by Paige Tyler
Max frowned. “And from the looks of it, they’ve been doing it for years. How the hell did Design-Tech not catch this?”
She shrugged. “Maybe they did. Maybe that same someone at Sentinal who embezzled the money paid them off to cover it up.”
He clenched his jaw. “And that someone at Sentinal is probably Burton.”
“Probably,” she agreed.
He leaned over and kissed her. “I knew you were good at this stuff.”
She laughed. “All I did was put two and two together, but thank you for the compliment.”
He grabbed his cell phone from the bedside table. “I’m going to call the Dallas office and tell them what we found.”
When he was done, Max suggested they grab some dinner. Sydney would rather have tested out the mattress some more, but her stomach growled in protest. She sighed. She supposed a girl couldn’t live on love alone. Or lust.
She was just changing into jeans and a T-shirt when Max’s cell phone rang.
Max held it to his ear. “Daniels.” He glanced at Sydney. “Mr. Friedman. What can I do for you?” His brow furrowed as he listened. “Now?”
Sydney hurriedly shoved her feet into a pair of sandals. “What does he want?”
She expected Max to shush her, but instead he put the phone on speaker so she could hear, too.
“I know it’s late, but yes,” Friedman said. “I have something I need to show you regarding the government contract.”
Max’s gaze went to Sydney again. “Like what?”
There was silence on the other end of the line. “I can’t talk on the phone.” Friedman sighed. “Look, this whole thing goes a lot deeper than you think. Beyond Sentinal. Beyond Design-Tech, too. After you left, I did some digging of my own and found some stuff I think you’ll want to see.” A pause. “It’s imperative I speak to both of you. Tonight. And bring all the records with you.”
Max hesitated. “We’ll be there in thirty minutes.”
Sydney gave him a questioning look as he hung up. “What was all that about?”
“I don’t know.” He shoved his phone in the pocket of his jeans. “But whatever it is, Friedman sounds spooked as hell.”
* * *
The Sentinal office building was dark except for the soft glow of light coming from the front lobby. Not unusual, considering they’d closed hours ago. Sydney expected to find Alec Friedman waiting for them outside, but he was nowhere in sight. There was a car in the parking lot, though.
Max held the front door open for her, then followed her inside. She looked around for Friedman, but didn’t see him.
“He must be upstairs in his office,” Max said.
There was a light coming from an office at the far end of the hallway. Sydney frowned as she realized it was Burton’ office. Why wasn’t Friedman in his own office? Unless what he wanted to show them was in the CEO’s.
She gave Max a sidelong glance, and could tell from his furrowed brow that he was wondering the same thing.
They silently made their way down the darkened hallway. The outer room was empty, so they walked into Burton’ office.
Friedman was sitting behind the desk. At least Sydney thought it was Friedman. He had his back to her so she couldn’t be sure.
“Friedman?” Max asked.
No answer.
“Friedman,” he said again, louder this time.
The man still didn’t move.
Sydney frowned. She leaned close to whisper in Max’s ear “Something doesn’t feel right about this.”
“I know.”
She chewed on her lower lip as Max set down the boxes on the floor. Part of her wanted to stay where she was, but she found herself following Max around the desk. She peeked around the chair, half afraid of what she’d find, and gasped.
Thomas Burton sat slumped in the chair, blood staining the front of his shirt, his head lolling to one side.
Sydney covered her mouth with her hands and took a step back. She wanted to ask Max if Burton was dead, but nothing would come out. Besides, she already knew the answer.
A noise from behind her made Sydney jump, and she spun around. Alec Friedman stood in the doorway, a gun in his hand.
“Thank you for bringing the files back.”
Sydney stared at him incredulously. “It was you.”
Friedman’s mouth curved. “The gun does sort of give it away, I guess. I wish I could take all the credit though, but I can’t. I had help.”
“Who?” Max asked.
“Me,” a second voice said from the doorway.
Sydney stared in disbelief as her old boss, Ted Willis, stepped into the room, a smug look on his face.
Chapter Five
It didn’t make sense. Ted couldn’t be involved in this. He was kindest, sweetest man she knew. And yet here he was, standing side by side with the gun-toting Friedman as if they were best friends. To think she’d actually felt sorry for him when Design-Tech forced him to retire.
Her gaze slid to Max. He was still standing behind the desk, his dark gaze unreadable as he regarded the two men in the doorway. He didn’t know who Ted was, she realized.
“You look surprised, Sydney?” Ted’s voice was clearly amused. “But then you always were easy to fool. That’s why I kept you around. You didn’t care what I did as long as I let you come in late, leave early and take two-hour lunches. You should be glad I’m an unscrupulous thief because if I’d actually been concerned with your abilities as a secretary, I would have fired you long ago.”
Her face colored hotly at that. “I might have slacked off at work, but I always got my job done. The job you asked of me, anyway. At least I didn’t steal millions of dollars from the company.”
“Don’t give me that crap. If you were in my position, you would have done the same thing.”
“No, I wouldn’t’ve.”
He made a sound of disgust. “Do you know how small my pension is? I could barely fill up the car with gas on what Design-Tech gave me.”
