Kept Secrets

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  A knock sounded at the door, and she closed her laptop before crossing to answer it.

  “Sean. I thought you were leaving today.”

  “I am, but I wanted to talk to you for a few minutes before I head out.”

  “Sure. Come on in.” Grace motioned him inside and led the way to the living room. “Please, sit down.”

  Sean sat on the couch across from her. “I don’t know if your grandfather talked to you much about it, but my dad is trying to diversify his financial holdings.”

  Grace shook her head. “Grandpa didn’t mention it.”

  “His investment in this ranch was one venture, but he’s still looking for a few more solid options.”

  “It’s always good to diversify, but what does that have to do with me?”

  “My dad’s financial analyst with his company does a great job keeping on top of the dealerships, but expanding beyond the car business isn’t his strength.” Sean leaned forward and rested his elbows on his thighs. “I thought you might be interested in doing some financial planning for him.”

  “Are you serious?”

  “Very. He approached me about doing some investing for him, but I have my hands full with my own business.”

  “You started a business?”

  “Yes. Internet security.” Sean’s face lit up. “We only have three people working for us so far, but we’ve already landed a couple big clients.”

  “That’s great. I’m happy for you.”

  “So what do you say about working for my dad?”

  “I’m definitely interested.” She rested her hand on her stomach. “Do you think he would be okay with me working from home? After all, I really don’t need to go into an office to do my research.”

  “I’m sure he’ll be fine with it.” Sean stood and handed her a business card. “Give him a call. I already mentioned you might consider it, so he’s expecting to hear from you.”

  “Thanks, Sean. I really appreciate it.” She took the card and stood as well.

  “Happy to help.” He started toward the door. “And who knows. If my business keeps going the way I hope it will, I may have some business to throw your way too.”

  “I hope it works out for both of us.”

  “Me too.” Sean stopped. “You know, I was thinking about coming up again next weekend. One of the benefits of owning my own plane. If you’re up for it, you can fly down to Arizona with me and my brother today, and I can bring you back next week. That would give you time to meet with my father and work up his basic financial plan.”

  “I don’t know . . .” Grace hesitated. The thought of getting on a small airplane left her with an uneasy feeling, and her instincts told her to stay here in Colorado where no one could find her.

  But logic swayed her the other direction. The truth was that if she went to Arizona she could see or at least call Molly to make sure she could get a message to Devin when he came back stateside. She wavered for a moment before the practical side of her caused her to shake her head. “That’s really nice of you to offer, but I’m afraid paying for a hotel room for a week is a bit out of my budget right now.”

  “Nonsense. My folks have tons of room at their place in Sedona. You can stay with them,” Sean insisted.

  “Sedona? I thought your parents lived in Phoenix.”

  “Not during the summer. It’s too hot.” Sean took a step toward the door. “My brother and I aren’t flying out for another hour or so. That’s plenty of time to pack.”

  What he proposed made sense. If she could lock down even one solid client, she could finally start moving forward in life again instead of relying on her grandfather to take care of her. “Let me talk to my grandfather. Can you stop by before you leave so I can let you know then if I’m able to go with you?”

  “Sure. See you in an hour.”

  Grace showed him out and felt a surge of excitement and apprehension. Should she play it safe and avoid every place she and Devin had been together? Or should she start living her life again and trust that everything would work out? She looked at the office to her left. It was time to start living.

  * * *

  Devin tried to appear relaxed as he contemplated what he had to do. The needle concealed between his first two fingers made his presence in the lobby that much more surreal.

  How had he come to this? Clearly something about his father had put him in this situation, but he still couldn’t make any sense of the possibilities.

  Though he had anticipated a long wait, for once his father arrived back at the hotel at a reasonable hour. Devin remained where he was, a seating area with several partitions hiding him from view as his father passed by.

  Devin stood and started forward, using his long stride to close the distance between them. He was a dozen yards behind him when another man approached and greeted his father in Japanese. Devin’s jaw nearly dropped open when his dad responded in the same language.

  Boyd Shanahan spoke Japanese? Was this really the same man who didn’t acknowledge the difference between Mandarin and Cantonese? The same person who insisted on speaking English wherever he went regardless of the native language of the countries he traveled in?

  Devin pulled his phone from his pocket, pretending to look down at it to give him a reason to have stopped his forward progress. The conversation between the two men was brief, and the Japanese man returned the way he had come.

  Once he was sure his father was heading for the elevators, Devin once again started walking.

  “Hey, Dad.” Devin stepped beside his father as he pushed the up button. “I didn’t know you were getting back so early.”

  “Devin. What are you doing down here? I thought you were ordering room service tonight.”

  “I went to the hotel gym to work out.” The elevator door chimed open, and Devin waited for his father to enter before him. For once, luck was with him, and he found himself alone with his father.

  “I’ve been meaning to ask you if you’ll be coming back this way any more this year.” Devin hesitated only briefly before he lifted his hand and patted his dad’s shoulder.

  “I’ll go to Paris this fall . . .” The last word slurred, and Devin reached out to support his dad’s weight.

