Chapter Five
Slowly drumming his fingers to the top of his desk, Ivan Konstantinov eyed the man sitting across the glossy wood surface from him. Finally, he let out a breath and folded his hands over his muscular belly. Ivan believed in remaining fit. Too many in his position let themselves go and became fodder for the younger, vicious men looking to move up through the ranks.
“Mr. Brown, where is my money?” he asked softly. Ivan felt no need to yell. He knew showing control was nearly as terrifying to some as losing his cool, as the Americans said. The individual before him was one who flinched at his softly spoken question. Much more effective on this sort, the spineless and completely subservient.
“I don’t have it, sir.” At least the little shit had the balls to lower his head. “I will have it soon, though. I just have to kill the bitch and then cash in on her insurance policy. I took one out, and she didn’t even know it. The payout is two and a half million, and you can have all of it. She just has to die, that’s all.”
Well, that was a new twist. “When exactly did you take out this policy, Mr. Brown?” Knowing this idiot, he did it the moment he met the woman. Anyone with half a brain who looked into her death would know it was a setup. It was truly depressing how short-sighted the man was about such things.
“As soon as I met her. Once I realized she wasn’t the type of chick who would just hand money over when I watched her before taking her out. So I set everything up for the first date. Even got her to sign the paperwork, made her think that it was some sort of receipt she was signing. Moron.” There was pride in his voice.
Ivan steepled his fingers to press them to his lips. He kept his gaze steady on Brown but didn’t miss the eye-roll his top enforcer made from where Brown couldn’t see him.
“I see,” Ivan said when he could control himself entirely. “May I inquire about how you intend to first find Dr. Davenport, and then how you plan to eliminate her?” He may have phrased it as a question, but his tone said that Brown better damn well answer him fully.
“I put a GPS chip in her watch. I know right where she is. Then I’m going to kill her in a car accident. Accidents pay out double,” Brown said with pride. “I just have to go in and get her, and then I will be able to kill her. Easy as pie.”
“Sounds easy enough. What about witnesses? I’m guessing from what my sources have said she must be staying somewhere with someone as she’s not at her residence. What will you do when someone reports seeing you taking her against her will?”
“I can lure her out without any trouble. All I have to do is have her neighbor call her and ask her for help. Her neighbor has a kid, and Hailey will do anything for him. So, I’ll just make sure that happens, and then life is good. You’ll have your money, and we will be clean, right?”
“If you have the money to me by midnight three days from now we will be free and clear. How you intend to get it to me by then is still up in the air, Mr. Brown. Insurance payouts take time,” Ivan pointed out. “Each day you are late my associate will break one of your bones. Since the insurance companies can sometimes take years to make a payout depending on their investigation, you will be in considerable pain having had your bones broken more than once. So how exactly, Mr. Brown, do you intend to get me my money in three days’ time?”
“This company specializes in fast turnaround claims. They are far less on the up and up than other businesses. I will have the cash by then, I swear. Besides, you will be getting a bonus of half a million on top of everything else. So that’s worth waiting another day or so, right?”
Lifting a brow, Ivan stared at the man for a long time. He waited until the man began to squirm in his seat. “I will give you two additional days due to the bonus you are generously giving the organization. But know this, Mr. Brown.” Pushing to his feet Ivan strolled around his desk until he stood next to the man’s chair. In a swift move, he had his hand at the man’s throat, and his fingers digging in around the windpipe, putting pressure on the jugular. “If that money is not on my desk in five days my associate will come for you. He will bring you to a building I own. Once there you will never leave it still breathing. You will not leave it in one piece either. Do. We. Understand. Each. Other?”
Mr. Brown gulped, and he nodded. “Yes, sir. I understand. Fully. I will make sure to have your money for you, sir. Thank you for allowing me the additional time, sir.”
He stepped back to adjust his cuffs. “Don’t forget it, Brown. Now leave. Do not return without my money. Should your plan fail, don’t attempt to run. We will find you, and we will make you pay for the aggravation. Go,” he ordered, pointing to the door.
When Brown scuttled out of the office, Ivan looked to his man. “Follow him. Don’t let him see you, but ensure he stays on task. Report to me every four hours. Take three others with you so you don’t tire yourselves.”
“Yes, Mr. Konstantinov.” Ivan appreciated the gleam in his enforcer’s eye. The man would get his pound of flesh soon enough. Brown was not the sort to actually accomplish anything himself. If he wanted the girl dead the man would likely hire out the heavy lifting to another.
****
Owen walked out into the pool, ready to be in and out, only to find Hailey swimming right towards him. She seemed to float through the water so effortlessly, that he hated to disturb her. However, it was imperative. As he called out her name, she stopped mid-stroke, and looked up and over at him. He nodded his head back, indicating that she needed to come with him. With a quick reply, she swam over to the stairs.
“So, what did you want to see me about? Other than you missed me.” He saw her teasing laughter and liked it. He felt a little sorry for interrupting her swim, but she needed to see what he found..
“I did miss you, but I have something I want to show you,” he said. “I found it when I was digging around. It sticks out a bit so I thought I’d run it past you before I mentioned it to the others.” Owen looked around and shook his head. “How you managed to talk them into letting you down here is beyond me. Those two are so by-the-book I swear they have a copy stashed up their wazoos.” Mikhail and Lincoln always had been the sort to carefully color within the lines while the rest of the team were more expressive. Not all were wildcards like James, or Thomas, but a variety of levels in comparison to the two men who attempted to keep them all in line. Often to great futility.
