Frost Security: The Complete 5 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  “Of course not, dear. Why would I do something like that? I have plenty of money sitting right there in the fund, in the real estate we own. Why would I do something that stupid, when I have all the money I’d ever need? That you’d ever need?”

  He had a point. Why would he?

  Because he was Martin Maxwell III, that’s why. He’d always grasped and grasped and grasped, always wanting more than he ever needed. He’d been born with more money than he could spend. Had that stopped him from trying to double or triple it? Of course not.

  “Dear, I…I miss you.”

  I looked down at my feet.

  “This last year since the wedding, it’s been positively torture without even getting a call from you. I want you to come away with me. I’m going to leave the country while I try to fight this thing, and I want you to come with me. I want you by my side, so we can try to rebuild what we lost when your mother died.”

  That was rich. Trying to pull the dead mother card on me. “Leave the country?” I asked, giving Frank a questioning look that he returned. “Why would you want to leave the country? Won’t that just make you look guilty?”

  “No, no, dear. Going to jail is what will make me look guilty. Being arrested and paraded in front of the reporters is what will make me seem guilty.”

  Frank shook his head as I locked eyes with him.

  “Father, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Neither does Frank. Innocent people don’t flee the country.”

  “Frank? Who’s that? Your little security guard? Are they paying men like that to think, now? I thought they were just supposed to throw themselves in front of bullets.”

  I closed my eyes and tried to control my anger. “Frank is a man who knows what he’s doing with this kind of thing. He works for some people who’ll be able to protect you from whoever you need protecting.”

  “Oh, dear, I already have those kinds of things arranged. I’m safe as houses where I am. I just want you to come join me, that’s all.”

  Suddenly, I had an idea. “H-h-how soon can you get here, then?”

  “Really?” he asked. “You’ll join me? You’re sure?”

  Frank was giving me crazy eyes, shaking his head fervently. “What are you doing?” he hissed. “You can’t leave the country with him!”

  I shook my head at him and turned around. “Of course. Why wouldn’t I? You say you’re innocent, I believe you. So how soon can you get here? To the cabin, I mean.”

  “Thirty minutes,” he said. “That’s all it’ll take.”

  “Good. I’ll see you then.” I hung up the phone.

  “What the fuck was that shit?” Frank roared, forcing me to take a step back in surprise. “You told him you’d go with him? To meet you here? What were you thinking?”

  “Dammit, Frank!” I yelled back, my blood already up. “I was thinking that if I got him here, you and I could bring him in!”

  He opened his mouth but closed it.

  “From the way he was talking,” I continued, “I know he’s lying. Either he’s in on it with Barbara and the bimbo and they’re trying to pin it all on him, or he’s done it by himself and he’s trying to get out from under it. Either way, I just know he did it. And, if we get him into custody, then all this can just go away and we can move on with our lives.”

  “Ashley…”

  “Let me finish. Also, I want to tell that asshole off to his face. Doing it over the phone, it just won’t be the same. I need him to know that he’s the reason this family fell apart, not anyone else.”

  “Believe me, I get it.” He sighed, shook his head. “But there’s just one problem, babe.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Your phone still hasn’t been cleared of bugs, remember? Eagle Eye and the cartel probably have their ears open on there.”

  I groaned and slumped down into a chair. I hadn’t thought about that part.

  “Which means they know exactly where your daddy’s going to be in thirty minutes. And I got a feeling they ain’t gonna be throwing a welcome home party for him.”

  Chapter Forty-two - Frank

  It was my own damn fault, and I knew it. I should have been able to beat her down the stairs and get a hold of her phone before she had. Or ripped it from her hand while she was still on it. Something! Anything!

  But I hadn’t been thinking like a bodyguard. I’d been thinking like a guy who was dopey over a girl whose father was on the lamb for laundering the money of international crime syndicates. Exactly the opposite of what I’d told myself I was going to do.

