by Sophia Gray
Finally, I found a set of elevators. Just as I pressed the button, Nurse Barnes rounded the corner. When she saw me, her face went white with shock.
“Enzo! What are you doing out of bed?”
“Leaving,” I replied as I hurled myself into the waiting elevator and jammed my thumb against the Doors Close button. Nurse Barnes stepped closer and closer but finally, the elevator doors crunched together, and I felt myself being carried down, away from her, and out of the clutches of the hospital.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
When I got down to the street, everyone was staring at me, and for a moment I was terrified that Nurse Barnes was going to give chase. Then I realized why: I was still clad in a cotton hospital gown, my ass exposed for everyone to see.
Hailing a cab, I launched myself into the back seat. I gave the driver the address of LennoxCo and rested my forehead against the greasy glass window, trying to catch my breath. I still didn’t know what had happened to Audrey, but I had a feeling she was in trouble. It bothered me that I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Just what, exactly, was going on? Was it because I felt responsible? Or guilty?
Deep down, I knew that I didn’t even want to dwell on why I couldn’t get her out of my mind. I knew that it was something aside from guilt, but whatever it was, it wasn’t something that I wanted to focus on. Not right now, not when I had Richard Hodges to go after.
The cab pulled up, and I dashed out, promising to send a girl down with the fare. Everyone stared at me as I raced through the lobby and jumped the identification turnstiles. When I finally made it up to the executive floor, I rushed into my office and grabbed a change of clothes from the desk. Even though I knew deep down that Audrey wouldn’t be sitting out front of office, not seeing her there was like a punch to my gut.
The phone rang, and for a second, I felt a flash of irritation that Audrey hadn’t picked up the call. When I remembered what was going on, I grabbed the receiver and pressed it against my face.
“Hello?” My voice was ragged and hoarse. It sounded like I’d been running a marathon. I coughed. “This is Enzo Lennox,” I said, my tone biting. “Who is this?”
“Enzo.” When I heard Richard’s voice, my free hand balled into a fist at my side. “Enzo, looks like you ran away from the hospital.”
“Fuck off,” I snarled out. “Where is she?”
Even though I couldn’t see him, I knew that Richard had to be smirking at that exact moment. “Where is who?”
“Audrey,” I spat out. “Where is she?”
Richard laughed, a silken sound, like he was enjoying himself. My blood boiled when I realized the truth—he was enjoying himself. He’d always enjoyed tormenting me, far too much.
“She’s safe, don’t worry. Although, if I’m being honest, I have to say that I don’t really get the attraction, Enzo. Just what is it about Audrey that’s so enticing to you?”
I growled. “Where is she?”
“Enzo, I’ll tell you where she is. All you have to do is one little thing for me, okay?”
I didn’t say anything. My blood was pounding in my ears, and suddenly I felt like I was going to pass out again. I knew that I needed to eat something, fast, but now that I had Richard on the phone, I didn’t want to let him go.
“Enzo, just give me the company. I want LennoxCo. Or rather, HodgesCo,” Richard said in a nasty tone. “Just hand over the company, and you get Audrey back. Isn’t that a fair trade?” He snickered. “And don’t worry, I won’t want anything to do with her. I have my eye on a little girl who looks like Christie Brinkley to be my secretary.”
I slammed my fist on the desk and almost howled as pain shot through my body. “Forget it.” I sneered into the phone. “You’re not getting my company, Richard. You’re not even getting a dime of my money.”
“Well, then suit yourself,” Richard said airily. “I know what you’ve been doing, Enzo. I know you’ve been looking for ways to incriminate me. And you’re a fool if you think that’s going to work. I’m smarter than you and tougher than you, and a hell of a lot scarier than you. You’re not going to bully me into doing anything.”
Inwardly, I groaned. “Richard,” I said through gritted teeth. “Get this through your thick fucking skull. I’m not selling my company to you. I’m not giving my company to you. LennoxCo is none of your fucking business, and you’re going to leave me alone and let Audrey go. You understand that?”
Richard snickered. “That’s not the way things are going to end,” he said with disdain. “Enzo, I would have thought you were smarter than this. After all, you’re a self-made man, aren’t you? You didn’t have to learn the business from anyone, not like me. You self-made assholes are supposed to be better businessmen!”
“I’m keeping my business and running it the way I want to,” I hissed out into the phone. “And that’s the final word on that!” Feeling triumphant, I slammed the phone down into the cradle.
Again, I almost called Audrey’s name until I looked out of my open door and saw that her desk was empty. My heart sank. I ran out into the hallway.
Karen was standing there with a group of women, chattering and laughing. When I dashed up, she glanced at me with surprise.
“Enzo, you’re looking tired,” she said, eyeing me from head to toe.
“Karen, you need to call Sebastian,” I told her. “Tell him to come to my office, immediately. This is important!”
Karen squinted at me and narrowed her eyes before crossing her thin arms over her chest. She was still one of the hottest women I’d ever seen, but I felt as little desire for her as for a corpse. “Where’s Audrey?” She gave me a big, mocking smile. “Late again?”
