Silver Shield Security Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  “He said for an additional five million dollars, he’ll release Nico.” He was pacing agitatedly.

  He was glad that the Chicha woman, or whatever the hell her name was these days, was not in the room in that instant. All the charitable feelings he’d had towards her had disappeared with that phone call. He did not care what her motivation was, they would not be in that situation if it had not been for her.

  “Did he say anything about Tamika?” Drew asked.

  “I asked. He said it was none of my business what he did with her.” Actually, he had been much more vulgar in speech, but Alex did not see the need to repeat what the weasel had said.

  “We need to find them now,” Emily said.

  “I’m going to pay him the money,” he said, meeting her eyes upfront.

  “There’s no guarantee that he’s going to let Nico go, even if you pay him the money,” she said, trying to reason with him.

  Alex shook his head. “It’s a risk I’ll have to take. If there’s even a slim chance that I can get my brother back, then I’m taking it.” He was resolute about that.

  “I have a location!” Rusty’s excited voice interrupted them.

  They all turned to find him peering at his laptop. “What are you saying, Rus?” Drew asked, walking over to where Rusty was sitting.

  “I’ve been trying to get into Nico’s phone, but it’s switched off. It just came on and we can track them.”

  “Let’s go!” Emily ordered.

  “It could be a trap,” Alex pointed out. Why would the phone, which had been off all the while, suddenly come on?

  “We can handle it,” she told him. “You go prepare for that shareholder’s meeting. We’ll keep you posted.”

  He nodded and after a few moments, walked out.

  **

  Tamika and Nico had just gotten clear of the warehouse when they were surrounded by several men holding guns. She felt her heart sink as she dropped her small gun and raised her hands up in the air. This was it. They had been so close, but they hadn’t made it. She had failed Nico. She wanted to cry, but she was a former soldier of the United States Army. She would not be caught dead crying in a combat situation.

  “Tamika White?”

  She turned in surprise as the men parted and a man in a navy blue designer suit came forward. He had a cigarette in his mouth and an air of sophistication about him.

  “How do you know my name?” she asked in confusion.

  He gave her an appreciative look. “If I’d known you were so fine I would have come earlier,” he drawled.

  She heard Nico growl beside her and quietly stepped on his feet. She would never forgive him if he got them killed because he was jealous.

  “Who are you?” she asked.

  “I’m Mateo. We’re here to deliver you to your friends.”

  She was confused. “I don’t understand.”

  He smiled and she thought to herself that he was one hell of a good looking man. He looked like he would be at home on the cover of GQ magazine.

  “Come,” he said.

  Tamika figured that they did not have much of a choice. They followed him to a sleek looking limo. She exchanged a puzzled glance with Nico, then shrugged and got in. For all she knew, they could be going from the frying pan right into the fire, but as long as they were not tied up again, she decided they were a step ahead.

  To their surprise, he drove them right up to the Silver Shield safe house where he pulled up at the curb. When the car came to a halt, Mateo pulled out a gold-colored business card and handed it to Tamika.

  When she moved to take it from him, he held on to it. She looked up at him, raising her eyebrow in surprise.

  “If you need anything at all, call me,” he said, his eyes never leaving hers.

  Tamika felt a slow blush crawl up her face. She shook her head and took the card from him. The man was too potent. Someone needed to tell him to tone it down a bit. But all she said was, “Thank you.”

  “And when you return to Chicago, give my regards to Slim. Let him know we’re now even.”

  The doors to the limo swung open. She opened her mouth to ask him what he meant, but just then, Emily and the guys came out of the building. Tamika jumped out of the limo.

  “Thank you so much. I have no idea why you helped us, but I’ll never forget it,” she said and hurried towards the others, leaving Nico to follow behind her.

  Rusty was the first to see her.

  “Tamika?” he said in disbelief, then hurried to her. When he got to her he hugged her, lifting her clear off the ground. “God, don’t ever scare me like that again,” he said.