  “Dad? Are you okay?” Devin spoke with concern, guilt weighing on him as he watched his father’s eyes go glassy and then flutter closed.

  When the elevator doors opened on his dad’s floor, Devin dragged his now unconscious father into the hall. When they reached the room, he lowered his dad to the floor and checked his pockets until he found the room key. Once he unlocked the door, Devin pulled his father inside.

  Going through the routine of a dutiful son first, he set his dad’s computer bag aside and dragged him to his bed. Once his father was settled and Devin was certain his breathing was still steady, Devin retrieved the laptop from its bag.

  He sat on the floor by the door so if, by some chance, his father regained consciousness, Devin wouldn’t be visible.

  After powering on the laptop, he inserted the flash drive Ghost had given him. Two minutes later, the red light flashed to green, and he repeated the process with the drive Fai had given him.

  After he turned the computer off and replaced it in its case, he set the laptop bag on the desk and debated what to do next. If his father really had passed out, would he call a doctor? Should he wait with him until he woke up?

  According to Ghost, the drug mimicked a sleeping pill and his father would likely sleep a full six to eight hours.

  With that in mind, Devin removed his father’s shoes and suit jacket and placed them both neatly in the closet.

  A knock sounded at the door, and Devin’s hand lifted to his rapidly beating heart. Who would be coming to his father’s hotel room? Supposedly his dad’s work had concluded at his meeting this evening.

  Quietly, he closed the closet door, a million thoughts racing through his mind.

  For all he knew, someone from the hotel staff might have seen him dragg
ing his father into his room and come to check on his condition.

  Another knock sounded. Devin debated whether to answer, but before he could move, he heard the distinctive click of the lock opening.

  He ducked into the bathroom and took position behind the door to keep from being seen.

  The outside door opened a split second later, and footsteps approached. Devin had to remind himself to keep his breathing slow and steady to avoid being heard.

  The new arrival walked past the bathroom, the footsteps barely audible.

  Devin expected some kind of reaction when the intruder saw his father passed out on the bed, but the faint footsteps continued on. It took a moment for Devin to compute when and where the footsteps stopped. Could it be that whoever was here was after the same thing Devin was? When he heard the sound of the zipper on his father’s computer bag, he was faced with another choice. Did he protect the information he had just stolen? Or did he let someone else gain access to what he still didn’t understand the importance of?

  His cell phone chimed and made the choice for him.

  Unarmed and no longer having the element of surprise, Devin quickly scanned the bathroom. He tore down the shower curtain rod and wielded it like a sword as he emerged from the bathroom. The intruder had already started toward him, and Devin was surprised to see the man was of European descent rather than Japanese as he had expected.

  “Who are you?” Devin demanded in English. “And what are you doing in here?”

  Seeing Devin’s makeshift weapon, the man backtracked farther into the room to put distance between them. The instant he was out of Devin’s reach, his hand disappeared beneath the hem of his shirt.

  Sheer terror flooded Devin, along with an intense survival instinct, when the man came up with a gun. Devin surged forward and swung the rod. The hollow metal tube connected with the man’s arms, but the weapon didn’t drop from his hand as Devin had hoped.

  The man groaned in pain, then lifted the weapon again. Devin blocked the motion by sweeping the rod low with as much force as he could muster, this time hitting the man’s knees hard. He tumbled backward, simultaneously squeezing the trigger.

  Devin felt the bullet whiz by him, and somewhere in the back of his mind, he heard the thump as it lodged into the wall.

  “You have no idea what you’ve gotten yourself into,” the man said. The accent was thick and identified him as eastern European, but Devin was more worried about why he was shooting at him than where the man was from.

  Questions burned on Devin’s tongue, but with the man’s gun hand lifting once more, he didn’t bother to voice them. Instead, he swung the rod again, this time aiming for the man’s head. An instant before it made contact, the man lifted his left arm and blocked it. Despite his cry of pain, he managed to grab the end of it and wrench it away from Devin.

  Devin backpedaled, his eyes searching for anything else he could use as a shield or a weapon.

  The gun lifted once more, a door crashed open, and a gunshot rang through the air.

  Chapter 28

  Devin’s heart felt like it had stopped beating, his fear was so consuming. Then he managed to focus on the scene in front of him and the man who now lay sprawled on his father’s hotel room floor. Devin turned to see Ghost standing behind him, a gun in his hand.

  “What . . . ?” Devin stammered the word and took a deep breath before trying to speak again. “What are you doing here?”

  Ghost pushed past him, retrieved the fallen weapon, and checked the man for a pulse. He stood and faced Devin. “I guess you didn’t see my text.”

  “I heard it come in.” Devin waved a hand in the direction of the man on the floor. “Unfortunately, so did he.” He drew another deep breath. “Is he . . . ?”

  “Dead? Yeah.”

  Devin crossed to stand beside his dad, a wave of relief crashing over him when he confirmed that his father hadn’t been caught in the crossfire. He looked up at Ghost again and waved at the dead man. “Who is he?”

