Page 56 of Shadow Boxed (Shadow Warriors #2)

Chapter forty-five

O’Neill swallowed a groan.

It was too late to retreat outside and avoid their target.

Nantz had already seen Embray and froze.

Shock and suspicion were plastered all over his face.

Nor could they take him down in the lobby.

Too many people around, including two men in cheap imitations of Nantz’s suit, with the telltale bulge of firearms beneath their jackets. Bodyguards.

Fuck.

Everything depended on Embray’s acting ability now.

“Leonard!” Clark moved closer to his bodyguards as the rest of his colleagues walked out the front entrance.

“Clark.” Embray’s tone was affable. He stopped a few feet from their target, with O’Neill, Cosky, and Capland a couple steps behind him. “I didn’t realize you were in London.”

“I flew in a couple days ago.” Nantz hesitated before reaching for the hand Embray extended. “Do you have space in the Berkeley building?”

“No.” Embray released Clark’s tense hand and glanced around the building. “I don’t currently have offices in London. Although if things go well today, I’ll need to look for space. This building would do nicely.” He started to turn. “I apologize, but my meeting is about to start.”

“Meeting?” Nantz echoed, his eyes sharpening, but with interest rather than suspicion.

“Yes, with Edward Pembroke. I’m afraid I’m running late, and he’s not a man to keep waiting, so if you’ll excuse me.” He took a step forward, only to halt again when Nantz subtly blocked his way.

“You’re meeting with Lord Pembroke?”

“Why yes, now actually.” Embray cocked his head. “Do you know him?”

“Indeed, I do. I’m meeting with him myself in thirty minutes.” The fakest smile O’Neill had ever seen wreathed Nantz’s face.

“You don’t say?” Embray paused. “May I ask why?”

“Something about a business opportunity. He said he was speaking with investors all day. Perhaps it has something to do with this...meeting...you have with him?”

“Perhaps.” Embray hesitated before adding, “I asked him to approach individuals he thought might be suitable for an endeavor I’m considering.

You must be on his list of candidates.” Embray’s shoulders subtly stiffened.

“I hope you don’t hold that business with Winchester against me.

I had no idea he’d be so… confrontational.

He told me he was curious about the cameras and since you produced them—” He broke with a shrug.

“It’s already been forgotten.” Clark’s smile grew even wider...and faker. He hesitated before adding carefully, “Although I must admit, I was surprised you even knew the fellow. A SEAL? You don’t dabble in military contracts. How did you meet him?”

Embray sighed and shook his head. “He’s the brother of a good friend.

One I owe my life to. The meeting I arranged with you was payback on that life debt.

” He paused, and his tone switched to disgust. “Trust me, I’ve expressed my disappointment in Winchester’s attitude.

I hope that misguided blunder won’t color your view of the business Pembroke and I intend to discuss with you.

I think you’ll find the meeting...intriguing. ”

O’Neill kept his face expressionless, forcing himself not to look at Cosky or Cap to see how they were enjoying the performance playing out in front of them.

Embray’s explanation was based on truth.

Maybe that’s why their target bought it hook, line.

and sinker. The smile that spread from Nantz’s eyes to his face was eager rather than fake this time.

“Well, I won’t keep you,” Nantz said as he stepped to the side. “As you mentioned, Lord Pembroke is the impatient sort. I look forward to our upcoming meeting and hearing about this mystery opportunity.”

“Pembroke and I will have the basics hammered out by the time we meet with you. I’ll explain the specifics, then.” Embray offered a final handshake and walked past, without introducing his entourage.

“You should get an Oscar for that performance,” Cosky murmured as they rode the elevator to the fifth floor.

Embray’s lips quirked. “At heart, business negotiations are a type of performance art. I’ve become quite adept at them through the years.”

“Nantz seemed quite taken with this Pembroke fellow,” O’Neill said.

“Pembroke’s title tends to impress many.” Embray’s tone was dry. “Including Lord Pembroke.”

The bell dinged and they stepped off. Cosky looked up and down the hallway before lowering his voice and leaning toward Embray. “How much did you tell Pembroke?”

“Just that I wanted to speak with Clark about a business prospect, but I didn’t want word to reach him personally, in case I changed my mind.

Hence Pembroke setting up the meeting, to give me an out.

” He paused to tug down the cuff of his suit and continued walking.

“His Lordship detests Nantz and refused to join me for the upcoming meeting.”

“He won’t prove…difficult…when Nantz up and vanishes?” O’Neill kept his voice to a mummer, even though nobody was in the hall.

Embray shrugged. “He may question the timing, but he won’t do anything. Lord Pembroke is all about Lord Pembroke. Involving himself in Nantz’s disappearance would be …distasteful to him.”

Pembroke’s office was a suite at the very end of the hall. Embray stopped in front of a plain white door with a beveled glass window. He pushed a button along the wall to the right, and a buzzer sounded from inside.

The guy who opened the door looked like the very definition of a butler: black suit, white shirt, black tie, shoes, and socks. Which was odd. Wouldn’t this Pembroke dude have a secretary or executive assistant at his office? Or did his butler serve both roles?

“Leonard Embray here to see Lord Pembroke,” Embray intoned solemnly.

“Of course, Mr. Embray. His Lordship is expecting you.” The butler, or executive assistant, or whatever the hell he was, responded gravely.

The butler led them through a fussy foyer littered with uncomfortable looking furniture, down a short hall carpeted in some kind of tight tweed that didn’t leave footprints, and to an opaque door which sat at the end of the hall.

