Chapter Twelve
Hawk stood with Chase outside the estate as the authorities drove away.
“Do you have security in the building overnight?”
“Not between nine and five. Housekeeping roams around. I have no idea how long they’re in there.”
“Who has access after those hours?”
Chase shook his head. “I don’t really know. Piper might.”
“Tonight’s normal close isn’t going to happen. And in light of today’s events ... we have people that can come in.”
“Thank you.” Chase turned and looked at the estate. “But it’s not the building I’m really worried about.”
Hawk saw concern on Chase’s face. “Alex?”
“In two weeks, Piper and I are getting married.”
Hawk blinked. “Oh, I thought you were already—”
“Officially, we’re married. The day Hailey was born.” Chase waved a hand in the air. “Anyway, my point. In two weeks, we’re going on our honeymoon. Which we can postpone, but I know how that will go over with my sister.”
“Not well, I take it.”
“No.” Chase met Hawk’s gaze. “She needs protection.”
Hawk released a sigh. “I couldn’t agree more.”
“If I suggest a bodyguard, she’s going to kick and scream.”
Hawk narrowed his eyes, glanced toward the home. “Can her job be done remotely?”
“Some of it, yeah. According to Piper, our father had a lot of workdays right here.”
“Max and Sarah ... are they going anywhere while you’re out of town?”
“Not that I know of,” Chase answered.
Hawk nodded as an idea formulated. “I got this,” he said.
Chase extended an arm to the front door. “After you.”
Inside, the family had moved from the living room and now stood around the kitchen island. More wine had been poured, and food had been removed from the fridge and was now being prepped.
Alex sat at the island, toying with the stem of her wineglass.
Chase slid beside his wife and placed a kiss on her forehead. “I’m going to have to go down to the office and lock it up once the police are done.”
“I’ll go with you,” Max said.
“Nick, can you stick around?” Chase asked.
“I always have an overnight bag,” Nick said with a laugh.
Hawk cleared his throat. “Is it safe to assume that as a family, you’re close enough to sleep in the same place without strangling each other?”
“I know I’ll sleep better,” Piper said.
“Me too,” Sarah agreed.
Both of the women looked at Alex.
Hawk could practically see steam coming from her ears as the wheels in her head turned silently.
Alex said nothing.
“I have some suggestions and concerns while the police track down the person behind today’s threat,” Hawk started.
“This house is secure ... for the most part. With your permission, I’ll have a team in here tomorrow to take the necessary measures to upload the video surveillance to live eyes.
When sensors are tripped, the cameras go on and are fed to us.
We can program zones for privacy purposes when the system is set at night when you’re all here. ”
“Sounds reasonable,” Max said.
“Now, the system at your office is obviously flawed, or we’d have footage of this person from the garage. Our team has to get in there, fix the weak links, and add what you don’t have. And we won’t know the extent of that right away.”
Alex still wasn’t looking at him.
“Our team can’t keep anyone safe until this is all in place.”
“How long will that take?” Alex asked.
So, she was paying attention.
Hawk settled his gaze on her. Those dark, smoky eyes found his.
“A week ... two. Maybe longer. Hopefully in that time, the police will be closer to finding this person, if not have them in custody.” He paused.
“In the meantime, it would be in the best interest of everyone for you to work remotely.”
Alex’s fingers stilled on her glass. “Remotely?”
“Here. Where security is—”
“No.” Her jaw was set, those eyes hardened.
“The caller threatened you,” Hawk said.
“He’s right,” Max added.
“Monday morning, every employee is going to have to walk back into that building, knowing that Friday, someone had threatened to blow the place up. How can I ask them to get to work while I hide out here?” Alex rested both forearms on the counter, an index finger tapped on the stone.
“Maybe we tell them the threat was against you,” Sarah suggested.
“Making everyone even more paranoid if they see me in the office. No. That isn’t the answer.”
Hawk could confidently say he saw the moment Alex transitioned into her pissed-off state. Unfortunately, her logic wasn’t flawed.
“Do you work out?” Hawk asked.
Her eyes swung back to his. “W-what?”
“Exercise? Daily runs? Walks in the park?”
