Chapter Thirty-Three #2
But there was nothing more they could do about that. International searches for bank accounts weren’t as simple as a Google search.
Alex was at her desk.
Hawk had taken up the familiar position on her office sofa.
“Do you want the good news or the bad news?” Hawk asked after he disconnected the call from Fitzpatrick.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“Bad first.”
“The lobby video at the apartment complex was hacked. Nothing but snow on the recording for several hours in the middle of the day.”
“Dammit.”
“The good news is we aren’t completely reliant on the lobby cameras. They are pulling together as much as they can from home security cameras. The ones businesses use in the corner stores. They think we will have something in a day or two.”
“I hope they see a face.”
“If not that, maybe a license plate of someone getting out of a car with a box.”
“That would be great,” Alex said.
“They have already started questioning the individual board members. Trying to determine what the ‘Sins of the Father’ comment meant.”
Hawk saying those words out loud left a bad taste in her mouth.
“What kind of sick person sends a dead kitten to get their point across?”
“Sociopaths,” Hawk said, deadpan.
She shook her head. “I don’t see that personality in any of the people we know are connected one way or another.”
“Don’t underestimate anyone, Alex.”
She instantly thought about Gabriella. “I’ll try not to.”
Hawk winked at her from across the room.
A loud knock sounded on her office door, followed by it being opened without an invitation.
Hawk was on his feet, his hand on his gun, before the light from the hall filtered in.
Floyd filled the doorway. “We need to talk.”
Dee was behind him. “I told him you were busy.”
Floyd looked at Hawk and then the gun. “What the ...”
“Barging in my office is a health hazard, Floyd. Or did you miss the press conference the other day?”
“Put that away,” Floyd demanded.
“I kind of like it where it is.” Hawk moved to stand in front of Alex but tilted the barrel of the gun to the floor.
“I can have a conversation with my colleague without the threat of violence.” Floyd glared at Hawk.
“That starts with common courtesy, like knocking on a door and waiting to be invited in.”
Alex moved closer to Hawk and placed a hand on his back. “It’s okay.”
Hawk clicked the safety back in place and holstered his weapon.
“We need to talk. In private.”
“Not happening.” Hawk glared.
“I’m with Hawk on this one. Whatever you need to talk about can be said in front of him.”
Floyd’s nose flared.
Alex looked at an anxious Dee beyond the door. “Thank you, Dee. Hold my calls.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Alex returned to her desk and sat.
Hawk took up a space at her side.
Floyd had no choice but to sit across from her.
“Why are the authorities at my home talking to my wife?”
“They are?” Alex asked.
“Don’t play dumb.”
“I know nothing about that, Floyd. I was told they were going to talk to you.”
He looked from Hawk to her.
“I told them I had nothing to do with the threats against you.”
Alex shook her head. “For someone who has nothing to do with anything, you sure are jumpy.”
That seemed to calm him down.
Or at least make him take a quick look in the mirror.
“They are questioning if I was at home on Sunday between twelve and four.”
“So?”
“I wasn’t home.”
Alex sat forward. “The police are looking for the person who dropped off my little ‘gift,’ Floyd.”
Floyd ran a hand through his hair. “It wasn’t me.”
Alex looked at Hawk. “Help me out here.”
“If it wasn’t you, tell them where you were.” Hawk crossed his arms over his chest.
“Why do they suspect me anyway? What do I gain if you weren’t in your father’s chair?”
“You tell me?” she asked.
She and Hawk exchanged glances with an unspoken ... let him tell his story and see what he knows.
“Chase would fill it, or your father’s other son.”
“You mean my other brother ,” Alex corrected.
“Either way. It won’t be me. We all know that.” Floyd’s voice rose an octave. His words were rushed together.
“Did you tell the police you were at home on Sunday?” Hawk asked.
“Yes.”
“And you weren’t?”
“No.”
Hawk shrugged. “Then if I were you, I’d either get a lawyer or start talking to the police.”