“I think that’s probably an exaggeration.” Sydney knew for a fact that Design-Tech had a sweet retirement package.
“Maybe, but you get the idea,” Ted said. “When that huge government contract fell into my lap and all that money started flowing through the company, I would have been a fool not to skim a little off the top.”
“How did you do it without anyone finding out?” Max asked.
Ted glanced at Friedman. “That’s where Alec came in. I sent the money his way, and he made sure no one noticed. We weren’t greedy, just a few hundred thousand at a time. In the beginning, we only planned to steal a million for each of us, but when alarm bells didn’t go off, we decided to keep taking more.”
Friedman glared at her and Max. “We wouldn’t have had to stop now if it weren’t for you two.”
The VP sounded like a villain out of a Scooby Doo cartoon. Sydney probably would have laughed if she wasn’t so terrified.
Ted shrugged. “It was only a matter of time before the Dallas office got suspicious.” He glanced at Max. “They sent you in to investigate, I assume?”
Max inclined his head.
“Alec and I just about had everything cleaned up nice and neat when you showed up asking to see the books. If you’d been a few days later, we could have been gone and no one would have had to die.” His mouth curved under his bushy mustache. “Then again, I suppose we should actually be thanking you. We’d been trying to figure out the best way to cover out tracks.” He gestured to the CEO’s body still slumped in the chair. “Burton makes the perfect fall guy. Too bad he killed himself before the authorities could arrest him.”
Max frowned. “No one’s going to think Burton committed suicide by shooting himself in the chest.”
“They won’t find enough of the body to know where he shot himself,” Ted said. “With you two breathing down his neck, he knew he had to cover his tracks so he decided to burn the evidence. Unfortunately for him, he got caught in the building and burned along
with all the files.”
Sydney’s mouth went dry. Oh, God. Was that was they had planned for her and Blake, too? “Wh-what about us?”
Ted turned his gaze on her, and for the first time, she saw how cold he really was. “That’s going to be a little more tricky. But Alec has a plan.”
That didn’t answer her question. She was afraid she already knew what it was, though. Her gaze went to the gun in Friedman’s hand. They’d already murdered one person. What were two more dead bodies to add to the list?
Ted pulled a rope from his pocket as he shifted his attention back to Max. “Now, I’m going to tie you up. And just so you don’t get any foolish ideas, Alec is going to hold onto Sydney. If you try anything, he’ll shoot her.”
* * *
It took every ounce of strength Max possessed to stand there and watch that asshole Friedman wrap his arm around Sydney and press the barrel of the gun to her head. The only thing that stopped him from lunging at the bastard was knowing if he tried something now, he’d only end up getting her killed.
“You don’t have to kill us, you know,” he said as Willis jerked his arms behind him and wrapped a rope around his wrists. “Without the files, there’s no way we can implicate either of you.”
Willis laughed. “Maybe not, but I’d feel a whole hell of a lot better if you two were out of the way.”
Max swore under his breath. He’d known that logic wouldn’t work on Willis, but he had to give it a try.
After making sure Max’s bonds were secure, Willis tied Sydney’s hands behind her back as well. Then he and Friedman escorted both of them downstairs to an SUV. As much as Max wanted to make a move before he and Sydney were forced into the back of the vehicle, he couldn’t because Friedman kept the gun pressed to her head the whole time they were walking.
Once inside, Sydney scooted closer to him. He could feel her body trembling against his.
“Where do you think he’s taking us?” she asked as Friedman pulled out of the parking lot.
“I don’t know.”
Max swore silently. He’d been so damn focused on thinking Burton was the bad guy here that he hadn’t even considered Friedman might be the one responsible. And now Sydney could die because of his stupidity.
He ground his jaw and strained against the ropes around his wrists. They were damn tight, but he should be able to work free. Thank God Willis hadn’t used zip ties or they’d be more screwed than they already were.
“Can you get your hands untied?”
Sydney’s voice was soft and scared. God, he wished he could put his arms around her.
“I’m working on it,” he said, keeping his voice low so Friedman wouldn’t hear. “But no matter what, we’re not going down without a fight. When I get an opening, I’m going to take it, and when I do, I want you to get out the hell out of here.”
She looked at him like he was crazy. “And leave you? No way.”
“Dammit, just do as I tell you.” He clenched his jaw and added, “Please.”
Max could tell from the set of her jaw that she wanted to argue with him, but instead she looked away and concentrated on wiggling her hands free. He hoped to hell she listened to him and ran when she got the chance. If something happened to her, he’d never forgive himself.
He looked out the front windshield and saw that Friedman was heading toward the Golden Gate Bridge. He thought the man would have taken them somewhere more secluded since he planned on killing them. But as Freidman pulled off onto the road that led to the scenic overlook above the bridge, Max realized why he’d chosen the spot. With open access to the cliffs overlooking the bay, not to mention free of visitors at this time of night, it’d be the perfect place to dump their bodies.
Friedman parked the SUV as close to the edge as he could, then cut the engine and got out.
Max leaned close to Sydney. “Remember what I told you.”
