by Ivy Nelson
Fifteen minutes later, his own phone rang. The caller ID told him it was the fourth floor.
“Mr. Barrett, we’re getting complaints that you’re yelling at the employees again. Is there anything I can do to make things better for you up there? This is at least the fifth complaint about you this week.”
Elijah glared at the phone. She was too damn good at her job. “I’m sorry, Claudia. I just have a lot on my mind lately. I’ll try to keep my temper in check. Any luck on the search for a new assistant?”
“Not yet. I’ll let you know as soon as we have some candidates for you to interview.”
It had been nearly two weeks since he’d laid eyes on Holly and just over a week since Jax told him he had a lead he was following. His attorneys had shown the FBI that he had a solid alibi for the night Melissa Sutton was murdered and they had dropped all charges. The lawsuit against him was also dropped but they were still waiting on the ruling from the FTC.
A lawsuit of his own for breach of contract was sitting on his desk with Holly’s name on it, but he hadn’t had the heart to sign it yet. Did he want to? Not really, because that meant seeing her in a courtroom and he would just rather forget she existed. That was proving difficult though. Just last night, he’d turned on the local news and caught a glimpse of her on the arm of Grant Sterling for a charity event. She’d looked tired, and she’d clearly lost weight. It pissed him off that he worried about her.
His intercom crackled, shaking him out of his thoughts.
“Mr. Barrett, I have a messenger here for you. Should I send him in?”
“Can you just sign for the package, or are you too incompetent for that as well?”
He cringed. He was being a jackass.
The receptionist cleared her throat. “Actually, there’s a stipulation with the package that you have to be the one to sign for it and he needs to see some identification as well. So no, I can’t.”
“I apologize, Lara, I’m being an insufferable ass today. Please send him in.”
He pulled his wallet from his inside jacket pocket and tugged out his license while he waited. A moment later, there was a knock on the door.
“It’s open,” he hollered.
The teenager pushed his way into the office clutching a package as if his life depended on it.
“Sorry to bother you, Mr. Barrett, sir, but I was given strict instructions that you be the only one to lay eyes on this package.”
Elijah eyed the envelope skeptically. “And you’re sure it’s not rigged to explode or something?”
“Yes, Sir. We screen packages before we deliver them.”
He reached for it and the kid pulled it out of his reach. “Sorry. I need to see your ID first”
Elijah huffed and handed him the driver’s license.
“Thank you, Mr. Barrett. Here’s your package.”
Elijah snatched it and sent the messenger away with a twenty for his troubles.
At his desk, he pulled open the envelope. Inside, was a single flash drive and a note with Holly’s handwriting.
This should be everything you need to take down Nicholas. I thought you might want to do the honors and pass this on to the FBI. They’ll want to see the paper trail that proves it’s admissible in court, so you’ll want to put them in touch with me.
I’ll be at Solitaire on Friday night if you want to talk.
Holly
Elijah stared at the drive in his hand. Was this some kind of joke? His cell phone rang. It was Jax Fischer.
“It’s about fucking time I heard from you.”
Jax laughed. “You need to relax. Did you get Holly’s package?”
Elijah froze. “How the hell did you know about that?”
“Because I’m the one who helped her put it together.”
Elijah felt his blood boil. “Are you shitting me right now? Is this the kind of professionalism I’m paying for?”
Jax laughed. “She paid me double what you did, and she hired one of my forensic accountants. I couldn’t exactly say no to that kind of money. I’m not the billionaire big shot you are. But it turns out I was wrong about her. Have you looked at the drive yet?”
Elijah turned it over in his hands. “I was just about to plug it in. You’re sure it’s not going to blow up my computer or something?”
“Just look at it. I’m on my way to your office right now.”
When Jax arrived half an hour later, Elijah was pouring over the contents of the drive. It was all there in numbers. Nicholas Sutton was laundering money through his own charity foundation. There was no way he didn’t go to prison for this. It wasn’t a murder charge, but it would do for now.
“Why the hell didn’t she tell me what she was up to? Why didn’t you tell me?”
Jax shrugged and stuffed his hands into his jeans. “I’m sure she didn’t tell you because you kicked her out. And I didn’t tell you because that was her one condition for hiring me. She didn’t want you knowing just in case she didn’t find anything.”
“How did she do it?” he asked as he continued to scroll through the documents.
“I think you should let her tell you that. But I will tell you this, if she were my sub, I’d be making sure she couldn’t sit for a week.”
Elijah growled. That was not what he needed to hear right now. “God, I was such a bastard,” he muttered.
“So, I take it that means you’ll be at Solitaire on Friday?”
Elijah nodded.
“Good. Then you can apologize for being an asshole before you spank the hell out of her.”
“ME? You’re the one who convinced me she was spying,” Elijah exploded.
Jax laughed and held up his hands. “I already apologized for that. Now it’s your turn. And I know, you’re going to want to see her before Solitaire, but I think you should wait or you might spook her dad while we bury him in this shit,” he said, gesturing at the flash drive sticking out of Elijah’s computer.
Elijah nodded. “That’s fair. Do we need to get her out of the house before we send in the feds?”
