Читать книгу Living On The Edge - Сьюзен Мэллери, Susan Mallery - Страница 7

Tanner held in a groan. He had neither the time nor the patience to deal with a drama queen right now. He wanted Madison Hilliard out of his life so he could focus on what was important. Dammit all to hell, what was it about rich women and their need to be the center of the universe?

“Wasn’t the kidnapping enough for one week?” he asked, barely able to restrain his temper.

“I’m not playing a game,” she said, her eyes wide with a lot of emotion he wasn’t interested in reading. “You can’t return me to my family. Take me anywhere else. Please.”

“How about a police station?”

She considered that option. Funny how he wasn’t surprised when she slowly shook her head. The cops wouldn’t be the kind of audience that interested her. They wouldn’t be willing to play her little game, either.

He narrowed his gaze as he wondered if mental problems ran in her family.

She took a step toward him. “Christopher is the one who kidnapped me. I was attacked and drugged as I walked into my condo. I couldn’t see anyone, but I recognized his watch right before I passed out. It’s very distinctive—he had it custom-made.”

“Uh-huh.” He would have to give her points for originality, if nothing else. “Can you prove it?”

“What? Of course not. It was a kidnapping. It’s not as if they sent me an itinerary ahead of time and used Christopher’s letterhead. But I know what I saw.”

Sure. “So tell me, Madison, why would your husband want to kidnap you?”

“I don’t know. I guess he needed the money.”

“You both already have plenty of that.”

“Christopher doesn’t have as much as you’d think. He’s always running short of cash. That’s the only thing that explains the excessive ransom.”

“Twenty million is a hell of a lot for him to need.”

She nodded. “Please. I know how this sounds. I know you have no reason to trust me, but things are not as they seem. Christopher lives on the edge. He gambles and usually loses a lot. He buys expensive pieces of art and furniture. Trust me, he always needs more money.”

“Nothing personal, Mrs. Hilliard, but I don’t trust you.”

“You don’t like me, either,” Madison said. “That’s okay. But it doesn’t give you the right to put me at risk.”

“I don’t believe you are. Why would your husband have hired two different companies to find you if he wanted you dead?”

“Because I’m worth more to him alive. You don’t actually know he hired another company. He could be lying.”

“Sure, and so could you.” Tanner reached the end of his attention span for this conversation. “I was hired by your husband and your father to find you, and I did. Because of that, one of my best men is close to death. All I want is my fee and you out of my life. I’m not interested in getting involved in whatever sick game you and your husband are playing.”

With that, he turned and headed for the door.

Madison rushed toward him. “We’re not married. Did he tell you that? We’ve been divorced for over six months. I’m sure there’s a way you could check the court records to verify it.”

Tanner stared at her. Divorced? He glanced at her left hand. No ring and no marks to show one had been removed recently. Neither Hilliard nor her father had said anything about a divorce. In fact, Hilliard had made it very clear he wanted his wife home with him, where she belonged. Tanner remembered wondering about Mrs. Hilliard’s feelings on being such an important possession.

Not that it changed anything, he told himself. Divorced or not, he’d been paid to complete a job and he had. Except…

He swore under his breath. There was something about her desperation, something about her words and, most important, something about the tension in his gut. He’d learned from hard experience to never ignore that feeling.

Madison must have sensed she had his attention, because she started talking very quickly.

“I left him nearly two years ago. He spent the first six months trying to convince me to come back and the next year fighting the divorce. Fortunately California is a no-fault state, and in the end, he couldn’t stop it.”

“Why was he so interested in keeping a woman who wanted to get away?”

“Money.”

“You’ve brought that up before. Your ex is loaded.”

She shook her head. “No. He’s not. His lifestyle sucks up a lot of his company profits. Plus he’s into something big. I don’t know what it is—I’ve only heard my father talking about it from time to time.”

“Didn’t he get a big chunk of your net worth after the divorce?”

“No. There was a pretty tight prenuptial agreement.” For the first time since he’d met her, she smiled. “Besides, I’m not worth all that much on my own. The bulk of the family fortune is tied up in Adams Electronics. My father is the principal stockholder, not me. I only own a few thousand shares. Christopher did get the house, which was fine with me.”