“She couldn’t come in today,” I snapped. “So hurry up! Go! Now!”
Karen skittered off, her heels clacking on the marble floor. Her friends looked up at me with a mixture of envy and disgust on their faces. Dashing back to my office, I pulled my phone off the hook. It rang again before I could even punch in the number I was thinking of.
“This is Enzo Lennox.”
“Enzo, I forgot one little thing.” I cringed as Hodges’ slimy voice filled my ear. “One little thing about your company, and about Audrey.”
“I’m still not giving it to you,” I snapped. “And I have my ways to take you down, Richard. So don’t even think that I won’t try.”
“You may try all you want, but you’re certainly not going to succeed,” Hodges replied in a silky tone. “After all, I’m the smarter one here. You know that, Enzo.”
I swallowed hard. “So, what is it? What do you want?”
“Oh, it’s nothing else that I want. Enzo, it’s a little past eleven in the morning right now. You have twenty-four hours to change your mind about giving me your company. Or else, Audrey won’t live to see another day.”
“Bullshit.” I scoffed. “I bet you don’t even have her.”
“Oh, Enzo, you can be such a fool,” Richard said. There was a pause, and then I heard him yell Audrey’s name. There was a blood-curdling, high-pitched female scream in response.
My blood ran cold. “Hodges, you fuck,” I said into the phone. But the only thing in response was a dial tone. He’d hung up.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
After Hodges hung up on me, I was a nervous wreck. I couldn’t stop pacing around my office like a caged animal. I knew that I had to do something, but I couldn’t think of what. And Seb hadn’t even shown up yet; I was wondering if Karen had actually found him. I thought of her with a touch of regret. Part of me thought that maybe if I’d treated her with just a slight bit of respect, we wouldn’t be having this problem.
Then I shook my head. Karen was a petty, jealous kind of girl. She’d always been like this. She was the kind of girl who would have been jealous of Audrey even if Audrey was sixty years old and four hundred pounds. It didn’t matter that I was sleeping with her. Karen just hated feeling replaced.
By the time Sebastian poked his head in, I was sitting down wi
th my face in my hands.
“Yo, Enzo, what the hell, man?” Seb sauntered in. His skin looked tan and glowing, like he’d just come from the tropics.
I knew that I looked sallow and pale, a shadow of my former self. I glared at him. Seb and I had always been the golden boys of the office, and I almost resented him for being able to maintain that image while I was sitting there looking like shit.
“I need your help,” I said quickly. “I need to bring this asshole down.” Seb came behind my desk, and I pointed at my monitor. A picture of Richard Hodges, red-faced and grinning like a prize pig, was on the display.
“Oh no,” Seb said. He shook his head and grinned at me. “Whatever this is, bro, I don’t like the sound of it.” He pointed towards the photo of Hodges. “I recognize that asshole. He was here a few times last week.”
“Yeah,” I said, shaking my head, unable to tear my gaze away from the greedy gleam in Hodges’ eye. Despite the fact that the picture was an old one, I pictured him exactly like that: sweaty and proud of his own goddamn slimy behavior.
“Man, what’s wrong? You look fuckin’ rough today. Did something happen?”
I swallowed hard, reaching for a bottle of water on my desk. “It doesn’t matter,” I said darkly. “I’ll tell you later when all of this shit is taken care of.”
Seb crossed his muscular arms over his broad chest and lowered himself onto the black leather couch, kicking up his feet on one armrest and laying his head on the other. “Okay, say I agree to help you. What exactly do you need?”
“Something you don’t do anymore.” I got to my feet and paced back and forth in front of the couch. “This guy, he’s out to fuck me, and I can’t let him win. He wants this company, and he’s dead set on getting it. At first, he kept trying to get me to sell it to him, but I refused. And now he’s threatening me.”
Seb’s eyes flashed open, and he stared at me. “He’s actually threatening you? With what?”
I paused. I didn’t want to tell Seb about Audrey. I had a feeling he already knew, but better to keep this as simple as I possibly could.
“Don’t worry about it,” I told him. “I just need to focus on outwitting this guy. I need to dig up some dirt; I need to find things that he’s hidden and doesn’t want anyone to see.”
“I don’t like where this is going.” Seb shook his head. “If you’re talking about hacking, you know I gave that shit up.” He grinned at me. “Scout’s honor.”
“I wouldn’t ask you unless I absolutely had to, and I think you know that,” I replied quickly. “And, Seb, trust me, I’ve thought of everything. But I can’t think of anyone else who could help on such short notice. And I’m in trouble if I can’t fight this guy off. It would ruin the company and ruin me, and probably ruin everyone who works here. No more pensions, no more retirement. Nothing. Everything you saved would be gone.”
Seb winced. I knew that I’d finally gotten to him—he had over four million dollars invested in LennoxCo.
“I really don’t like the sound of this, man.” He raked a hand through his hair and stared at me. “I almost went to jail last time.” Seb let out a little nervous laugh. “And I definitely don’t want that happening again.”