Floyd’s eyes couldn’t open any wider. “I don’t need a fucking lawyer. I didn’t do anything,” Floyd yelled.
There was another knock at the door.
“Alex?” Chase said from the other side.
“Come in.”
Floyd tossed his arms in the air. “Great.”
“What’s going on? I heard you from my office.” Chase closed the door behind him.
“Floyd was just telling us that he had nothing to do with my teddy bear but can’t tell the police where he was when the package showed up on my doorstep,” Alex summarized. “Did I get that right?”
Floyd snapped his gaze from one of them to another and back to Alex.
Three sets of eyes stared back in silence.
“Fuck.”
“The police are going to be very interested in this conversation, Floyd,” Chase said.
“I’m not the best husband, all right? But I love my wife.”
Alex closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. It wasn’t a secret that Floyd had the same appetite for women that Aaron Stone had. “Do you think anyone in this room is going to cover for you and your mistress? I almost feel sorry for you, Floyd.”
“I don’t,” Chase said as he came to lean on Alex’s desk to stare at Floyd. “I recall you threatening my wife in an effort to keep your infidelity from Ann.”
“I didn’t—”
“Save it. There are way too many questions about your loyalty to this company. Your name keeps coming up in all the wrong places.”
“What are you saying? I’ve given this company everything.”
“You’ve pushed the line one to many times.” Chase held eye contact with Floyd, his jaw was a firm line. “You’ve spoken in opposition of us since we took over. You give Alex about as much respect as you do your wife. Which should be a compliment ... but isn’t.”
“And now you come in here asking us to cover for you? For all we know, you sent that package,” Alex said.
“I didn’t—”
Chase took hold of the edges of the desk and spoke slowly and clearly. “You have twenty-four hours to put in your letter of resignation, or we’ll be forced to fire you.”
Floyd came out of his chair. “You can’t do this.”
“We just did,” Alex backed up her brother.
“I didn’t fucking threaten you!” He leaned forward.
Chase stood in front of him.
Floyd lifted his hands and stood back. “I’ll tell the police where I was.”
“That’s a good idea,” Alex said.
Floyd smiled.
No one else in the room said a thing.
“It’s not a reason to fire me.”
Chase started to talk.
Alex stopped him. “We have some interesting documents Dad left us, Floyd. And you don’t seem the least bit surprised by that information.”
Floyd stiffened.
“Saving your marriage might be the least of your concerns. Once the documents are in the right hands, you won’t have the ability to speak with any of us without a lawyer,” Alex told him.
Floyd ran both hands through his hair as he stepped away from them and turned in a circle.
“I didn’t do anything.”
“Some of the accounts have come up short,” Chase told him.
He swiveled toward Chase and lifted a finger in his face. “That was your father, not me.”
“It’s hard to question a dead guy,” Chase said.
“You wouldn’t be so flippant if you understood exactly who you’re dealing with.” Floyd’s anger started to shift into fear. “If you fire me, they’re going to ...”
“Going to what?” Hawk asked. “Who are they ?”
Floyd started to pace. “Fuck, fuck, fuck!”
Hawk moved to stand in front of the door. “Start talking, Floyd. Or you leave me no choice but to hold you here until the police come and take you into custody.”
“These people reach into prisons.”
That had Alex swallowing hard.
Hawk didn’t seem fazed. “That sounds like a you problem.”
Floyd walked to the other side of the room and hit the wall with his fist. “Fuck.”
Alex’s heart was racing. The fear rolling off Floyd was palpable.
Floyd turned and looked between them. “Bakshai.”
Alex froze.
“What about him?” Hawk asked.
“He throws his little parties to learn executive secrets so he can blackmail influential men like your father.”
“Our dad didn’t care who knew that he was sleeping around. It wasn’t an industry secret,” Alex said.
“Your dad ... he ...” Floyd sucked in a breath. “He woke up next to a dead mistress after an entire room of people witnessed him arguing with her ...”
Alex’s jaw dropped.