“No. I think you should leave her in place. We don’t want him knowing she had anything to do with it at all if we can help it, but we should at least keep it a secret until he’s behind bars.”
He didn’t like it, but he knew Jax was right. “Can you or one of your people shadow her?”
“I am being called back to Texas, and it would take a couple days to get one of my people in place.”
Elijah already had his phone in his hand. “I’ll put Dale on it. Does Patrick know about all of this?”
Jax nodded with an apologetic grin.
“Bastard,” Elijah muttered, but he was smiling. Things might just be OK.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Holly stared at the headline, unsure how she felt about it. Her father had been arrested on money laundering and tax evasion charges among other things. This was really happening, and she still hadn’t seen Elijah. When her father was arrested and the house turned into a crime scene, Holly went to Patrick’s L.A. apartment. He was already in Colorado, and she was flying out tomorrow morning.
Right now, she was hiding because the paparazzi were stalking her. A car was scheduled to pick her up first thing in the morning, and she couldn’t wait to see Elijah again. There had been no contact, so she had no idea how he felt about her. Would he still be suspicious of her or was there enough proof now that she loved him and would never do anything to hurt him?
While she was curled up on the couch in Patrick’s apartment trying to read a book, her phone rang. It was her brother. Probably calling to make sure she was staying safe.
“Hey, Patrick, I thought you were still on the plane.”
“It’s dad. He had a heart attack and is in the hospital.”
Holly sat up straighter and tossed her book aside. “Why would you care?”
“I just know you two were always close. The arrest doesn’t change that,” her brother said. It kind of did, but it didn’t change that
he was her father. Did she want to see him?
Holly stood and paced the living room. “I thought he was in jail. Will they let me see him?”
“Dad made bail. He’s in the hospital close to the house. I can send a car. Where are you?”
“I told you, I’m staying in your apartment until I go to the airport in the morning.”
“A car will be there in fifteen minutes. Don’t move.”
Holly stared at the phone after he’d hung up. Her brother was weird sometimes.
Fifteen minutes later an unknown number called her phone. Hesitantly, she answered it.
“Miss Sutton, I’m downstairs and ready to take you to your father. Please hurry.”
Was it really that bad? Holly felt panic in her gut. He’d been a lie her entire life, but she couldn’t help but care. Grabbing her purse, she tucked her tablet inside and headed downstairs.
When she got into the backseat, she sent Patrick a text.
Car is here. I’ll let you know how he is when I get to the hospital. Thanks for calling.
They had been driving for about twenty minutes when her phone buzzed.
Plane just landed. What the hell are you talking about?
Holly stared at the phone as her heart leapt into her throat. Then she looked out the window and realized they were definitely not going to the hospital. This was Patrick and Elijah’s lab. Her door opened and she was met with a gun. “I think I’ll take your phone now, Holly.”
With trembling hands, she handed it to a familiar face and tried not to cry. “Why are you doing this, Troy?” she whispered.
“Out of the car,” the president of the Sutton Foundation said as he used his free hand to tap something on her screen. Was he texting Patrick for her? God, how did she fall for this? The call sounded so much like Patrick, but she realized exactly what had happened the moment she laid eyes on Troy Wilson. They’d used the robocall system she hated so much. Patrick’s voice was easily accessible all over the internet because he did a lot of TV interviews. It wouldn’t be hard to feed his voice into the system.
Now she just had to pray that Patrick was confused enough by her message to worry and start looking for her.
• • •
“We’re fucking closing,” Elijah said, glaring at everyone at the table.
“Elijah, I know you’re upset and worried about your girl, but if we close, we’re pissing off a lot of members when we don’t have to. Let us open. You, Lance, and Patrick can handle the search for Holly,” Hunter Novak said.
When Dale told him Holly got into a car in the middle of the night last night, he’d panicked but then she’d called him to say everything was fine and she would be on the plane in the morning. Only she didn’t get on the plane and Dale couldn’t find her. Elijah’s jet was already fueled up and ready to fly back to California, but the board wanted to open Solitaire still.
“Hunter is right,” Lance said. “Patrick and I will fly back to California with you. We’ll find her.”
Elijah wasn’t so sure. All he could think of was the fate of Melissa Sutton. Someone who had dared even threaten to speak out against Nicholas. If he found out Holly was behind the FBI raid, she would be subject to the same fate.
“Have you had any luck with her phone?”
Lance shook his head. “I’m working on it. I can tell you where it turned off last night but that’s it. It hasn’t moved since about midnight and they definitely weren’t taking her to a hospital. Does she have any other devices I can try to track?”
He’d confiscated her company devices. “She reads on a tablet. I have no idea how to get you into it though.”
Lance waved his hand. “I’m on it. If it’s signed into the same cloud account as her phone, I can probably dig into it.”
His fingers were already flying across the keys.
“Bingo.”
He was quiet for a minute as he looked at his screen.
“Where the fuck is she?” Patrick demanded.
“The car is here to take us back to the plane,” Elijah said when his phone buzzed.
“Let’s go. I can do this on the plane. Do we have the FBI on the horn yet? I want to send them information as we go,” Lance said.
