“Meet me up there in an hour. I’ll swipe you in. From there it’ll be up to you.” Elena was already shuffling away from the bunk area and back toward the resort.
“If you get caught up there, it won’t really matter,” Aria said flatly. “If she gets caught letting you in, the consequences will be severe. She’s not a pawn in a game.”
“I could hear every story by every person on staff and it still wouldn’t be enough. It doesn’t prove that anything illegal has taken place. I need to see the contracts and determine if what they are doing is unlawful or just unethical.”
“Just unethical,” Aria huffed. “Don’t ethics mean anything?”
“Of course they do. But bait and switch doesn’t hold as much water as actual fraud. Something you can prove if you look at the contracts that were signed. If I see documentation they have on each employee, we can get an NGO in here to investigate.”
“NGO?” Aria asked, furrowing her brows.
“A non-government organization. Some have the capacity to come in and investigate a situation and help bring the issues to light. It doesn’t mean they have the power to take immediate action, but I’ve seen a few NGOs with some punch to them. But they don’t show up for nothing. They need a starting point.”
“And you think that can be in the office you’re about to break into?” Aria asked, propping a hand up on her hip and eyeing him.
“Don’t know until we try.” Monroe shrugged coolly. “Life is full of risks. But that’s how we get to the reward.”
Chapter 13
“I should go with you,” Aria groaned as she held tight to Monroe’s arm. “I don’t want you to get in any trouble.”
“I’ll be fine. Getting information is my specialty. Just head to my room and be ready to welcome me back.” He pulled her in for an intense embrace and cupped a handful of her ass. “This will be easy. I’ll give you something hard later.”
He loved how her cheeks flushed and her mouth snapped shut to stifle a giggle. “Fill the bath. I’ll be back before you know it.”
As he glanced over his shoulder at her, Monroe had to fight a smile. Aria was genuinely nervous that he’d get caught. What she didn’t know was just how many offices Monroe had broken into over the years. Actually, he liked to think of it more as visiting prior to an invitation.
There was one key to getting in and out of a place with what you wanted. Look like you belong there. A skill Monroe mastered ages ago. No eyes darting around nervously. No fidgeting. No fumbling. People didn’t spend their time assuming they were about to be broken into.
Monroe busied himself on his phone as he rode the elevator up with Elena, pretending they hadn’t just spoken. Two other people exited on the floor below and left them alone but Monroe didn’t look up. “Cameras?” he whispered. And she gave a nearly imperceptible nod.
They stepped off the elevator, and she began to push her heavy cart down the hallway to their left. “Are you lost?” she asked him, pulling her badge from her shirt and swiping it under the access pad.
“I’m fine,” Monroe answered evenly as he pushed open the door that led to the office Elena had described. With his head high and his chin jutted out, he moved through the hallway as though he were on his way to a scheduled meeting. As two men passed, chatting about a group coming for a convention, Monroe looked them straight in the face and greeted them.
When they rounded a corner, Monroe found himself alone in the hallway, and he made his move. The office was not locked. The security to get on this wing seemed to be what they relied on.
Pushing the door open, Monroe stepped inside the room and found it was far more storage than office. Document boxes were piled high against each wall and file cabinets were crammed into the remaining available space. Making quick sense of the filing system wouldn’t be easy. He thought twenty minutes would be pushing it, but he knew now he’d need more.
When the door squeaked open he readied himself for some explanation. But at the sight of Aria’s flushed cheeks he knew it would be all right. “What the hell are you doing here?” he asked, as he quietly tugged her in and closed the door.
“I couldn’t sit down there. Look at this place,” she said, spinning around and lifting the lid off a box. “What a mess.”
“I need to snap some shots of the employment contracts. Some documentation of payroll. Any infringement on international labor treaties. Where they hell should I start?” Monroe checked his watch and bit anxiously at his cheek.
“Contracts are about twenty pages long if I remember,” she said as she began pulling open file cabinet drawers. “Here are a few.” She pulled out a stack of papers and handed them to him. “Start with those, and I’ll find some payroll documents.”
“Thanks,” he said, spreading the papers out and snapping pictures with his phone. “You shouldn’t have risked coming up here, but I’m glad you did.”
“We make a good team.” She grinned as she flipped the covers off a few boxes and began rifling through.
“Think of how much fun we could have in Paris,” he said, looking up for only a second then returning to the job at hand. Even with that quick glance he could see her perk up at the suggestion, then suddenly her face fell flat.
“Don’t say things like that,” she scolded. “You’re here for something. I’m helping. Then you’ll be gone, and I’ll be right here. There’s no Paris. Not for me.”
“By choice,” he reminded her. “I have no problem clearing a path for you out of here. Anything is possible when you’re with me.”
“I admire your confidence and the way you can suspend reality long enough to think you and I might have a future. I’m sorry to say, this is the best place for me,” she said, resigned. “Look here are some payroll documents.” She passed them over, looking relieved to change the subject. “They show the pay rates, and here they list what the employee has been docked. Sometimes it’s literally a negative balance. Can you imagine?”
