responsibility for the financials, and your dad decided to take an interest in what I was doing. I had to do something. It wasn’t hard to find a group willing to step into the role of mercenaries in exchange for goods to sell on the black market.”

“You’re the one stealing the shipments?” she asked, stunned, but then mentally kicked herself for opening her mouth.

He sneered at her, “Something like that.”

Peter walked over to the bank of windows and put his leg on the windowsill. She knew she had to keep him talking. He’d mentioned things had changed. Cali assumed he was talking about Matthew and Jason. “But something changed,” she stated.

Smiling over at her, he spat, “Yes, something changed. Your father hired the best security team he could find to come in and find out what exactly was going on.” He paused before gloating. “Too bad all their hard work was for nothing. I still have the money and soon the company. Problem solved.” 

Then he seemed to get hold of himself again. “I still had to sweeten the pot a little for the hired guns. They wanted more than just the hijacked goods, and then of course, someone had to take the fall when Mr. Tall-dark-and-nosey found out the money was missing. It wasn’t hard to transfer several large sums of cash into a dummy bank account.”

It was all coming together for Cali. She remembered Matthew telling her about the employee they’d discovered embezzling shortly after he’d started working for her father. He wouldn’t be happy that an innocent man had been framed.

But Cali’s thoughts were interrupted as Peter turned. But this time, his hand wasn’t empty. He waved the black barrel of a gun carelessly in her face.

“Everything would have been fine if your father would have just left things alone and trusted me to take care of it!” he said, slamming his hand down on the desk in front of her, making her jump.

“You…you’re the one who sent the notes to my father threatening him.” 

The left side of his mouth quirked up into a smile, “You are a smart one, aren’t you, Cali. No wonder daddy wanted to put you in charge. Too bad it will cost him an heir.”

Cali’s heart pounded in her chest. This was it? Her dad. Matthew.
I’ll never be able to tell him that him that I love him. Never be able to look into those blue eyes again and dream that he could one day love me back.

Suddenly the door flew open. “Cali, are you—” Lisa stopped dead in her tracks as Peter brought the gun up from where it was resting on the desk and pointed it at her.

“Step inside and close the door, Lisa.”

But she didn’t move. There was indecision in her eyes.

Then there was a muffled thump, and Lisa fell to the floor, unconscious. Cali saw movement in the doorway and looked up. She gasped.

“Sorry I’m late. Did I miss anything?”

As Matthew pulled into the parking garage, he couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. The weasel had covered his tracks well, but not well enough. Peter Carson was going to pay for all the trouble he’d caused.

With the information they already had on Mariana, Martinez was getting a warrant to tap all his phone lines and put him under twenty-four-hour surveillance. Matthew could monitor him at work, but outside would be more difficult; he just didn’t have the manpower for something like that, especially long term.

And it would be long term, a few weeks at the very least. Peter wasn’t hijacking the shipments himself, but he probably had contact with whoever it was by phone or in person.

Cali’s words earlier about the financials not making sense kept replaying in his mind. He’d already put a call into an old army buddy of his who was a whiz with numbers. After everything else, Matthew wouldn’t put it past Peter to skim the accounts. He probably had a nice little nest egg in an offshore account somewhere.

Pulling into his spot, he turned off the car and jogged to the elevator. After hitting the up button, he pulled out his phone to call his brother. He wanted Jason to meet him in Cali’s office so he could tell them both the good news.

When he looked down at his phone, he realized he’d turned it off at the station. It came to life just as the doors opened, and he stepped inside. Moving to hit the top floor, his hand stopped mid reach. His phone was programmed to show him a current image of Cali’s office every fifteen minutes.

The doors automatically closed as he scrolled through two hours of saved images.

He reached the next to the last one, and felt his stomach sink like a stone as he watched Peter walk toward Cali. Pushing the down arrow revealed the last picture, which, according to the time stamp, was taken only moments ago. Peter was at the window, and Cali sat in her chair, her body set in unnatural stillness.

Hitting the elevator button for the floor just below executive suites, Matthew pressed the speed dial on his phone. He didn’t wait for a greeting when Martinez picked up the line. “He’s in her office right now. Something’s wrong.” 

His friend knew him enough not to argue. “We’re on our way.” 

Matthew knew Martinez would prefer he wait for backup to arrive, but that wasn’t going to happen.

The minutes seemed to tick away as the floors passed by one at a time. It had to be the longest elevator ride, but when the doors finally opened, Matthew hit the floor running. He wanted his presence to go undetected until he could assess the situation. He slowly opened the door to the stairwell and silently made his way up one floor to the executive level and to Cali.

It was one of the top floors, and no one up here used the stairs. Not to mention the fact that it was just minutes before five o’clock when eighty percent of the employees would pile out into the streets, completely unaware of what was happening on the top floor. Matthew slowed down as he quietly approached the final flight of stairs, freed his gun from his ankle holster, and checked the magazine.

