Page 59 of Philly
She scanned the rock for another foothold, marveling at what a good storyteller Gabriel was. They’d planned the conversation, but the way it rolled off his tongue impressed her. She had interrogations down to a T, but if she’d been in Gabriel’sposition, she’d sound like a robot. She was not made for undercover work.
She took her time adjusting her hold, hoping to hear Joe’s response. Always eager to please, he didn’t keep Gabriel waiting.
“No,” he said on a laugh. “We tried, I don’t know, maybe five or six years ago. Dad thought it would be a coup to get the contract since we buy some of our textiles from them. Something happened, though, and we backed out. I think maybe the contracting officer we were working with had a family member who was also bidding and…”
Callie glanced down to see Joe staring up at her, although he wasn’t really looking at her, but rather trying to remember what happened.
“The officer might have asked for a bribe or something,” he continued. “Don’t go quoting me on that because I’m not sure. But whateverdidhappen, my dad thought it was too fishy to move ahead, so we backed out.”
Aiden didn’t strike her as the kind of man to back out of a deal without good reason, and a little bribe wasn’t a good enough reason. She frowned as she pondered that thought. Whatwouldbe a good reason for Aiden to back out of a deal?
“You all good?” the guide called down from the ledge she was climbing to.
“Yes, sorry, just enjoying the warmth of the sun,” she lied as she wedged her foot into a toehold and boosted herself up. Deciding she’d be better off scurrying up to the top andthenthinking about that question, she focused on the last fifteen feet of the climb.
The guide gave her a nod and a high five when she pulled herself over the ledge. With an overhang four feet above them, it wasn’t tall enough to stand, so she turned and scooted back, resting her back against the stone as the staff prepared to guidethe next person up—either Joe or Gabriel, she wasn’t sure who’d come first.
Closing her eyes and enjoying the muted autumn sun, she returned to her question. What would make Aiden stop a deal? The most obvious answer was if it didn’t make financial sense. A possibility if they exported the material from Thailand, had uniforms made somewhere else, then imported them back in country. But while a legit concern, she doubted Nolan Enterprises would have even started the conversation with the Thai government if they didn’t think the profit margin would be worth it. Unless, of course, they’d factored in taking a loss in Thailand as the price of getting into the market of supplying uniforms to militaries in Asia. She made a note to herself to ask Sabina about Nolan’s business dealings with Asian governments.
With one possibility on her mental list, she considered whether there were others. The one that kept floating to the surface, like a rotten egg, was Aiden himself. He was the type of man who would protect himself at the cost of everything else—as evidenced by his easy acceptance of Rian’s apparent murder of Laura. Maybe there was something in that deal that posed a threat?
Joe’s head popped up over the ledge, and he grinned at her. He’d mentioned that an official might have solicited a bribe from his father. Maybe it had been intentional. Maybe the government had been testing him or trying to get him to incriminate himself. If Aiden got wind of that, he’d pull out of the deal. And he’d look good doing it, appearing as if his hands were so clean he’d rather not do a deal than pay a bribe.
She nodded to herself. The scenario made sense. Whether the Thai anti-corruption authorities were sophisticated enough to run that kind of operation, she’d have to ask Sabina.
“How’d it go?” Joe asked, rolling to a seat beside her.
She smiled. “I’m a bit rusty, but it’s like riding a bike. It’s coming back.”
They chatted and in a few minutes, Gabriel joined them. There was no more talk of Thailand or business as one by one they made their way up the side of the mountain that grew progressively harder the higher they climbed. But when they reached their destination, the effort was worth it. Standing on a small plateau, she felt on top of the world. A ridiculous thought, of course, but with the mountain peaks surrounding them and the deep canyons carved into the stone, snaking across the landscape like twisted branches, it felt that way.
“I’d forgotten how much I like to climb,” Gabriel said, coming to stand beside her, his gaze fixed on the view.
“It is pretty special to see a place like this,” she replied before turning her attention back to the vast horizon. They didn’t speak anymore. There were no selfies or texts or idle chat. Instead, they remained in silence, appreciating the gift they’d been given to see this part of the world, to experience it with so many of their senses, until the guides called for them to prepare for the descent.
“You ready?” Gabriel asked, his fingers lightly brushing her back as she passed by him on her way to the downward route—a different path than the one they’d taken up.
“I wish we could stay longer, but I wouldn’t want to go down much later. It’s beautiful now, but I suspect staying the night up here would require a heartier constitution than I have.”
He chuckled, low and close to her ear. “You never did like camping. You never shied away from a long hike or getting dirty, but you drew the line at sleeping in a tent.”
“It’s not the tent that’s the problem, it’s the ground. I have no interest in sleeping on the ground. And I hate sleeping bags, too.”
“Ugh, so do I,” Joe said, joining them. “I can’t move my legs, and they’re suffocating.”
She laughed. “I know, right? And yet they still somehow get twisted around your feet.”
“The physics make no sense, but I’m with you 100 percent,” Joe agreed with a grin.
Gabriel shook his head. “You two are sad.”
“Says the man who freaks out at a little dust,” Callie shot back.
“If you had dust in the places I had dust, you’d feel the same.”
“I have to give him that,” Joe chimed in.
“But he can make fun of us for not liking to sleep in sleeping bags?” she countered.
