Wednesday At Three
Vex
How can I go about getting cameras into Dahl’s office? Wait, I don’t know where she even works. Every morning, like clockwork, a car arrives to take her to work and the same car seems to drop her off every night. She has to be an executive somewhere to afford a service like that.
She’s organized enough to run a big company.
But would she be able to make a subordinate shake at the thought of her wrath? Unlikely. Dahlia is probably one of those progressive bosses that everyone loves and worships… No man can worship her but me.
She’s mine.
Before I realize what I’ve done, I’ve dialed Payne.
“What?”
That’s my perpetually cheerful friend. “Where does Dahlia work?”
“Is everything alright?” Payne whispers, “Don’t worry, Immy.”
Immy? Immy? This isn’t good. “Everything is fine. Just tell me where she works.”
“Do you want to break the cone of silence? ”
I want to break down every wall between Dahlia and myself.
But getting to know her has been an enjoyable adventure.
“That’s an awfully long pause.”
“Why can’t this relationship thing be easy?” I lean back in my office chair and stare up at the ceiling. Like it’s going to have the answer I need.
“Anything this important is worth fighting for.”
Payne’s right, and I hate it. “What if someone is hitting on her at work right now? Dahlia is so sweet. She wouldn’t know how to fend off any unwanted advances.”
Imogene snorts. “Prue, too delicate. I’ve known her for all of one evening and I know she’d do whatever she needed to get rid of a guy. That’s how you two met, isn’t it?”
Why is Imogene even part of this conversation? “Her boss brought her soup.”
“Ahh. You’re jealous. Let me ask you, do you trust her?”
My gut says yes, but my mind fights trusting someone that I barely know. “She isn’t the issue.”
“She’s the only issue. You either trust her or you don’t.”
That woman is irritating. “What if I wanted to send her flowers or something?”
“Is that why you wanted the address?”
No. “Dahlia would like flowers.”
“Then ask her where she works, and then send her flowers.”
I might hate this woman, especially since she’s right.
“Wait, aren’t you supposed to be having dinner with the people from her work on Friday?” Payne chimes in.
Ugh, I shouldn’t have told him about that while we were waiting for the girls to finish gabbing and hogging the cinnamon bread. “Yes.”
“Awww. That’s a big deal. She must really trust you.”
I can almost hear Imogene say too bad you don’t trust her. Irritating woman. “Fine, don’t tell me. ”
“Would you two like to have dinner with us again sometime next week?” Payne has the nerve to ask.
No. Absolutely not. I don’t want to share any of my time with Dahlia. “We should be able to do that. I’ll ask Dahlia what day works the best with her schedule.”
A knock sounds on my office door. It’s too early for Max to be here. “Gotta go.” I click off the phone. “Come in.”
Shock bounces in. “Did you get it? Tell me you got it, and that’s why you had me clear my schedule this afternoon.”
How is Shock going to handle the fact that he’s going to meet Massimo Vincenti? “Sort of.”
“That isn’t an answer. There are only two choices.” Shock taps his leg. “Did you get it?”
“It will arrive at three today.”
“You got it. You actually got it.” Shock's eyes practically go in circles. “How long can I keep it? There can’t be very many prototypes. This is wonderful. I need to go get set up. There isn’t a moment to waste.”
“It doesn’t come without contingencies.”
Shock freezes. “What contingencies?”
“Massimo Vincenti will be here at three.”
“No. NO! He can’t come.”
“Max knows about what you will be researching.”
“He can’t because you don’t even know. You need to get me the tech without him.”
Could Shock have been compromised? Those are the words of a man up to no good. “You have two seconds to explain what that means.”
“I’m doing a project of my own. The tech will help with your research, but mainly, I needed it for my own project.”
Take a breath before you chew out the best hacker you’ve ever found. “What project?” Is it that one for a girl?
“You don’t want to know. ”
I might not, but I need to. “Tell me.”
“You can’t tell her.”
A woman! All of this is about a woman. “Now.”
“Barb. It’s about Barb.”
Don’t whap Shock upside the head. You might knock something loose. “Does Barb know about this little research project on her behalf?” Lie to me.
“No. I was going to look for her parents.”
Shock has gone off the deep end. “That isn’t for you to decide. If she wants to search for them, then you can help, but you don’t get to decide for her.”
