Chapter 15
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Archer sipped his coffee. He'd been up for hours. In fact, he hadn't really slept at all. His mind kept circling back to Tatum, among other things.
Putting down his mug, he picked up his pen and signed yet another contract.
He'd been signing contracts and making real estate deals for the last five hours since he'd given up on sleep entirely.
After signing each one, he immediately scanned it and sent it, via encrypted email, to his broker.
The paper copy went straight into the shredder.
These deals were too dangerous to leave hard copies lying around, at least at this point.
Too many prying eyes. Encrypted copies of everything were kept in the cloud, and that had to be good enough.
Archer didn't trust any of his clerical staff enough to have them handle the paperwork, and wasn't that a sad statement on the state of things?
Austin Davis and now Eli Fisher had done that to him. More's the pity.
His desk phone rang. "Yes?"
Alana, one of his assistants, said, "Senator Davis is here to see you."
Archer's gut rolled. Coming in person was another shot across the bow. They were at war now, and Davis was upping the ante.
"Send him in." He scanned his desk rapidly, making sure nothing he didn’t want seen was visible
"Yes, sir."
A moment later, the door opened, and Davis strode through. Navy suit, light blue shirt, and scarlet red tie, not doing anything to erase the hangdog expression firmly in place. Except for his eyes. His eyes gleamed with something that looked uncomfortably like smugness.
Archer went on full alert. Whatever was about to happen, Davis was feeling very good about it, which meant Archer's morning was about to go sideways.
"Austin," he said, getting to his feet to shake the other man's hand. "Would you like some coffee?"
Davis shook his head. "I'm afraid this isn't a social call. We have a problem."
Archer gestured toward the visitor's chair and mentally braced himself. "Have a seat. What's the problem and how may I help?"
Davis sat and immediately leaned into the drawl. "It pains me to say it, but I have found more proof of malfeasance in the Society."
Archer cocked an eyebrow. "Malfeasance?"
"Someone is definitely installin' cameras at certain locations." He pulled a small object from his coat pocket and placed it on the desk.
Archer frowned. "You found this camera installed somewhere?"
"No, not this one. But ones like it were found installed in the Society location in Madrid." Davis gave a theatrical shake of his head. "This is appalling. The integrity of the Society has been broken. We must do something about this."
Archer kept his features neutral, but the muscles in his back tightened. "Who found these cameras, and where, exactly, were they located?"
Davis shook his head again. "I'm afraid this was brought to me in confidence. I cannot reveal my source. You understand."
Because there was no source. The whole scenario was all a product of Davis’s machinations. Archer ground his teeth. "Yes. I understand completely." And he did. "What is it you think is the appropriate response?"
Davis's eyes widened, and he sputtered, "Well, I would think you'd want to investigate this immediately. This is a serious breach of trust. We need to call an emergency board meeting."
Archer leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee.
Set the cup down. Frowned. "I can see you're upset by this.
However, no one reported finding any cameras to any of my people.
Without that, and with you unwilling to share your source, I have no way of knowing if there is any truth to your accusation at all. "
Davis's mouth curled into a snarl, and his eyes flashed. The Texas drawl thinned considerably. "Are you calling me a liar?"
Abso-fucking-lutely. Archer bit back the words. "Not at all. But without verifiable evidence, it would be remiss of me to bring this to the board. I need hard proof, Austin. Your source will have to come forward."
Davis leaned forward and growled. "It sounds like you're saying I'm not trustworthy."
"I'm saying it would be negligent of me to call an emergency board meeting over hearsay.
I'm sure you are trustworthy, but I am not so sure about your source.
There are people who would have reasons to want to damage the Society's reputation and cause panic among our members.
It's my job to stop that from happening. "
Archer stood. "In order to pursue this, I need more proof, Austin. I will, of course, instruct my security team to run extra sweeps in Madrid and at all other locations. But for now, that's all I can do. I'm sure you understand."
Davis got to his feet, scowl firmly in place. "I'm not so sure that's all you can do."
Bemused, Archer studied him. Davis should have been more agitated than this.
He still had that gleam in his eye, as if the conversation had gone exactly as he'd expected it to.
And if that was the case, what was he actually getting out of it?
Unease crept up Archer's spine. Something else was going on here.
"Have you discussed this with Eli?" It was a shot in the dark, but instinct made him ask. Not something he normally did, ask questions he didn't already know the answers to, but he was starting to see the shape of this one.
Davis's face suffused with color, and he pursed his lips. "Well, it seemed only sensible to consult with another board member."
"And Eli encouraged you to come to me, did he? He wanted you to be the one to approach me, even though initially, he brought the information to you. That’s the truth, isn’t it?"
"He did and rightly so," Davis said with a growl. "This is a very serious issue. It's a violation of our space, which is supposed to be sacrosanct."
"Quite. If it were true, I'd agree with you entirely. At this point, we don't actually know that it is true, do we? All we know is that Eli Fisher told you it was true. If Eli Fisher knows something, he needs to come and see me himself."
Davis's mouth opened and closed a few times. His eyes narrowed.
Bull’s-eye. Fisher was behind this latest push. Davis probably hadn't even realized he was being used. After all, it was Davis who had put Fisher up for the board in the first place. So who exactly was manipulating whom? That was a question worth sitting with.
"It does not matter who the information came from," Davis said, rallying. "It needs to be investigated."
"As I said, I will look into it." Archer put his hands on his hips. "That's all I can promise without an actual name or concrete evidence."
Davis harumphed. "We'll see," was all he said, and then he strode out of the office looking considerably less confident than when he'd walked in.
Archer watched the door close and then picked up his phone.
He dialed a number he knew by heart. "Find out who Eli Fisher is fronting for," he said and hung up.
He hit another number immediately. "Ryker.
There's been a complaint that someone found a camera in our Madrid location.
Find out what's going on and get back to me. "
"Will do." A pause. "This isn't going away, is it? The camera thing."
"No. It's not. Eventually, I'll have to call an emergency board meeting where Davis and his people will present their case."
"You don't think Davis is the only one behind this?"
"No." Archer let out a slow breath. "I'm starting to think there's considerably more to it. Let me know what you find out."
He hung up and stared, unseeing, at the wall across from him.
It was a straightforward play when he looked at it clearly, which was the most troubling thing about it.
All Davis or Fisher had to do was have someone smuggle a camera into one of the Society's locations, hide it well enough to be found by the right person at the right moment, and it would be over for Archer.
He wasn't so blind as to think that wasn't precisely what they were working toward.
The camera sitting on his desk right now, the one Davis had produced from his pocket with such theatrical concern, could have come from anywhere.
It proved nothing and pointed at everything.
So the real question was how he got to Davis and Fisher first.
He picked up the small device and turned it over in his fingers.
Because if he didn't, that little piece of hardware, or one very much like it, might just be the thing that killed him.