CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Finally, a possible break in the case.
Sean strode purposefully across the casino toward the gallery of shops where Zoe’s boutique was located at the Onyx. He was a man on a mission to bring Zoe back to Caleb at the Reliance Group offices. This morning, they’d apprehended a man who had attempted to breach Zoe’s security detail at work. Now they needed her to ID the suspect so they could turn him over to Metro P.D. With a little luck, Sean thought, they’d found Zoe’s stalker.
Sean turned the corner, and even from a distance his gaze was automatically drawn to the beautiful, vibrant woman inside the store who occupied way too many of his thoughts. In deference to all the work involved in putting together the boutique, she’d opted out of wearing her normal sophisticated attire. Today, her hair was up in a sleek ponytail and she was dressed casually in jeans and a pink T-shirt that outlined those perfect breasts that he’d stroked with his hands, the hard nipples he’d tasted with his tongue before sucking the sensitive tips deep into his mouth.
The erotic recollection sent a shaft of heat straight to his groin—no big surprise there. Two days had passed since he’d given into temptation and selfishly taken what Zoe had offered—solace in her soft and willing body. While every moment of that incredibly hot and sexy night was indelibly etched in his mind, he’d somehow managed to revert to a businesslike relationship with her. Not an easy feat when he now had detailed knowledge of what it was like to be a part of Zoe in ways that went beyond just physical pleasure.
Making love with Zoe had been so different, the level of intimacy between them more intense than anything he’d ever experienced with any other woman. And because Sean had known that being with her was a one-night deal, he’d been a greedy son of a bitch and taken her three separate times, until they were both too exhausted to do anything else but sleep in each other’s arms.
But in the light of day, he was forced to remind himself of what had brought them together in the first place…and what would eventually tear them apart. Her father’s guilt and Sean’s own tumultuous past. And he couldn’t change either of those things.
As much as Sean cared for Zoe, as much as he loved being with her and wished he could embrace the feelings stirring to life inside of him when it came to her, he knew that in time she’d find it more difficult to accept the man he was—his mistakes, flaws, and everything else that went along with the stigma of being a con man. And he’d never expect her to.
Arriving at the boutique, he rapped his knuckles on the glass door, and the armed guard standing at his post instantly recognized Sean and unlocked the door to let him inside. Along with the construction crew that had been screened by security for Zoe’s protection, her assistant, Brittany, was also present, as well as another young woman Zoe had hired as a store manager.
Boxes of product were stacked wherever there was extra room, and large, blown-up snapshots of Jessica wearing different accessories from the ZR Design collections were stacked on the counter behind the register. Eventually, those glammed-up pictures of the pop star would grace the walls of the boutique to lure shoppers into the upscale store.
“Hey, stranger,” Zoe said, greeting him with a bright smile.
Just as she’d promised, she’d given him no indication that she regretted anything about their one night together. If anything, he was the one providing all the tension in his attempt to keep things professional between them when it was clear she wanted so much more.
“Everything is coming together quite well,” he said, indicating the work inside the boutique.
“It’s getting there.” She glanced at her watch, saw that it was early afternoon, then tipped her head curiously. “What brings you by? I still have another few hours with the contractors before I can leave.”
Obviously, she recognized his sudden appearance in the middle of the day as an unexpected change in the routine he’d established with her—which included dropping her off in the morning and not seeing her again until he picked her up in the evening and making sure she was under security watch every minute in between. So, yeah, him stopping by unannounced was out of the norm.
“Caleb would like to see you up at his office.” Noah saw the questions in her eyes but didn’t offer specifics in front of everyone. “Do you think Brittany can take care of things while you’re gone?”
Zoe looked back at her assistant, who assured her with a confident wave of her hand. “Don’t worry. Go do what you have to do,” Brittany said as she set a crystal-encrusted belt on the counter. “We’ve already discussed how you want things laid out, and Sarah and I can work on getting the accessories in the boxes unpacked and inventoried.”
“Okay.” Zoe grabbed her purse and slung it over her shoulder. “If you need me for anything, or have any questions, don’t hesitate to call me.”
Brittany rolled her eyes good-naturedly at her boss. “I know this place is your baby, but we’ll be fine, Zoe. Promise.”