  I put my arm around her as she started to cry again. “Oh God, what have I done, Frank?”

  “Hey, hey, hey. It’s alright, okay?”

  “No, it’s not okay! What was I thinking? Clearly I need that silver spoon in my mouth, because I’m too stupid to use anything else!”

  I grasped her shoulder and gave her a squeeze. “We’ll figure something out.”

  “Figure out what?” she asked through her tears. “Just call him back?”

  “Worth a try. You do that while I try calling Peter, see if we can’t get some backup.”

  She looked up at me and tried to blink away her tears. “I screwed everything up, Frank. We should have just stayed out of this.”

  “Don’t say that.” I hunkered down in front of her, grabbed both her hands. “Look, if your hunch is right, all these people are fighting over who takes the blame for working with these merchants of death. These criminal organizations. I don’t want to let any of them go anymore than you do.”

  She wiped a tear away and looked out the back window over that massive stretch of conifer trees and brush. “I still just can’t believe all this.”

  I laughed. “Think I’m just taking all this in stride? This is all crazy to me. I thought this was just a protection detail with a pretty young trust fund kid.”

  She laughed. “If it makes you feel any better, I thought it was just a random break-in. God, I wish that Deputy Glick had been right.”

  “Don’t I know it?” I asked with a grim smile. “Now, try calling your father. I’m gonna get on the horn with Peter.”

  She nodded, patted my hand as I stood back up and headed into the dining room to put a call into my boss. He picked up one the second ring. “What now, Frank?”

  “We got a problem, boss.” I explained to him what was going on and our time frame.

  “Fuck,” he growled. He took a long moment to himself, and I could practically hear the gears grinding away even through the phone. “Alright. Can’t get Peak involved in this. He’ll just get himself shot up with these guy’s artillery.”

  “What, then?”

  “Extraction. We’re not in the business of catching criminals like Martin Maxwell. We’re in the business of protecting people. So we stick to the mission.”

  I was about to say something, but Peter cut me off. “Don’t even start. Mission creep has crept. I, and the rest of the team, am headed your way as soon as we’re prepped. We’ll get to the cabin as soon as possible. You, in the meantime, need to get her out of there. All hell’s going to break loose soon, especially because of the leaky lines.”

  “Think someone’s going to come for her?”

  “Wouldn’t you? You’ve got a high-valued target with intel you need. Don’t you think you’d want the one thing your target has stuck around for? If you could get that and the documents in one go, what would you do? Before, she was just bait. But now that the prey’s flushed, they can move in for the snatch.”

  I nodded. Yep. He was right. “Hadn’t thought about it that way.”

  “I’m the boss, remember?”

  “Listen, Peter, I’m sorry about this.”

  “No, don’t be sorry. I should’ve kept a tighter rein on this mission. I’m taking responsibility for you going off the reservation. I hadn’t taken her phone into consideration when you went back to the cabin, and that’s my fault.”

  “Well, whose fault it is doesn’t matter much now, d
oes it?”

  “Right.” The boss paused for a moment. “Alright. Off the phone. Get her out, we’ll meet you on the way back to the Rock and escort you in.”

  “Got it.” I hung up and headed back into the kitchen. “Any luck?”

  She was staring at her phone on the kitchen table. She shook her head. “Straight to voicemail.”

  “Probably pulled the battery.”

  “Peter?”

  “We’re getting our stuff and going.”

  “But–”

  “No, Ashley. I reckon it feels important to warn your father, but we can’t. I’m here to protect you. What I ain’t here to do is enable you.”

  She just looked at me. “Fine.” She didn’t budge, but just took a deep breath and gave me a long, languid stare. “I’m breaking the contract. I’m not yours or Frost Security’s responsibility anymore. I’ll stick this out on my own.”

  My hands balled into fists at my side. Dammit! Why’d she have to be so fucking ornery all the damn time? “You’re fucking with me, right?”

