Black Out: HOT Heroes for Hire: Mercenaries: A Black’s Bandits Novel

by Lynn Raye Harris

  She counted the spaces. There were twenty-three numbers. She had no idea what those twenty-three numbers meant. They could be anything. Maybe it was an IBAN—an international routing number—but she didn’t recognize a country code so that was probably out too. Could just be Martinelli’s internal notations that made sense only to him, though why he’d put it onto a tab at the end of a bunch of blanks, she had no idea. She’d have to ask Liam if he’d encountered anything like it on the accounts he had.

  Angie logged onto the company website to pull up the Cardinal Group’s bank statements. Maybe she’d find that number somewhere in the information she already had.

  NO FILE EXISTS

  Maybe she’d clicked the wrong thing. She tried again. She was into the Barton, Barnes and Blake server, but there were no Cardinal Group statements anywhere. She sat back and blinked at the screen.

  The Cardinal Group’s account was closed, and it appeared that everything had been wiped from the server. Maybe they didn’t trust anyone but Charles. Maybe he’d already gotten a job elsewhere and they’d moved everything to that company. Or maybe they’d hired him on as a full-time accountant.

  She’d been into their account just a few hours ago. No one had told her the company was leaving Barton, Barnes and Blake. Hell, no one at the Cardinal Group had ever answered her emails either.

  Angie took a swallow of wine. Worried the inside of her lip. Thought about texting Liam.

  Instead, she picked up her phone and texted the one person she knew would give her good advice. She didn’t think he was awake right now, but he’d answer in the morning.

  Angie: Remember that account I was telling you about with the odd figures? It’s gone. Everything wiped from the server. All I have is Martinelli’s spreadsheet. I guess I should be thankful I don’t have to work on it anymore, but still. It’s weird. First he doesn’t come back to work, then an account that wouldn’t reconcile is gone too—and they never answered my emails. I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s late and I can’t sleep and I’m babbling. Finger-babbling. Hope you’re happily asleep right now. Wish I was.

  Angie put her phone down, finished her wine, and returned to the fridge to get a little more. Just for giggles, she sat at the island and repeated the process of looking for the Cardinal Group’s files.

  Nothing. A buzzing started at the back of her brain. She went looking for Charles’s spreadsheet. She’d made a copy to work on because she didn’t want to fudge anything up in the one he’d made. She wanted to be able to prove to her bosses just how jacked it was if she failed to resolve it.

  NO FILE EXISTS

  A chill shot down her spine. The spreadsheet was gone? Someone had closed the Cardinal Group’s account, wiped their records, and wiped Charles’s record of the work he’d done.

  “No, no, no,” she muttered as her heart kicked up. “I don’t want any trouble. Not again. Fuck you, Martinelli. Why’d you have to run away like a big chicken anyway?”

  Her phone pinged with a text and she squeaked at the sound of it. “Calm down, Angelica,” she said. “You’re way too jumpy lately.”

  Colt: What usually happens when an accountant quits?

  Angie: They give notice. And there’s a lot of discussion about the accounts they leave behind before they’re gone. We contact the clients to introduce ourselves and let them know we’ll be the new person handling everything and they can count on a smooth transition.

  Colt: You said they didn’t answer your emails.

  Angie: No. I sent one to introduce myself, and two asking for more information on the account. No reply to any of them.

  Her phone rang. It was Colt.

  “Hi,” she said. “Sorry if I woke you.”

  “You didn’t. I was awake.”

  Did he have trouble sleeping too? “You didn’t have to call.”

  “Angie.” He said her name with such calm authority. “You found something that scared you. I’m not going to ignore that.”

  She thought back to her text. “I didn’t say I was scared.”

  “You didn’t have to. It’s a weird situation and it has you on edge. I can tell.”

  She didn’t bother to ask him how he knew because it was true. “I am on edge. I wish I’d never gotten this account. The others were fine. This one makes me think Martinelli was up to something—or the company was. Which makes his quitting that much more suspect, especially since nobody at work has heard from him since.”