Hawk recovered first. “You’re suggesting Aaron Stone murdered someone.”
Floyd shook his head. “I’m saying Bakshai was blackmailing Aaron to keep the dead mistress from being found. Your dad denied killing her.”
“Why did he tell you?” Hawk asked.
“I was with him at the party. He called me in a panic. By the time I made it to his room, Bakshai was there, saying he’d take care of it.”
“And you kept the secret, which made you an accomplice,” Hawk concluded.
“I told Aaron he was set up. That we should have come home and gone straight to the police.”
“Where did this happen?”
“Dubai.”
“Let me guess, this was six years ago?” Chase asked.
Floyd paused. “Yes. How did you know?”
“Lucky guess,” Chase said.
“What did Bakshai want in return?” Hawk asked.
“I’m not really sure.”
“Oh, come on. You want us to believe that?” Hawk walked back beside Alex.
“Your dad didn’t tell me, directly. I think he was bribing people to make it easier for Bakshai to obtain more American land for his oil company. Aaron went on a binge of buying businesses that weren’t going to turn a profit. When those businesses eventually failed, we dumped them.”
“You mean sold them to Bakshai,” Chase suggested.
Floyd shook his head. “No. Not directly.”
“Why wouldn’t Bakshai just buy the failing companies himself?”
“He needed to be twice removed from any illegal activity or risk his American soil holdings being seized,” Floyd told them reluctantly.
Alex screwed up her face and looked at him. “You just said you thought Dad was bribing people, now you seem to know exactly what was going down.”
“I didn’t ... I don’t,” Floyd stammered.
“What happened after Aaron died?” Hawk asked.
“I thought it was over.”
“That was naive. You’re alive and still work here. Did Bakshai start pressuring you?”
Floyd’s throat worked a swallow. “Bakshai insisted that Alex and I come to his gathering when he was in LA. I told him I couldn’t do that.”
“But you did ... why?” Hawk’s sharp eyes matched the tic in his jaw.
“Fuck!” Floyd ran both hands through his hair. “Bakshai reminded me that the dead woman could just as easily have been killed by me to protect my boss.” Floyd sucked in a rattling breath. “I didn’t have a choice.”
Chase’s entire body shifted. “Why did Bakshai want Alex there?” His words were slow and cold.
“I-I don’t know.”
“If our father didn’t murder the woman that was used to blackmail him ... did Bakshai?”
Floyd’s eyes twitched to each of them. “Bakshai wouldn’t have done it himself.”
“But his goons would.” Hawk’s voice was so low, Alex could hardly hear him.
“I wasn’t going to be an accomplice again. Wasn’t going to be set up for something I didn’t do.”
Chase came off the desk and pushed right into Floyd’s face. “But you had no problem throwing Alex at that man.” Chase shoved Floyd back until he hit the wall.
Alex stood and rushed in to stop Chase from punching him.
Hawk got to Chase faster than she did and pushed him aside.
But not to stop Floyd from being punched. Just to stop Chase from being the one that threw it.
Floyd’s head snapped back with the impact of Hawk’s fist hitting his jaw.
Hawk had his forearm against Floyd’s chest as he pinned him to the wall. His right hand at his side to access his gun.
Floyd looked like he didn’t know what was going on while blood swelled on his lip.
Alex stepped forward, but Chase held her back.
“Those sleazeballs tried to get Alex alone.” Hawk pulled Floyd away from the wall just to shove him back. “She could be dead right now, you fucking coward.”
“I didn’t—”
“And then you tried to send her to Dubai, knowing who this man was.”
Hearing the venom in Hawk’s words and, more importantly, the real danger she’d been put in, she no longer wanted to stop anyone from hurting Floyd.
Hawk tossed Floyd from him like a bag of garbage.
Floyd landed on his knees and didn’t bother standing back up.
Alex started to shake.
Hawk turned then and gathered her in his arms.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
She buried her head in his shoulder.
“This is way beyond what we thought. Call Fitzpatrick,” Hawk said to Chase.