“I can’t help but be a little neurotic,” Zoe admitted with a grin. “I’ll be back in a while.”
Zoe fell into step beside Sean as he escorted her back through the gaming area, his gaze automatically scanning the area to make sure there wasn’t anything, or anyone, that struck him as out of place. Just because the Reliance Group had diffused one threat against Zoe this morning, he wasn’t about to assume she was now in the clear.
Once they were by themselves and away from listening ears, her curiosity obviously got the best of her. “So, what’s up?” she asked, her voice tinged with hope. “Is there finally some news on my father?”
“Nothing specific yet.”
Between the information Lucas had retrieved from Sheila’s hard drive and the man TRG now had in custody, there had been a lot of revelations that morning, but Sean wasn’t about to discuss any of it with Zoe out in public. But as soon as they were enclosed in the private elevators leading to the security area, he told her the main reason why Caleb wanted to talk to her.
Sean pushed his hands into the front pockets of his khaki pants and met her gaze. “We think we apprehended your stalker.”
“What?!” The news caused a startled look to pass over her features. “Where? When?”
“You know all those packages that were delivered about an hour ago through the back corridor by UPS?”
“Yes,” she said with a nod. “It took the guy four separate trips to deliver them all.”
“One of the security guards we posted at the entrance to the corridor made sure the UPS guy was legitimate, but there was another man in a blue uniform who tried to pass through right behind UPS, but the guard stopped him. The guy was carrying a package and claimed he had a delivery for ZR Designs, but when security insisted he show a company ID and he couldn’t provide one they got suspicious and called Caleb for backup. The guy bolted, but luckily they were able to catch him before he could get away.”
“Thank God.” Her eyes were wide with relief. “How do you know he’s the guy who was stalking me?”
“We don’t, not for sure. That’s where you come in,” Sean said just as the elevator came to a smooth stop and a soft ping announced their arrival. “The guy was concealing a very lethal-looking hunting knife on him, and that does seem to be your stalker’s weapon of choice.”
She visibly shuddered, obviously remembering the guy’s last vicious attack as she followed Sean from the elevator and into the security offices. “Where is he now?”
“We’re holding him for questioning to see if he’s involved with your father or Sheila in any way, and we need you to give us a positive identification that he’s the guy who’s been threatening you before we call Metro and press charges against him.” Knowing how difficult this had to be for her, Sean stopped and gently cupped her shoulders in his hands. “Are you going to be okay with that?”
His touch seemed to calm her, and she relaxed against his hands. “As long as he’s restrained.”
“He’s in handcuffs and they have him in a secured holding room.” Unable to help himself, Sean let his palm slide down her arms until he held her hands in his in a show of silent support. “You only have to see the guy through a one-way mirror.”
“Okay.” She exhaled a deep breath and put on a brave face. “Let’s get it over with.”
Sean led her into a private room where Caleb was waiting for them. After a quick hello, Zoe stepped up to the one-way mirror to take a closer look at the man in a connecting room, who was sitting at a table with his hands cuffed behind his back. It only took her a few seconds to turn back to Caleb with her response.
“That’s him,” she said, her tone ringing with certainty. “I’ve been up close and personal with that face twice now, and I’m one hundred percent positive that’s the man who attacked me.”
“All right, then,” Caleb said with a nod. “Here’s what we know so far. According to his driver’s license, his name is Ray Omie. We’re running a background check on him right now, so hopefully that will give us better insight as to who the guy is and if he has a criminal record.”
Zoe crossed her arms over her chest. “And find out what his connection is to my father?”
“If there’s anything to know, we’ll have to find that information from him firsthand.” Caleb glanced at the man named Ray, who wore a hostile expression, and back to Zoe again. “Now that you’re here and ID’d the guy, I can start the questioning process. You two can stay in here and watch and listen, and I’ll see what I can get out of Ray.”
Once Caleb was gone, Sean pulled up two chairs for them to sit in front of the mirror. He took a seat next to Zoe just as Caleb entered the adjoining room and sat down at the table across from Ray.
Caleb didn’t waste time with pleasantries. “You’ve been positively ID’d as the man who has threatened Zoe Russo in two separate incidents. And today you tried to breach security to get to her with a concealed deadly weapon. Why?”
Ray thrust his chin out belligerently. “Go to hell.”