  “You said you still have his spreadsheet.”

  “Yes. I made a copy because I didn’t want to do anything to his since it wasn’t right. I thought if I couldn’t reconcile the numbers and needed to alert my boss, it would be there as proof.”

  “So the original is gone?”

  “Yes.”

  “What’s the name of the company?”

  “The Cardinal Group. They’re a venture capital firm.”

  “No opportunities for mischief there,” Colt said. She could hear the sarcasm in his voice. It made her laugh, in spite of how serious this whole thing felt. “Maybe don’t tell anyone you have that spreadsheet, Ang. Keep it to yourself.”

  “I should delete it. Forget the whole thing.” As if she could. This whole situation had her on edge and that wasn’t likely to change. Deleting the spreadsheet didn’t make the problem go away.

  “Don’t delete it.”

  Angie sighed in frustration. “I won’t. I know it won’t help.”

  “You never found any actual evidence of criminal misconduct?”

  “No. The figures are wrong, but you can’t prove anything with that. It just means we don’t have all the information yet. People sometimes forget to send all the statements, or they incorrectly categorize transactions. It happens. It’s our jobs to sort it out and make everything neat and tidy.”

  “You could send it to me. We’ve got people at BDI who can analyze it. Maybe they’ll find something.”

  She thought about it for half a second before she rejected the idea. It was tempting, but it was also against the rules. “I can’t give it to you. It’s confidential client information. I probably shouldn’t keep it either—but I will for now.”

  “All right then. If you change your mind, my company will be discreet about it. I promise you that.”

  “I’ll keep it in mind. Thanks for talking me off a ledge, Colt. I’m sorry I freaked.”

  “It’s understandable. And you can talk to me anytime, babe.”

  She yawned again. “I’m finally starting to feel like I might get some sleep tonight. I really appreciate you listening.”

  “Go to sleep, Ang. I’ll talk to you soon.”

  “Okay. Goodnight, Colt.”

  He said goodnight and they hung up. Angie checked the door locks again out of habit, checked the alarm to make sure it was set, then headed for bed. She was just settling under the covers when her phone rang again. It was Liam. “Have you heard?” he blurted when she answered.

  Her eyes were gritty from lack of sleep. She rubbed one. “Heard what?”

  “The building is on fire.”

  That made her sit straight up. “What? Triple B?”

  “Yes! Murphy just called—it’s burning to the ground.”

  Chapter Five

  There was nothing but a burned out shell and smoking remains as Angie pulled into the parking lot the next morning. Even the firemen were gone, though the area was surrounded with barricade tape to keep people from venturing too close. She didn’t know why she’d come since there wouldn’t be any work today, but she’d had to see it in person and not just on the news.

  Apparently she wasn’t the only one.

  Liam stood in front of his car, hands in pockets, looking at what was left of the building. Jenny Clark was there and so was Jack Murphy. Last night when Liam called, he’d been passing on the information from Jack.

  Angie got out of the car and went over to join them. “Hey,” she said.

  “Hey,” they said back.

&n
bsp; Liam put an arm around her. “Guess you had to see it too, huh?”

  “It’s unbelievable.”

  The air smelled like smoke and water, and the building shell was a sad sight on a street filled with old brownstones and neat landscaping. Barton, Barnes and Blake had occupied the building for thirty years of its long life. It’d been a mercantile at one time. And a haberdashery. Now it was gone. Other people stopped to stare too, but none of them were coworkers. Most continued on their way after they’d gawked a bit.

  “It sure is,” Jack said. “I could hardly believe it when I got the call. Mr. Barnes found out when the alarm company called him to report a fire on the premises. The fire department was here within minutes, but it was too late to save it. There was an explosion at some point, but I don’t know whether the fire started before that, or if that’s what caused it. It’s lucky none of the surrounding buildings caught.”

  “It was an old building,” Liam said. “Maybe the wiring sparked. Or somebody left a space heater running in their office. It’s been cold lately.”