So Hilliard had lost the eye-candy wife and access to the big bucks. That couldn’t have made him happy.

“He and your father are working on something together. It came up in my research,” Tanner told her.

“I know. I’ve read the same thing. I don’t talk to my father about it. I’ve tried to convince him to stop doing business with Christopher, but he won’t listen. He doesn’t understand how I could have let such a good man get away.”

She tilted her head, which caused her long blond hair to fall away from her face, exposing the side with the still-red scar. He narrowed his gaze. Why would such a beautiful woman keep such an ugly mark on her face? She would have had access to the best plastic surgeons in the world, along with the money to pay them. As much as he hated to admit it, a lot of things didn’t make sense.

“He set up the kidnapping to get the ransom money,” she said earnestly. “I doubt there was any other company looking for me. I’m sure he told my father there was to keep him from worrying.”

“Why wouldn’t your father have insisted on going to the police?”

Her mouth twisted. “He trusts Christopher implicitly. As far as he was concerned, his son-in-law would handle everything perfectly.” She glanced down at the floor, then back at him. “My father is something of an absentminded professor. He likes it best when the real world doesn’t interfere with his time in the lab.”

Which meant what? That her father hadn’t been all that worried about the kidnapping because good old Hilliard was taking care of it?

Tanner recalled his meeting with the two men. Hilliard had done all the talking. Blaine Adams had seemed concerned, but not overly so.

“If nothing else, you should make sure you get paid,” Madison told him. “My ex has a bad habit of offering fees in halves. Half up front, half at the end of the deal. Only that second half doesn’t ever seem to get paid.”

“Hilliard wouldn’t try that with me.”

“How do you know?”

“Because I’d hunt him down and make him beg to give me the rest of my money.”

“Good luck with that.”

She spoke with the confidence of someone who had lived the truth. Tanner grimaced as he realized he’d carefully checked out Blaine Adams when he’d taken the job, but he’d only done a cursory check on Hilliard. After all, Daddy had been the one paying the ransom. But Hilliard had offered to take care of the bill.

Sloppy work, he told himself. Sloppy gets you dead.

He glared at Madison. He didn’t have time for this or her or her sob story. He wanted her gone. But he couldn’t—not with his gut whispering that she just might be telling the truth. Hilliard kidnapping his ex-wife to get his hands on the family money wasn’t his business, but he wouldn’t send her back if she was at risk. No matter how much he wanted to.

He was going to have to check out her story.

“I don’t believe you for a second,” he said flatly. “But I’ll look into what you’ve told me.”

Her relief was a tangible creature in the room. Before she could get too relaxed, Tanner moved close and cupped her neck. He applied just enough pressure to make it difficult for her to breathe.

“If you’re playing me for a fool, I’ll make you sorry. Is that clear?”

Her eyes widened. Color fled her face, but her gaze never wavered. She stared right back at him and slowly nodded.

He acknowledged that she hadn’t flinched. At least she had some backbone. And she wasn’t a screamer. Two small points in her favor.

When he released her, she stood her ground. She didn’t whimper or complain or even rub her neck.

“You don’t understand,” she told him quietly. “There’s nothing you can do that’s worse than what Christopher has already done to me. I’m not trying to trick you, I just want to stay alive.”

Funny how at that moment, he almost wanted it to be true. That she was just what she said.

Not a snowball’s chance, he thought. He studied her face, her long blond hair, her slender body. Except for the scar, she was perfect. Tall, leggy, beautiful. And completely useless.

He had no time for women like her in his life, but he wouldn’t mind finding her in his bed—just for the night. She would be a hell of a ride.

Tanner left Madison in the holding cell and returned to the front office of the small warehouse building he rented down by the airport. His laptop sprang to life when he hit the keys. Seconds later, he was on the Internet and tapping into sources to check out what Madison had said about her ex.

Two hours later, he had a detailed financial profile of Christopher Hilliard, along with e-mails from two informants. Word on the street was that Hilliard had a habit of skipping out on bills. An interesting practice for someone born to money. There were also some hints about shady dealings, but nothing specific. The most interesting point came from a casino employee Tanner had on retainer. Hilliard liked the high-stakes games, but they didn’t like him. He was up to his eyeballs in serious debt to some not-friendly people. Could that be why he needed the ransom money?