  “Albert Wendell. He’s been on our watch list since a security breach in London last year.” Ghost leaned down once more and riffled through the man’s pockets. For the first time, Devin realized Ghost wore fitted gloves. When Ghost stood once more, he held a sheathed knife, a car key, and a flash drive.

  As Devin stared on, Ghost continued. “I was monitoring the security camera in the hall when I caught a glimpse of him at the door.”

  “And you texted a warning?”

  “Yes.”

  “Any idea of what he was doing here?”

  He held up the flash drive. “Since he had this, my guess is he was after the same thing we are.”

  Devin looked over at his dad, who was still blissfully unaware of what had transpired. “What is my dad into?”

  “We’re about to find out.” Ghost pocketed the items he held and retrieved his cell phone. After typing a message, he asked Devin, “Did you already copy your dad’s hard drive?”

  “Yes.” Devin pulled both flash drives from his pocket and handed Ghost’s to him. “I want to see what’s on there.”

  “I’ll make a copy for you as soon as I access the information and upload it onto the guardian server.”

  “Are you sure you want to upload the information? Isn’t that risky?”

  “This system has failsafe procedures that would make your head spin. It’s secure.”

  “What about him?” Devin motioned to Albert and then looked over at his father. “And how do we explain everything to my dad?”

  “I have a cleanup crew heading over here now. They should be in and out long before your dad wakes up.”

  “A cleanup crew? As in people who will come in here and dispose of the body?”

  “And make everything look exactly as it did before he arrived.” Ghost put a hand on Devin’s shoulder. “Trust me. I know what I’m doing.”

  “At this point, I don’t think I have a choice but to trust you.” Devin’s body trembled as he exhaled.

  “Go to your room. Your dad will be fine.” Ghost pointed to the door. “I’ll stay here until everything is put back together.”

  “How do I explain to my father why he passed out?”

  “He’ll be confused when he wakes up, but stick to the plan. In the morning, you tell him he wasn’t feeling well and you helped him back to his room. After he fell asleep, you left.”

  Tension settled somewhere deep in his gut, but Devin forced himself to comply. “Will I see you before I leave?”

  “You won’t see me, but I’ll see you,” Ghost said. “Be careful tomorrow.”

  “I will.” Devin took one last look at his father and then headed for the door. The questions continued to whirl, but maybe now that they had a copy of his dad’s hard drive, they would finally get some answers.

  * * *

  Grace was grateful when Sean helped her out of the plane in Sedona and she once again had her feet on solid ground. Though she didn’t particularly care for flying, she most certainly preferred larger planes over the little four-seater Sean flew. Although she could admit she much preferred the hour-and-a-half flight to the six-hour drive it would normally take between Vail and Sedona.

  “Come on.” Sean started toward the parking lot. “The car is parked over here.”

  Grace was grateful Sean had someone at the airport to take care of his plane so she wouldn’t have to wait around for him. With the sun already lowering in the sky, she was ready to find something to eat and a place to lie down.

  “Any idea what Mom has planned for dinner?” Scott asked Sean when he stepped beside them.

  “She said something about making lasagna. I guess they’re having a few friends over for dinner.”

  Feeling awkward about staying with Sean’s family, Grace asked, “Are you sure your parents are okay with me staying with them?”

  “Yeah. Dad thought it was a great idea. He’s basically on vacation this week, so it will be much easier than usual to find out how he really wants to i
nvest his money.” Sean opened the front door for her and waited for her to get in. “Besides, you’ll enjoy the scenery of their place.”

  Grace wished a change of scenery was all she needed to put her life back on track. Without comment, she clipped her seat belt in place and tried to get comfortable. Twenty minutes later, they arrived at a large cabin in Oak Creek Canyon, with a half dozen cars parked in the driveway and along the street.

  “I guess Mom understated the size of her dinner party,” Sean said. He climbed out of the car and grabbed his bag and Grace’s suitcase. “Come on. I’ll show you your room, and then we can get something to eat.”

  Grace followed him inside, the chatter of conversation carrying to the door. The scent of lasagna and garlic bread wafted through the air.

  “It’s this way.” Sean led her down a hall to the right. He passed two doors before he pushed one open and set her suitcase inside. “Here you go.”

  She peeked inside to see a modest-sized bedroom furnished with a queen-sized bed and a tall dresser. She had hoped to find a desk as well so she could work in her room, but at least she and her growing stomach wouldn’t have to manage a twin bed.

  “The bathroom is across the hall, and there should be clean towels in the closet.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Let’s get some dinner. You must be starving.”

  They made their way to the center of the house, where more than a dozen people were scattered throughout the living room and kitchen. Sean greeted a few as they walked by but didn’t stop until he reached his father. The tall, balding man stood near the corner of the room chatting with a couple who appeared to be in their seventies.

  “Dad.”

  “Sean. Glad you made it.” Clayton moved forward and hugged his son. “You know Susan and Dick, don’t you?”

  “Yes, of course. So good to see you again.” Sean motioned to Grace. “This is Grace Harrington. She’s my dad’s new financial planner.”

  “It’s good to see you again, Grace.” Clayton extended his hand. “And I appreciate your willingness to come work here at the house this week.”