19. Evan
EVAN
“I don’t feel right about this,” Vlado said, not looking up from Malcolm’s computer.
“I know.” I shut the drawer to the file cabinet with a sigh. “But we can’t risk bringing any sort of allegations against Malcolm to Emily without solid proof.”
“Good plan,” a voice said from behind me.
“Jesus!” I whirled around to find my sister leaning against the wall as casual as could be.
“You okay there, big bro?” she asked.
“How the hell did you get in here?” I asked, my heart still racing.
“You forgot about the hidden entrance in the closet?” She raised one perfectly shaped brow and looked pointedly at Vlado. “That’s not like you.”
He shrugged. “How did you know we were in here?”
“You sweet summer child.” She pushed off from the wall. “You set up my security system and not only hired, but also trained, my team.” She gave him a shrewd look. “Did you really think you’d be able to bypass my camera network without tripping the safety protocols you put in place?”
Vlado grinned. “Oopsie.”
I twisted toward him. “You wanted her to find out?”
“We’re all on the same side here.” Vlado looked between us. “We’ve been best friends since we were babies. This hiding shit and sneaking around behind each other’s backs is getting old and I’m sick of being in the middle of it.”
“We’re not sneak— Wait, each other’s backs? You two have been working against me?”
“Dial back the paranoia.” Emily rolled her eyes. “Vlado and I haven’t been working against you or going behind your back. We’ve just been… That’s a discussion for another day. Right now I want to know why you’re in Mal’s office.”
“We found something.” Vlado came around the desk and leaned his hip against it.
“What?” she said. “Does this have to do with your inheritance scheme?”
I shook my head. “This is far more serious.”
“My team was able to trace the origin of the letters,” Vlado revealed.
“Really?” Her eyes darkened as her expression went tight. “And you’re in here because Malcolm has something to do with them?”
Vlado nodded. “I had a hunch the call was coming from inside the house, so to speak, and I had all the printers at your dad’s offices checked again.
My team just confirmed that one of them is a match for the letters Evan’s been getting.
That printer is in an isolated part of the building and behind multiple locked doors.
Only a few people have access to the area.
It wasn’t Evan, and I’m confident that it’s not Grant… ”
“ Malcolm’s been sending them?” Her eyes were saucers. “Are you fucking serious?”
“As a heart attack,” Vlado said grimly. “Luckily for us, he’s not nearly as smart as he thinks he is.
We checked that area a few weeks ago and the printer wasn’t there.
He tried to cover his tracks, but my guys were able to not only trace the printer history to his office computer, but they also recovered the original files.
” He glanced at me. “We weren’t sure how to proceed since we didn’t have solid proof it’s him and not someone trying to frame him, but there’s no doubt in my mind he’s behind everything. ”
Her eyes blazed with fury. “That pencil-dicked, two-faced bastard . I knew something was going on.”
“You did?” I asked incredulously. “And you didn’t think to tell me?”
“Why would I tell you my suspicions when you didn’t bother telling me yours?”
“Children,” Vlado inserted firmly, “can we focus on what’s important here? As much as I want to go find lemon face and beat his ass into next week, we need tangible proof he’s behind everything.”
“You’re not going to find shit in his files— Wait, lemon face?”
“That’s what Nick calls him,” I said.
“Better than what I’m going to call him.” She stalked over to the desk. “You need to look in the safe. That’s where he hides the important stuff.”
“There’s a safe in here?” Vlado asked.
She tugged on the painting mounted behind the desk. It swung away from the wall like a door, exposing the front of a large metal safe. “He had it installed when he moved in.”
“Did he download The Movie Villian’s Guide to Being Sus as Fuck?” Vlado asked. “A wall safe behind a painting? It’s like fucking Clue around here. Malcolm in the study with the wall safe.”
“You’re starting to sound like Nick.” Emily spun the dial on the safe.
My brow knitted. “You know the combo?”
“One thing about Malcolm is that he thinks he’s smarter than everyone.
” She tugged on the handle, popped it up, pushed it down, then twisted it in three cranks.
“And because he’s so arrogant, he underestimates people, especially those he thinks are nothing more than a pretty face.
” She opened the safe. “The combo is his birthday backwards.”
“You’re taking this way better than I thought you would,” I said, suspicion creeping into my voice. “He’s your fiancé, yet you didn’t even blink when you heard about the printer.”