Speaking of which…He made a quick call, then leaned back in his chair. Now what? While he didn’t want to believe Madison, so far he hadn’t caught her in a lie. Sure, she wasn’t anyone he could respect, but that didn’t mean he wanted her dead. And until he was sure, she remained his responsibility.

Might as well get it over with, he told himself as he reached for the phone again. This time he called Blaine Adams’s house. The older man picked up on the first ring.

“Adams here.”

“Tanner Keane.”

“At last. Hold on, Mr. Keane.” There was a second of silence followed by Adams saying, “Christopher, it’s Mr. Keane. Pick up in the library.”

Tanner waited through the quiet. Then he heard a click and Hilliard was on the line.

“Keane? What the hell is going on? Where’s my wife?”

Ex-wife, Tanner thought, wondering who was playing what game with him.

“I have her with me. She’s safe.”

Blaine breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God. I should have listened to you before, Christopher. You said Mr. Keane was the best. Is Madison all right?”

“She’s perfectly fine. Anxious to see you both.”

“Good, good. Well done.” Blaine cleared his throat. “All right, then. Christopher, I’ll leave this to you. I need to get back to the lab. I have a meeting, some work…”

His voice trailed off as if he’d already left but had forgotten to hang up the phone. Seconds later, the receiver had been replaced.

Tanner had tried to think of ways to get Blaine off the phone, but it turned out fate had been kind. Now it was just him and Hilliard.

“You must have been worried,” Tanner said.

“Of course. We’ve all been sick. That other company I hired—what a bunch of incompetent asses.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Tanner leaned back in his chair and prepared to begin the game. “What was the name of the company? The first one you hired.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“People ask me about the competition. I don’t want to recommend someone who can’t do the job.”

Hilliard chuckled. “I doubt you recommend anyone, Keane.”

Interesting. So Hilliard wasn’t going to tell him. Which made Tanner wonder if Madison had been right—maybe there hadn’t been a first company. Maybe Hilliard had simply waited to hire Tanner to make things look more desperate. That would help Blaine come to terms with such a steep ransom.

“How is she? Really, I mean,” Hilliard said. “Madison was never very strong emotionally.”

“Relieved. They beat her up pretty badly.”

“What? No. They wouldn’t have.”

Tanner nodded slowly. Not exactly the normal response of a worried and grieving husband.

“Why would they do that?” Hilliard ask. “They wanted ransom money, not to hurt her. I didn’t think kidnappers hurt their victims. I want those people found. I want them punished for what they did to my wife.”

It wasn’t much of a recovery, Tanner thought, but then maybe he was reading too much into the conversation. Still, it was interesting that Hilliard characterized his wife as emotionally weak. From what Tanner had seen of Madison, she was tough. She’d been through hell, possibly at the hands of her ex-husband, and she was still holding it together.

“Not my line of work,” Tanner told him. “You’ll have to find someone else for that job. Oh, I almost forgot. About the ransom…” He paused deliberately, giving Hilliard time to sweat.

“Yes? It was paid.”

“No. Once I had Madison, I sent my men to intercept it.”

There was only silence. Tanner waited. If Hilliard wasn’t involved and if he hadn’t done it for the money, he wouldn’t care one way or the other.

“Where is the money now?” Hilliard asked, his voice carefully neutral.

But Tanner had been in the business for too long to be fooled. The other man was angry and frustrated. He’d wanted the ransom delivered. Dammit all to hell, he thought grimly. Madison was right. Her ex was in this up to his eyeballs. But how? And why?

Questions to be answered later.

“I’m having the ransom delivered to Mr. Adams at his office. I’ve notified his banker, as well, so he’ll be there to take possession of the money. It’s a lot of cash to have lying around. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.”

“You’re very thorough,” Hilliard said, his rage barely concealed.

“That’s what you pay me to be. Speaking of which, you owe me the second half of my fee.”

“Yes. Of course.” Hilliard sucked in a breath. “Where is Madison? Are you having her delivered to her father’s office, as well?”

