Page 52 of Forged in Secrets

Donald was silent on the other end of the line.

“Well, that was quick,” he muttered after a moment.

“You didn’t mention Senera, did you?” Craig asked.

“Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“No, I don’t,” Craig replied. “We have nothing to worry about. It’s common knowledge that you mentored me and that we’ve remained friends.”

“It’s hardly the mere fact of our friendship that threatens the future of my company!” Donald snapped again.

Craig could picture him pacing around the lobby of some hotel in Shanghai, dabbing at his brow with a handkerchief like a Xanax-popping businessman in a movie. Despite his guilt about orchestrating Katie’s kidnapping, he was quickly losing patience with the older man.

“We made sure that there’s nothing to find, Donald. You know that. Even if someone looked at AveroTech’s financials, all they’d find is typical intercorporate investment. There’s no way to prove you knew anything you shouldn’t have. And why would anyone look, anyway? They’re worried about finding your daughter, not about your company’s finances.”

Every mention of Katie made Craig’s heart ache.

“I’m sorry,” Donald said after a moment, sounding a little more in control of himself. “I’m not sleeping well. I miss Katie. I just want her home.”

“Any father would. But you know she’d want you to be focused on nailing this deal. Think of her future.”

Craig swallowed, hating the words that were coming out. He wanted to find a way that Katie Fairman got to go home, but he didn’t dare promise anything.

He felt like bursting into laughter at the absurdity of it all. He could abduct his friend’s daughter, but lying to him seemed to be beyond the pale.

“You’re right, of course,” Donald sighed into the phone. “I hired the best to find her. Right now, my company needs me to get it together.”

“That’s the spirit.”

Craig let Donald chat for another minute or two before he said his goodbyes, peering out the boat’s window again at the now dark sky.

He sighed to himself. For the moment, the chaos was contained, but deep down he felt just as panicked as Donald sounded. There were too many moving pieces, too many gears that had to fit exactly into place. All it would take was a single screw up, and his life would be over.

The door to his cabin swung open behind him without so much as a knock, and his daughter slipped into the room.

“Hi, Jade,” he said flatly, knowing that she had probably been listening at his door for the entire phone call. He wasn’t in the mood for a fight with her, but he couldn’t blame her entirely for butting in.

Her life was on the line, too.

“He needs to chill,” she said, gesturing to the phoneCraig still gripped in his hand. “He’s gonna give himself an ulcer or whatever.”

“Had you gotten a rental boat like I told you to instead of using the Lumeneer II to get here, the security team might have never thought to look into Lumen at all,” he pointed out.

“I’ll be more careful next time.”

“It’s a little late for that,” he said. “The damage has been done. All we can do is hope that they don’t start digging too deeply.”

“But I thought there was no way anyone could prove anything?” his daughter's voice had taken on the whiny tone he hated.

“Letting Donald freak out will make things worse for everyone,” he snapped. “How I feel about your screwup is irrelevant.”

Instead of backing away at the harshness of his tone, she took a couple steps closer to him, her dark brown eyes filled with warning.

As he so often did, he marveled that Jade was her mother’s daughter.

They looked almost identical–the same smooth brown skin, the same black hair, the same teasing smile–but that was where the similarities ended.

His wife had been gentle. Jade was as dangerous as a midnight storm at sea.

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