Page 33 of Philly
Disappointment, hot and swift, lanced through Callie at his passive refusal to agree. “Like I told you, she had a lead,” she replied, sharper than she intended. “A lead she was convincedwould provide her the information she needed to put the puzzle together. It cost her her life.”
“Luring her there,” Gabriel said quietly, repeating what they’d talked about the night before, but this time, more contemplative than clarifying.
“I think so, yes,” Callie said, softening her voice. Not hard to do when she thought about her friend.
She remained silent, letting him make his choices. How much to tell her, what to tell her.
Finally, he sat back in his chair and sighed. “Despite what the transactions are telling you, it’s Aiden, the father, you need to look at. Not Rian.”
Leo cocked his head.
“Why?” she asked. She wasn’t sure she bought his pronouncement, but she wanted him talking.
He met her eyes again. “Normally, I’d agree with your assessment about the character of a man in Rian’s situation. But you have one thing wrong. Rian never laid a hand on Laura. The two are very much in love. He sent her away to protect her.”
18
As the words left Philly’s mouth, he planned his next move. Once alone, he’d contact Rian. If he could get HICC and Callie, which apparently were now one and the same, on the right track, it might be what Rian needed to bring his father down. And Laura back into his life.
“What?” Callie asked, her dark eyes steady on his.
He let out a breath. “A little over two and a half years ago, Laura overhead Aiden Nolan talking on the phone with someone. The bombing was mentioned, as well as a planned event in Canada—one not as dramatic as the Paris bombing, but enough to shake things up, make the government nervous. Convince them to invest in bolstering their police forces.
“The first thing she did was turn to her husband. The two are very close. Have been since they were kids.” Of its own accord, his gaze flickered to Callie. The errant thought of what they could have been if their pasts had been different flittered through his head.
“She told Rian everything,” he continued. “It turned out he wasn’t as surprised as she thought he’d be. He already had his own suspicions. The problem now was, though, how to provethem and keep Laura safe as it became clear over the next few months that Aiden suspected Laura knew something.”
“They concocted a plan to have her disappear?” Callie asked.
Philly bobbed his head. “It’s a little more complicated than that. They decided that the best way to get evidence against Aiden was for Rian to hint that he was as morally compromised as his father.”
“Go undercover in his own company?” Leo said.
Philly nodded. “To make a long story short, Rian agreed with his father to ‘take care of Laura’ as some sort of sick rite of passage.”
“But instead of killing her, he had you and the club take her somewhere safe?” Leo asked, catching on.
Philly nodded. “As far as Aiden is concerned, her body is deep in a lake in upstate New York.”
“Where is she actually?” Callie asked.
He slid her a look and raised his eyebrow. She shrugged. He couldn’t blame her for wanting to know, for wanting to hear the story firsthand. But he wasn’t going to give up Laura’s location.
“She’s safe. And Rian has been working to collect evidence against his father since then,” he said.
“It’s been over two years. He isn’t doing a very good job,” Callie said.
Philly shot her a flat look. “Have you ever run a multinational company while trying to collect evidence against your father, who is also a controlling and suspicious bastard? Keep in mind, Nolan Enterprises employs thirty thousand people. Rian doesn’t want their lives blown up because of his father, so heistrying to run a legitimate business in addition to sneaking around his father.”
“Or, he really is part of it, and while he needed Laura out of the way, he couldn’t bring himself to kill her. Convincing her that he’s doing his best to bring Aiden down but that she needsto stay out of the way seems like a win-win to me if he’s a part of it,” she said.
He barked out a laugh, then schooled his features when she arched a brow at him. His rational side understood how she could see that angle. He even admired how her mind continued to question, poke holes, and, in truth, build a case. She was wrong, but they’d have to prove that rather than rely on his statement alone.
Turning to Leo, he spoke. “Can you find out if these transactions are scheduled or manual?”
Leo hesitated, then nodded. “I can do that first thing in the morning. It shouldn’t take long.”
“Can we meet back here, maybe around ten, to go over it?” he asked. Again, Leo nodded. “Once we’ve done that, we can talk about reaching out to Rian. I’ve stayed out of whatever he’s doing, but if we can combine forces, we might finally bring Aiden Nolan downandLiza’s killer to justice.” The bombers had been brought to justice—they currently sat in a French prison somewhere—but they hadn’t been the only parties responsible. Those who’d funded the attack needed to be brought into the light. Held accountable.