“That’s a funny thing,” Tanner said, enjoying the moment. “She’s pretty shaken, as you can imagine. Right now she just wants to lay low for a while.”

“What, exactly, does that mean?”

“She’ll be my guest for a few days.”

Hilliard swore. “You can’t do that. You’re just as bad as they are. I suppose we’ll be getting a ransom demand from you, as well.”

“I’m not holding your wife against her will, Mr. Hilliard. This is at her very specific request.”

“I want my wife back immediately. It’s what you were hired to do. If you don’t return her, I’ll go to the police.”

“In your position, that’s what I’d do, as well,” Tanner told him.

“You can’t do this.”

“I just did.”

Tanner hung up the phone and wondered what would happen next. If he and Madison were wrong and Hilliard wasn’t playing a game, he would go directly to the police. But Tanner doubted that was likely. There was something going on—something that had cost Hilliard twenty million dollars.

Christopher did his best to lose himself in work, but it was impossible. Rage interfered with his concentration. How could things have gone so badly?

He knew Madison was responsible. The bitch had been nothing but an impediment for the past three years. He’d married her expecting someone beautiful and brainless to decorate his world. Instead she’d gotten a job, gotten involved and made his life a living hell. She had opinions, damn her.

His phone rang. He wanted to rip it out of the wall, but he forced himself to answer it.

“Hilliard,” he said.

“Ah, Christopher. So glad I caught you.” Blaine Adams rambled on about problems with a circuit board.

Christopher tried to concentrate and offer reasonable suggestions when what he really wanted was to ask the old man how he could be so stupid. Didn’t he realize what was going on in his own company or with his own daughter? Better for Christopher that he didn’t, but how could one person be so unaware?

“Oh,” the older man said when they’d finished the mini brainstorming session. “A very nice young man stopped by earlier with the ransom money. That Mr. Keane said it would be delivered here, and it was. My banker has already taken possession of it. You were right to hire that Mr. Keane. A fine man.”

“One of the best,” Christopher said between clenched teeth. “I’d heard Keane was efficient.”

“And so he was. Now Madison can concentrate on relaxing and getting over this horrible ordeal. You’ll be there for her, won’t you, Christopher?”

“Of course. You know Madison is my life.”

“Yes, yes. It’s a pity she got so headstrong and left. I’m sure it was nothing but a misunderstanding. I’m counting on you to win her back. Show her your soft side. She’ll need that over the next few weeks. Unfortunately my little girl has too much of her mother in her. Little can be done with a weak mind.”

“I love her anyway,” Christopher said.

“I know. You’re a good man. Like a son to me.” Blaine chuckled. “What a cliché. All right, back to work, my boy. The same for me. These problems won’t solve themselves, will they?”

With that, the old man hung up. Christopher slammed the receiver back into place. What he wouldn’t give to get his hands on Madison. He wouldn’t just show her his softer side, as her father had requested, he would strangle the bitch with his bare hands.

How had it all gone wrong? Keane wasn’t supposed to intercept the ransom. Christopher had been counting on that money. He’d needed fifteen of the twenty million for his next payment to Stanislav. The Russian Mafia did not like to be kept waiting. The remaining five million had been to cover his gambling losses. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

He stood, crossed to the credenza against the wall, picked up the vase there and threw it into the closed door. The loud smash followed by the rain of shards on the hardwood floor made him feel better for a brief second or two, but then desperation and panic returned.

He needed the next phase of the jamming system. He’d already arranged a press conference to announce it and if he canceled now, people would talk. Word would travel around the industry that his program was in trouble. No, he had to get the money somehow.

He returned to his desk and glanced at the calendar. There wasn’t much time left. Stanislav had warned him that if he was late again, the Russian would find another buyer. Christopher couldn’t let that happen. He needed the cutting-edge technology and the billions it would bring in to his company and, therefore, to him. He wanted to be the biggest and the best, then he wanted to destroy everyone who had ever said he couldn’t do it.

And he wanted Madison back. He wanted her crawling, broken and bleeding. He would use her until she begged and then he would kill her.

When that happened, it would be a very good day.