“I’m going to do this.”
Stupid man doing stupid things for a woman. “Why?”
“Because bad things have a way of popping back up. In order to protect her, I need to know what monsters are lurking in her closet. She’ll never know. It’s just to keep her safe.”
That makes too much sense. I’d do the same for Dahlia in a heartbeat. “What right do you have to keep her safe?”
“None… yet. But she’s going to be mine.”
“I don’t need to remind you about what I do.” That’s more of a reminder than a threat.
“It’s not like that. It could never be like that.”
Do I believe him? “Fine, do the research, but report back to me.”
“How do I get through Mr. Vincenti?”
Not easily. “I’ll take care of him.”
***
“Squirrely is an understatement. How does Shock even get any work done?” Max closes my office door .
“We’re not sure, but he does it.” All I need to do is distract Max for the next few hours. How am I going to do that? “I’m surprised you’re not over there geeking out with him.”
“My setup at work is slightly better. But if I didn’t leave, I think he would have had a heart attack or something. You need to cut off his caffeine consumption.”
“We tried that. Shock got even worse.” Those were a few weeks I don’t want to remember.
Max sits down at the other side of my desk. “Sounds like he has undiagnosed ADHD.”
Everyone nowadays seems to have ADHD. “We should get to work and not diagnose my hacker.” Hopefully, this means Max isn’t going to try to steal Shock.
“What do you know so far?”
“Not much. Our dirty cop procures women every few months based on his offshore account.”
“What bank?” Max’s voice raises slightly.
“Sun Savings. Shock plans to hack in and find out who is making the deposits into Plant’s account.”
“Mind if I use your desk?” Max gestures to his bag.
“No. Go right ahead.”
The metal briefcase that Max used to bring the board Shock wanted opens to reveal a laptop, which has Max’s company’s emblem on the cover.
When did they start making computers?
“There’s no need to hack when I do their security.”
Well, that’s convenient.
“Give me the account number.”
I slide the stack of papers over that Shock took off Plant’s laptop.
Max’s hands fly over the keys almost as fast as Shock’s.
Sometimes it’s hard to believe the Vincenti heir is a computer wiz.
“You don’t need to worry that I’ll leave a trail.”
Good, because I wasn’t .
“Oh, this is interesting.”
“What?” I walk around to his side of the desk.
“It’s an old account. A very old account that’s been paying Plant. Up until about a year ago, the account holder was paying an Eva Gardener twenty thousand dollars every six weeks. Then the payments just stopped.”
“How long was Eva receiving payments?”
Max taps a few keys. “For almost a decade. Could she have been trafficking women?”
It wouldn’t be the first time I’ve seen it happen. “It’s possible. Do we have an address?”
“Yeah.” He rattles off the address.
“This woman lives in a town named Sweet Belle?”
“That’s what it says.” Max goes back to typing like a fiend. “It’s a really small town down south. There’s nothing online to find out anything about her. The town barely has a website.”
There’s got to be an easier way to find out about this woman than sending someone down to do recognizance that’s going to stick out like a sore thumb. “When was the last time she made a withdrawal?” Maybe we can find her when she goes to get more money.
“Three years ago, she took out five hundred thousand dollars. That was the only time money has been taken out of her account.”
Odd. But there’s a thread to pull there. “What about the other accounts receiving payments…”
***
Three hours later we have a dozen threads to follow up on and way too many possible points of acquisition.
“Have you ever dealt with something this big?” Max doesn’t look up from his laptop .
“No. I’ve never seen anything like it. If all of these people are trafficking women, it’s the biggest group in the world.”
My phone chimes alerting me to a person at Dahlia’s door. “One second.” I turn on the video feed just as Dahlia steps inside.
“Stalker much?” Max steps next to me.
“Why do you even care?” I practically growl at him.
Max strides away then stops to turn to face me. “Because you’re in love with her, and I don’t want you to mess it up.”
Excuse me.
“Don’t act all shocked. You aren’t exactly hiding it well.”
“And again, why do you care?” Dahlia is mine, not his.
“Because when you’ve lost love, you understand the value of it.”
Wait. That means all of this has been to help me.
“You two going away together already?”
What?
Max nods to the screen.
Why is Dahlia taking her suitcases out of the foyer closet?