Sydney opened her mouth to say something, but Friedman jerked open the door and dragged her out before she could.
Friedman put the gun to her head, then looked at Max. “Get out.”
Max didn’t need any encouragement. He wasn’t about to leave Sydney alone with the man any longer than he had to.
As soon as he was out of the SUV, Friedman released Sydney to give Max a hard shove that sent him stumbling toward the edge of the overlook.
“You first,” he said.
* * *
Max swung around to look at Friedman, and in the half light, Sydney saw him glance her way. He was telling her to run, while Friedman’s attention was on him. Well, she wasn’t going to do it.
Taking a deep breath, she opened her mouth and screamed for help as loud as she could. She didn’t think for a minute that anyone was going to come to their rescue. She only wanted to distract Friedman long enough for Max to do whatever it was he was planning.
It worked, too. Friedman whirled around, shouting at her to shut the fuck up. Max lunged for him, lowering his shoulder and throwing his entire weight into the other man. Friedman stumbled back into the low cable that was meant to warn people away from the edge. Instead of stopping his fall, it only put him even more off-balance, and he tumbled over it with a startled cry.
Sydney ran over to where Max stood looking over the cliff.
“Is he…?” she asked, afraid to get close to the edge and see for herself.
Max leaned over, trying to see in the darkness. “I don’t know, but it’s a long way down. Regardless, we’re not sticking around to find out. Turn around, and let me see if I can untie you.”
Sydney kept one eye on the edge of the overlook as she turned her back to Max, half afraid Friedman was going to climb back up the cliff. She felt his fingers fumbling with the knots as Max tried to undo them. It seemed to take forever, but he finally got it. She turned around and did the same for him. She took longer than he had because her fingers were still trembling so badly.
“I told you to run when I went after Friedman,” Max said over his shoulder as she worked the knots free.
“And I told you that I wasn’t going to leave you.”
He swore under his breath. “I don’t know what the hell you were thinking, screaming like that. Friedman could just as easily have shot you.”
Her hands faltered on the ropes around Max’s wrists for a moment before she went back to work untying him. She hadn’t even considered that possibility. Not that it mattered if she had She would have done the same thing. “I wanted to distract him. You shouldn’t complain. It worked, didn’t it?”
Hands free, Max turned to face her. “Yes, it worked,” he growled, pulling her into his arms and holding her tightly. “But if you ever do something that foolish again, I’m going to put you over my knee and spank that ass of yours so hard you won’t be able to sit for days. Do you understand me?”
She nodded against his chest. It was an easy promise to make. It wasn’t as if they were going to be held at gunpoint by a psycho every day.
“Come on.” He took her hand and led her over to the SUV. “We’ve got to get back to Sentinel.”
Sydney quick-stepped to catch up with his long-legged strides. “Shouldn’t we be going to the police instead?”
“We’ll call them on the way.” He pulled his cell phone from the pocket of his jeans as he opened the door for her. “Right now, we need to stop your old boss from destroying those files. Without them, it’ll take months of digging just to prove there was a crime. If Burton’ body burns in the fire, they’ll be no evidence Friedman and Willis were involved in that, either.”
Sentinel was only a short distance from the bridge, so it didn’t take her and Max long to get there. When they pulled into the parking lot, the building was already on fire.
Sydney stared at the glow of flames through the window. “We’re too late.”
“Like hell.” Max opened his door. “Stay here.”
She jerked her head around to look at him. “Where are you going?”
“To get those damn fi
les.”
Her eyes went wide. “Are you crazy? You can’t…”
The words trailed off as she realized she was talking to herself. Max had already jumped out of the SUV and was running toward the building. Sydney raced after him.
“Max!”
“Stay there!”
Sprinting the rest of the way, Max yanked open the door and disappeared inside the burning building, leaving Sydney standing on the sidewalk.
Torn between wanting to go after Max, and doing what he’d told her, Sydney hugged her arms around herself and waited for him to come running back out. But the longer she stood there, the more out of control the fire got. What if Max had gotten overcome by smoke, or hit by a falling beam? She’d heard of those things happening all the time. The thought made her go cold inside.
Praying she hadn’t waited too long, she ran into the building.
* * *
Running into a burning building had to be one of the craziest things he’d probably ever done, Max thought as he raced across the lobby to the stairwell. But he couldn’t let those files be destroyed. Without them, there’d be no way to prove Friedman and Willis had embezzled the money. Stopping only long enough to feel the door to see if it was hot, he pushed it open and raced up the steps two at a time.
Willis must have started the fire on the second floor because smoke completely filled the hallway. Max buried his nose in his arm and quickly made his way toward Burton’s office. Up ahead, a figure suddenly appeared in the haze. Max halted in his tracks, waiting for Willis to see him, but the man didn’t even look his way. Instead, he hurried down the hallway in the opposite direction.
Max was torn for a moment. As much as he hated the thought of letting Willis get away, he couldn’t risk losing those files. Running the rest of the way, he ducked into Burton’s office. The room was thick with smoke, flames already climbing the walls. He grabbed the boxes from the desk, then turned and went back the way he’d come, fire roaring around him.