The man’s reply didn’t deter Caleb in the least. “Whatever your reasons for stalking Zoe, all we’re looking for are some answers. You cooperate and provide them, and I’ll see what I can do about lessening the charges against you.”
In response, Ray’s jaw clenched tight and an angry snarl turned up the corner of his mouth.
“This doesn’t seem to be going well,” Zoe said, her brow furrowed with concern.
Sean knew that his boss was just getting started and was far from finished with his interrogation. “Don’t worry. I’ve seen Caleb break stronger men than this guy. By the time Caleb is done, we’ll have answers.”
“I hope so,” she murmured.
“Let me tell you what I do know,” Caleb went on, his tone direct. “The last time you attacked Zoe, you said something to her about how you’d put your ass on the line to get all that money, only for Bunny and that bastard to screw you over. I’m assuming ‘that bastard’ you referred to is Grant Russo, which leads me to believe you’re somehow involved in the embezzlement scheme.”
Ray just glared insolently at Caleb, neither confirming nor denying anything.
Caleb’s cell phone rang, and he took one look at the caller ID before answering the call with a brisk, “What’ve you got for me?”
The room was quiet as Caleb listened to whoever was on the other end of the line. Caleb said a few brief words to the caller and after a minute snapped his phone shut and looked back at Ray.
“Now we’re getting somewhere,” Caleb said, a confident smile making an appearance. “That was Lucas, my computer analysis technician, who excels in computer hacking. And he discovered some very interesting information on Grant Russo’s secretary’s hard drive, despite the fact that someone tried to erase the data.”
A spark of panic flashed in Ray’s eyes, and Sean had no doubt that Caleb had caught the fleeting emotion as well, and would use it to his advantage.
“He retrieved deleted e-mails between Sheila and yourself that were filled with all sorts of incriminating evidence,” Caleb continued, calm and confident in the report Lucas had given him. “You’re a computer programmer who works for Quest Software, the same company that Grant Russo uses for his accounting program. A few months ago, you were hired to work on a glitch Russo’s company was having with their system, but Lucas also found correspondences between you and a woman named ‘Bunny,’ who appears to be Sheila, about creating a dummy account to divert company investment funds and payments to a nonexistent supplier. How am I doing so far?”
Ray’s face flushed a deep red, a combination of guilt and fury playing across his features. Clearly, Caleb had hit a couple of bull’s-eyes with his knowledge of facts.
Sean glanced at Zoe, who sat quietly beside him watching the whole scene play out with fascination and interest. “The man doesn’t have much of a poker face, does he?”
“No,” she said with a shake of her head. “He looks guilty as charged.”
Caleb clasped his hands casually on the table. “All the evidence points to you and Sheila engaging in an embezzlement scheme,” he said, provoking Ray further. “The charges keep piling up against you, man. And I can’t help you if you don’t let me know what’s going on.”
Finally, Ray’s anger boiled to the surface and he exploded. “That bitch double-crossed me!” he said furiously, his shoulders jerking in an attempt to release his confined hands. “Bunny…Sheila came to me about her plan to siphon the money from the main accounts and offered me fifty percent to help her. I did all the work and programming for the dummy account, and she stole millions of dollars, and just when we were going to leave the country with the money, she tells me that Grant caught on to what we were doing and took the cash for himself and disappeared with it.”
“And that’s when you first confronted Zoe about her father’s whereabouts?” Caleb guessed, since he was now familiar with the timeline of Zoe’s attacks.
Ray nodded, his jaw working angrily. “I was still hoping I could find Russo and demand my portion of the money. I’m the one who created the account and did all the programming, and half of that was mine.”
Caleb didn’t bother to correct the guy that the money had been stolen, therefore he had no legitimate claim to it. Sean figured Ray was too caught up in his own greed to see reason, anyway.
“Then, when Sheila went missing, that’s when I realized that both Russo and Sheila had duped me,” Ray went on, his outrage fueling his need to tell his side of the story. “They fucking used me to funnel all that money into the dummy account so it couldn’t be easily traced, and all along they’d planned on cutting me out of the deal!”
“So, you upped your attack on Zoe, slashed her tires, and threatened to slit her throat if Russo didn’t pay up,” Caleb said, summarizing the events. “Were you going to follow through on that threat today?”