At the door, their guide knocked gently before opening it and stepping aside. “Leonard Embray has arrived, your Lordship.”

Across the room, in front of a window, stood a stick figure in a tailored black suit. He lifted his right arm, checking the watch strapped to his pointy wrist. Probably a Rolex or something equally pretentious and expensive.

“Embray, your timing is impeccable. I’m on my way to the club. When you’ve finished with this Nantz nonsense, please join me.”

His Lordship’s voice was nasal and clipped. The man himself looked exactly like he sounded—inbred and haughty. Hell, even the downward slant to his beaked nose looked arrogant.

“Now then, I’m off.” His spindly legs looked like they might collapse beneath him at any moment as he strolled toward the door. He stopped next to Embray with an absent sniff. “Help yourself to the Highland Park. I had Jives restock the bar.”

Jives? For Christ’s sake, the insufferable ass had a butler named Jives? How incredibly cliché.

Pembroke walked past O’Neill, Cosky, and Capland as if they didn’t exist. Not that O’Neill had expected anything different. A door slammed in the distance. The butler never returned.

“He’s gonna let us stay here, unsupervised? What if we make off with the nicknacks or liquor?” Simcosky’s voice dripped with mockery.

Embray’s laughed. “For some reason, Pembroke likes me. Even trusts me. I’m not sure why. His Lordship likes very few people.”

O’Neill wished he could run through their upcoming strategy with Simcosky and Capland, but they couldn’t afford to have their conversation recorded if Pembroke’s office was bugged.

Five minutes prior to the meeting, they left Pembroke’s office, took the elevator down to the second floor, and followed the arrows along the walls to Nantz’s office.

Unlike Pembroke’s plain office door, Nantz’s was ostentatious. Constructed from dense black wood, it was ornately carved, with brilliant stained-glass panels running down each side. A brass knocker was attached above the doorknob. Embray lifted it up and let it fall.

The click of heels sounded from within the office. The woman who opened the door gave them a practiced, professional smile.

“Mr. Embray,” she said, inclining her head slightly. Atop her head, her coiled blonde bun didn’t move in the slightest. She stepped back and opened the door wider. “Doctor Nantz is expecting you.”

Doctor? O’Neill asked Cap through the Neealaho. The title was news to him.

He has PhDs in computer science and chemical engineering, Capland answered.

“Is Lord Pembroke not with you?” the woman asked, her plucked eyebrows furrowing as she peered into the hall. “I believe Doctor Nantz was expecting him as well.”

“Pembroke got called away. He’ll have to meet with us later,” Embray said as he stepped through the door. O’Neill, Simcosky, and Capland followed him.

A small foyer with a leather couch and a couple of matching armchairs greeted them.

The lack of windows gave the room a claustrophobic, dark look.

The woman shut the door, smoothed down her rose-colored, tight-fitting skirt, and straightened the matching jacket before leading them across the foyer. “If you’ll follow me.”

Unlike Pembroke’s office, the flooring here was wood paneled and loud.

Every step rang out as the woman took the lead and escorted them toward the back of the room.

The flooring could present a problem when they took Nantz down.

A scuffle would sound like an explosion and alert his security.

He’d have to lift the bastard and keep his feet off the floor.

A desk with an open laptop and a multi-line phone system sat to the right of another door. This second door was plain, with frosted glass windows. She rapped lightly on the glass and opened the door, presenting them with an ocean of cream-colored carpeting. It looked thick and plush.

Thank Christ. One problem solved.

“Leonard Embray is here to see you,” she announced.

“What? No Pembroke?”

“Lord Pembroke had something come up. He’ll join us later.” Embray walked around Nantz’s secretary.

“Ah well,” Nantz said. “Can’t be helped, I suppose.”

When Cosky tried to follow Embray into the room, the secretary blocked his path. “You’re welcome to wait in the foyer. Your client is in no danger here.”

Embray stopped and turned, his eyebrows rising. “My bodyguards go where I go. I don’t enter a room without them.”

Nantz stepped into view, that unbearably fake smile wreathing his face. “I have a no bodyguards policy for sensitive discussions. Your men can join mine in the room next door. They’ll respond quickly if you need them. Trust me, my friend, you’re safe here.”

O’Neill remained expressionless, but inwardly he was chortling.

Nantz had already dismissed his security team?

Problem two solved. Their plan called for Embray to demand that Nantz dismiss his team due to the sensitive nature of their discussion, but this would work even better.

There wouldn’t be a record of Embray separating Nantz from his security detail.

Embray subtly stiffened and set his feet. “While I appreciate the fact you excused your bodyguards to maintain the confidentiality of this discussion, I won’t do the same. I learned to my detriment never to go unescorted.”

O’Neill was surprised Embray had brought up the coup he’d experienced. It had to be a painful memory. However, the attack he’d referenced was well-documented. Hell, it had been all over the news. And mentioning it now gave him solid reason for refusing to dismiss his security team.

“Besides,” Embray continued, his tone softening. “These men have been with me for years; they’ve also accompanied me to every meeting concerning this subject. Nothing said here today will come as a surprise to them.”

“Then I will bring my men in as well, they are also—”

“No, you won’t.” Embray cut him off. “I don’t know your men. What we’re about to discuss is my project. Mine . And it’s highly confidential . My men know what it encompasses and haven’t spoken of it. I don’t know your men. I won’t have them listening in on this discussion.”

“But—”

“If this is a sticking point for you, then we’re done.” Embray turned and headed back toward the open door.

O’Neill hoped the dude knew what he was doing. They couldn’t grab their target with the secretary watching and a team of security experts within hailing distance.