“I wish it was, Alan. There are some very gifted individuals who stay in the shadows. They don’t work for the government or anyone else unless they are paid a great deal of money. They have skills far beyond what I have. Sometimes their skills exceed anyone the government employs. They hack their way in and out of very secure websites. At times they work together. Again, I don’t have those kinds of skills and I never will have them.”
“You fix the books and come up with solutions in the shortest amount of time possible. I’ve never seen anyone with your skills.” He was back to pacing, quick angry steps, his glare directly on her. “When there were shortages before, you found how much and where that leak was coming from.”
She shook her head. “I’m telling you, it isn’t the same thing. I have a gift for numbers. I can see patterns in the numbers that make sense in my brain, but I don’t have an affinity with computers. Some people are good on a computer. A few are great, even rarer are the ones who can do just about anything on them. Whoever did this to you is one of those people. I’m not one of them. If you have enemies, they could have hired the person or people. It wouldn’t be cheap. It’s possible I can start looking into some of those you say are out to harm you. I might see payments going out to someone.”
“You do that,” Billows snapped.
“Just know it’s possible someone hacked your accounts on their own. These people like challenges, and they like to see if they can do what might be considered impossible.”
“I don’t care how it was done. I want the money back, and I need to know who my enemies are. Find them.”
Azelie knew there was no making him see reason. He was incensed over the loss of his money. She couldn’t blame him. He thought his ill-gotten gains were safe in anonymous offshore accounts hidden beneath layers of companies and misdirection. The money should have been safe, and most wouldn’t be able to trace it back to Billows. She had a sinking feeling whoever had taken the money knew exactly who they stole it from. The fact that they hadn’t taken a cent from his legitimate businesses was worrisome to her. She was surprised Billows hadn’t questioned that further himself.
She knew Billows was shrewd and cunning. At times, he exhibited knowledge in areas she was rather shocked he knew anything about. Other times, he appeared to be totally obtuse. Whether he just affected ignorance or whether he really couldn’t understand didn’t matter. He insisted on everything being his way, and he didn’t seem to care how he made that happen.
“I’ll get to work, then,” she told him, hoping he would go away. Deliberately, she turned her attention to the computer.
Billows didn’t leave her office. He continued to pace, casting her speculative looks as he stalked from one side to the other of the relatively small room.
She pretended to be engaged in her research, but who could possibly work with a lethal tiger in the room? She was terrified that at any moment he would erupt into violence. Even though it had been months since she had heard the woman scream, she thought of it often. The sound echoed through her mind whenever she was alone in the office, but it was worse when Billows was there.
She thought of the woman and what could have been happening to her. It wasn’t sounds of pleasure the unknown woman had been making. The screams were animalistic, as if she suffered great pain. Billows’ anger toward Azelie when he discovered her trying to hunt down where the horrendous sound was coming from made her feel as if he had something directly to do with the woman’s pain and fear.
Azelie didn’t like being alone in the soundproof office with only Bobby as a witness to her entry. She was acutely aware she could disappear, and no one would know where to look for her. She knew from experience that a man who supposedly loved his family could turn on them in a moment. Billows was inherently cruel and selfish. She had no doubt that he would beat his wife and do so casually if he ever married. Being in the small room with him was distracting and a little terrifying.
She finally sighed and looked up. “I can’t concentrate with you in here, Alan. I need to be able to pay attention to the numbers and names. Time stamps when money arrived or disappeared. You’re going to have to leave.”
Azelie forced herself to be firm with him. She poured confidence into her tone and carefully adjusted her expression. All the practicing in front of her mirror would hopefully pay off.
There was silence as Billows stopped his relentless pacing and once again swung around to confront her. She couldn’t read his expression very well. He didn’t look quite so angry, but he was frowning. He also had that same look in his eyes that told her he was looking at her differently than he ever had before. She really wanted to go home and maybe hide under her bed.
“It has occurred to me you didn’t understand what I was telling you, Azelie. It’s important you are perfectly clear so there are no mistakes made.”
It was her turn to frown. She pushed back away from the desk and turned fully to him, folding her hands on her lap so she could twist her fingers tightly together.
“What did I misunderstand? I thought I was on the same page with you trying to find who stole your money.”
He shook his head and settled one hip on the edge of the desk, too close to her. She was grateful she’d already pushed her chair back. There was a small distance between them, but she doubted if she could outrun him. She went through the weapons on the desk she had available to defend herself with. A stapler. It was heavy. She could wrap her fingers around it like a fist and clock him in the head. She went over the maneuver several times in her mind, never once looking at the stapler. She didn’t want to give the impression of being nervous, or that she might lunge for that weapon.
“I’m not talking about the money. I want you to look into it, but you’re right. I need a computer expert to figure out who stole that money from the accounts. That isn’t your gift.”
She hadn’t expected him to acknowledge that he needed someone else. He sounded grim but resigned. She braced herself for what was coming. She had a very bad feeling.
“I’m talking about you needing a man to take care of you. And I want to make it very clear that the only man you’re going to have in your life is me.”
Her heart jumped and then went crazy. She was in so much trouble. She pressed her lips together to keep from blurting out the hell no that pounded through her brain.
“I thought we agreed that would be a bad idea. I’m not looking to lose this job anytime soon.” She forced her eyes to meet his. “Do you have someone else you want to do the books? Have I let you down and you didn’t say anything?”
