Chapter 20
Getting past the security guards at Light Energy was just as easy as Peter had predicted. When Peter demanded access to the building the guards obeyed without even a token protest, and they even went so far as to provide directions to Andrew Silkwood’s office.
“Thank you,” Peter said, walking past the security desk and into the elevator with Merchant by his side. They made their way up to the executive floor, Peter exiting the elevator first and heading right for Andrew Silkwood’s office.
Silkwood’s secretary was seated at the desk right outside his door, and when Peter and Merchant approached she looked up and froze.
“Is Mr. Silkwood in?” Peter asked, imbuing his voice with every ounce of authority he possessed. The secretary’s eyes widened, her whole body frozen like a deer caught in the headlights, but then she nodded.
Peter grinned, the smile about as far from nice as you could get, and barged into the office.
“What are—”
Silkwood snapped his mouth shut at the sight of Peter and Merchant, looking more confused than scared. Merchant closed the door behind him, coming to stand next to Peter and crossing his arms over his chest.
Peter studied Silkwood. The man looked like his picture, though it hadn’t really done him justice. He had dark blond hair, a square cut jaw, and a body that spoke of many hours spent in the gym. He might be a corporate suit, but he was a good looking one.
“Can I help you?” Silkwood asked. He sounded nervous, but not nearly as nervous as he should be. Given what he had ordered done, Silkwood should be pissing his pants right about now.
“In a manner of speaking,” Peter said, moving forward and sitting down in the seat in front of Silkwood’s desk.
While he did that, Merchant walked around the desk and positioned himself behind the beta, putting his hands on the man’s shoulders.
Silkwood went tense; though he still wasn’t the blubbery mess that Peter would have expected him to be.
“You tried to kidnap my mate. I would like to know why.”
Silkwood’s eyes widened and sweat started beading on his brow.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Silkwood said, his voice surprisingly steady.
Merchant shifted his hand from the beta’s shoulder, sliding it down over his chest and grabbing his tie. He twisted the length of fabric around his hand, using the grip to pull Silkwood’s head back so that he could look into his eyes.
“You want to try that again, pretty?” Merchant asked, leaning down and putting his face dangerously close to Silkwood’s face.
The beta swallowed, the sound loud and conspicuous, and Merchant cupped his free hand over his throat.
The move was inappropriately sexual, but Peter didn’t tell Merchant to stop.
“They weren’t going to hurt him!” Silkwood blurted out, his voice frantic. “They were just supposed to hold him long enough to for you to vote no on the merger.”
Peter leaned back in the chair, studying the beta and wondering what was going on.
“Why Chad?” he asked, tilting his head questioningly. Merchant was rubbing Silkwood’s throat, the hand that had been on his tie sliding down to grope and feel his pecs. Merchant was obviously enjoying himself, and Peter had no plans of stopping his fun. Not while it served his purpose.
“Who?” Silkwood asked, closing his eyes when Merchant leaned in and licked along his jaw.
“My mate,” Peter said, catching Merchant’s eye and shaking his head when the alpha started putting his fingers into Silkwood’s mouth. He was fine watching Merchant molest and hurt the man, but outright sexual assault was off the menu.
Merchant pouted, but he removed his fingers from the corner of Silkwood’s mouth, standing up and fisting both his hands in the beta’s hair. He pulled Silkwood’s head back and pinned him to the seatback of his chair.
“I don’t know. I just asked them to target whoever would be easiest to convince to vote no.” Silkwood was crying now, snot dripping from his nose.
Now that didn’t make sense at all. There were several people on the board who would have been much safer targets for an attempt like this—Peter’s parents among them.
What was going on here?
“Who is them?” Peter asked.
“I don’t know. Our CSO gave me the number. I only ever spoke to him on the phone,” Silkwood said, his breaths coming hard and fast. “And anyway it’s been called off. They wanted more money to finish the job and I said no.”
That was good. Chad would be pleased to know that he wasn’t in danger and that Aiden could be sent home.
“Did your CSO know what you were planning?” Merchant asked. Silkwood shook his head.
“No. I just asked him who he would use if he needed something taken care of.”
“Give me the number,” Peter demanded, nodding at Merchant to let the man go.
Silkwood cringed away the second Merchant’s hands were out of his hair, bending down and opening the bottom drawer on his desk.
He was shaking so bad it took him several tries to get it open.
Merchant leaned over and watched what he was doing, so Peter was confident he wasn’t about to have a gun pointed at him or anything like that.
“Here it is,” Silkwood said, sliding a piece of paper across the desk. Peter pulled out his phone, snapped a picture, and sent it to Dawn. It was probably a burner phone and a dead end, but they might get lucky.
“So this guy is the one who decided to target me and my mate?” Peter asked, just to confirm.
Silkwood nodded.
“What did he say exactly?” Peter was not happy. If the intermediary had suggested targeting Peter and Chad over practically anyone else on the board, it could only be because he had a personal grudge against Peter.
He did not like the idea that an unknown figure with ties to the criminal underworld was out to get him.
“I don’t know. He didn’t say anything—at least I don’t think so.”
Now that got Peter’s attention.
“What do you mean, you don’t this so? Weren’t you the one to speak to him?”
Silkwood shook his head. “I... uh, no. I had my secretary make the call. She was the one who set it up and arranged the payment.”
Peter didn’t even have to give Merchant a look. The man was already making his way out of the office to collect the woman.
“She’s gone,” Merchant said a second later, making Peter curse. “Do you want me to stay here with him or should I track her down?”
“Go after her,” Peter said. “I’ll stay here with Silkwood until the police arrive and take his confession.”
Silkwood paled at the mention of the police, and Peter considered asking him if he’d rather just have his throat torn out instead.