Looking through the small window, he could see the foyer was empty. Why wasn’t Lisa at her desk? 

Cali’s door was open, which was a good sign. So as silently as he could, he opened the door to the stairwell and slipped unseen onto the top floor.

A quick scan confirmed there was no one else here, so he moved closer to the open doorway, gun at the ready. He heard voices coming from Cali’s office, and as he listened, he could hear more than just Cali and Peter in the room. Another female?

***

“What’s going on?” Cali asked. “I thought you were my friend.” Cali sat dumbfounded as she stared at the woman who’d been one of the few friend’s she’d had overseas.

“Oh come on, Cali. You know the old saying, blood is thicker than water,” Rachael said flippantly.

She laughed at Cali’s confused expression.

“What are you talking about?” Cali asked and then paused to look at Peter before going back to Rachael. “You’re related?”

“Sometimes it’s a good thing when the old man can’t keep it in his pants,” she laughed.

Cali’s stomach turned. It was impossible to keep an eye on both of them.

Rachael paused briefly to give a firm kick to Lisa’s limp body, reaffirming the butt of her gun had knocked her out cold. A chill ran up Cali’s spine. Lisa isn’t moving.

Peter and Rachael are going to kill me.
She closed her eyes briefly and prayed it wouldn’t be Matthew who found her body. She didn’t want that to be his last memory of her.

Rachael walked slowly to Cali’s left side. She took her gun and used it to tilt Cali’s chin up. “So…are you going to be a good girl and cooperate or is a little persuasion in order, hm?”

“What do you want?”

Rachael looked at Peter, and her eyebrow quirked up in question. “I hadn’t gotten that far,” he said and then added, “Why you don’t do the honors.” 

A wicked smile crossed her face as she looked back down at Cali. “Well, you see, we need to take care of a little business.” Cali refused to respond, and Rachael’s smile grew. “Oh, it’s nothing big really. We just need you to sign some things. It will make everything go so much smoother.”

Cali was determined. They would not see just how afraid she was even though her insides were doing somersaults. “I’m not signing anything,” Cali said firmly. She was not going to help these two. They’d done enough damage already. I only hope it won’t hurt too much.

A tearing pain shot up her arm, and a loud popping sound filled the room as she cried out. The room tilted as she tried to remain focused and not black out.

“You only need one arm to sign your name, Cali. And where you’re going, you won’t need your legs either. So what’s it going to be? Do I start working off body parts here, or are you going to sign the papers?” Rachael nodded to the small pile Peter had placed in front of her.

Cali looked down through the tears forming in her eyes at the few sheets she could see. Several were for the quarterly reports she’d been reviewing. If she signed them, it would be her approval and anything negative found would be on her.

But that wasn’t what made her toes curl. The second paper did that all by itself. It was a resignation letter stating she no longer felt able to fulfill her obligations as acting CEO and that she was returning to her first love—being a doctor overseas.

Her heart pounded in her ears. Cali knew what would happen if she signed that paper. Communication was sparse in Africa. Her father had been lucky she was in a place where she could be reached when he called. There’d been many times over those two years when she’d be out of touch for more than a month. And that would be more than enough time for Peter and Rachael to get rid of her and any evidence linking them to her disappearance.

Rachael’s voice brought her back out of her musings. “We don’t have all day, Cali. You have thirty seconds to pick up that pen, or I put a bullet in your leg.” Everything stilled.

The seconds ticked away but no one moved. “Five seconds, Cali.” Her mouth went dry. “Four.” Fear took over and her breathing came in short, rough pants. “Three. Two.”

***

“Don’t move!” Matthew shouted from the doorway.

Rachael didn’t listen.

The sound of her gunshot filled the room, and Matthew’s heart stopped for a split second before he reacted. Another shot rang out mingling with Cali’s scream.

“No!” Peter shouted as he saw Rachael fall, and her gun drop to the floor. He didn’t hesitate, raising his own gun, but Matthew was faster. His second bullet found its home directly in the center of Peter forehead.

Matthew’s training kicked in and took stock of the entire situation. Two enemies.

Two casualties. And two victims. He didn’t allow himself to feel the despair that was threatening just yet. He knelt down quickly, making sure Lisa had a pulse before moving to Cali.

When he reached her side, her limp body was slumped over on itself, and her face was devoid of color. “Cali?” he pleaded. The ache in his chest was nearly unbearable. “Please, Cali, look at me.” 

Gradually her eyes came up, but they were glassy, unfocused. He felt moisture sting his eyes but pushed it away. She needed him right now. He couldn’t lose it. Matthew could see the blood rushing out of her leg, and he pressed down hard to staunch the flow. I can’t lose her. Seconds later, he dialed 911 for the second time in two short months for the woman he loved.