Emily pulled a leatherbound journal out of the safe and glared at me. “What are you implying?”
“Nothing.”
“Liar.”
“Okay, kids.” Vlado peeked around Emily and into the safe. “Can we focus on finding evidence so I can kick lemon face’s ass?”
“I’m just saying, it’s a little suspicious that you’re not even a teensy bit shocked.”
She rolled her eyes and stepped aside so Vlado could rifle through the safe. “Because I’ve had my own suspicions.”
“About the threats?” Vlado slid her a look.
“Not necessarily.” She flipped open the journal and thumbed through the pages.
“I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I had a feeling he was hiding something.
He’s been different the past few months.
I thought it was wedding stress, or him having a temper tantrum about Dad’s retirement plans. But he’s just been…off.”
“Holy shit.” Vlado spun to face us, a folder clutched in his hand.
“What?” I asked, resisting the urge to grab the folder.
“This is bad, Ev. Really bad.” Vlado stood behind Emily. “Do you remember that offshoot company you discovered, the one operating out of Romania?”
“Yes.” I’d found the records of the company while doing an audit of my father’s files. The thing that had tripped my suspicions was that the records were not only incomplete, but close to eighty percent of the file had either been redacted or was outright missing.
“This is the uncensored file. It says exactly what that company was set up for.”
I took the file and flipped it open. A quick scan of the first page told me everything I needed to know. “Human organs?”
“Excuse me, what?” Emily gaped.
“Your man is using Grant’s company to start his own organ trafficking ring,” Vlado told her.
“Are you sure it’s just Mal?” She looked nauseated. I’d never seen panic like that in her eyes as she swung them toward me. “Dad’s not in on it, is he?”
“Doesn’t look like it,” I said, “unless Dad is using Malcolm as his Patsy.” I snapped the file closed, desperately trying to tamp down my building rage.
“ This is why he’s been in Dad’s ear about changing the terms of his retirement.
He’s planning on using the company to branch into the black market and he knows he can’t do it unless he’s in full control of everything. ”
“I’d guess this is only a small part of what he’s doing.” Vlado took the file from me and replaced it in the safe. “You don’t go from law-abiding businessman to trafficking human organs in one step. He’s got to already be into some shady shit, possibly drugs and arms dealings.”
“I… I can’t even.” Emily put a hand to her stomach. “To think I’ve been sleeping next to him. That I was going to marry him! All because my goddamn parents wouldn’t shut up about how perfect he is and how it’s time I settle down and do my duty to the family. He was supposed to be a safe choice!”
Vlado’s arm went around her in comfort.
“I went along with all this bullshit because he’s exactly like our father and I know how to handle men like him.
But this?” She waved the journal. “He’s a monster.
I knew something was off about him, but I ignored my instincts because everyone gaslighted me into thinking I was the crazy one.
That there was something wrong with me because I dared to question him or his motivations. ”
Vlado hugged her against his body.
She leaned against him and shoved the journal at me. “This has all the proof you need about the threats. The fucker is so arrogant he chronicled everything. His reasons, methods. Even his contacts and the randoms he hired. It’s all in here.”
Ping .
I checked my phone.
Nick : where are u??? its an emergency
“Where’s Malcolm?” I barked.
“He’s with Imogen. At least he was twenty minutes ago. Why?”
“We need to find Nick.” Shoving the phone in my pocket, I took off at a run.
“Ev?” Vlado caught up as I flung the door open.
“He’s in trouble.” I took off down the hall.
“We’ll find him.” Vlado kept pace with me, his features hard and determined.
I glanced over my shoulder. Emily had kicked off her shoes and was only a few paces behind us. “Where was the last place you saw him?”
“He’ll either be in the sitting room, or my bedroom.”
The three of us raced across her house, cutting down hallways and taking corners at breakneck speed.
My mind raced with all the worst-case scenarios. What if Malcolm wasn’t working alone and someone else had gotten a hold of Nick? What if Malcolm wasn’t the prissy little prick I’d assumed he was and he’d hurt Nick?
An image of Nick on the floor, broken and beaten, flashed in my mind’s eye. Bile rose in my throat as terror and rage swirled through me in equal measure.
“We don’t have any facts.” Vlado pulled ahead of me. “Just focus on finding him. He’s going to be okay.”
I nodded and picked up the pace, my lungs burning from a tightness that had nothing to do with overexertion.