Frost Security: The Complete 5 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  “You do realize,” Barbara said, “if he goes to the authorities, the fund is gone. No more M Three Investments. All of it. Gone.”

  “Do you really think I fucking care about that? About the money? About my fucking allowance? So what? If it means my father gets to live I’ll just get a fucking job, Barb!”

  My father’s assistant’s eyes went wide, and she glanced at Elizabeth.

  “Don’t fucking look at her, you look at me. How can I help?”

  There was complete silence until, beside me, Elizabeth swallowed hard. “Well, he may try and contact you. If he does, please let us know, so we can get him a lawyer and get him to meet with the investigators and come clean. Maybe we can get a plea deal or something. Anything.”

  I turned to her and nodded. I turned back to Barbara and watched as her expression went back to her normal, pinched look.

  “Or maybe,” Barbara said, “we can get the information on those accounts to the criminals it belongs to, and they’ll all let us keep our heads, then we can cover our tracks with the feds.”

  I took a deep breath on that note, and pushed back from the table. “Know what? I don’t want anything to do with this. At all.”

  Both women looked at me, their mouths hanging open.

  “If I hear from Father, I’ll let you know, okay?”

  “But, honey–”

  “Shut it, bimbo.”

  She gasped.

  “This is getting downright criminal, and I’d rather be poor than in prison. So, I’ll keep Frank, my security, with me till this blows over, but I’m not getting wrapped up in this shit with the feds. Keep my cards cut off, do whatever you want, but I’m not going to help you cover up Father’s crimes, no matter how nice it is being rich. If he contacts me, I’ll tell him to talk to his lawyer, to turn himself in.”

  I promptly got up and threw open the conference room door.

  Outside in the hallway, Frank and Simon exchanged looks as I they leaned against the wall. Behind me Barbara jumped up from the table. “Ashley! Ashley Maxwell, you come back in here! Right now, you ungrateful little bitch!”

  I turned around and gave her the finger. “Screw you, Hacks.” I turned to Frank. “We’re leaving!”

  He and Simon exchanged surprised looks as I turned and stomped to the front of the office, headed for the parking lot.

  Chapter Twenty-two – Frank

  I wasn’t exactly sure what they’d been talking about in that conference room, but I did know two things. There’d been a difference of opinions on something, and my client wanted to go back to the Rock.

  Simon and I followed the fuming Ashley outside. We stopped right outside the glass front doors, the cool wind biting into us as the sun began to go down. When she got out the door, Ashley kept on stomping, right out to one of the SUVs parked in front.

  I turned to Simon as we both watched her pace back and forth, her fists clenched in rage at her side. “Mind doing me a solid, pardner?”

  “Need the keys?”

  “Preferably to one that ain’t been shot up.”

  He snorted. “Here,” he said, pulling a key ring from his pocket and tossing it to me.

  I snatched them from the air and went to join my client as she paced back and forth angrily. “Thanks.”

  “Don’t say I never done nothing for you,” Simon called to my back. “And remember, buddy, time’s gonna come for that choice. Don’t forget.”

  I turned around. “Don’t worry, I won’t.” I clicked the unlock button and found the car we were borrowing. “I’ll leave it at our office,” I called back to him.

  “Sounds good. We’ll pick it up in the morning.”

  Ashley came to a stomping halt beside me, her face more flushed than when she’d talked about how flexible she was.

  Yeah, of course I’d caught that. How could I not?

  She looked up at me, her nostrils flaring in the most attractive angry face I’d ever seen.

  “You ready?” I asked.

  She nodded, her jaw tightly clenched.

  We climbed into the SUV and buckled up. “You wanna talk about it?” I asked quietly before starting the engine.

  “Not yet,” she snapped. A moment later, she took a breath and shook her head, touching my hand. “I’m sorry, Frank. You didn’t do anything. I’m getting mad at the wrong person. Just…let me process all this, okay? I started off my day meeting you, and now I’m involved in backroom board meetings about things I don’t know are legal to even know about.”