Monroe took some quick shots of everything he could and checked his watch again. “We have to clear out of here.”
“Do you have what you need?” she asked breathlessly, putting everything back where she found it.
“This will do from here,” he said, taking her hand and leading her toward the door. “There are other financial documents I need, but I have a source for those. We’re cutting it a little close, according to Elena.” They slipped from the door and spilled awkwardly into the hallway. About halfway back to the elevator a voice boomed out her name.
“Aria?” a stern-looking woman called. She had a thick masculine brow and a mole by her chin. “What are you doing up here? And who is this?”
“Play along,” Monroe whispered. “The incompetence is out of control in this place.” His voice raised sharply and the approaching angry woman stopped in her tracks. “I want my suit. I want to know if it’s ruined or not, so I can figure out whose ass to kick.”
“Sir.” The woman tried to soothe. “My name is Carla, and I’m senior staff here. I can assure you I can help you find what you need.”
“I tried to tell him that his suit wouldn’t be on this floor. This is just for senior staff.” Aria’s voice was timid, and it pained Monroe to see her flinching like a beaten dog.
“You should not have let him up here,” Carla reprimanded. “You know his suit would not be up here. Sir, I will take you downstairs, and we’ll get to the bottom of this.”
“No,” Monroe bellowed angrily. “I’ll see myself down. I’m done with this. I shouldn’t have bothered forcing her to bring me up here. I should have assumed it would be another fool’s errand.”
“Sorry, sir,” Carla repeated with extreme urgency as Monroe passed through the door and stepped into the elevator. When the doors closed he groaned and tossed his head up in aggravation. He’d just complicated things for Aria, but he knew the only thing worse for her than getting in trouble for bending to a guest’s demands would be the real reason they were up there.
Pulling out his phone, he skimmed through all the documents he’d just snapped pictures of. He’d use this information to validate what Aria and her friends had told him. Then he’d decide if the resort was a safe investment or if it was time to walk away.
Walk away. It took on a new meaning now that he wanted Aria to walk away with him. And by all accounts she wouldn’t.
Chapter 14
Aria paced the hallway for a few moments before she decided to tap on his door. Monroe had actually protected her by yelling at her. It was a smart, strategic move. Yet for some reason, the boom in his voice and the way he’d dismissed her whole existence was lingering over her like a dark cloud. Monroe slipped so easily into the type of people who’d wielded power over her and the other employees at the resort. How quickly he could sound like a demanding, never satisfied monster.
“There you are,” Monroe said, looking instantly relieved as he snatched up her hand and pulled her into the room. Closing the door quickly, Monroe looked at her from head to toe. “How bad did it go after I left?”
“Just some demerits and a stern talking to,” she said, dismissing his worry with a wave of her hand. “Nothing I can’t handle. It was a smart move on your part. Certainly put her off the trail. Have you had a chance to look at the documents?”
He poured her a glass of rich red wine and handed it over with a look of apology. “I was just thinking about that. You risked a lot to go up there.”
“I told you, I couldn’t sit around and wait for you.” Her face flushed as his stare grew more intense.
“Even if patience wasn’t your strength, it wouldn’t make much sense for you to put yourself in the line of fire like that. So I started thinking about why you went up. And you know what I realized?” Monroe had a tiny mischievous smile on his face.
“What?”
“You wanted to make sure I didn’t come across your file. Very smart. I should have known you had a hidden agenda.”
“That’s not it at all,” she lied, taking a large swig of her wine and hoping when she was finished he wouldn’t still be staring at her.
“I won’t underestimate you in the future. What exactly would I have found in your file? Why are you here?” His wide shoulders and expanded chest were enough to have her pulsing with desire, but circumstances killed that quickly. These were the questions she could do without.
“Why does it matter?” she asked, propping a hand up on her hip and trying to look like she couldn’t be rattled.
“Because somewhere in that story is the reason you think you can’t leave. Somewhere in that truth is the objection I need to overrule. Until I know what is going on in your head I can’t convince you of your options.” He sat in the large leather chair in the corner and ran a hand through his hair. “So what do I need to do for you to tell me the truth?”
“Why do you care where I go or don’t go?” She gulped back the nerves brewing and kept her chin tipped back proudly. “I’m a grown woman. I don’t need a knight in shining armor to rescue me.”
“Fine.” Monroe sighed. “But I still want to know. I’m a stubborn bastard, and I’ll keep finding new ways to try to find out. I’ll start by being a real pain in the ass.”
“Start?” she asked playfully.
“I’m not going to let up,” he promised. “I always get what I want.”
“Fine,” she huffed, flopping down on the couch across from him. “But you’ll need to top this glass off.”
“You’ve hardly had a sip,” he countered as she raised it to her lips and chugged the wine down.
“I see you have many hidden talents.” Monroe laughed as he stood, grabbed the bottle of wine, and obliged her request. “Now start talking.”