  She shook her head. “You take me from here, I’ll charge your ass with kidnapping.”

  I clenched my fists so hard they snapped, crackled, and popped. “You have any idea what might be coming down on us?”

  She chewed her lower lip, her eyes misty as she turned away. “I know. But if you want to go, that’s fine. I just need to do this, Frank. I need to look him in the eye. I’ve backed down on so many things, or ran away like I did when my father decided to marry the bimbo. What did I do instead of talking to him about my problems with his marriage? I didn’t speak to him for a whole year. A whole year, Frank.”

  Of course this woman was my mate. I pulled out one of the chairs tucked beneath the kitchen table and slumped into it. Of course she was.

  “You don’t have to stay,” she said. “I know you care about me, Frank, but what I’m doing is stupid.”

  I reached over, put my hand over hers, and grasped her lightly.

  She looked up at me, a little smile on her lips. She flicked a stray blonde hair away from her face, melting my old trooper heart. She flipped her hand around and grabbed mine. Something about the human touch, that moment of skin-to-skin contact made this whole shit show worthwhile as a little charge seemed to run through me.

  I grinned. “Yeah, this is fucking stupid. But at least you know it is.”

  A weak smile crossed her lips, like she couldn’t decide if she should puke or laugh.

  “We’ve had good lives, right?” she asked.

  It was hard to admit, but she was right. “Better than most.”

  “You should probably tell your boss not to come.”

  I pulled my phone from my pocket with a nod and texted him. Don’t come. Threatening to break contract if I take her with me and peg charges. I’m staying.

  His response was immediate. Not surprised. A moment passed. Still coming. Looks like the west might get wild again.

  I tossed my phone on the table in front of me. “Still on his way.”

  She grinned. The grin quickly faded, though. “I’m sorry for dragging you into this. For dragging everyone into this.”

  “You didn’t drag me into shit, babe. I’m free to walk out of here anytime, and I know it. But told you I’d protect you, and that’s what I’m going to do.”

  I checked the time. We had twenty minutes left until Martin Maxwell arrived, and all I could do was sit and wait. I’d never wished I was a praying man more than right then.

  Chapter Forty-three – Ashley

  The worst part about waiting for something to happen is that no matter what you do, you can never pull off the Band-Aid and get everything over with. The crush of the inevitable weighs down on you like gravity, something you can stand against but never completely overcome. At least with a friend, you don’t have to bear it all on your own.

  I paced through the living room as Frank checked his gun one more time at the kitchen table. My eyes fell on the pictures we’d hung back up the day before. Well, the ones that hadn’t been knocked from the wall by the cartel hitmen.

  “What’re you thinking about?” Frank asked as he got up from the table and went to stand by the windows and look out over the backyard.

  “Just that I’ll never see this place again. Or anywhere else that I used to live. You?”

  “Waiting. Always hated waiting. Hurry up and wait. That’s the joke about the military. Doesn’t matter a lick what branch you’re in, it’s always hurry up and wait, soldier.”

  I laughed. “I was just thinking about that, too.”

  “Worst part, though?” he asked. “The thinking. Everything that could go wrong. Is your plan good enough? Do you have backups?”

  “Guess you’re in luck that we don’t have a plan, then.”

  He shook his head, a frown tugging down his lips. “That’s one way to look at it, I guess.”

  “I’m more worried about what’s going to happen after all this, to tell you the truth.”

  “If we make it out of this in one piece, you mean?”

  I nodded. “I’m broke, Frank. I mean, I have nothing. Think they’ll let my father keep this place? Or me? The penthouse in New York? The house in the Hamptons? None of that belongs to me. And, even if I could get it, the government’s going to take it, won’t they?”

  I turned back to the frame that had held the picture of my family on father’s sailboat. The Miss Ashley. Even by just looking at the frame, I could remember the image to the smallest detail. Like it was burned into my retina. God, we’d been happy.

  I touched the empty spot in the frame, careful not to cut my finger this time around.