  They stared morosely at what remained of their workplace. Angie thought of the space heater in her office. She hadn’t used it this week because she’d worn sweaters. Didn’t mean someone else hadn’t used theirs. But this on top of Charles quitting and the Cardinal Group files disappearing?

  Too convenient. Though why would anyone want to burn down the office? The files were already gone before the fire started, and that could have been done remotely.

  “I’m starving,” Liam said after a moment. “IHOP anyone?”

  Angie nodded. “Sounds good.”

  “I could eat,” Jack added.

  “How about you, Jen?” Angie asked when Jenny didn’t say anything.

  Jenny’s eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. She’d been crying. She jumped when Angie touched her arm. “Jen? Breakfast?”

  Jenny nodded. “I can come. Thanks.”

  “You okay?” Angie asked.

  “I’m fine. I just—I had pictures of my kids in there. I can print them again, of course. I don’t know why I’m emotional about this.”

  Angie hugged her. Poor Jenny had been through an ugly divorce recently and she was still recovering from the emotional trauma of it. “I’m sorry, Jen.”

  “I’ll be okay. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

  “Have you seen anyone else?” Angie asked the group at large.

  “Mr. Barnes was by a few minutes ago. He said Blake’s working on a solution,” Jack said.

  As if on cue, everyone’s phones pinged with a text. “It’s Blake,” Liam said.

  “Can you tell me what it says?” Angie asked. “I left mine in the car.”

  “Nothing much.” Liam scrolled. “Basically, we’re to work from home for now. Everything’s in the cloud so he hopes it won’t impact us too much. We can send forms that need printed to the Falls Church office. They’ll mail them to clients. Blah, blah. No news on what caused the fire.” Liam sighed. “That’s it. Work from home. Contact your clients and reassure them, though Triple B’s sending out an official email as well.”

  “I can’t imagine how long it’s going to take to get a new office up and running,” Angie said. It hit her forcefully that this was a huge change in her life. She hadn’t lost her job—not yet—but nothing was the same as it had been yesterday. It wasn’t going to magically go back to normal in a day or two either. She’d thought getting the jacked up Cardinal Group account was the worst thing to happen to her lately. Apparently not.

  “We’ll be out of our jobs if they decide not to rebuild,” Jenny practically wailed. “And maybe they won’t with all the new branches they’ve been opening in other cities.”

  “Don’t think that way, Jen. This is still the original BB&B. Tradition means something to those old boys,” Jack replied.

  “Come on, ladies,” Liam interjected, looping an arm around each of them. “Let’s go drown our sorrows with pancakes and maple syrup.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Angie replied. She didn’t want to imagine the worst that could happen, or listen to Jenny have a meltdown over it. She made a note to ask Jenny if she’d gotten any of Charles’s accounts before they parted ways for the day.

  As she got into her car and stared at the smoking remains of the building, a cold shiver rolled through her and she started to tremble. Her first instinct was to call Colt. She’d called him last night after Liam’s text about the fire. He’d helped her calm down considerably. He was good at that. Probably because he was used to chaos and uncertainty.

  Now that she was sitting there in the cold light of day and seeing what was left of the building—well, it was unnerving as hell. The urge to call him and have him make sense of it was strong—but she didn’t. She couldn’t call him every time she felt uneasy about something. Besides, there was nothing he could do to fix it.

  She put the car in reverse and headed for IHOP. Jack, Liam, and Jenny were already there. They had a table near the back and Angie pasted on a smile as she joined them. She shook her hair out and picked up her menu, determined to be as positive as possible.

  Jenny was beside her, and when Jack and Liam started talking about the Super Bowl and who they thought would win, Angie turned to the other woman. Jenny had always been sort of unassuming, but lately she’d started wearing makeup and coming to work in something other than a basic black suit.

  Today she was wearing leggings with riding boots and a loose sweater. Her hair was in a ponytail, and there were worry lines at the corners of her eyes and mouth. No doubt she had a lot on her mind with that rotten ex-husband of hers.