  She ruffled his hair, laughing as she did so. “I promise, kiddo.”

  The others had seen her by then. Rusty put her down and they all took turns hugging her. She was so glad to see every single one of them, even Ryan, though she made sure to pull on a lock of his hair.

  “Ow! What was that for?” he asked, but he was grinning.

  She grinned back at him. “Just so you don’t forget that I hate your guts.”

  “Yeah, like I’m likely to forget.”

  The others laughed and when they noticed Nico standing behind her, they went to him. After several slaps in the back, they ushered them back into the building.

  Inside the apartment, Keisha was shocked to see them. She cried out in surprise and wrapped her arms around Tamika.

  “Oh, thank God you’re okay,” she said, drying the tears that had slid down her face.

  “How did you get free and who was that?”

  Tamika glanced at Emily and shrugged. “That was Mateo.”

  Keisha blanched. “Mateo Natales?”

  Tamika looked at Nico, who shrugged. “Wait, didn’t he give you his business card?” he asked.

  She remembered that she’d slid the card into her jeans pocket. She reached for it and stared at the name. “Yep, Mateo Natales. Do you know him?”

  “He’s only the head of the Incas.”

  Everyone in that room knew who the Incas were. They were a gang of over four thousand members who were even more deadly than the Abrantes, which was the Chicago mafia.

  “Why would the head of the Incas help you?” Keisha asked the question that was on everyone else’s mind.

  “I have no idea, though he said something about giving his compliments to Slim when I got back to Chicago.”

  Drew had a thoughtful look on his face. “Just a minute,” he said and brought out his phone. “Hi honey…yeah, Tamika’s fine. She was brought back by one Mateo. Know anything about it?…Uh huh...Uh huh…Yeah, you should have told me…We’ll talk later.” He ended the call and looked at them with a funny expression on his face.

  “What’s the matter?” Emily asked.

  “It was Janey,” he said.

  Tamika frowned. “Is she okay? What happened to her?” She had a soft spot for that sweet woman.

  “She called Maria Vitale and asked for help in getting Tamika and Nico out.”

  Tamika covered her face with her hands and groaned. “That woman of yours is something else,” she told Drew, a smile hovering on her lips. “But tell her I’m grateful and we owe her our lives.”

  Drew nodded.

  Tamika turned to Nico. “You need to get ready for the shareholder’s meeting,” she reminded him.

  But he just shook his head. “I’m not going.”

  She stared at him in silence. He looked listless, like the life had been sucked out of him.

  “I got the plans,” Keisha spoke up anxiously. “I gave them to Alex.”

  Nico looked up in interest. “That’s great. I’ll head on to my apartment. I need a few hours of sleep.” With that he turned to leave.

  Tamika shared puzzled glances with the others, then she hurried after him.

  “Tamika,” Drew called.

  She paused and turned to him catching the keys he’d tossed at her. “Thanks,” she said and went after Nico.

  **

  Twelve noon. Bl
ue Silk Headquarters

  Alex sat at the head of the table in the conference room. It was a seat usually reserved for Nico and he felt weird in that seat. He leaned back on his chair, giving the impression of a laid-back person who would rather be anywhere else. He knew that was how most of the people seated around the table saw him, maybe except for three of them.

  He glanced at the faces around the table. Even though Blue Silk was quoted on the Stock Exchange, the shareholders were not many. There were his mom and sisters, two of them. Then there was Uncle Ivan and his first wife, who had held on to her shares until a few days ago.

  Then there was Charly, two other members of the executive team and about fifteen others. And there was Ted Monroe. He raised his brow in surprise to see the chief operations officer of their company. The man was not a shareholder. He and Nico, as the majority shareholders, had discussed issuing him shares, but he’d only been with them a little less than three years. Company policy said they had to be employed for up to five years to be eligible for stocks.