Instead of heading out, Merchant walked right up to Silkwood and grabbed him by the tie. He leaned in so that he was nose to nose with the terrified beta.
“You’re about to get a phone call from a very nice woman, and you’re going to answer all her questions to the best of your ability. Do you understand?”
Silkwood nodded, and Merchant gave him a little shake and patted his cheek.
“Good boy. Don’t make me come back here.”
“I won’t,” Silkwood croaked.
Peter raised a questioning eyebrow in Merchant’s direction as he came back around the desk, wondering what that was all about.
“Dawn probably already has all the info on his secretary, but if she doesn’t he’s going to answer anything she wants to know,” Merchant explained.
Peter nodded. That made sense.
“All right, I’m heading out. I’ll call you when I’ve got something.”
“Do that,” Peter said, watching him leave the room. When the door closed he turned back to Silkwood. “Your secretary, did she seem particularly invested in this?”
Silkwood just stared at him. “What do you mean?”
“Never mind,” Peter said. If it was Silkwood’s secretary that had chosen to make Peter the target, Silkwood obviously hadn’t known.
Thinking back to the woman he and Merchant had seen on the way in, Peter tried to remember if there was anything familiar about her. She’d been attractive, at least for a beta, but there was nothing distinctive in her features that rang any bells for Peter.
Picking up his cell phone, Peter called one of his contacts on the police force to come take Silkwood’s confession and arrest him. Silkwood watched Peter make the call, his face pale as Peter hung up the phone and slid it back into his pocket.
“So how much money does your wife stand to lose if this merger goes through?” Peter asked, curious at the amount that had prompted this whole mess. Silkwood swallowed, looking very much like he was regretting his recent life choices.
“About thirty million dollars.”
Well. Peter could see why he’d felt the need to do something, but there was no forgiving the move against Chad.
***
A pair of detectives arrived about an hour later.
Silkwood’s face went grey at the sight of them and Peter wondered if he was going to have a panic attack.
The two detectives took his confession right there in the office and led him away in cuffs.
As he was marched through the lobby, stumbling and disbelieving, it seemed like the entire company had come out to see the spectacle.
Silkwood looked like his whole world was crumbling down around his shoulders.
Peter hung back, avoiding the crowd, and departed the building through one of the rear exists.
He circled back to his SUV and got behind the wheel, calling Dawn and asking her if she could handle the dinner meeting with the Rockshaw CSO by herself.
He wasn’t in the mood to be schmoozing prospective clients.
“Of course, though it would be better if I had an alpha with me,” Dawn said, sounding unfazed. “Saul, for example.”
“That’s fine,” Peter said. “I appreciate it.”
Hanging up, Peter drove home and took a shower. He checked the time to see how long he had before Chad got back from his classes, and called down for an order of steaks for dinner.
About half an hour later he heard Chad and Aiden making their way into the penthouse.
“Anybody home?” Chad called, making Peter smile. He walked out into the outer hallway to greet his mate, and he was relieved to find him smiling and acting like he was in a good mood.
It seemed like Aiden had managed to behave for another day.
“Hey, you,” Peter said, walking up to Chad and wrapping him up in a hug. He leaned down and kissed him, licking into his mouth until Aiden cleared his throat and made him break away.
“Aiden. Did he behave himself today?” Peter asked, making Chad punch his arm. Aiden laughed, shrugging.
“He’s a good puppy,” he said, making Chad scowl. Peter was about to berate him but Aiden continued. “He’s made some progress with hand to hand combat since I had him in my class, but he could be a lot better. I don’t understand why you haven’t worked with him on it.”
Peter was abruptly taken aback by the rebuke—a little bit because he didn’t expect Aiden to care how good Chad was at hand to hand combat, but mostly because it had never occurred to him to give Chad any personalized training. Now that Aiden pointed it out however, he wondered why it hadn’t.
“You think I should be teaching him?” he asked. He looked at Chad, but his young mate didn’t seem to enthusiastic about the idea.
“Why not?” Aiden said, crossing his arms. “How would you feel if he ever needed to protect himself and he couldn’t—all because you didn’t think it was important enough to teach him?”
Peter felt his lip curl down in a snarl, but he held back any angry words because Aiden was right. If Chad were ever hurt because of an inability to defend himself, Peter would always wonder if he couldn’t have prepared him better.
“I’ll work with him,” he said, making up his mind.
“Peter, you don’t have to—" Chad started to object, but Peter cut him off.
“Aiden is right,” he said. “I love you very much, and I should be doing everything I can to keep you safe. That includes teaching you how to protect yourself.”
“See?” Aiden said, looking at Chad. “I told you he’d be willing to teach you.”
That made Peter frown. Had Chad thought that Peter would say no if he ever asked for help with his training? The idea sat poorly in his gut.
“I’m going to take a shower,” Chad said, kicking off his shoes. He left them lying on the middle of the floor and walked away, leaving Peter confused about what he had done wrong.
“How are things on your end?” Aiden asked when Chad rounded the corner. “Any progress on figuring out who tried to take him?”
Peter turned back to Aiden and nodded, telling him everything that had happened with Silkwood and his secretary.
“Do you think she’s dangerous?” Aiden asked, sounding skeptical.
Peter honestly didn’t know. A beta with a gun could be just as dangerous as an alpha, though he had no idea if the woman would go to those kinds of lengths. He didn’t even know why she had a grudge against him.
“I don’t know. Hopefully Merchant can track her down tonight and we can put this whole thing behind us.”
“So am I still on for tomorrow?” Aiden asked.
“Until we catch her, yes. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
Aiden nodded at that, promising to come back with his team at the same time the next day. Peter walked him out to the elevator, one hand on his shoulder, saying goodbye and feeling grateful that he had someone he trusted looking out for Chad’s safety.
***