  Dan had been bad, but at least they hadn’t gotten married and had children before Angie discovered his affairs.

  “Hey, Jen—I wanted to ask you. Did you get any of Martinelli’s accounts?”

  Jenny blinked as her gaze snapped to Angie’s. “A couple. Why?”

  “I was just wondering if you’d encountered any problems with any of them.”

  Jenny frowned. “Um, no. Nothing out of the ordinary. Why?”

  “I had one that wasn’t quite right. But it’s gone now, so it doesn’t matter.”

  She thought Jenny might have stiffened. “Gone?”

  “The company closed their account and the files are gone. They were deleted last night, apparently.”

  Jenny’s mouth tightened. “I don’t know anything about that.”

  “Doesn’t matter since it’s over. Just keep an eye out for wonky accounting in the files you have.”

  Jenny was frowning. Hard. “Wonky accounting?”

  Angie cursed. Why had she brought it up when it was a moot point anyway? Charles was gone and the Cardinal Group accounts had been deleted. She didn’t know who’d done it, but it didn’t matter. Her involvement was finished. If there were other messed up accounts, then let someone else find them.

  “It’s nothing. I think Charles was just distracted. It’s not a big deal.”

  “Who was the client?”

  Angie hesitated. But it wouldn’t be difficult to discover which account had been closed recently. “The Cardinal Group.”

  Jenny turned away quickly. “I don’t know anything about that. I never worked on that one.”

  “I know,” Angie said. “I did, but I’m not now so it’s cool.”

  Their pancakes arrived and the conversation turned to other things. They spent an hour eating and drinking coffee, and then went their separate ways. Angie drove home, thinking about everything that had happened in the past couple of days.

  People quit their jobs. Files disappeared. Fires happened.

  It didn’t have to be sinister. But it damned sure felt like it.

  Colt drove to Black Defense International’s building and made his way through security. Handprints, eye scans, cipher locks. Ian Black wasn’t letting anyone in who didn’t belong. Which was good because BDI was a lot more than it seemed.

  Officially, they were mercenaries. Unofficially, they operated like a cross betwee
n James Bond and Jason Bourne with a dash of Navy SEAL thrown in. It was a hell of a ride most of the time.

  Colt stalked through the secret area of the building and into Ian Black’s office. Ian had just returned from Africa and he looked up when Colt gave a cursory knock on the open door and strode in.

  “You’re looking a bit tense today. Did Angie Turner ghost you again?”

  Colt gave Ian a look. Ian grinned, and Colt knew the boss was yanking his chain.

  “No, she didn’t. Her office building burned down this morning. And the account she was working on evaporated from their servers last night.”

  Ian’s gaze sparked with interest. “You don’t say?”

  “It belonged to the Cardinal Group. They’re venture capitalists. They have an office in Annapolis, and they invest in local startups, among other things.”

  Ian leaned back in his chair. “We have a missing accountant, disappearing financial records, and a burned out office building. Seems as if something’s shady, doesn’t it?”

  “Looks that way from where I’m sitting.”

  “Did you find anything on Martinelli in the database?” Ian asked. “I’m assuming not since you didn’t lead with that.”

  “Not yet. I want to surveil his house, see if he’s there. Maybe he’ll have some answers if we can find him.”

  “Go for it. Take Ty with you. I’ll tell Dax to keep searching the records. I’ll also see what I can find out about the fire.”

  Ian studied him with flinty blue eyes. Colt had stopped wondering what Ian’s true eye color was. Tomorrow they might be brown. Or green.

  “Don’t let this situation distract you,” Ian said. “If there’s anything wrong, we’ll find it. But don’t get twisted around the axle. Angie Turner is a grown woman, and a pretty smart one too. She doesn’t appear to be in any immediate danger, and you can’t be with her twenty-four hours a day. Our missions take priority. I need your head in the game, Colt.”

  “Am I going on assignment?” Colt asked as coolly as possible.

  Ian shrugged. “You never know, do you? Might have an asset in Paris who needs persuading.”