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“I thought you were going to—”
“I’m walking you to your car,” he said. “Taylor was armed. So am I.”
She blinked, then saw the gun he was holding and didn’t argue. They said nothing to each other in the elevator. Charlie made her wait at the door as he stepped out into the parking lot, looking around for unfamiliar vehicles, and then motioned her out.
He didn’t have to tell her not to dawdle as they headed for the Ferrari. He waited until she was inside before he spoke.
“Straight home,” he said. “I won’t be far behind.”
She nodded.
“And whatever you’re about to do, make them sorry,” he added.
“Their walls are already crumbling. They just don’t know it yet,” she said, then started the car and drove away.
Charlie watched until she was out of sight before he hurried back inside to close up shop. He was less than fifteen minutes behind her when he left the parking lot, heading home.
Five
Wyrick didn’t breathe easy until she was safely inside the mansion, then she dropped her things and made a run for the office. By the time she had her research files pulled up on the church and its leader, she was in strike mode.
This was like taking down Universal Theorem, only on a smaller level, but it was going to cause just as much damage within The Righteous organization as it had done to UT. And since this involved money laundering for a man named Preston Davis, who was selling stolen weapons, she had enough to make them sweat.
She and Charlie had worked with Special Agent Hank Raines of the FBI twice now, and while they’d had their differences, she also knew she could trust him.
So she sent him an email, explaining what was happening. She sent a link to the Church of The Righteous website, and copies of posts from the website that highlighted their intent toward her. She sent a copy of the security footage from their office depicting the attack and threats Barrett Taylor made against her, and the file she’d been collecting on their illegal activities.
She needed The Righteous discredited, the illegal activities exposed and the other hit men scrambling to save their own asses in the hopes they’d abandon their quest to end her life. And to do that, she had another public statement to make to the media that would strengthen her intent.
She was offering up a quarter of a million dollar bounty per man for their name and picture. That was all. Just their identities.
To protect herself from criminal charges, the bounty would immediately be nullified if the men were harmed in any way. Once they were identified, they were going to get a crash course in what it felt like to be targeted by society and the media, and it should send Jeremiah Raver into a panic of his own. Now all she had to do was make her announcement before anyone could stop her.
She had the video already prepared, and had attached it to the email she sent to Raines. The only thing left to do now was upload it to the public media sites. Then Charlie arrived.
She heard him calling her name, got up and walked out into the hall.
“I’m in the office.”
A few moments later he appeared in the doorway with a Pepsi in one hand, and a Hershey bar in the other.
“I thought you might need this,” he said.
Wyrick took them, gladly.
“Thanks. You’re just in time,” she said and went back into the office.
“In time for what?” Charlie said as he watched her plop back down in the chair, unscrew the lid off her Pepsi, then peel back the wrapping on the Hershey bar and pop a little square into her mouth.
She let the chocolate melt on her tongue, then swallowed it before she answered.
“I just sent a file to Hank Raines that’s going to put a big kink in The Righteous organization.”
He frowned. “Why? What did you discover?”
“They’re laundering money from the sale of stolen weapons.”
“Are you serious?” Charlie said.