  I left the SUV sitting there, idle. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

  “I don’t know, Frank. I really don’t.”

  Whatever had happened, I figured it was more than just a differing of opinions. Something else had happened in there. They’d told her something she wasn’t prepared for, not in her wildest imagination. How I knew, I had no idea, but I did. So I just nodded. She’d come around and tell me what I needed to know before it was too late. She had already once before.

  I pulled the big car around and turned out of the parking lot, heading back on the road. As I took the exit for Enchanted Rock and began our trek back north, the sun dipped behind the western mountains, plunging us into darkness.

  Chapter Twenty-three – Peter Frost

  “What are you still doing here?” Gen asked as she popped her head into Peter’s office.

  “Huh?”

  “Know what I like about you, Peter? Your eloquence.”

  He cracked a smile as he glance down at his watch. “It’s not that late. Besides, I’m still waiting on Frank and Ashley Maxwell to get back.”

  She rolled her eyes. “Do you have an ETA?”

  “Well, no, but I figure there’s paperwork I can do while I wait. Follow up on some clients, figure out some new leads.”

  She looked at him over the top of her glasses. “You know, I’ve worked with you security people long enough, I think I can make an educated guess as to why you haven’t gone home yet.”

  “Oh yeah? We’ve been giving you on-the-job training, I guess?”

  “Something like that. Mind if I sit?”

  “Free country.”

  She came around and took one of the chairs in front of Peter’s desk, the one Frank had been bracing himself on earlier in the day. Silence hung in the air between the two of them as Peter turned back to his computer. They both knew the reason behind his not leaving. It didn’t change the fact that he was going to try and ignore her.

  Gen had raised both a daughter and granddaughter. She’d already seen the former out of this world, and onto whatever came next. She’d learned the waiting game. And the silent treatment.

  Peter broke. “I talked to her at lunch about it.”

  The grandmother made a non-committal noise.

  “I told her it was wrong, that she shouldn’t fight.”

  “Well, that goes without saying. Even if it’s some of you and your boys’ go-to.”

  He sighed. “Look, she doesn’t want to listen to me. I’m not her father. What? Should I be her friend?”

  She sighed right back. “I’m not saying that.”

  “To be fair, you’re hardly saying anything.”

  She snorted in laughter. “You need to be supportive. When she told you what happened, did you yell at her?”

  “No. No, I didn’t yell.” He frowned. “Well, not really.”

  She nodded. “Did you tell her you were at least proud of her for standing up for herself, and that you were glad she was okay?”

  Shit. Did he? He thought back to their interaction at lunch. He frowned and shook his head. “No?”

  “Look, the poor girl doesn’t have anywhere to turn. You and this pack are all she has now. If you don’t support her, who will? Lacy and I can only do so much. Sure, she’s a girl, but we’re still not like her, and you know it. She’s not human, Peter.”

  “But how do I do that with approving of her almost putting those girls in the hospital? That’s what I don’t understand.�
�

  “Well, tell her the spirit of it’s good but that her actions were what’s wrong. Standing up for yourself is never wrong, and you know that.” She leaned forward. “That’s what your pack is for, right? What you guys are for? Standing up for yourselves?”

  Peter sighed. “But she won’t come out with us, Gen.”

  “Have you even gone hunting with her? One-on-one?”

  No. He hadn’t. And Gen knew it, because he would have told her if he had. He just sighed.

  “Why not?”

  “Well,” he began, squirming as his chair suddenly became very uncomfortable, “she didn’t take me up on the invitation to run with the pack, and so I just thought she didn’t want to run with any of us.”

  Gen shook her head.

  “Look, I extended the invitation, but she didn’t take it.”

  “So you expect her to want to meet five older men by herself, and go running around the woods with them?”

