Ultimate Courage (True Heroes Book 2) (22 page)

The mix of anger and fear churned her stomach. Part of her wanted to stand up for herself and the other wanted to beg him to realize he’d been misled. And, honestly, she had a right to both emotions at the moment. She embraced that at least and figured she’d untangle the whole mess once she talked to him. It could fix things or they might be broken past mending, but at the very least, with Alex she wanted understanding.

“I don’t think you’re done with dessert yet.” Julie took another spoonful. “Or at least I’m not. Is this any way to treat a friend who’s flown across the country to find you?”

Elisa glared at her. “I don’t even understand you. But let’s get this clear. We are not friends.”

“No need to find the waiter, dear.” A voice come from over her shoulder, and her heart stopped. “I’ve already taken care of the bill. You can have another bite of dessert, but then we have to be going.”

Elisa turned in her chair but the newcomer was standing so close, she couldn’t rise without stepping right into him. “Joseph.”

R
ojas wasn’t even sure how many turns he’d taken down the side streets leading away from New Hope’s main street. He’d barely had the presence of mind when he’d gotten clear of the crowded café to turn left and head away from River Road. That was where most of the evening’s foot traffic was and that was exactly where he didn’t want to be.

God, he was so angry. It’d taken several blocks before he could think at all.

Elisa should really go back to where she belongs.

Maybe Julie, whoever she was, was right. He’d known Elisa for all of a week. Okay, a week and a day. They’d never run a background check on her, only taken her at her word. She’d played them all for suckers. Played him. The others only followed his lead.

As he walked, Souze kept pace. The big dog had liked Elisa, though, and Boom would be heartbroken when Rojas returned to tell her she couldn’t spend time with Elisa anymore. It’d rip him up to hurt Boom, but he absolutely would not expose her to another adult abusing drugs or indulging in any destructive addiction. Boom had lost her mother. She didn’t need to start caring about another woman who’d progressively destroy herself.

Elisa’s face rose up in his memory, the look of hurt in her eyes when she realized he didn’t believe her.

He drew a hard line with addiction. He wouldn’t, couldn’t get sucked into another life and expose Boom to it all again. He’d have to talk to Forte. Find a new administrative assistant and maybe help Elisa get a new job, assuming she didn’t leave town. Her friend had come to help her pack, after all.

Something about his line of thought bugged him, though. He was pissed, too angry to run through it again for another couple of minutes. And then he came to a stop and cursed.

Forte would hate having to get a new admin assistant. And whoever it was would need to figure out Elisa’s organizational system and the spreadsheets she’d set up. They’d need the computer skills to keep up the newsletters and update the websites. In the space of a week, Elisa had overhauled the way Hope’s Crossing Kennels did business, for the better. The clients loved the new check-in process and were relieved not to have to fill out the same forms by hand every time they came to a class. It was seriously possible they were getting more return clients because Elisa had made checking in so much easier. She’d changed the kennels.

And if she had proven herself and those skills, didn’t that indicate a certain level of honesty? Integrity?

His phone buzzed in his pocket and he answered without looking to see who the caller was. “Elisa?”

“No, man.” Cruz’s voice came through the phone. “Isn’t she with you?”

Rojas swallowed another curse. “Long story. What did you need?”

“I got information back on the agency behind the private investigator you spooked last week and those two out-of-town cops.” Cruz was tense, worried. “The agency specializes in discreet services. High-level executives contract with the agency and the agency hires the actual resources to go and carry out the dirty work. If anything backfires, there’s a degree of separation so the executives can keep their hands clean. Plausible deniability or some shit.”

“Sounds in line with what Elisa told us about her ex.” Rojas considered his own words. Elisa hadn’t done or said anything yet to deserve having her word questioned.

“Yeah well, you didn’t exactly make great friends with those two officers. I’d be more worried about them than the PI. For the PI it wasn’t anything personal. He took his contract money and went on his way. He was local staffing and has plenty of business chasing adulterous spouses.” Cruz sounded disgusted. “The officers, though, we’ve got positive ID on them based on the security feed from Revolution MMA. They’re out of Richmond, Virginia, and were off-duty on vacation when they happened to stop by.”

“Long way out of their way for a visit.” Rojas didn’t like the sound of it.

“Yeah, Ky didn’t like it, either. He’s going to take it internal.” Cruz didn’t sound sad about it.