She nibbled at the inside of her cheek as she considered telling the story she’d been holding secret for over six years. She hadn’t been practicing the narrative. She’d been pretending it had never happened. She opened her mouth, hoping the story would take shape, instead a jumble of thoughts poured out.
“I was abducted . . . well, by my mother. My mother took me when I was three. I didn’t know that, obviously, because I was three.” She took a slow sip of her wine as she tried to gather herself.
“I better have a glass myself,” Monroe said somberly. “Sounds like this isn’t going to be quite what I expected.”
“Tell me what you thought brought me here,” Aria pleaded, wondering what she looked like through the prism of his eyes.
“Honestly,” he said, filling his glass and settling back into his leather chair, “I expected you to tell me you had some boyfriend back home who’d gotten you mixed up in something. Or maybe some jerk treated you bad, and you thought you needed to hide out. That was a problem I was looking forward to solving for you. Bashing the heads of shitty ex-boyfriends is a favorite hobby of mine.”
“There are a few girls here that are in that predicament, if that grabs your attention. I’m sure you can slay all their dragons, and they’ll love you forever. I’m sorry to disappoint you. My reasons are a little more complicated.” She glanced out the window and watched the clouds gathering together.
“My hero complex is well in check,” Monroe assured her. “I don’t care about any other women here. I care about you. Now tell me how someone can be abducted by their own mother. You’re her child. You’re hers to take.”
“I was also my father’s child,” she corrected. “They were going through a very difficult divorce, and he went to work one day and we left. Just like that. She changed our names. We got fake papers. I have no real memory of my father or my life in Philadelphia. We settled in Texas, and I spent my entire childhood having no idea I was on a list of missing children.”
“That is complicated. But how do you get from there to here?” Monroe asked, clearly unable to piece together how a childhood like that meant she had to stay here.
“For as far back as I can remember I asked my mother who my father was. Where he was. She didn’t even have the decency to make up some story. She could have said he died in the military. Or he ran off with another woman and wanted nothing to do with us. All she did was tell me not to ask. She was adamant that I didn’t ask. Move on. For a while I swallowed that but then it wasn’t enough. I pestered her.”
“That doesn’t seem like an unreasonable expectation for a curious kid,” Monroe agreed. “So you kept asking?”
“No, eventually, when I realized she’d never tell me, I stopped asking and started looking. I realized there were no photographs of us before I was three years old. She never told me exactly where I was born, but occasionally she’d say up north or talk about snow. I had very little to go on. So when I started my search I was using all the wrong information.”
“But eventually you found him?” Monroe looked thoroughly intrigued. Aria couldn’t tell if this was entertaining to him or if he truly cared. After all, who didn’t like a good mystery?
“I tried to find him. It was over two years of me playing detective and piecing it all together. Eventually I would’ve given it up. That was right when social media started becoming more prevalent. I saw this post about two brothers who were taken from their mother by their father, and they’d recently found out. There was this montage of their reunion with their mother all smiles, hugs, and tears. It was just a spark of an idea, but it made me realize there was a chance my father was looking for me. At the end of their video was a link to the national website for missing children. I typed in the little bit of information I had and got thousands of files. No real way to narrow it down any further.”
“But you didn’t give up,” Monroe said, beaming like it was his victory. “You never seem to give up.”
“I looked through every single file,” Aria said, getting lost in the memory of her eyes straining and her fingers cramping. “I’d put almost all of my life on hold in order to mine the website for any sign of myself. But it never came. I never saw a little baby who had my eyes. No child listed with a birthmark on her left shoulder. I did, h
owever, read some of the saddest heart-wrenching stories imaginable of families searching for children. All I could picture was my father, this faceless nameless man I can’t remember. Maybe he was looking for me. Maybe his heart was breaking.”
“Yet you found nothing?”
“I didn’t find myself on the website,” Aria explained. “I found her.”
“Your mother?” Monroe asked, leaning forward in his chair and furrowing her brows. “You found your mother on the site?”
“Yes,” Arai answered, the lightning bolts of pain still present when she remembered that awful discovery. “She was the last seen with person attached to a missing child. I pulled up the picture and there she was. Big blue eyes. A few less wrinkles. Her hair was a little longer. But otherwise exactly the same.”
“What did you do?”
“I started getting all the information I could. I found the stories my father had told on local news channels. He’d desperately pleaded for my safe return. There was even a financial reward for any information. Scott Laurence. Just a normal guy from Philly who had his child stolen away. But no one was all that interested in finding me. No one particular agency was dedicated to something like that. Plus the details were murky. Was my father really a good man, or the kind of man my mother was right to run from? It wasn’t clear.”
“Wow,” Monroe said, placing his wine down on the end table near him as though this were too exciting to bother drinking it.
“I gathered all the information like ammunition. I dug. I filed for copies of their divorce documents. Newspaper articles. Anything anyone said about my parents. I wanted to know exactly who said what leading to my mother taking me.” She rubbed at the pain in her temple that always sparked to life when the past bubbled to the surface. “There wasn’t anything concrete. Just speculation and he said/she said. Lots of allegations against each other but none substantiated.”
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