Chapter 51
Chapter Fifty-One
Blake held the phone up while Danica spoke. “Fifty million,” she instructed.
The banker made her repeat herself.
“Yes, fifty. I need it in Bitcoin.”
There was a pause. “Of course, Ms. Foster-Grant. Just one moment while I process your request. Do you mind if I place you on hold?”
Blake had been right about her access to her bank at any time, any place. She also had a secret distress password that she could’ve used. It would indicate she was being forced to make the transaction, and the bank would notify the local police and the FBI.
But Blake probably knew about that, too. Danica didn’t dare use it.
Besides, it was just money. If she could buy Noah’s safety, she would. But Danica suspected that all she was buying was a few more minutes alive.
Blake was watching her with that same hard expression.
He was going to kill her. She knew it.
A plan. I need a plan.
The banker came back on. “Ms. Foster-Grant, it’ll be about an hour for the loan and currency exchange to go through. Would you like to wait on the line, or shall I call you when it’s finished?”
“Call me at this number. Thanks.”
Blake lowered the phone. Danica was still cuffed to the wine fridge, but the handle was long enough that she could sit on the floor.
“Was all of Valoris Security in on it?” she asked. “Even Rosie?”
He walked to the kitchen table and sat. An open laptop waited beside him, showing his cryptocurrency wallet. That was why Blake had left the house a few minutes ago—to get the laptop from the sedan.
“They only knew never to question my orders and to keep their mouths shut. The more people who knew, the more likely we’d have a leak. But I chose people whom I’d worked with before, who’d do what I asked. Then you insisted on adding Rosie. That did cause some complications.”
“But Rosie acted like she didn’t believe me after I saw Jason Gerrig outside the museum.”
“Probably because I told her you were unstable. Prone to hysteria. I framed it sympathetically, of course, and she trusted me as someone who’d known you all your life.”
Danica let her head fall back against the fridge door. “That’s why she was suddenly so concerned about me. Why she doubted what I’d seen.”
“I would’ve found a reason to replace Rosie earlier if I could. But by then, you were already suspicious. Then Noah was around you constantly, getting in the way, and Rosie barely mattered.”
Noah. Was he looking for her right now? Was there any possibility he’d figure out where she was before the bank transaction was complete?
“How did you recruit Jason Gerrig? I thought he was Soren’s bodyguard in New York.”
“That’s how I met him. I found out he’d been in the army, and we got to know one another.
Jason didn’t like the constraints of working for the government, or even for a private company.
I knew we were of the same mind. So when Jason was ready for a new opportunity, he let me know.
He relocated to Southern California. We worked on a few ops together. ”
The police had said Gerrig was a hitman. A mercenary. Blake had basically just admitted to participating. His role as chief of security for the Foster-Grants would’ve given him all kinds of access and insulated him from suspicion.
“Did my dad know Jason, too? I thought he recognized the tattoo when I showed him my drawing. He seemed nervous.”
“William? No, I doubt he remembered Jason on any conscious level. You’re underestimating the stress your father’s been under lately, keeping his secret about Tori. That was why he wanted you home so badly. To find a way to confess the truth, although the coward kept putting it off.”
Danica shook her head. Her father hadn’t known about the kidnapping plot, but his lies had still contributed. “Why send Gerrig to kidnap me? Why now?”
He sighed. “It was the IPO for Soren’s company.
I told your brother it was a bad idea, but he had his mind set, even if he had to falsify their financial data to make it happen.
All to impress William, the man who wasn’t really his father and had never loved him.
Soren was just begging the Securities and Exchange Commission to go after him, maybe even send him to federal prison.
After his brush with the law in college, they weren’t going to be sympathetic. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“So you decided to make the money by ransoming me? You couldn’t have ransomed Soren instead?”
“I’m not convinced William would’ve paid. And it would’ve drawn too much scrutiny to Soren. William told me you were coming back to West Oaks to work on your museum, and I saw the opportunity. After you hired Lindley Colter, I had Jason make contact with her to secure her cooperation.”
“Through threatening her and bribing her.”
“Of course. She wouldn’t have agreed otherwise. She helped Jason plan how the kidnapping would take place. She suggested the date and time you should arrive, based on Jason’s request.”
So Lindley hadn’t simply informed Jason of Danica’s schedule. She’d actually manipulated that schedule. That fact might’ve disappointed Danica in her friend even more. But Lindley was lying on the concrete outside, dead. No matter what she’d done, she didn’t deserve that.
“If you hadn’t arrived early to tour the museum that Friday,” Blake said, “you would never have seen Jason in the exhibits at all. Jason was there to ensure Lindley didn’t get cold feet and try to interfere.
He was supposed to leave the museum just before you were set to arrive.
He’d approach you on the sidewalk, help get you into the waiting SUV. It should’ve worked like clockwork.”
Blake was chatting about the conspiracy like it was nothing more than a plan for a dinner party.
“I probably wouldn’t have noticed him if not for the eagle tattoo.”
“That stupid tattoo. I told him to have it removed, but it was his signature. Too much ego, and it got him killed in the end.” He tilted his head thoughtfully.
“It’s unfortunate William ever decided to call Bennett Security.
I was trying to get him to hire Valoris, but you know your father, he likes options.
Earlier today, I gave Noah credit for saving you, and it’s true. He’s the reason our plan failed.”
She almost laughed. As usual, Blake wasn’t giving her much credit. She’d escaped the kidnappers multiple times, too. Without Noah’s help.
But Blake had clearly never expected her to fight back.
“How did Lindley find out you had hired Jason?” Danica asked. “I would’ve thought you’d prefer to stay in the shadows.”
“That had been my intent. I’d been trying to limit my communications with Jason as much as possible.
Burner phones, encrypted messages. But after the first attempt got botched, Lindley was terrified, and she needed more convincing.
Jason was only frightening her by turning up near the museum and her home. I stepped in to talk sense into her.”
“You must be regretting that decision now.”
Blake regarded her thoughtfully. “Lindley forced my hand. I might’ve done things slightly differently. But in the end, I’ll still get what I need.”
Even if Lindley hadn’t tried to double cross him, Blake probably would have gotten rid of her anyway.
And there was no way he’d let Danica live, either.
Danica forced herself to sit quietly for a while, even though she wanted to scream. She thought of Noah, of the possibility that she’d never see him again.
She remembered her mom, whom she’d lost all those years ago. Danica felt like she was losing her again right now. Because she’d never truly known her mother at all.
Her throat swelled, and her nose burned.
“What was my mom really like?”
At first, Blake didn’t react. She thought maybe he hadn’t heard her. But then he turned back to face her, his expression softening for the first time that night.
“She was very special to me. We met because I was a bodyguard for your family. They hired me when you were born. It was right after I left the army. So she and I were a little like you and Noah, in a way.”
Danica suppressed her revulsion at that comparison. What had her mother seen in this man? Had Blake been so different then? Or had her mother been fooled into loving him?
“She was the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen,” Blake went on. He wasn’t looking at Danica now. His gaze was focused in the distance. “It was no secret that your parents were married in name only. I asked her to run away with me, and I think she might’ve agreed. But she had you to consider.”
“I used to think you cared about me.”
“I do. Because a part of her lives on in you. But eventually, we all have to move on, don’t we?”
Tears streaked down Danica’s cheeks, and she let them fall.
Blake turned away.
He returned to his computer, tapping at the keys. Danica stared at the phone lying facedown on the table. When would it ring?
How many minutes did she have left?