  When everyone was present, except Nico, he stood up and called the meeting to order, giving Nico’s apologies on behalf.

  “This emergency meeting was called by Mr. Vasilek here. The main purpose is to determine the fitness of Mr. Ortega to continue steering the company’s direction in the future. Before I let him speak, permit me to run through some of Mr. Ortega’s accomplishments over the years.”

  He took his time to paint the picture of where they had started before Nico took the small restaurant and built it into a chain of resort hotels. He mentioned a number of Nico’s landmark achievements and made them understand that they would not be where they were without Nico at the helm of affairs.

  He noted that most of the shareholders agreed with him and nodded enthusiastically to everything he said. Of course, his mom nodded the most vigorously. She was her children’s champion in everything.

  Once he was done, he gave the floor to Uncle Ivan and took his seat.

  “Thank you, Alexei,” Ivan said, getting to his feet.

  Alex ground his teeth. He had nothing against the long form of his name, he just hated the reason why Ivan used it; to remind him of his Russianness.

  He cleared his throat and went on. “All the accomplishments listed by Alexei are all well and good, but when we’re facing disaster, we need to take precautions.”

  There were murmurs all around the room at his pronouncement.

  “Stop speaking in riddles, Ivan, and tell us what you know,” Katerina Orlov said.

  Alex barely restrained himself from beaming a smile at his mom.

  “I’m getting there, Katerina,” Ivan said with a frown. “I have it on good authority that the plans for our new resort have leaked and are right now on their way to the competition.”

  “And how would you know that, Uncle Ivan?” Masha asked, her brown eyes shooting fire.

  “I’ll let Ted here explain things,” Ivan said with a smug smile.

  Ted stood up. “Ladies and gentlemen, a few days ago I got information that the plans were stolen from Mr. Ortega’s home. I approached him to discuss how we could retrieve them, but he dismissed my concerns,” Ted said with a sad smile. “This company has been very good to me and I could not just sit back and watch it fail. So I made it my duty to investigate the theft. The thief was on the verge of selling it off to the competition when I was able to get my hands on it.”

  He paused to let the effect of his words sink in. Alex watched him, an impassive expression on his face. He glanced at his sister and saw the murderous look on her face. Charly had her hands fisted with such a ferocious look on her face that he was afraid she would get up with her fists swinging. Even his mother looked like she wanted to throttle someone. It was obviously a set-up. Anyone could see that.

  Ted reached down and brought up a roll of architectural plans, similar to the one Alex had in his bag.

  “These are the plans,” Ted said, bringing them out with flourish. “I strongly believe that it is the duty of every officer of this great company to do all they can to ensure that we leave a legacy for generations to come.” He took his seat to total silence.

  Finally, Ivan stood up. “You have heard for yourself, ladies and gentlemen. If we leave Mr. Ortega at the helm of affairs, we will only shipwreck. Therefore, I move that we replace him as CEO of this company, with Mr. Monroe acting in his stead.”

  “Hold on a second.” Katerina’s authoritative voice filled the room. “I have a question for Mr. Monroe.”

  Ted stood up with an ingratiating smile. “Go ahead, please.”

  “How many children do you have, Mr. Monroe?”

  Ivan stood up. “I fail to see how this is relevant,” he said.

  “Shut up, Ivan,” Katerina said without so much as a glance at the man.

  Alex met Masha’s eyes across the table and read the shock in them. He saw a similar expression on their little sister’s face. Anna was still in college and had not shown any interest in the company, yet. They had hopes for her. But like every one of them, she adored Nico and could not stand Ivan.

  “Answer the question, Monroe,” Masha said, pinning him with a hard stare.

  “Ah, no. I haven’t had that honor,” Ted said.

  “I ran this business for several years after my husband died, God rest his soul. Now I have three of my children running this, and each of them have contributed to taking this business to heights their father could only have dreamed of. Do you understand what I’m saying, Mr. Monroe?”