  “You just said she’s not a normal girl–”

  “She’s still sixteen years old! And you guys are all intimidating! Do you remember what you were like when you were sixteen in the boys’ locker room? Wondering if you were big enough, or strong enough? Don’t you think she’s thinking something along the same lines?”

  He went to open his mouth, but couldn’t think of anything say. “I hadn’t really thought of it that way,” he said finally.

  “How much have you talked to her about all this?”

  He looked away as Gen sighed.

  “Just let her know you’re there for her, Peter. Bend over backwards to make yourself available, and Mary will come to you when she’s ready.” She got up to leave, paused at the door. “And part of that is going home at night.”

  He groaned, wiped a hand down his face. “Yeah. I get it.”

  “One last thing,” Gen said, popping her head back in. “You’re a good pack leader. Your boys respond to you and they respect you because they know you have their back.”

  Gen left him alone in the office after that. She bustled out through the office, said goodnight to Lacy, who was still working on debugging the cell phones, and headed out the front.

  Peter sat there alone, stewing. He definitely wasn’t going to get adopted father of the year. He laid his head back against the headrest of his desk chair and groaned to himself.

  Maybe that was the problem. He was trying to be a father to her, when she was still grieving for her own natural one. But Gen was right. He still had to be there for her. He finished cleaning up his work and shut down the computer. What she needed was a pack leader. And he could be that, if she’d let him.

  It was Lacy’s turn to pop her red-and-blue-haired head in. “Everything okay, boss man?”

  “It this International Bother-Your-Boss-About-His-Feelings Day or something?”

  She took a step back, hands in front of her. “Whoa! I don’t give a flying whatever about your personal business, dude. I just heard Grandma giving you a hard time and figured you’d wanna know your phone is good to go so you can head out.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “I’m just—Mary’s giving me problems, that’s all.”

  She snorted. “Yeah. I remember pulling that.”

  “Can I ask you a question?”

  “Maybe. Shoot.”

  “You were a screwed up kid, right?”

  She gave him a lopsided grin and snorted again. “You could put it that way, I guess, if you weren’t being tactful.”

  He smiled. “Sorry,” he repeated. “It’s just, how did you end up being half-way decent?”

  Lacy shrugged. “If I knew, I’d tell you. Just, for some people it clicks, some people it doesn’t. Grandma Gen did the best she could. She loved me, and made sure I knew I was loved.”

  He nodded and flexed his jaw.

  “So, do you?”

  “Do I what?”

  “You know, love her? Make her feel loved?”

  “I care about her, if that’s what you mean.”

  “Close enough, I guess. That’s more than a lot of kids get, you know? What happened with her? Gen wouldn’t say anything to me about it.”

  “She beat up three girls. Two Stephanies and, uh, someone else. I don’t remember.”

  She grinned. “Three? Good for her.”

  He shot her a look.

  “Oh, come on,” she said, giving him a look, “you can still be proud of the kid, even if she did something stupid. Especially when she’s so tiny!”

  He laughed. “To be honest, I was actually kind of proud. Just a little.”

  “Then tell her. Don’t reward her anything, but say something, at least. Let her know you got her back, that you’re still on her side. It’s tough being the new kid.”

  He nodded. “Yeah, okay. I will.”

  “Now get out of here. I’ll call you when Frank and his client get back to the office. I wanna take a look at this girl I’ve been trying to hack for the last four hours.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, pulling himself up from his seat and swinging his suit jacket on, “I’m going. Worse than your grandma.”

  “Well, she was a good teacher.”

  He grabbed a file and went to leave.

  “Nope,” she said, crossing her arms. “You can take it with you when you come back later. But not now. No work.”

  “Oh, come on! I thought I was the boss around here!”

  Lacy laughed. “Just for tonight. Go and talk to the kid, try to get through to her.”

  He hesitated. “Fine.” He tossed the file back on his desk and shot her a look as he headed out of his office. “Happy?”

  Lacy grinned. “I’ll call as soon as I see them.”

