He found Kayla standing in the kitchen with a glass of water. She was just staring out the window at the backyard. There was a little patch of grass and plenty of leafy plants. It was obvious that Ava liked green growing things. He wondered if Kayla did also.
“Are you all right?” Carson asked quietly.
She half turned her head but did not speak. She lifted one shoulder instead. Carson still didn’t know what to make of the information he’d gotten earlier about Kayla and Tegan’s late night excursion to the Russian bar. He felt used. He also knew that he was in much deeper with Kayla than he should have been. It made things very, very complicated.
Carson approached her slowly. “Why weren’t you honest with me last night about where you had been?”
“Would you have been angry?” She finally turned around to face him. “Would you have lectured me and then made me feel stupid and foolish? Would you have thought less of me?”
He thought about her words. “Yes. I would have been angry, but I wouldn’t have lectured, and I certainly hope I wouldn’t have said anything to make you feel stupid.” Carson reached out very slowly and cupped her cheek. “Kayla, there is nothing you could do to make me think less of you, but I am wondering whether or not what happened last night between us would have been the same if you hadn’t tried to distract me with sex.”
She turned away once again, pulling back from his touch. “So, now you think that’s the only reason I had sex with you? To distract you?”
“Wasn’t it?” Why did he want her to say no so badly? Did it mean that much to him? Carson hated the thought that he had become this vulnerable to a woman who might be toying with him and nothing more.
“No.” Her voice was very soft. “I thought at first… I don’t know what I thought. I thought it was casual sex, I guess. You know, the same as anyone. But you’re different.” She sighed and turned back around to face him. Her posture was defensive. She held the glass in front of her like some kind of barrier. “You’re not like any of the other guys I’ve—well, I don’t do relationships, so—I guess you’re just different from the guys I’ve slept with.”
He could not help the smile that threatened to bust his face wide open. “You’re not like any woman I’ve ever been with either.”
“Have there been a lot?” She bristled and Carson wanted to laugh. It was fine for her to insinuate that she slept around, but when he did it, she got defensive. It was strangely endearing.
Carson took the glass from her hands and set it aside. Then he pulled her into his embrace. She was stiff at first, but then she softened against him, and Carson felt the most profound sense of satisfaction in having her there. He held her for just a moment without speaking. He needed to convey something that words just would not say.
Finally, he pressed his lips to the side of her head. “There have been a few, but no one I could ever imagine myself being with for more than a couple of days or weeks. You are completely different. You don’t need me. Sometimes I don’t even think you want me around. Yet being around you is rewarding. You are smart and funny and independent. You’re tough, and I love the way your brain works. It might drive me crazy that you put yourself in danger last night, but if I stand here and think about it, I can also admit that you are perfectly capable of handling yourself in most situations.”
“Really?” She tilted her head back to look at him. “You don’t think I’m some helpless girl?”
“No.” He sighed. “And when I pushed on you earlier about your inheritance, I wasn’t taking into account all of the history and baggage between you and your uncle. I was just thinking that you were a very intelligent woman who did not seem to be able to see what looked obvious to me. But if I’m honest, I can admit that we’re both looking at the situation from a skewed viewpoint.”
“You were right,” she whispered.
Carson leaned in closer. “I was right? What do you mean?”
“Ava said that I was supposed to gain control of my own trust at twenty-one.” Her gusty sigh told him that she wasn’t exactly glad that he had been right. “That means I should have become financially independent two years ago.”
Carson gave her a warm squeeze. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. For once I’m not glad to be right.”
Just then, Ava popped her head into the kitchen. “Would you two lovebirds get back in here? We have a plan to kick this thing into motion!”
Carson sighed. He should probably be glad that he’d gotten at least a few minutes of privacy to straighten some things out. Unfortunately for him, it was never going to feel like he had enough time with Kayla.
Chapter Fourteen
“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Kayla muttered to Tegan. “Your father is on the board of this bank. The second we do anything with my accounts, he’s going to know. He always knows.”
Tegan made a surreptitious gesture in Ava’s direction. “Yeah, but my mother can get around that.”
Tegan and Kayla were both following Ava’s lead. Ava walked into the bank as though she owned the place. And in a way, she did. At least in part. Divorcing Stedman Hyde-Pierson came with a few perks. One of those was that she had a tiny sliver of ownership that she had gotten out of her marriage settlement. It was perhaps a fraction of a percentage, but it was a hell of a lot more than most people in Boston could boast.
Ava stopped in front of one of the dozen or more desks. “Hello, Felix.”
“Ms. Faraday!” Felix leaped up from his desk and ran around to give Ava an air-kiss on each cheek. “It’s so good to see you! It’s been too long.”
“I need a favor, Felix.” Ava took a seat on the corner of Felix’s desk.
Kayla watched in fascination as her aunt set about charming this poor schmuck into doing something that probably could have gotten him in trouble. Kayla and Tegan sank slowly into the two leather chairs stationed before Felix’s desk to watch the story unfold.
“My niece, Kayla.” Ava gestured to Kayla. “She has a trust that is being managed by this bank.”
“Yes.” Felix steepled his fingers in front of him and looked grim. “We all know about that trust. Mr. Hyde-Pierson is very specific on who can access it and how.”