I sighed. “I wouldn’t tell you this unless I had to, but… they’ve got Audrey, Seb.”
Seb narrowed his eyes. “That dowdy little secretary of yours? Why the hell would they even want her around?”
I silenced him with a glare. “Because they know she’s important to me,” I said icily. “And if I don’t act fast, she’s dead. Richard said I had twenty-four hours to turn the company over to him or else he’d kill her. He’s crazy, and I don’t want to call his bluff, but I’m not giving up on LennoxCo. So, I need to find some dirt on him.”
Seb closed his eyes. His face paled as he folded his hands in his lap. “I understand,” he said after a second. “I’ll help you, okay? Not that this is even remotely close to the kind of thing I’d consider again.” He let out a dry laugh. “Only for you, Enzo.”
I nodded. “Thank you.”
Twenty minutes later, Seb and I were stationed in the corner of a local Starbucks with his laptop, my laptop, and a hell of a lot of cords and wires. I didn’t even know the first thing about hacking, but watching Seb work was like watching the master. After I got a couple of lattes for us, Seb set up both computers and connected them with a fat, yellow cord.
“My computer is going to be the slave, and yours is the master,” he said in a quiet, low voice as he booted up my computer. “So yours will work through mine, through disguising software.” Seb looked up at me with a wild grin on his face and a glint in his eye.
Even though Seb and I had been friends for years, I’d never seen him his crazed. Not even when the two of us had embarked on a weeklong bender with tons of booze and strippers. It was like coding was what made Seb tick deep down, beneath his airs of being a sophisticated city guy.
I had to laugh. What was it that made me tick, exactly? When Audrey’s face flashed into my mind, I realized that I didn’t want to think about that anymore.
I watched in fascination as Seb logged on to a secure server. Five seconds later, RH Shoes was displayed in a fancy pink font across the screen.
“Bingo,” Seb said under his breath. He moved the pointer around the screen so quickly that I barely had a chance to see what he was doing. “See, Enzo, right now I’m bypassing his firewall and going straight where the secure FTP files are kept. We can take all of them, or whichever ones you want.”
My mouth went dry. I felt like I was finally on the verge of something really powerful. I pulled a flash drive out of my pocket and handed it to Seb. “Take them all,” I said. “And make copies, and send those copies to my secure LennoxCo email. You know which one?”
Seb nodded. For a moment, we shared a tense look. Seb had helped me before, and he’d almost gone to jail for it, but this time I had a feeling we’d both get off without consequence. After all, Seb was a master hacker, and Hodges was wanted by the police. What could possibly go wrong?
After Seb handed me the flash drive, I grabbed my laptop and darted back up to my office. Now that I wasn’t logged into Hodges’ servers anymore, I had to see what Seb had uncovered. I hoped it was enough to lock Hodges away forever, but until I looked at the records, I wouldn’t know.
My heart was pounding, and sweat broke out on my forehead as the elevator carried me up toward the executive suite. This has to be it, I told myself. This has to be it; you’ve got him now. Just check and make sure Seb did his work properly. That’s all you have to look for right now. Just make sure Seb did a good job.
When the doors pinged open, I broke into a run, dashing down the hallway and into my office. After slamming the door behind me, I put my laptop on the desk and whipped the flash drive out of my pocket. It seemed to take an eternity to load. I was bouncing one knee up and down and tapping my fingers on the desk as I waited for all of the files to load.
The folder was named Financial Records. I grinned. This had to be a good place to start!
Opening the first file, I began to skim down. There was a list of all business expenses and acquisitions, and right away I realized that the file didn’t make sense. The expenses were far more than what should have been listed for a shoe store, even a luxury shoe store, and the acquisitions were huge sums of money, often listed with code words. I grinned. This was going to be easy. Richard Hodges was mine.
I said a silent thank you in my head to Seb as I scanned through the rest of the files. The first one hadn’t been an anomaly; all of them were as indiscreet, full of large sums of money going in but not out. And even better, when I found Hodges’ fund records, I saw that he didn’t have nearly as much in legal savings as the sums being pumped into the shoe store. I couldn’t believe he’d gotten away with as much as he had—the money laundering on the statements was some of the most obvious that I’d ever seen.
I rubbed my hands together as a grim smile formed on my
face. He may have gotten away with it, but that’s not going to last much longer, I thought. Hold on, Audrey. I’m coming soon.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Audrey
I was cold, scared, and shaking. And worst of all, I had no idea what had happened to Pepper. The last thing I remembered was being in the car with Enzo and that weird driver. Then Enzo had freaked out and started yelling, and the next thing I knew there was a big crash and I woke up in the middle of a warehouse.
I was still wearing my parka, but my purse and everything else was gone. The warehouse was cold and dark, with only a few vents on the top for lighting, and judging by the sounds around me, I guessed that I was somewhere near the waterfront. The sound of waves beating against wood was a hypnotic kind of lull that stayed with me throughout the day.