  Chapter Twenty-four – Ashley

  When we got on the road, Frank told me about Sheriff Peak wanting to speak to us about the shoot-out. “He probably just wants our side of the story,” he said. “That’s all.”

  I groaned. “We didn’t do anything wrong, though.”

  “Pretty sure he knows that. I think he really wants to talk to me, but since you were there he needs your statement as well. Hell, he’s probably tried calling your father’s company already, looking for something from them. It’s his property after all.”

  I just sighed at the mention of my father, the memory of Barbara Hacks’ warning me about not speaking to anyone about what was going on coming to mind. An image of her coming after me with an actual ax in hand, eyes alight with fury and rage, gave me shivers.

  Did that include Frank, though?

  Frank and I both were quiet as we sped through the night to Enchanted Rock. Anywhere else in the world, and it would have probably been considered early. But something about Colorado, with the mountains looming between you and the sun, always made it seem like night came sooner and sooner, especially during fall and winter.

  For my part, I didn’t mind the quiet at first. I was too busy trying to mull over what the step-bitch and the battle ax that worked for my father had told me. My father was a criminal. He was working with horrible people, people who killed children, who trafficked women, who manufactured drugs, and destroyed communities and families.

  He cleaned their money. He protected their money. He made their money palatable and spendable.

  What was Barbara Hacks worried about, though? Certainly not about getting justice for the people exploited to make that money. Instead, she was concerned about the business failing, the government coming in and blaming us for his failings.

  God, how much of the allowance I spent each month came from places like that? What did that make me? I was profiting just as much from this criminal money as they were.

  My own father. A criminal, wanted by all sides for the money he’d stolen, for the laws he’d broken.

  “Mind loosening up a little, Ashley?” Frank asked with a wince, shaking me from my reverie.

  I blinked slowly and looked down at my hand, which had gripped his at some point during the drive. “I’m sorry
!” I hadn’t even realized what I was doing.

  “You trying to turn my hand into diamonds or something, Supergirl?”

  I groaned in shame and let go of his hand, putting mine carefully back in my lap. “Oh, Frank, I’m so sorry,” I said, trailing off as I looked out the window. “I’m just—I just—I don’t know. I have a lot on my mind, that’s all.”

  “Seemed like it. Didn’t think it was possible for you to be this clammed up.”

  I laughed and brushed some hair from my face. I gave my eyes a break from tracking the dark scenery as it flew past and glanced at Frank’s handsome face, studying his silhouette for a moment.

  He was just so different from every other man I’d met. I found myself wondering what he’d be like when he wasn’t at work. What did he do for fun? Hunt? Watch football? Woodworking?

  Clearly, it wasn’t shopping. No, Frank seemed to me like the type of guy who’d research and research for days and days, sometimes weeks, then make a carefully calculated decision based on what he needed. A salesman’s worst nightmare.

  Besides, shopping just seemed like it might be too immaterial to him. Not that it was beneath him, just that it wasn’t hands-on enough. To Frank, it would be a chore. Something that had to be done when it had to be done, and not a moment before or afterwards. He didn’t need retail therapy because guys like him wouldn’t go to therapy to begin with. They’d go drink a couple beers with their buddies, cry into their beer if they needed it, then try to forget about it in the morning.

  Not my usual type at all. And definitely not the type who fell for me, either.

  I didn’t even know why I was obsessing about him this way. I knew I didn’t have a chance with him. He was a self-made man, someone who’d pulled himself up by his bootstraps. What was I? Some woman who’d been surviving off an allowance from her father, using his credit cards, and paying other people to clean up my messes. Literally. And, even then, it all got screwed up.

  I’m sure he thought I was pretty. I’d felt his eyes on me all day, so I knew he was at least attracted to me. But it wasn’t anything more than that. It couldn’t be. He didn’t want a woman like me. He wanted someone who wasn’t taking money from her father every month—someone who wasn’t taking money from criminals.