Page 31 of Healing Conviction
Her eyes flitted over her favorite, and only, desk accessory in her new office.
They’d waited for the perfect time to strike. When I was most distracted. And I played right into their hands.
One midnight meeting later, all coordinated by her COO, and the lawsuit was dropped while her hands were tied.
She’d always believed in going down with the ship, that leaders should accept both the benefits that came with success and the responsibilities that came with failure. Though the atrocities her COO had made her accountable for were unforgivable. And yet, here he sat, arguing for them to commit more. As if he were only advocating for a simple risk in the stock market and not sending their security team to murder two people.
“Look, I get what happened at the party was bad—”
“Bad? Stefan… a human trafficking ring was busted wide open at an eventwehosted.”
“It wasn’t just our party, others helped—”
“Stefan, come now, you can’t be that naive. We threw a party where several members of Ashland County and influential men across the southeast were implicated in said trafficking ring. Not only implicated, but three of whom weremurdered—”
“Shh, shh, shh!” Stefan scrambled to check the lobby before closing her office door and whipping back toward her. He leaned over her desk, a power move he should know by now never worked for her. “Those men worked forus. They sourced the product, we bought it forhim, and then we delivered it. He won’t come after us. Our trucks are too valuable and we’re too far up the chain.”
Gail scoffed. “If you believe that, you’re not as intelligent as I once thought. Thosefriendsof yours on the board of directors can as easily switch us for someone more compliant. Think about it, the three most influential lawyers in the southeast, Ascot, Rusnak, and Strickland organized the sourcing of theproduct”—the use of the inhuman word to describe the victims made her cringe, but the truth made her want to vomit—“and now they’re gone. Yes, our trucks are designed specifically for transporting purposes, butyou and Iare just as expendable as those three murdered attorneys.”
“We don’tknowthey were murdered. One of them had a heart attack, another is on vacation—”
“Missing. And the other was found in a river with a bullet in his head.” She raised her eyebrow. “And youstillwant to further volunteer our services and go looking for the BlackStone associates? Why? What do they have to do with our company? And so close to another delivery?”
“Yes, another delivery is exactly why we should be looking for them. We have on good authority where they’re going to be. All we need to do is find them before they start looking into us.”
“They’realreadylooking into us, Stefan.”
“We don’t know that either!”
She couldn’t tell if he was this delusional or that good at convincing himself they could get out with their hands clean.
“…you’re rolling with pigs, Gail.”
Her former assistant’s accusation rang in her mind and she closed her eyes against the inevitable migraine. Naomi had discovered the dirty secret. It was one of the reasons Gail had let her go in the first place. That, and her sabotage was bound to get her killed if she remained.
“Gail, we shouldn’t be so pessimistic about this. The contact says that BlackStone Securities has suspicions that our company is involved in more than the party hosting, but nothing concrete. BlackStone may have stopped our delivery back at the Inland Port—”
“Whereyoualmost died during a shoot-out, am I right? And that’s why, instead of a safe, neutral location, we now have to do deliveries at our own plant, in the middle of Timbuktu, correct?”
Stefan frowned and huffed before straightening his lapels. “The operation is mostly hands off, you know that. Only one of us needs to be here in case there’s a crisis. And I was never in any real danger with our back up. BlackStone obviously never figured out who I am, and we’re keeping it that way.”
Why does he seem irked by that? Oh right, he likes the recognition. It’s why he rides in that ridiculous town car everywhere he goes.
“They know whoIam and they have access to my former employee. The raid on the last party was too close for comfort. I’m through with it all. Our company needs to stay out of this nonsense.”
“Exactly! And now we know that BlackStone is looking for used products, which means they’re only one good question away from implicating the company. The boss’s goons fucked up by notexpiringthem when they had the chance. And now what if one of the products remembers something even after all the precautions?Wecould stop BlackStone in their tracks. All I have to do is say the word, and our security team can go do some quiet cleanup.” He held up his phone and wiggled it for emphasis.
She pressed her fingers to her head. “I told you that my former assistant’s boyfriend and his security team are looking into this ring themselves. The government has been easy to avoid thanks to the boss’s position, but once BlackStone begins to point their finger solely on us, we’ll be left to fend for ourselves, or worse, mark my words. This operation was never supposed to go on as long as it did, and now we’ve outrun our luck.”
A mix of understanding and frustration washed over Stefan’s face. “This is the last one, I swear. We just have to get through this one. No more deliveries. No more financial threats against CTI. No more time away from your family. They need you right now and facilitating this one last delivery will make that happen. After that? We’re home free.”
“We can’t trust that this will be the last time he’ll use us.” Her eyes drifted to the frame on her desk. “How high a price are we willing to pay for the mere hope for freedom? Have we become so numb to the damage we’ve caused that lives outside our own don’t count in the equation anymore?”
A derisive huff told her he didn’t understand.
“I don’t know what to tell you, Gail, but the fact of the matter is, we have no other alternative buttotrust him. As for the price, you know as well as I do that the market’s a bitch. In this case, the price may be fixed, but the cost still varies depending on the buyer. So you tell me.” Stefan’s hand lifted the frame, interrupting her daze, before he pointed to the rectangular glass. “Aretheyworth paying the price? What would happen if they find out what you’ve been up to? Would they still love you? Are they worth risking everything for?”
“Yes,” she answered without hesitation.