Page 44 of Philly
She bobbed her head. “If she knew enough to suspect them, she would have included that information. That doesn’t mean she saw the whole picture, though.”
“So there’s a possibility of someone else being involved. Someone she might not have discovered before she died?” She nodded. “Okay, what’s the second thing?”
“What Rian told you about Laura overhearing Aiden talking about the bombing,” she replied. “He could have said a lot of things to convince you to help her disappear, but incriminating his father seems like a detail he wouldn’t make up. If he lied to you, it would be more likely for him to claim it was the CFO or some other unrelated member of senior management. Or another situation altogether, one not so close to the truth.”
“Why implicate his father if there wasn’t some truth to it?”
Again, she nodded. “Not concrete, and in some ways, conflicts with how I’m otherwise approaching the puzzle—why would I accept Rian implicating his father when I won’t yet accept the rest of what you told me about him? But…”
“That’s where your gut comes in?”
“For what it’s worth, yes. I don’t think he was lying about his father.”
“And what about tracing the money? The bombing was four years ago. You went through fifteen years of data. Did you figure out where the rest of the money went?”
“Leo is working on that. I’m good with spreadsheets and finding anomalies and figuring out patterns in how illicit funds are moving around, but he’smuchbetter at the account-level cyber tracking aspect. I can do it, but he’s better. A lot better.”
Slowly, he bobbed his head. “Okay, so in summary, Nolan Enterprises has been fraudulently siphoning money away from the company to fund one, possibly more, terrorist groups. Or to pay bribes or kickbacks. Either way, it’s done for the purpose of winning government contracts. And while I think Aiden is the sole person behind it, you need to look at the entire family, including Rian and Joseph.”
“I know you wish it were otherwise, but yes, I do.”
He waved off her concern. “I get it. It’s not worth getting hung up about because I know, in the end, Rian will be cleared. Likely, Joseph, too. And whatever evidence you and HICC find will only strengthen your case against Aiden.” He paused, then met her gaze. Something in his expression had her heart hitching. “Now we need to talk about this extreme sports getaway you’re planning on taking.”
“I’m going, Gabriel. It’s a unique opportunity to get close to someone in the family. Rian barely spoke to me when I confronted him in DC. Now that he knows—and likely his family, too—that I’m looking into the bombing, he’s unlikely to extend the same courtesy next time. I can work with HICC to get a warrant to allow law enforcement to kick off an open—rather than secret—investigation, but we have proof that the Nolans have been doing this for fifteen years. They’ll be experts at burying evidence. We can’t go at them with a truncheon. We need to be more subtle than that.”
“I know,” he said when she finished. “And I agree.” She drew back at his capitulation. “But you’re not going alone, Callie. I’m going with you.”
25
Twin lines appeared between Callie’s brows as they dropped, and her head tipped to the side in question. Yeah, he might not have thought that pronouncement through before making it, but he wasn’t about to withdraw it.
When she first relayed her plan, he’d swear an invisible, brawny caveman sucker punched him. He’d barely kept a loud—and possibly inappropriate—“NO”from exploding from his lungs. Everything inside him rebelled against the idea of her being in physical proximity to anyone in the Nolan family—other than Rian. In the silence that followed her announcement, he considered spiriting her off somewhere and locking her up. Or telling her absolutely not. Andthenspiriting her off somewhere safe.
She was a grown woman capable of making her own choices, and yet all his protective instincts had roared to the surface. Despite the fact that she was atrained(former) special agent. Despite the fact that he had no right, in any way, to be a part of her decision-making.
Having some sense of self-preservation, though, he wrestled with the caveman and managed to subdue him until his tempercooled. And as Callie walked him through her findings, he realized something. Something important. He’d well and truly forgiven her.
Sure, he’d told Mantis he had. But as she talked, as the specter of her traveling alone and confronting Joseph lingered between them, any remaining doubts or thin threads of anger or resentment or hurt faded away like mist on a warm morning. What was left behind, he couldn’t define or identify, but he wanted her to be safe. To stay safe.
Which was why he announced that he’d go with her.
“You’re coming with me?” she asked, her head still cocked. She’d worn her hair down, and a curtain of black fell over her shoulder.
“I am.”
“You are what?” Sabina Warwick asked as she walked into Callie’s office. Sabina looked about as scary as a woodland nymph, but everyone knew not to mess with the cyber genius. She’d make people’s bank accounts disappear for the fun of it. To be fair, hehadpranked her at the recent Halloween party, and shehadreturned it the next day, but the heart attack he’d had when he’d seen his zero balance was a lesson he didn’t need to learn again.
“Hey, Sabina,” he said, eyeing her.
She grinned and winked at him. “I see you’re still grumpy.”
“Your reaction was a little overblown. I surprised you with a bucket full of orange glitter. Normal people escalate to a glitter bomb in my house or car. They donotmake my life savings disappear.”
She shrugged and took a seat. “I’m not most people. And I put it back less than twelve hours later.”
Callie flashed him a questioning look. He shook his head and muttered, “Later.”
“I come bearing gifts,” Sabina said.