  “Ever thought of staying in Enchanted Rock?” Frank asked, our backs still turned to each other.

  I took my hand away from the picture and smiled grimly. “If I could find a place, maybe some work. Sure, why not? I’ve always like it here.” I turned and went to cross the room, stopping to check the time on the microwave. Only a little while longer now.

  “Matt, my roommate, is talking about moving into Richard’s old place.”

  I stopped in my tracks again, my heart thudding away. Had he just asked me to move in with him? So soon? “Really?” I asked. Was I even ready for something like that? But, instead of my mouth going dry, or my stomach getting queasy, I felt elated. He had, hadn’t he? He had just asked me to move in with him.

  “I can’t pay rent or anything, Frank. You know that, right?”

  “Well, it’s just if you need a place. I’m saying, you know, I’ve got the room.”

  I came up behind him, slipped myself beneath his arm and curled up against his comparatively giant frame. “What if I don’t get on my feet right away?”

  He tightened his arm around my shoulder and gripped my upper arm tightly as he pulled me closer to him. “Stay as long as you want.”

  “Wow, you are serious.”

  He grinned. “I’m a serious man.”

  “I’ve never lived with a guy before. Cohabitated, they call it.”

  “I’ve never lived with a woman, either. No matter what they call it.”

  I lay my head against his shoulder and tightened my arm around his waist. All I got was hard muscle. It was more like trying to move the shelves upstairs than it was hugging a man. I took a deep breath, inhaling his scent of pine and fabric softener.

  He kissed the top of my head, pulled me closer, and rested his chin where his lips had just been.

  “We’re going to get through this,” he whispered. “Promise.”

  “You’re the only person I trust anymore, Frank. Everything else has just been lies and smoke screens. That’s all.”

  I felt him nod. “You can always trust me, babe. Always.”

  I closed my eyes and hugged him tighter. God, I hoped that was true.

  Chapter Forty-four – Frank

  Martin Maxwell III was not what I’d expected from the pictures. No sir.

  I’d expected a man who moved with grace. Who was
tall, with slightly thinning hair that had a bit of salt and peppering at the temple. I’d expected, believe it or not, a man that was clean-shaven, who seemed to care as much about his appearance as a Hollywood actress, who knew how to control his investors’ perception of him through his careful preening. I’d expected a man who wouldn’t have been caught dead outside of a perfectly tailored suit. And, even when he was finally caught dead, he’d be laid to rest in a coffin in an impeccably tailored suit as the elite members of the financial world gathered to pay their respects to the indomitable elemental force that was Martin Maxwell III.

  What I got instead looked like a homeless trapper.

  One thing he still had down, though, was his timing. I glanced at my phone, and he was two minutes early.

  He came up from the back of the property, likely through the same cuts in the chain link that the cartel thugs had used the afternoon before. He drifted through the woods like a specter, his graying hair pulled out in tufts around his head.

  “Is that…is that Father?” Ashley asked as we saw him coming, gingerly stepping through the underbrush as he came down the hill, a colorful secondhand scarf halfheartedly wrapped around his neck. He reached up and scraped a wrinkled hand through his graying beard.

  “Think so, babe.” I looked down at her. “Think so.”

  His tan Carhartt jacket looked as out of place on him as an Armani suit coat on a scarecrow. And the flannel shirt and oversized jeans he had belted on for dear life didn’t do much for the effect. He came tramping onto the deck, his heavy clodhopper boots booming with each step on the hardwood. He crossed the patio and threw open the back door like it belonged to him.

  Which, I guess it still did.

  “Ashley?” he called, his voice more gravelly than I’d pictured as he came in and looked at us, his eyes falling accusingly on us both as we stood there, still holding one another.

  His daughter dropped her hands from mine and pulled apart from me. “Father?” she asked, but didn’t go to his side.

  Maxwell’s eyes softened. “God, it’s good to see you, dear. So good.”