Chapter 74
I ndie frowned as the lawyer explained that he needed to meet with her in person about the contents of Billy’s will.
“Can’t you just do it over video call?” she asked. “I’ve got a baby in the neonatal unit and I don’t really have time to go to your office.”
Especially as he was located in Birmingham.
“Actually, I’m not working out of an office at the moment,” Mr. Hughes said with a sigh. “It was broken into a week ago.”
She glanced over at Slade and Quaid who were in Slade’s home office with her, listening in. The lawyer didn’t know they were there, of course.
Slade nodded, then wrote something on a piece of paper.
“I’m sorry that happened,” she said as he turned the paper around.
“Yes, well, I’d really like to tie this all up, Ms. Madden,” he said impatiently. “I was overseas when I received the news of Billy’s death and then it took me a while to locate you.”
Was he expecting an apology?
Sorry I was hiding from the bastard who beat me.
But she sucked in a breath and then glanced at the piece of paper. “We can meet at my new boyfriend’s business but it’s in London.”
“Actually, that will work,” he said. “I have to be in London tomorrow for business. Can you meet me around five?”
“Sure. I’ll email through the address.” She ended the call and glanced over at Slade. “What do you think Billy left me?”
“I don’t know. But the lawyer seems desperate to get everything wrapped up,” Slade said. “Whatever it is, Boo, we’ll deal with it. Like we deal with everything from now. As a family.”
She smiled at him, getting up to walk over and sit in his lap. “I like that. As a family.”
Indie held Quaid’s hand as they sat on the sofa in Slade’s office at Club Slade and waited for the lawyer.
The bell buzzed and Slade turned to look at the cameras. “There he is. Go let him in.” Quaid nodded and stood, letting go of her hand.
“Do you think he’ll be upset that we had him meet us at a BDSM club?” she asked Slade.
“Who cares if he is,” he replied. “This is his job.”
Her phone buzzed and she checked the message. Spencer had sent a phot to the group chat of him with Hope cuddled to his chest.
She had to smile. She might be biased but she happened to think that her baby was the cutest baby in the world.
And her guys were the sexiest.
“She’s so beautiful,” Slade said as he looked at the photo as well. “I can hardly believe we have a baby.”
“I love the way you guys always say we,” she told him.
“We’re in this together,” Slade told her. “We’re a family.”
They were. They were a family.
Quaid reappeared with a heavy-set, sweating man in a cheap suit huffing behind him .
“This isn’t where I thought we’d be meeting,” the man said immediately.
“Hello to you too,” Slade said with a frown.
Mr. Hughes swallowed heavily. “Ah, yes, hello. I’m Evan Hughes, Billy Moray’s lawyer. You’re Ms. Madden?”
“Yes.” She might have stood and shook his hand if he hadn’t been so rude when he first walked in.
So she stayed sitting and Quaid joined her on the sofa.
“Right. Well. I don’t have much time. In accordance with Billy’s wishes you are to have this.
” He drew a small metal box out of the leather bag he carried.
“This was kept in a secure location and Billy’s will stipulated that in the advent of his death, I was to deliver it to you in person.
He told me that I should hire a bodyguard while delivering it.
Honestly, the guy was so paranoid. A code is needed to open the box.
It’s meant to be indestructible. He said that you’d know the code. ”
Odd. What was in the box? And what would the code be?
“Is that it?” she asked. “There was nothing else?” Like a written note or something?
“That’s it. Goodbye.” He strode out.
“Wait. I’ll see you out,” Quaid said, rising.
“Uh, right,” he said, sweating more.
Quaid disappeared with him.
“I didn’t even have to show ID?” she asked.
“There was definitely something off about all of that,” Slade said. “Have you got any idea what the code is?”
Quaid walked back up the stairs. “What was up with that guy? What a dick.”
“I don’t know what the code could be,” she said.
“It also has a fingerprint reader,” Quaid said, studying it.
“What? How am I meant to open that when Billy is dead?” she asked.
“Maybe it’s not his fingerprint,” Slade said. “Try yours.”
“But how is that possible?” she asked as she placed her finger over the pad. Sure enough, a light turned green .
“He must have done it at some stage,” Slade said. “Maybe while you were asleep?"
God, she could just see that bastard doing that. For all she knew, he’d drugged her one night.
“What about the pin code?” Quaid said. “Any ideas?”
“It’s four digits, maybe his birthday?” she said.
“I don’t think so. Seems too obvious,” Slade said.
