Page 89 of Vicious Souls

I toss the card across the room, a scream bubbling up my throat and threatening to roll free. I pick up my phone and send a text to Dante. Our safe word. That’s all he needs to know that I am in trouble.

76

DANTE

“Motherfucker!” I curse, as I read the card a third time, then toss it on the desk. I dial Claymore’s number and wait, holding King in my arms. She’s beside herself. She knows just how unhinged Tate has become, and now in his desperation, there’s no telling what he might do. He’s capable of just about anything.

“It’s someone in your camp,” Claymore says.

“You vetted everyone,” I argue with him.

“Yes, we did,” Stella confirms. “But there’s always the danger that we missed something. Or someone has been paid off. People can easily be bought and sold these days, you know this.”

She stands by Claymore’s side, adding her observations when required. And she’s quite good at it, too.

“I thought this was why we paid everyone top dollar and made them sign NDAs?” I point out.

“Any idea who the leak could be?” Claymore asks, ignoring my question. He has a point; no use looking at what we have done compared to now looking for who the traitor is before they do more damage.

King moves away from me, a nauseated look on her face. It makes me sick to my bones to feel her pain and be helpless to do anything about it.

“Fiona,” she whispers. “Fiona.”

“Your PA?”

Claymore and Stella shoot each other a look that is hard to decipher. PAs usually have more access than anyone else in an employer’s camp.

“She’s been acting weird. And when I asked who sent the flowers, she was incredibly defiant. She was just acting strange. And she kept looking at my ring.” She twists the ring around her finger and looks at it with pain on her face.

“Well, it is a beautiful ring,” Stella points out, and King shakes her head.

“She didn’t look at it with admiration. More like resentment.”

“It’s important that you don’t let on that you suspect her of anything,” Clay says, his face coming back to the screen. “We’ll do some more digging on our end then get back to you within a couple of hours. Dante, I’m going to double your security, and I suggest that you and King don’t leave the building unless absolutely necessary.”

* * *

I don’t knowhow someone disappears without a trace.

Well, I do know, but to be in that position, you’d have to have alot more resources than being a PA. You need people in high places. Someone that walks on the dark side. Or someone who wants to make you disappear.

The day the roses arrived, Fiona disappeared even before I could make it across the road to Kingsley’s office. Her phone goes straight to voicemail when we call her, and it’s obvious that she doesn’t want to be found. Her disappearance is so quick and so unexpected, it soon becomes evident that she is the leak in the organisation. I don’t know how much she was paid to throw Kingsley off her game, but I can guarantee that once I catch up with her, she won’t get the chance to spend that money where she’s going.

Marco has been to her house, which apparently is empty and looks like it hasn’t been lived in for months. He tells me there is a pile of mail that has been left under the door. Eviction notices. Overdue bills. We aren’t even sure anymore that this is the same Fiona that has held a job as Kingsley’s PA for the past two months. Stella is still digging to see what she can find, not that I think it will make any difference.

I've been sitting on a knife’s-edge ever since Kingsley received the roses. I’m trying to stay as calm as possible for Kingsley’s sake, but I can feel the hard tension in the set of my face when she wakes in the middle of the night to find me sitting in the dark nursing a drink. My face must say it all. It tells her everything she needs to know as I watch over her quietly; Fiona has provided us with an unknown variable we just don’t know how to deal with.

I haven't left her side for a minute; the only time I do is when I cross the street to my own office for a meeting I can’t avoid. At all other times, I'm at her side, with extra security stationed at the entry of the building and scattered around several levels of the building. I'm leaving nothing to chance.

“You can’t keep doing this,” she says, as I enter her office.

“Doing what?” I ask.

“Putting your life and work on hold to babysit me. There’s plenty of security here, Dante.”

I purse my lips, give her a dark look and fold one hand across my chest as though to steady myself.

“I wouldn’t call it babysitting, King.”

---