‘About whether Reuben’s car is parked where Burton said it was.’ He rolled his eyes. ‘Come on, Kenny. I’ve known you how long? You were texting in a meeting. You never do that. And when we left the conference room, Alice was gone. She hasn’t taken her lunch hour in the four years since she finished law school and came on full time.’
‘You know a lot about my secretary,’ Ken said coldly.
Demetrius narrowed his eyes again. ‘Don’t even suggest it, Kenny. She’s my goddaughter, for Christsake. And even if she weren’t, I don’t go for skinny white girls.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Ken said quietly. And he was, because he knew Demetrius loved Alice like she was his own daughter. ‘I’m stressed out about Reuben and took it out on you.’
‘It’s okay. Just never say it again. What about Decker?’ Demetrius asked, and Ken knew that the subject was closed. ‘What do you know?’
‘Only that he saved my life, risking his own.’ Ken’s lips curved wryly. ‘I can’t argue with his priorities.’
‘Joel doesn’t like him.’
Ken shrugged. ‘Joel sees him as a threat. Kid’s got wizard accounting skills.’
‘Well I don’t trust him,’ Demetrius said flatly. ‘That kid doesn’t want Joel’s job. He wants yours. Or Reuben’s.’
‘That might not be such a bad thing. I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life. Alice will take over for me, but we’re gonna need to hire a replacement for Reuben, ASAP. Even if we do find him, I don’t want him here. He’s become a liability.’ Ken went quiet for a moment, thinking about the ramifications of that statement. They couldn’t let Reuben simply walk away, regardless of how this turned out. He knew too much. They’d have to kill him.
Ken pushed that thought away with a shrug. He’d cross that bridge when he got there. ‘Regardless of Reuben, we’re pushin’ fifty, brother. We need to start thinking about retirement.’
Demetrius grimaced. ‘You’ve been listening to Joel again. Are you gonna start talking about 401ks now?’
‘Nah. But I don’t want to be working my ass off and dodging bullets when I’m sixty.’
Demetrius frowned. ‘Then what do you want?’
‘My own island, with naked women bringing me drinks in coconuts.’
Demetrius snorted. ‘Coconuts? Shit, man. You had me going there for a moment.’ He pushed himself out of his chair. ‘I gotta requisition a wire transfer from Joel. We’re getting a new shipment in from the Brazilians.’ He waggled his brows. ‘Pretty girls. Very pretty.’
‘How old?’
‘Oh, they’re all eighteen,’ Demetrius said with mock seriousness, which told Ken that most of them were far younger.
‘You got a buyer?’ Ken asked, because Demetrius wasn’t into young girls like Reuben. Demetrius looked at their younger acquisitions and saw dollar signs, not sex.
‘Better than a buyer. I got bidders, buddy. Plural. We’re having an online auction. I’m tellin’ you, these girls are pretty. We are going to be raking it in, hand over fist.’
‘What about Gupta?’ The Indian was a major supplier of their labor market. He recruited quality stock. Strong backs and quick minds. ‘Is he going to cut us off if he finds out about Reuben and his daughter?’
‘I hope not.’ Demetrius hesitated. ‘But Miriam knew the girl’s identity. The girl used her credit card to check into the hotel.’
Ken frowned. ‘You didn’t tell me that. That makes Miriam a huge risk. If she goes directly to Gupta about it, he’ll wonder what else she knows. He’ll cut us off for sure then, and we won’t be able to fulfill our labor customers’ orders while we’re qualifying someone new.’ He paused then. ‘You’re making a face. Why?’
‘Because you’re suggesting killing Miriam, but like I said, doing her now will raise suspicions. The PI had a number of clients, mostly jealous wives. That leaves any number of guilty husbands who can be investigated if someone reports the PI missing. But if Miriam goes next, it’ll narrow down the possibilities to Reuben, and that leads to us.’
‘Not if she commits suicide. It’s worked for us in the past.’
Demetrius relaxed. ‘Oh. I should have thought of that myself. Reuben’s got me rattled, boy. Off my game.’
‘Get back on your game then and take care of Miriam before she can tell Gupta that our head of security was banging his daughter.’ Ken made a face of his own. ‘Oh hell. What if Reuben isn’t running from Miriam? What if he’s on his way to New York? To be with the girl?’
Demetrius rolled his eyes. ‘Fuck. Too bad I took care of the PI,’ he muttered. ‘I could have hired him to keep tailing Reuben. I’ll check with Burton and see who we can send to watch the girl. Maybe one of those new guys he was talking about. We just want to know if Reuben shows up. If he does, I’ll zip up to New York and take care of him myself. He can’t be allowed to continue down this road. Like you said, he’s become a liability.’
Ken sighed. ‘I know. Do what you need to—’ He was cut off by the sudden ringing of the phone on his desk with Sean’s caller ID. ‘What do you have?’ he answered brusquely and put his son on speaker phone.
‘The information you requested.’
Ken realized he was holding his breath. ‘You found Reuben.’
‘No, sir,’ Sean said. ‘But I did find the identity of the man who was with the tracker wearer when she was murdered this morning. One of the local papers carried the story online. I—’ He was interrupted by a loud squealing klaxon on his end.
‘What the hell?’ Demetrius barked. ‘What is that?’
‘Another tampered tracker alert,’ Sean said. The klaxon was abruptly silenced, the only sound the clacking of Sean’s keyboard. ‘After this morning, I had the alerts transferred to my computer. I’ve got the tracker ID numbers here, and I’m searching for their current location.’ A short pause. ‘Both are at Chip Anders’s house.’
‘The other two women Anders purchased,’ Ken said grimly.
‘Fuck, Sean,’ Demetrius hissed. ‘Don’t tell us about the tracker alarm. Tell Burton – he’s acting security manager, at least for now. He’s got men watching Anders’s house, and Burton is on his way there with Decker now to bring in Anders and his family. Burton and Decker can actually do something about the alarm.’
‘On it,’ Sean said. ‘I’ll call you back when I know something. Oh, and I just sent you a link to the online article about the man who was with the girl in the alley this morning.’
Ken disconnected the speaker phone, brought up the email Sean had sent, clicked on the link . . . then stared at the screen. ‘No,’ he whispered, all the raging anger he’d felt toward Reuben coalescing into a hard, icy ball, deep in his chest. ‘No fucking way.’
‘What?’ Demetrius demanded.
Ken lifted his eyes. ‘Marcus O’Bannion.’
Demetrius’s face went flat with shock. ‘You are shitting me.’
Ken turned the screen around so that Demetrius could see for himself.
Demetrius’s fists clenched on the arms of the wingback chair. ‘Fucking hell. O’Bannion was the guy with Anders’s bitch when she was killed? Motherfucking hell.’
Ken wanted to clench his own fists but maintained his calm, turning his laptop back to face him. ‘This time, he dies. I do not want a repeat of nine months ago. This is not a democracy. No arguments. If he’d been dealt with properly then, we wouldn’t be in this shithole of a mess right now. Are we clear?’
Demetrius nodded stiffly. ‘Crystal.’
Cincinnati, Ohio
Tuesday 4 August, 9.30 A.M.
Drake was nearly a mile from Stephanie’s house when his phone started buzzing. ‘Stephanie,’ he muttered when he saw the caller ID. He should have known she would never be able to play it cool in front of her father. If she’d said a goddamn word . . . I should have killed her this morning.
He pressed the accelerator a little harder, speeding up as he answered the phone. ‘Yeah? What’s wrong now?’