“As long as they don’t come back, I’m okay with that.” Rojas had plenty to worry about as it was. “What else is on your mind?”

Because Cruz hated talking on the phone as much as he did and his friend was lingering.

“This is a shit-ton of effort and resources to track down one woman.” Cruz let the air out of his lungs in a
whoosh
. “This is beyond early stalker behavior. He doesn’t just want to keep tabs on her. It’s escalating in an insanely short period of time and all signs point to him wanting to have her back in his hands ASAP.”

A cold knot started to gather in Rojas’s stomach. “Is there more information?”

“I did some digging and called in a favor or two. This guy is a textbook narcissist. I’d bet megalomania isn’t far off the mark, either. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and it shows in his business.” Cruz’s voice turned grim. “Corbin Systems contracts services to several private military organizations. Everything on the record is too clean to believe.”

Meaning there had to be shady shit going on behind the scenes, just as Elisa had told them. Rojas didn’t like where this was going.

Cruz continued, “The CIO himself has been on a couple of discreet news releases as heading up a massive two-year project on some new weapons system design and integration. So there’s Elisa’s story confirmed. But here’s the catch. Phase one of the project just completed, and he is on the brink of closing a huge deal for phase two. It’s enough to take up the time of five heavy-hitting project managers. Why is this guy splitting his focus between the project and Elisa?”

A good question. “She’s an obsession.”

He could sort of relate to that. He’d thought of little besides Elisa since the night he’d met her, Boom being the number one exception.

“True. But why not be satisfied with knowing exactly where she is and what she’s doing? Why not be satisfied with occasionally messing up her head with the texts? Why escalate right now when focus is needed on this huge business deal?” Cruz’s questions all hit hard.

“He needs her. In person.”

“Didn’t Elisa say he took her everywhere with him? And she’s his biometric key, right?”

“Yes.” Rojas barely choked out the affirmative.

“This guy has high security at almost all of his facilities. The research and development plants all require fingerprint and retinal scan.” Cruz picked up momentum. “If you wanted to breach any of those security systems, who is the first person you’d grab?”

“Him.” Easy choice. The man probably had access to everything.

“Uh-uh.” Cruz was starting to sound very worried. “He hasn’t taken a tour of the facilities in six months or more. It’s mentioned in the a few speculative articles regarding the upcoming deal.”

Six months. Because Joseph Corbin Junior couldn’t access his own facilities. Elisa wasn’t with him. It was her fingerprint and retinal scan that were required.

“No.” Rojas shook his head, searching for holes in the theory. “They’re his companies. He could have the systems re-keyed. There’s always a password reset, even for biometrics.”

“For access to the facilities, yes.” Cruz shot back, ready for the challenge. “But he’s been able to keep tabs on her all this time. He knew where to find his key when he really needed it. But what if his pride and his obsession push him to go get his property, especially with phase two of his particular pet project about to be finalized?”

“Shit.” Cold spread through Rojas’s chest and out toward his limbs. “And this time it’s different. He’s losing control of her. He doesn’t know where she is all the time.”

“He’s on a time crunch now,” Cruz finished.

Her friend had walked in and pushed a button for him. And he’d completely gone ballistic. But it was too damned convenient for the woman to have found them away from Hope’s Crossing Kennels, in a restaurant in a completely different town.

He turned on his heel and started back, cursing himself as he went. Souze kept with him watchful in response to the sudden urgency. “Get a hold of Ky. I think there’s a problem. Tell him to head to New Hope.”

“You need me and Forte?”

“Stand by,” Rojas responded. “I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on Boom for me.”

“Always.”

Rojas ended the call and started running back to the café.

Joseph leaned in, grabbed Elisa’s arm just above the elbow, and whispered in her ear. “Continue to make a scene and I will be forced to create a distraction. A horrible accident, perhaps. It would be terrible for business if a random driver were to lose control of their car and drive directly into the dining room. People could be hurt. The business would have difficulty recovering. You would be responsible.”

His lips brushed the shell of her ear as he spoke, and she trembled. He’d do it. She wouldn’t doubt him there. And he probably had a driver waiting outside because in all the time she’d been with him, he’d always had a driver and a backup mode of transportation ready in case something happened to the primary. Flat tires, bad traffic—Joseph had always been prepared to do what it took to get where he was going.