Swift impatience crossed his face. “No one else is going to touch the books. That’s been your job for the last seven years, and it will always be yours. I think you get that you can’t just walk away after working with me all these years. You know more about what I do than anyone else. It wouldn’t be safe for you to decide to leave.”
There it was—a clear threat. She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. Her chin went up and she glared at him. “I don’t appreciate the threat, Alan. I’ve always been loyal, and I don’t understand where all this is coming from. Why after all this time you suddenly feel the need to threaten me. I’ve gotten you out of trouble more than once. I found the people who were supposed to be loyal to you, skimming money off the top, and reported it to you.” Mostly, she’d done that just in case he was testing her. That would be like him. She didn’t like that those people had disappeared. She felt the weight of responsibility for them, although he could have simply fired them. She hadn’t heard in the news about bodies appearing. “Why the sudden problem with me?”
He was silent for so long that she didn’t think he would answer. He just stared at her, and she didn’t like the way he was doing it. Again, he had that speculation and a little too much lust, as if he suddenly saw her differently. She wanted to pull her sweatshirt around her and check to make certain her body wasn’t on display. She sat quietly, keeping her fingers twisted tightly in her lap, her mind on the stapler and going through the steps she would take if she had to use it.
“I don’t have a problem with your work, Azelie, but let’s be real. You’ve grown up, and you look…well…the way you look. I’m surprised that some man hasn’t tried snatching you. It will happen though. We both need to face the fact that you’re not going to spend your life alone.”
She frowned. “The way I look? I’ve always looked this way. Men aren’t falling at my feet, Alan. Nor do I want them to. I’m going to school and working. I babysit a couple of children when their parents are in a jam. I write because it’s important to me.”
He didn’t ask what she meant by writing or what she wrote. He fixated on one thing only. “I don’t like that you watch kids for Bradley Tudor. He’s single and he definitely wants to fuck you.”
Her heart accelerated again. He knew about Bradley, even his last name. He’d been watching her—or he’d hired someone to do it for him. That wasn’t good. That was putting Bradley in jeopardy. The twins had already lost their mother. They didn’t need to lose their father, and the threat was there. She feared for Andrii now. Had it been reported that she was seeing him? She’d gone out with him. Did Billows know, and that was what this was all about? Her breath caught in her lungs and refused to move. It took her a moment to calm herself so she could sound natural.
“You’re very much mistaken, Alan. I think Bradley is dating someone. We have no interest in one another. If he feels differently, he wouldn’t get anywhere, because I don’t look at him that way. You know what happened with my sister and her husband.”
Deliberately, she pressed her hand to the one scar close to her heart from the bullet that had nearly ended her life. “I have no wish to be with anyone right now. I like my life just the way it is.” That wasn’t just a half-truth, it was a lie. A blatant lie. Since meeting Andrii, she desperately wanted to take a chance with him. To see if she could possibly have a real relationship. Now she knew, in order to protect him, she didn’t dare continue to see him. She just didn’t know how to tell him.
“I’m just letting you know, there had better be no dating. When you’re ready, you’ll be with me.”
She rolled her eyes and turned back to the computer.
“Do you hear me?”
“I hear you. We can take this up again at a future time. Just not now.”
He seemed to take her at her word and walked out, allowing her to breathe.
NINE
It hadn’t been difficult to attach the device Mechanic had engineered onto Azelie’s hoodie. It wasn’t detectable with normal equipment, which was what made the tiny camera so perfect. Even when Azelie went through the security screens, that hidden camera would never set off the alarms.
She went through a side entrance and then stopped at the desk of a guard. “This is why we can’t find the offices,” Maestro said to the other members of Torpedo Ink watching the situation unfold as Azelie made her way into the lion’s den. “The door is hidden in the wall panel. I’ve been there several times. I have an affinity with wood, and I didn’t find it.”
“You weren’t exactly running your hands over the wall,” Keys pointed out. “We didn’t have time, and we were ensuring no one could see us.”
Wood spoke to him in ways he didn’t understand. It always had. He touched it for any length of time and memories crowded in. Emotions long lost after others had touched the wood or worked with it. He saw and felt things others had no possibility of seeing. It was a strange gift to have, and one he was thankful for. Trees could be extremely old. Patient. Serene. Strong. They stood against vicious storms and sometimes endured fire, drought or flooding and survived.
Over the years, Maestro had learned a lot from wood he’d come into contact with. But there was always a downside with any gift. Sometimes it was seeing all the ugliness the trees had witnessed or the pain of the saws cutting through them. Sometimes the drawback was extremely simple, such as having to have his hands bare when he touched the surface. That meant fingerprints. DNA. His cells left behind.
When Torpedo Ink was on a mission that would likely include blood, violence and death, they always wore thin gloves. The gloves were really just a thin coating of barrier cream covering skin, impossible to detect. The fingerprints were not their own.
“She didn’t unlock the outer door with a key. She used that same keypad we used to break in,” Preacher pointed out.
“The fact that Billows has a guard sitting right in the hall entrance speaks volumes,” Czar said. “You were in the right place.”
The club members were gathered in the Airbnb they’d rented in preparation for raiding the nightclub to find the victims sent to Billows for training. They were certain the women would be held there if Billows had any victims at the time, but they had no blueprints to show them the underground offices. That was unusual. As a rule, Code was unstoppable with his computer. He was patient and meticulous and persevered until he got results. He hadn’t found the blueprints of the underground offices. They knew there were rooms below the two floors housing the Pleasure Train and the Adventure Club, but they had been unable to get inside them.