  “N-not quite.” It was suddenly occurring to Ted Monroe that his little presentation might not have gone over as well as he’d thought it would.

  “What I’m saying, Mr. Monroe, if you had the intelligence to understand, is that these children of mine are my legacy. Now you are asking us to build a legacy by destroying the very foundation upon which this business was built—family.”

  “No, no…you misunderstand…”

  “Oh, I think she understands quite clearly.”

  All heads turned to the door and Alex grinned when he saw his brother standing there. He watched as Ted went white, his eyes darting towards the door as though searching for an escape.

  Alex stood up and walked towards his brother. He hugged him, whispering, “Thank God you’re safe.”

  He went to his regular seat and watched in satisfaction as Nico took the seat at the head of the table. He met Nico’s gaze and read the question in them. He nodded slowly. He had the plans. Now it was time to bury Ivan and his minion.

  Chapter Thirty-two

  Tamika stood outside the conference room and watched Nico through the glass. She drank in the sight of him, knowing it was the last time she would see him. She felt the wetness on her face and brushed it off impatiently.

  She had done what she’d set out to do. She had kept him safe and retrieved the plans. She watched as Alex brought out the original set of plans, pointing out the difference between what he was holding and what Ted had presented.

  With one final look, she turned and walked away. She felt an arm circle her waist and looked up through her tears to find Emily looking at her with concern.

  “What…?” She wanted to ask what the other woman was doing there, but could not get the words past the emotion that had suddenly clogged her vocal chords.

  “I was worried about you,” Emily said gently.

  Tamika read the concern in her eyes and sighed. She let the older woman walk her out of the building into the waiting car.

  “I see you managed to convince him to attend the meeting,” Emily noted.

  Tamika laughed shortly. “It wasn’t easy.” She’d tried reasoning with him and had ended up getting right in his face, yelling at him. She’d called him a coward and other names she did not even want to remember. She leaned her head against the seat and squeezed her eyes shut, seeing the scene as clearly as though she were watching it on HD.

  Nico had been angry. She’d never seen him so mad before. “If that�
��s how you feel, then I want you gone before I get back,” he’d said in a voice so cold, it had chilled her to her marrow.

  She had insisted on going with him to the office, though, claiming that her job was not done until she saw him back at the head of the conference table, where he belonged. He had walked in, leaving her standing outside the conference room, without sparing her a glance.

  She felt as though her heart was splintering in two. It hurt so much, she was not sure she would ever get over it.

  “You will get over it, you know,” Emily said, quietly.

  Tamika shook her head. “I don’t know, Emily. It hurts like hell.”

  The other woman was silent for several moments, and when she spoke again, her voice was sad. “When my daughter was taken, I was so angry. I took out my rage on everyone, including my ex-husband. I expected him to understand and be there for me, but he didn’t. He left.” She was quiet again, lost in thought.

  Tamika opened her eyes and stared at Emily. This was the first time she’d ever spoken to her about her daughter who had been kidnapped close to six years ago. She’d had a nervous breakdown followed by a divorce. That was all Tamika knew about what had happened. She also knew that Emily could not stand her ex-husband and she had never given up hope of finding her daughter.

  “Actually, I wondered how you were faring, being in New York?” she asked gently, knowing that Emily avoided New York at all cost because that was where her ex-husband lived.

  Emily smiled with a small shrug. “Eh, I can’t go on avoiding places because I might run into one man,” she said. “Anyway, what I’m trying to tell you is that I got over him. I didn’t think I would, but I did. And you will too. Someday.”

  Tamika nodded. The problem was, she was not sure she even wanted to get over Nico. She loved him with a fierceness that surprised her.

  “Thanks,” she said.

  “I just want to know one thing. Why are you leaving him?”

  She shot a questioning glance at Emily. “I don’t understand.”

  “It’s clear that you love him so much. And he was so good for you. I mean, he made you start laughing again!”