Julie watched, unconcerned and even gleefully interested, as she continued to gobble up Elisa’s mousse trio. “This is really good, by the way. You sure you aren’t going to take your last bite?”

Elisa spread her free hand over the phone on the table, the one Alex had given her. She dragged it off the surface, trying to hide it with as much of her palm as possible and trying to make it look like she was just her putting her hand into her lap. Julie might’ve seen her phone on the table earlier but her “friend” had been very focused on pissing off Alex. Hopefully, Elisa would have a chance to get a message out.

“What do you get out of this, Julie?” Probably not anything Elisa needed to know, but she wanted to.

Joseph’s fingers dug into her arm. “I said not to continue making a scene.”

Elisa closed her mouth and carefully smoothed the expression from her face. She’d only set the phone to a swipe to get past the screen lock in case she needed quick access. Under-the-table texting wasn’t something she’d ever been good at and she only hoped the message would go through.

The pressure on her arm ceased. “Excellent. You look lovely this evening in a simple sort of way. Wear a darker lipstick in the future and put more effort into your hairstyle. I prefer up-dos at dinner, even at…casual establishments like these. I’ve missed you.”

A scream was crawling its way up her throat, so she took a sip of water. Joseph watched her patiently, or with what passed for patience with him. It was the anticipation of a snake, waiting until a moment of inattention. Then he’d strike out at her and she’d have no time to avoid him. She wasn’t sure why he hadn’t moved to leave yet, then she remembered. He’d given her permission to take one more bite of dessert.

Hand shaking, she lifted her spoon and scooped up a small bit of chocolate mousse Julie hadn’t devoured. She brought the spoon to her lips and ate, trying not to gag.

The corners of Joseph’s mouth turned upward. “Good girl. Let’s go now.”

He didn’t let go of her arm as she rose, and to anyone else’s eye, he was helping to steady her. Having him touch her again made her skin crawl. He was always one step ahead of her and she’d learned already that making a scene would only result in awful things later. Unless she was absolutely sure she could get away, she had to do things as he told her. Had to.

Her thoughts started to scramble and she struggled to catch someone’s eye, anyone. As they turned to head through the café’s main dining room to the entrance, he held her back for a moment and took her phone from her hand.

“It would be unfortunate if the authorities were to attempt to track this phone via the GPS locator.” He glanced at the screen, pulling up the call log, and Elisa’s heart froze. There were no recent calls, none made in the last half hour or more. With a satisfied huff, he tossed it back toward the table and it hit a chair before tumbling to the floor. “I’ll give you a new one.”

She didn’t dare glance after the phone he’d taken away. It was another one of his tests. It would be a mistake to focus on anything but what he was providing for her. He’d find a way to hurt her for anything less than the perfect response. So, instead, she met his gaze steadily. “Thank you.”

He smiled his faint, reptilian smile again.

It was the perfect billionaire boyfriend smile. Where less was more: only the upturned corners of the mouth and perhaps a hint of teeth if a woman was lucky. She’d found herself eager to do something to make him smile in the past. Trying so very hard for such a small amount of good humor. She hadn’t known it was all he had in him.

He ushered her out of the café and down to the sidewalk. She tried to look up and down the street without turning her head too much. Make it too obvious and he’d tighten his control on her somehow, and she wanted him to think he had her. He hadn’t checked the text history, hadn’t seen her call for help. She might have a chance.

Please, Alex, please be right on the street somewhere.

She’d been hoping Alex and Souze weren’t far. He’d said to text him when she was ready to go back, so he hadn’t intended to leave her behind completely, regardless of how angry he was. But there was no sign of him.

Despair crashed down on her, and her vision blurred as tears threatened.

“No need to be frustrated, dear.” Joseph leaned in to murmur in her ear again. “Our driver had to go some blocks away to park. He’ll join us shortly. You won’t be waiting long.”

“I parked around the corner.” Julie flipped her curls over her shoulder. “I’ll meet you at the airport.”

Joseph nodded. “Your flight information will be sent to your phone.”

Julie batted her lashes. “I thought I was riding in the private jet with you.”

“Speed is not a concern in your return home.” Joseph’s tone was dismissive. Of course. He was done with her. “You can take a commercial flight.”

“That’s fucking ridiculous.” Julie’s face twisted in anger. “I did everything you asked me to and you’re going to ditch me on the way back to DC?”