“Kayla is twenty-three,” Ava said gently. “You do realize what that means.”
Felix’s eyes opened wide. He was a very small man in a well-cut suit. Something about him gave the air that he was a very, very fastidious by-the-book sort of man. “Then she should have control over her trust,” Felix said solemnly. “This is very bad.”
“Exactly.”
Bad? Why was it bad? Kayla opened her mouth to speak, but Tegan cut in first. “I have the name here of an attorney who will be managing the trust through this process.”
Attorney? Kayla didn’t have an attorney!
Felix had paled to a milky white color. “Mr. Hyde-Pierson is going to be livid.”
“And yet there’s really nothing that you could have done, Felix,” Ava pointed out. “We have legal paperwork. The beneficiary is more than of age. Your hands are tied.”
“True.” Felix pressed his lips into a thin line. Then he scooted closer to his desk and started pounding on the keyboard. It took several minutes for him to speak again. “I’ve transferred the information to your attorney.” The man’s Adam’s apple bobbed wildly. “I have also removed Mr. Hyde-Pierson from the list of those who can access trust funds or assets. You’re going to want to have that attorney take a careful look at the portfolio I just sent him. There has been an inordinate amount of activity lately.”
Kayla couldn’t keep silent any longer. She had a bad feeling she knew what he was getting at. “Meaning?”
“Meaning that your uncle has been selling off the real estate holdings from the trust and then putting the funds in his personal accounts.” Felix glanced around as if he were worried about being overheard.
“That’s illegal!” Tegan said indignantly.
Felix shrugged. “It’s what’s been happening, all the same
.”
Ava put up her hands. “If that’s what’s been happening, then Stedman will have to pay it back. Let’s not worry about that now. Once there’s a claim filed, he won’t argue. He won’t want the negative attention.”
Felix was looking very uncomfortable. “There is the small matter of the mandatory notification that control of the trust has been altered.”
Kayla groaned. “You have to call my uncle?”
“It’s procedure,” Felix said apologetically. “I can give you perhaps twenty-four hours.”
“That would be wonderful, Felix. Thank you.” Ava stood up and started to move toward the bank’s front doors.
About that time, those same doors swung wide open and Stedman Hyde-Pierson walked into the bank. He moved with a purpose, each swinging stride almost aggressive in nature. Two meaty bodyguards—Bridge and Jinx—flanked him on both sides.
Felix shot to a standing position. “If you three ladies will follow me this way?”
He was urging them in the opposite direction of the doors. Ava immediately followed his lead. Tegan and Kayla brought up the rear. They seemed to be going toward a bank of offices separated from the main area of the bank by frosted glass. Stedman was walking straight toward them. Kayla could not believe he hadn’t noticed them just yet.
Felix was grabbing desperately at his bank ID. He swiped the card against a pad outside one of the frosted doorways. It swung open, and the four of them disappeared inside. Felix shut the door and sighed with obvious relief.
“That was close,” Tegan whispered.
Kayla was thinking of something entirely different. She poked Felix. “Was he supposed to be here today?”
“No.” Felix was actually panting. “There are no meetings going on. There’s no reason for him to be here unless he needed to take care of some personal business. He usually does all of his banking online.”
Kayla felt her heart slamming a staccato beat against her ribs. Adrenaline flooded her bloodstream, and she knew that she was about to do something incredibly stupid. She grabbed the door handle, and before Ava or Tegan could say anything, Kayla ducked back out into the main lobby area of the bank.
*
Carson was having a hard time focusing on the mission at hand. He kept thinking about Kayla in that bank with Ava and Tegan. Would she be safe? It had been the height of stupidity to let them go alone. Nash had been adamant though. And Nash was still the boss.
“They’ll be just fine,” Wrath muttered. “You’re stressing me out with all of this internal self-castigation. Your body language reeks of it.”
“Wow,” Carson murmured sarcastically. “Aren’t you just the insightful one?”
They were standing outside the Sokolov mansion. Nash had gone back to the unit headquarters in the surveillance vehicle so that nobody would think there was anything amiss. Nash had left the infiltration of the Sokolovs to Carson and Wrath. Carson wasn’t entirely certain that was a good idea. In his most recent experience, the two of them weren’t great at subtlety.
“This place is huge,” Wrath observed. “Got any idea where we should start?”
Carson noted the guards stationed at almost every corner of the house on both the lower and upper floors. Each carried a rifle slung over their shoulder. Obviously, Sokolov didn’t like unexpected visitors.
“We need to find a kid like the one that was sent to watch Kayla,” Carson mused. “He was easier than hell to intimidate, and someone like that should at least be able to tell us if the boss is in the house.”
“Right,” Wrath said slowly. “How about that bozo wandering around the backyard?”
“That works.” Carson shifted his position and started moving through the deeper vegetation near the back of the house.
Behind him, Wrath moved quietly. The two former marines had been through plenty of jungle reconnaissance training. They knew how to stay quiet. Carson watched the guard’s meandering path through the small backyard of Sokolov’s estate. It was a little surprising that they were in Cambridge. It wasn’t the sort of place that Carson had expected a Russian mafia leader to live. Still, he knew that these sorts of people often hid in plain sight and were often very involved with their local communities.
