Page 130 of Bling

“Clearly. And what’s this bullshit about you leaving Solitaire?”

Garrett sighed. “I haven’t decided yet. But I don’t want to take something from Isabelle by virtue of her not wanting to see me, so I thought it would be better if I stay away for a while.”

“How noble of you.” Garrett heard the clacking of keys as Lance typed.

“I’m not seeing anything coming into your office. I don’t see any calls at that time.”

“Fuck. Of course. The call went to one of my security team’s cellphones.”

“So basically, you interrupted me for nothing,” Lance said.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Relax. I’m just messing with you. If you get me access to his phone, I can check and see if the call came from the same number.”

“He’s one of Russell’s guys if that helps.”

“Fuck yeah, it does. I wrote the encryption software for the phones he outfits his teams with. I’m hacking in and I’ll ask for his forgiveness later.”

Garrett didn’t care if he asked for forgiveness or not.

“Bingo,” Lance said a few minutes later. “Same damn number, man. I’m sorry I can’t trace it to an identity. I can tell you one thing, though. Whoever called was somewhere in a two-mile radius of the warehouse based on the cell towers they pinged.”

Garrett cursed. “Thanks, Lance. I’m sorry I interrupted your good time.”

Next, he called Regina. It was after four in the morning in Philadelphia, but he paid her well enough to be able to wake her on occasion.

“I need you to get the facility managers for all fourteen other fulfillment centers on the line by seven my time this morning. We’re shutting Colorado down temporarily and we’ll need to reroute orders and get tomorrow’s trucks out of here as soon as possible.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, I’m gonna need coffee and an explanation, Mr. Oliver. I’m not calling facility managers without knowing what I’m talking about,” Regina said.

“Get your coffee and call me back in thirty minutes.”

He ended the call and paced the room. How would he get a message to Maddox that it was time to end this?

By the time seven rolled around, he’d talked to Jax, his attorney, and the police again. His team spent the rest of the morning figuring out the redistribution plan while the Colorado facility was temporarily shut down.

When he was done, Jax was waiting for him at the warehouse.

“Do you know if this facility was having financial trouble before you bought it?” Jax asked when Garrett arrived.

He shook his head. “No. The fact that it was doing so well is one reason I purchased it.”

Jax nodded. “I had a feeling that would be the case. Tell me what you know about Grant Sterling.”

Garrett furrowed his brow. “Not a lot. He dated Elijah’s wife for a bit before they got together. Worked for her and Patrick’s dad before he went to jail. What does he have to do with any of this?”

Jax flipped through a notebook. “Possibly nothing, but I don’t exactly believe in coincidences.”

Garrett didn’t either.

“Eighteen months ago, Grant Sterling took Maxitech Solutions on as a client. His first after leaving the Sutton Jewelry company.”

Garrett clenched his fists. “Maxitech is the company that stole my contract with the Colorado State Government a few months back.”

“A few weeks ago, Eli brought me Grant’s card and said he found it in your office,” Jax said. “Asked me to dig into him because he just had an off feeling about him. Personally, I just thought it was because of the history Grant had with Holly, so I put it on the back burner while I finished up some other cases. Then his name came up while I was digging through your records, so I took him seriously.”

Garrett closed his eyes. “Three months ago is when Grant hit me up for business. I gave him a meeting but ultimately told him I was already working with enough PR specialists. I’m still not following, though, Jax.”

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