“My birthday? Hmm. What about the day we met? Not many people would know that. Only him and I. And Maggie.”
“Try it,” Quaid said.
She put the pin in, her fingers shaking. Then she waited a few seconds. Drat. Had it not worked?
Suddenly, the box opened to reveal a pen drive inside.
“What the hell? Why would he leave you this?” Slade asked. He’d come over to look at the contents.
“I don’t know,” she said. “But I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“I think we should get Shepherd to check the pen drive on one of his secured computers,” Quaid said.
Slade nodded and walked back over to the desk to pick up his phone. He frowned as something caught his attention on his screen.
“Fuck! Who the hell are they? There are four guys at the door,” he said urgently.
“Can’t see their faces, but they’re trying to get in.
One of them . . . just opened the fucking door!
How the hell did they have a code?” Slade grabbed his phone, speaking into it.
“Shep, trouble. Four armed thugs. At the club. Go to camera. Get some guys on standby.” Slade immediately put the phone down as three men burst into the room.
Quaid had stepped in front of Indie, blocking her view. Her heart was racing so hard that she was going to be ill. All she saw when she looked at the men were the guns in their hands.
Then she really took them in.
Shit. It was the same guys that she’d run into outside the apartment she’d lived in with Billy. When she’d been searching through her handbag for her keys.
“Hello, don’t be alarmed,” one of them said. He was the one she’d bumped into. “We’re not here to harm you. Just to get back some property that belongs to us.” He nodded at the box that she’d set down on the coffee table.
Shit. He’d be able to see that it was open.
That didn’t seem like a good sign.
“And what could possibly belong to you that we’d have?” Slade asked. “Also, that you’d need to bring guns to collect?”
“It always pays to be careful. And the thing we want is that pen drive.”
If they wanted it so badly, they could have it. She went to hand it to them, but Quaid took it from her, stepping in front of her once more.
“Why would you want the pen drive?” Quaid asked. “And what happens to us once you get it?”
“We leave, of course,” the main guy said.
Would they just leave? They’d seen their faces. Weren’t they worried about them reporting these guys to the cops?
“Look, we’ve really got no interest in killing you all,” he said. “In fact, that could create quite a few issues for us considering who your families are. And the fact that we have connections to a business rival of yours.”
Huh? What business rival?
Slade stiffened. “Zodiac Construction?”
“Now, I didn’t say that. All we want is the box and we’ll leave peacefully. Do you really want to fight us over something from that slimeball, Billy?”
“What’s on the pen drive?” Quaid asked.
“Just some information that belongs to us.”
“Information worth killing him over?” Slade asked.
The guy smiled. But it wasn’t a nice smile. It looked mean and cold and she shivered.
Yep. This asshole had killed Billy .
“Don’t ask questions you don’t want answers to,” he said.
Why did everything he say sound like a threat?
“There was no love lost between us and Billy,” Quaid said. “He hurt our girl. If you didn’t kill him, we would have.”
Wait. They would have?
Or was he just saying that?
“Yeah, Billy was a real peach. You’re a pretty girl, Indie. You deserved better than him. Of course, I didn’t think you were going to end up with four guys. One from one of the richest families in England. And another who is the heir to a dukedom.”
Spencer and Quaid, he meant.
Hearing him say her name was creepy.
“And another with a good head for business.” He smiled over at Slade. But it was a shark’s smile.
All teeth and bite.
She shuddered. “You’ll leave without hurting anyone? If we give you this pen drive?”
“Of course,” he said.
Slade and Quaid stared at each other silently. They were tense, neither of them wanted to give in.
“Of course, if you don’t give it to us, we’ll just have to take it. That way won’t be so pleasant. And I’m sure you’re wanting to get back to your baby.”
They knew about Hope?
A whimper escaped her.
“It’s all right, Boo,” Slade soothed. “We’re going to hand it over nice and slow. Did you bribe the lawyer? Is that how you knew he had the pen drive and that he was bringing it here today? Why didn’t he just give it to you?”
“Billy told us that the pen drive was with his lawyer, locked up tight and secure. The lawyer has been overseas and we were having trouble finding him. We broke into his office but couldn’t find the pen drive.
So we decided to put a guy on him once he returned.
We did debate just taking the pen drive from him.
But before he died Billy said the information was locked up tight and that we’d never access it without her.
We assumed that you were the her he was talking about.
” He nodded at Indie. “So we decided to let this play out.”