“I just wanted to scare her, so my message would get back to her old man,” Ray admitted. “So he’d know how serious I was about getting my share of the money.”
“Except Zoe doesn’t know where her father is,” Caleb told Ray.
Ray’s lip curled up in a sneer. “Russo and Sheila are probably out of the country by now with all that goddamn money.”
Zoe shifted in her chair at the accusation and glanced at Sean, her gaze conflicted. “Do you think that’s true?” she asked him.
“I honestly don’t know.” Sean refused to give her any kind of false hopes. “But I can tell you that Lucas can’t find anything on either hard drive that indicates they’ve left the country, or even the state of Nevada for that matter. Caleb used his connections at Las Vegas Metro to see if Grant’s or Sheila’s name came up on a database search of flight records, and there isn’t any documentation of either of them boarding a plane recently. That is, if they used their real names.”
“God, I just want all this to end.” Zoe rubbed her fingers across her forehead and released a weary sigh. “But at least Ray provided some answers about the missing money, though I have to admit a small part of me held out hope that my father was somehow innocent in all this.”
“That’s completely understandable,” Sean replied, his tone gentle. Clearly, Zoe was no longer devastated by the notion that her father was guilty of fraud, but considering how much Zoe adored her father, Sean knew it would take time for her pain to ease.
Caleb wrapped up his conversation with Ray, then left a guard with the man until the authorities arrived. A minute later, Caleb walked into the office Sean and Zoe were still in.
“So now we know how and why millions of dollars are missing from Russo’s company accounts,” Caleb said without preamble, though he didn’t point out Grant Russo’s obvious involvement in the embezzlement. “And, most importantly, we diffused the threat against Zoe.”
“Thank you,” she said, her tone sincere. “At least I don’t have to fear for my life any longer.”
Caleb’s diligent gaze didn’t waver. “Regardless, we’ll keep the guards posted as they are now, and Sean will remain on security detail until the case is resolved.”
Smiling, Zoe shook her head. “I appreciate your concern, but that really isn’t necessary.”
“Yes, it is,” Sean replied in a tone that was firm and adamant. He knew things were uncomfortable between them since their night together, but he’d never forgive himself if something happened to Zoe because he hadn’t been there to protect her.
Before she could argue further, Nathan Fox stepped into the room and approached Caleb and Sean, his intense and direct demeanor a reflection of his days as a vice cop for Metro P.D. “Sorry to interrupt, but the background check on Sheila came through, and there’s something on the report that caught my attention.”
“And what’s that?” Caleb asked, his interest piqued, as was Sean’s.
“She owns a place in Pahrump,” Nathan said, telling them what he knew. “According to county records, it belonged to her parents, and when they died she inherited the piece of property. Her main residence is listed as an apartment here in Vegas, and the house in Pahrump doesn’t appear to be occupied by renters or any other tenants. Lucas checked out the property on Google Earth, and the house itself actually looks run-down and dilapidated.”
Caleb lifted a dark brow. “Well, it looks like you and Sean will be taking a drive to Pahrump to check the place out and see if you can find anything that might give us more answers.”
Since Sean was unable to carry any kind of weapon because of his criminal record, he knew Caleb was sending Nathan with him because the other man never left home without his gun, and there was no telling what they’d encounter in Pahrump.
“I’m going with you,” Zoe announced.
Caleb’s and Nathan’s gazes shifted to Zoe, as if they’d forgotten she was standing there, listening to their verbal exchange. “No,” they both said in unison.
Zoe looked taken aback by their joint refusal, and Sean attempted to soften the stern rejection: “It’s really not a big deal.”
Her shoulders straightened in a show of determination, matching the fortitude brightening her eyes. “If it’s not a big deal, then you won’t mind if I go, too,” she said reasonably. “This pertains to my father, and I have just as much at stake in finding him as you all do.”
Caleb looked far from happy about Zoe accompanying the two men, but as tough as Caleb could be, Sean knew his boss was also a compassionate man who knew when to bend the rules. Like now.
“Fine,” Caleb relented, but not without a strict, nonnegotiable request of his own. “But they’re in charge and you’ll do exactly as they say, understood?”
Zoe barely concealed a triumphant smile. “Understood.”