Finally, the guard’s wanderings brought him very close to Carson’s position. Using every bit of his stealth training, Carson leaned out and put one hand over the guard’s mouth and the other behind his head. He gained instant control of the other man and yanked him into the thick shrubbery.
Wrath pulled the guard’s gun away from him. “Hello. My friend and I have some questions.”
The guard’s wide eyes were a testament to his inexperience. What sort of mafia leader surrounded himself by young and rather incompetent guards? It made little or no sense. Guards should be savvy, experienced, and very alert.
Carson shook off those thoughts. Now really wasn’t the time to ponder such things. He pulled a knife from its sheath at his waist and pressed the blade against the guard’s throat. “I’m going to let go of your mouth. If you scream, I’ll have no choice but to slit your throat and go get another lackey to interrogate. Got it?”
The kid’s head bobbed up and down emphatically.
“Good.” Carson slowly lowered his hand but kept the knife in place against the young man’s throat. “Now. How about you tell us where your boss is?”
“Anton?” The man shuddered. “He’s not here. He left this morning. Early. I don’t know where he went.”
Carson exchanged a look with Wrath. Apparently, Anton was more in control of the Sokolov organization than any of them had realized.
Wrath took the lead. “What about Sokolov himself?”
“The Pekhan?” The man’s Russian accent thickened when he spoke of the Sokolov’s highest authority. “Nobody ever sees him. He stays out of sight, where it’s safe. The Italians and the Irish want him dead.” There was something almost prideful in the man’s description of his boss. “They say he can steal money right out of someone’s bank account without them even knowing until it is too late!”
“Sounds like a real shit,” Carson muttered. “Or just a run-of-the-mill banker. Either one works.”
Wrath’s gaze snapped up. He caught Carson’s and held it. Then Wrath raised his hand and smashed his fist down on the back of their captive’s neck. The guy crumpled to the ground right at Carson’s feet. Carson blinked a few times in surprise as he tried to reconcile why Wrath would have ended the involuntary interview before they’d gotten any real information.
“What the hell?” Carson said as loud as he dared. “We weren’t done with him! I wanted to know where the chain of command went after Anton.”
“Don’t you realize what this little shit was bragging about?” There was no denying the urgency in Wrath’s tone. He looked as though he were about to jump out of his skin. “Do you know how many banks here in Boston that Stedman Hyde-Pierson basically owns? He sits on the board of directors for four different banks. Pierson Financial handles most of the investments for every single one of those banks. He has intimate knowledge of the banking industry.”
Carson realized what Wrath was getting at. “You think Stedman was working with the Sokolov boss to move money without permission,” Carson guessed. “They were stealing from the other local crime families.”
“Maybe Stedman got greedy, maybe Anton did. Either way, I bet you Stedman double-crossed the big boss and that’s what this is all about.”
Carson tried to think. How would they even find out something like that? They worked in the physical realm. Bodyguards, protection squads, all of those things were a tangible entity fighting a tangible threat. What Wrath was describing was essentially cybercrime. Nash was going to have to find a damn good hacker if he wanted to get this situation figured out any time soon.
A radio crackled behind them. Both Carson and Wrath spun on their heels. Carson found himself staring down the barrel of an automatic rifle. The grinning Russian on the other end of the gun was al
ready lifting his radio to call for backup. Not good. Not good at all.
Chapter Fifteen
Carson reacted instinctively. He grabbed the barrel of the weapon and yanked the man closer. The Russian wasn’t expecting that. Off balance, he fell forward and lost his grip on the rifle. Unfortunately for him, the carry strap of the weapon was still around the Russian’s shoulder. Carson used the strap to spin the man around. He rotated the gun to tighten the carry strap.
Not far away, Carson could hear other boots crashing through the shrubbery. Wrath was ready. Carson could see Wrath’s stance from the corner of his eye. His fellow marine had knees bent and his hands hanging loose at his sides. The first man appeared in the close quarters of the trees and brush, and Wrath was already on him.
Carson spun the man he held around in a circle. Using one boot, he buckled the man’s knees. The guy grunted in pain as he sank to the ground. Carson wound the carry strap around the guy’s neck and used it to choke him out. Finally, the Russian fell to the ground. He was unconscious, but not dead.
Wrath had disposed of his captive, but they had to get out of there quickly. It wouldn’t be long before every one of those guards showed up with a gun and a desire to use it.
“Out the back way,” Wrath urged. He was pointing at a huge fence that spanned the rear property line.
The two marines bolted for the structure. Carson felt the brush grabbing and ripping at his hair and clothes. He didn’t pause. Behind him, he knew that the Russians were getting the same treatment. Someone needed to thin out these trees, but that wasn’t Carson’s problem.
“Up and over!” Wrath said quickly.
With Carson’s longer legs, he reached the wall first. The cinder block structure was topped with ornate crenellations. That didn’t change the marines’ tactics at all. Carson halted right at the bottom of the fence. He widened his stance and braced his hands together to make a step.
Nash Security Solutions Page 24