“Do you ever worry about getting arrested? What you’re doing isn’t exactly legal.”
Lance hesitated. “Actually, it is. Holly gave me permission to get into her stuff when I helped her navigate the Sutton Foundation files.”
Elijah felt his blood begin to boil.
“You fucking what?” he asked, his voice quiet but threatening.
“I made her talk to him so she would stay safe,” Patrick said, touching his arm.
“I kept her from getting caught while she was gathering evidence. There was nothing I could do about the assumptions that would be made once the cops got involved, or about any of the digging she did on her own before I helped her,” Lance said, still typing away on his laptop.
A few minutes later, he handed the small device to Elijah. “Either of you recognize that address?”
“Shit,” Elijah cursed when he looked at the map.
“She’s at the lab. Or at least her devices are,” he said, turning the screen for Patrick to see.
“Fuck. Why would they take her there?”
As they were climbing the steps to Elijah’s private jet, Patrick’s phone rang.
He scowled at the number. “It’s Grant Sterling.”
“Put it on speaker,” Elijah said.
“Hello,” Patrick said before he tapped the screen to put it on speaker.
Grant’s voice sounded loud in the jet’s cabin. “I think Troy Wilson kidnapped Holly.”
Elijah quirked an eyebrow up. “I’m here with Elijah Barrett and another friend of ours, Grant. What are you talking about? We know something is wrong and we think they’ve taken her to our diamond production lab, but we don’t know why.”
Grant blew out a breath. “Hello, Elijah. I know we have our differences, but I don’t want anything happening to her. Troy and her father were close allies and that’s why he was in charge of the Sutton Foundation. I knew not everything Nicholas did was on the up and up and I made my peace with that years ago. Nicholas Sutton took me in when I was at rock bottom.”
“Get to the point, Grant,” Elijah interrupted. “Holly’s life is at stake here. How can you help us?”
“I assume you’re in Colorado. I’m in L.A. I can help.”
Why would he know they were in Colorado? Had Holly confided in him? That still rubbed him the wrong way, but Elijah wasn’t going to turn down help getting her back.
“We’re on the plane back now. About to take off any second. Call the cops and tell them where we think she is. Keep us in the loop.”
“I can do that,” Grant said. “How did you figure out where they took her?”
Lance cleared his throat. “I tracked one of her devices.”
“You’re the computer whiz then. See if you can hack into the Sutton Foundation’s robo-calling system. I have a feeling that’s how they got her to go with them.”
Elijah had no idea what he was talking about, but Lance apparently did because he was nodding and typing.
Patrick ended the call, and they spent the rest of the plane ride silent, save the clicking of Lance’s keyboard.
• • •
Elijah paced in the ER waiting room, tapping his foot impatiently. Holly was being brought in by ambulance and Grant Sterling was on board with her. He’d been texting them since they landed in L.A. There were still questions about what happened, but Nicholas Sutton was back in jail after having made bail and Troy Wilson was sitting right next to him. Whether Troy acted alone was unclear. All that mattered right now was that she was safe and both men were going to prison.
A nurse came out and yelled, “Sutton family.”
Patrick and Elijah both jumped up. Patrick flashed a stupid grin that made Elijah want to punch him.
“What the fuck are you grinning abo
ut? Your sister was just rescued from being kidnapped.”
Patrick shrugged. “Nothing. I just never thought I would see the day where you claimed to be a Sutton.”
Elijah flipped him off as the nurse approached them with a dirty look of her own. “Are you family?” she asked.
Both men nodded.
“Holly is going to be fine, and she can have visitors as soon as we get her settled. But we can’t release her until a doctor signs off.”
Just then Grant Sterling came through the same doors as the nurse. Elijah stepped forward and shook his hand. “I appreciate you being there,” he told him.
Grant gave him a tight smile. “I’m just glad she’s OK. She was asking for you.”
Elijah turned and looked at the nurse. “Is it OK if we go back?”
She gave a reluctant nod and Elijah turned to head through the doors that led to patient rooms. “You coming?” he asked when he realized Patrick wasn’t following.
“I’ll let you have your little reunion without me,” he said with a shrug. “I’ll hang here with Grant.”
Elijah turned and jogged after the nurse. When he walked into the curtained off room, his heart twisted. She sat on the bed in tattered clothes, a bruise on her cheek and her hair a wreck.
“Holly,” he whispered, his voice thick with emotion.
“Elijah,” she cried, scrambling off the bed.
He crushed her to him and peppered her head with kisses.
He felt her tears dampening his shirt. “Baby,” he crooned. “It’s OK. I’ve got you.”
“I was so scared,” she choked out. “Then Grant and the police showed up just in time. They were going to torch the building again with me in it. Troy figured out it was me who turned my father in. Daddy was his meal ticket. I think he might have been the one to burn the lab down in the first place.”
Elijah stood there holding her for several minutes letting her get her tears out. When she was calmer, he led her back to the bed and encouraged her to sit.
He slid a finger beneath her chin and made her look at him. “Holly Sutton, I love you to the moon and back but I swear to God, if you ever do something so stupid again without talking to me, I’m taking my belt to your ass and you won’t sit for a month.”
