Page 35 of To Claim A King
I had also packed a little device in my pocket that could detect wireless transmitters and it wasn’t going off, so I was confident she wasn’t recording this conversation, as far as being confident in technology went.
Blowing out a slow breath, I did a quick assessment as she waited for my answer. Open posture, slight lean in, even breathing—all signs of a person with nothing to hide. Her hands fidgeted around the coffee mug, but I’d chalk that up to the nerves of the situation rather than her being a double agent. Gertie was many things, but she was no Kellan Carlos.
The truth then. That’s what we’d start with.
“I knew.” I dipped my head, acknowledging that secret for the first time to anyone but our motley crew. This was a serious risk, but a calculated one. To imply Alvarez had a motive to target Hillary in this mess, we needed Gertie, and I’d bet my left testicle she had what we needed to link the two. I just had to hope in all our interactions I’d read her right and my gamble would pay off.
Imploring her with my eyes, I continued. “My sister was one of his victims, Gert. I was working with some people to take him down because of it—and I’m happy to say it worked.”
The hand gripping her coffee mug went slack, dropping the cup and shattering it to smithereens against the Formica table edge. Hot liquid splashed down her blouse and into her lap, and she jumped up with a scream.
Well, so much for staying inconspicuous.
I jumped up too, dabbing carefully at her chest with the napkins on the table. “Let’s go to the restroom,” I suggested calmly, shooting a tight smile to the server watching us. “Get you cleaned up.”
Steering her toward the rear hallway, I scanned the other diners as we passed and noticed nothing out of place. No doubt Kell-Bell would be pissed at the change of plans, but it was a conman’s job to improvise. We’d be out in a jiff, anyway.
When we were safely behind the women’s restroom door, I locked it behind us, then spun around, my palms facing outward. “Not going to hurt you, Gert, just want to make sure you’re okay.”
Despite the coffee-soaked blouse and flustered face, she raised her eyebrows as if I were the crazy one. “I’m not worried about you raping me, Lauchlan. But I need to know what you meant.”
Right. I scrubbed the back of my neck with my good palm, trying to get the words out in a way that didn’t incriminate me, in case I was wrong about the wire.
“Okay, here’s the deal.” I searched her face with an open earnestness reserved only for occasions like this—where charm and false words wouldn’t get me anywhere with a woman, but a healthy dose of honesty might. “I may or may not know how the feds received a bunch of incriminating evidence on Alvarez, and I may or may not have had my own agenda for knowing such information.”
Speaking in riddles wasn’t exactlyhonest, I supposed, but it wasn’t dishonest.
“And, even though Alvarez is going to pay some very hard time for his crimes,eventually”—I emphasized that word, since the rich in America had a tendency to get away with just about anything—“he’s come after someone I care about, and I’m looking for information that’ll help prove it.”
Gertie screwed up her delicate face in thought, little lacy wrinkles scrunching everywhere. “And you think I have this information? Lauchlan, I didn’t even know about the sex stuff—do you know how stupid I feel? Working with him every day for years, and I didn’t have a clue!” She visibly shuddered. “I puked when I heard the news, and then puked more every time a new update came out. Ihelpedthat monster. I waspaidby him.”
She practically turned green at the gills as she said those words, reaching for the cheap vanity countertop for support. I gave her a moment to find her composure, keeping my mouth shut for once. Finally, her eyes met mine again, shiny and determined. “Who else has he targeted, and how can I help?”
“Hillary Lane.” I drew closer as she turned on the hot water faucet, presumably to take out the stain. “Ugly threats, some vicious stuff. She has no idea what she did for him to hate her this much—it seems much more personal than a bit of business rivalry. Any thoughts?”
She stared through the mirror at me for a long time. Finally, her lips moved, with what I was hoping was incriminating evidence.
“Marco and Xander Analo—they both lost out on a major contract years ago when Ms. Lane was just getting her business off the ground.”
Xander Analo—the git Marco hired me out to for several weeks to test their security systems. The man had seriously rubbed me the wrong way—another stuffy man in a stuffy suit who’d insisted I call him “sir.” What a turd. Was no one not an arsehole in this fecking town?
Gertie must have mistaken my expression for disbelief of her story instead of disbelief of the sheer number of sorry sacks of shyte around here, because she hurried to continue.
“I only remember because I was in the meeting taking notes, and Mr. Analo went on a tangent about blond bimbos taking work away from competent men, or something equally dumb. Mr. Alvarez agreed, and they’d casually made death threat jokes about her, which I didn’t find funny at all. The next time they met, I wasn’t invited, but I’d accidentally left my Dictaphone inside his office, and it recorded the entire conversation.”
My heart pounded in my ears as the rush of adrenaline spiked my blood like a smashing hit of a party drug. “What did the recording say?”
“They discussed tanking her company by illegally buying up stock to drive the value up and then dumping them back into the market. They wanted to ruin her financially. As far as I know, it didn’t happen, but I’ll admit, I’m not really knowledgeable about that kind of thing.”
Okay, so white-collar crime wasn’t the best ticket, but a recording of that sort would prove his motives—especially for what we had planned in a few days' time. I watched her carefully through the mirror, but she wasn’t showing a single sign of dishonest body language. Just my pure, sweet friend.
She gave me a weak smile through the reflection, still fiddling with the ruined silk of her blouse. “They also said a bunch of sexist, hateful comments about womenthat made me look for another job the next day. But the pay was really good and my student loans are through the roof, so… I ended up staying and turned a blind eye. Chauvinistic men are par for the course in this kind of work, you know? I should have listened to my intuition. If I had known…”
Her voice broke with a cracked sob, covering her face with her palms. I rushed to her, wrapping my good arm around her shoulder to bring her in for a soothing hug.
“It’s okay, Gert. You didn’t know. He fooled everyone.” I smoothed a hand over her hair and pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head. “You can help us make this right though, Gert. Hillary Lane is as innocent in this as those girls he was messing with.” Okay—just a wee lie on my part. “Please tell me you still have the tape. Some record somewhere. I need hard evidence that he’s after her, whatever the reason. You can help us make this right,” I repeated, squeezing her just a bit tighter to my chest before letting her go.
She gulped a few lungfuls of air and wiped at her watery eyes before looking up at me again. Steel entered her stare, and the Gertie with a backbone rose to the surface like Jaws ready to get revenge on that teeny tiny fishing boat.