“What does that have to do with this?” Alex shook her head.
“Humor me.”
She sighed. “No. Not really.”
“You used to run after work,” Nick said.
“That was before this position sucked the life out of me.”
That’s all Hawk needed. “When you went for your runs, did you always go at the same time of day? The same route?”
“No. My work schedule wasn’t always that cut-and-dry. My route varied.”
“Why? Why did your route vary?”
She shrugged. “I’m a woman. Don’t Get Mugged 101, vary your route so anyone watching can’t predict ...” Her words trailed off as the light bulb in her head turned on.
Hawk let the corner of his lip turn up.
He pointed two fingers in her direction. “And that’s what you need to do now.” He moved closer as if they were the only two people in the room. “If you go into the office—”
“When,” she interrupted.
“On the occasion that you go into the office, your pattern is never the same as it was the day before. You work from here as much as possible, and when you’re at the office, I’m with you.”
“You? What, like a babysitter?” she challenged.
“You don’t look like a baby to me.” He stepped even closer and kept his voice steady and strong.
“You look like an incredibly intelligent woman who understands that the very real threat today was targeted at her. You seem like the kind of woman who would never forgive herself if anyone in the building was injured or worse because you wanted to ignore the situation as we know it. If this person is watching you, and we know they are, they won’t know where to place the bomb, or when.
And since your job is to run a company when you’re in the office, you can let me watch those around you when you do have to go in, so nobody gets hurt. ”
Her eyes moved back and forth from his several times before she forcefully turned away in defeat. “Fuck.”
The gunshot deafened Hawk’s ears as screaming, hot pain tore into his gut.
The cool metal of his gun pressed into his palm, the muzzle centered on the bedroom door.
He sucked in short breaths as reality floated down around him.
He lowered the hand holding his weapon to the floor and closed his eyes.
Picking himself up, he glanced at the time. Four thirty in the morning stared back.
Five hours of sleep would have to do.
He’d joined Chase and Max when they returned to Stone Enterprises the night before.
Piper had gotten ahold of the property management service that the Stones used to take care of the building. Neither Alex nor Chase knew the faces behind the service.
Nelson Perry, head of property management, had arrived shortly after them the night before.
Nelson had been watching the news and apparently trying to get in contact with someone in charge but didn’t have anyone’s private numbers. Something that needed to change.
Ed had two security guards on the scene, one would have their eyes on the cameras at all times while the other patrolled the building and the perimeter of the property.
The likelihood of the person behind this coming back so soon after this attempt wasn’t very high, but they weren’t taking any chances.
Between Nelson, the patrolling security guard, and the three of them, they locked down all of the exits.
Nelson had notified the housekeeping services and postponed their arrival until morning.
Up on the executive floor, Hawk had walked around quietly while Max removed the board meeting agenda pamphlets and put them away.
Hawk found Chase in Alex’s office, standing in the center of the room, absently staring at her desk.
“Does something look out of place?” Hawk asked.
He quietly shook his head. “I keep asking myself why we’re doing this. Why we’re running his company.”
Hawk took a long breath. “According to Alex, it’s because none of you play golf.”
Chase barked out a laugh and then continued to chuckle.
Hawk didn’t think it was that funny, but he found himself laughing along with him anyway.
“True.”
Max joined them. “No one on the board left so much as a personal pen behind. Laptops, purses, briefcases ... they must have left with them.”
Chase walked over to a closet and retrieved Alex’s purse, then located her cell phone on her desk and tucked it inside. “Thank you for helping Alex see the need to have a bodyguard.”
“She would have come to the conclusion herself ... in time.”
“Time we may not have,” Max said. “Who knows when this person will try this again.”
“You think they will?” Chase asked.
It was Hawk that answered. “Depends on what their goal was ... or is. If they needed everyone out of the building so they could steal something, then maybe this is a one-time thing that put a target on Alex to distract everyone. If the goal is to scare Alex ...”
“She’s more pissed than scared,” Max pointed out.
“Which might not work in her favor. It could escalate the situation. If the perpetrator can see her reaction. More reason to keep her out of the office as much as possible until we find this guy.”
“We?” Chase asked.