“James and Thomas were my guards today. The other two are taking naps,” she said with a grin. “Besides, I missed you and wanted to see you, so it’s unfair to keep me from you, right? Oh, and Nolan is outside the door waiting for me, too.”
Owen knew that. He’d passed the other man on his way in. Bastard looked terribly rested considering he’d been on night watch. Or should have been. “Well, let’s get you upstairs so I can show you what I found. I have a feeling about your answer already, but I need to be sure before we do anything about it.”
“Now you have me all sorts of worried. Are you sure you don’t want to tell me now about what might be happening? Will you talk to me while we walk together? I am able to speak and walk at the same time you know.” Her hand slipped into his, and he liked how it felt, having her holding him the way she was. The trust she put into him.
“It’s nothing we can’t easily fix, but it was a red flag during my searches,” he said quietly as they moved. Nolan fell in behind them munching on an apple, the crunch loud in the hush of the lower level hallway. “It’s best if I show you instead of attempting to explain.” Pressing the button for the elevator, he squeezed her fingers gently, and gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile.
“Okay, I trust you.” She walked along at his side, moving in a bit closer to him as they walked. “I want to be able to let go, and I think that with you I can do that. I feel more and more relaxed with having you and Nolan with me. I kind of like that. That I’m able to give in and know you will catch me. Like with what you are doing right now. Whatever you have to show me, I know that it’s going to freak me out. Heck, I already feel freaked out, but I know it will be okay because I have you both with me.”
There she went once more talking a mile a minute. Owen had to grin. He wanted to quiet her by kissing her but wasn’t so sure how she would feel about that.
He settled on lifting their joined hands so he could press a kiss to her fingers. “We aren’t going anywhere, Hailey. We’ll be right beside you through this, and whatever else is to come your way.” Another kiss to her fingers as the elevator opened into the suite. He stepped forward, gently drawing her into the room. Owen took her right to where the computers stood at the ready.
“Sit,” he told her. He waved her into the chair he normally occupied. Once she was settled he woke the computers up, and pointed to the one. On the screen was a life insurance policy in her name. The truly scary part in Owen’s mind was the name of the beneficiary on the forms. He’d also have to tell her about the company behind issuing the policy. They were not what he would call an honest Abe, completely trustworthy.
Hailey just looked at the screen for several minutes. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she didn’t say anything. Her hands tightened into fists. “Tell me that this can be reversed? I don’t want this fucker to have anything from me. Nothing.”
Wow, she’d dropped an F-bomb, something he realized she didn’t do, unless she was really mad.
Drawing her up, he took the seat and pulled her onto his lap. Owen wrapped his arms around her and squeezed. “I can reverse the electronic files. We’ll have to slip into their offices to deal with all paper copies, but it’s easy enough to do. Their security system is a joke. We need to send a notification to the ex that the policy has been canceled. There’s no way he can afford to reinstate it, especially if we make it appear like you went in to cancel it without actually ever being there. That’s a little trickier, but it’ll give me something to do.”
Hailey nuzzled in closer to Owen and held onto him. He liked that she clung to him like she did. “And you are sure he won’t be able to reinstate it, right? Is there anything that I can do? Like, put an alert on my credit file or something?” He could tell that she knew they didn’t work like that. “Only do this if it won’t be too much for you. If you know that it won’t keep you away from me. I mean, I would like to get to know you better, see what makes you tick and such.”
“I won’t be going anywhere,” he assured her. Stroking her hair gently he pressed a kiss to her temple. “We’ll send the guys that are bored to do a little B&E. It will get them out of our hair for a time, and will let them expend a bit of energy as well. It’s either that or we start to worry about them water bombing people in suits.” He shook his head at her questioning look. “Don’t ask.” Brushing a kiss to her cheek, he squeezed her closer. “Go wash your face while I get rid of the first bit of this. I need to brief the others on what they need to collect from the office as well.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. “Okay, thank you.” She leaned in to give him a gentle kiss on his cheek. “As I’ve told Nolan, I’m not opposed to you washing my back.” With that parting line, the little vixen took off and headed for the bathroom.
Grinning, he shook his head. “If you stay in there long enough I’ll join you,” he called after her. A soft laugh was the only acknowledgment he got that she’d heard him. Once the door to the bathroom was shut Owen gave Nolan a nod.
The other man moved to get the other guys into the space quickly. “She knew nothing about the policy. My guess is, at least from what I’ve discovered about the shady business practices of this firm, the ex is going to bump her off for the payment. It’s how he’ll pay the mob back. This company is not a very reputable insurance company, so they were likely thinking that they would get some money out of the deal as well. I know originally he was planning to pass her off to the Russians as collateral, but I think he’s since changed his mind. I’m thinking that he wants money, which is why the policy. He’ll kill her off and then pay off the mob, the insurance company, and have cash left over for himself, and given he put this into place the night after their one and only date seems a little coincidental.”
“Why didn’t he go after her before this?” Gareth asked. “She was out in the open, and had almost no protection.”
“No clue. My guess is that the mob decided to change the rules on Brown. Another guess would be they may have had someone watching her and saw us come into town. They would have known getting to her was a slim chance at best.”
“Makes sense,” Nolan said.
“Not really,” Mikhail muttered. When everyone looked his way, the big guy shrugged. “The Russian mob are not exactly forgiving in nature. It’s rare they ever change their minds once something is set in motion.”
Owen glared at the man, but oddly it made a sick sort of sense. “I need a few of you to get into the offices of this joint. Find the hard copies of the policy, and bring them out. I’m also going to give you a file number I need you to pull. It has some forms in it I need since they’ll have signatures. These guys do as little work as possible for the biggest payout from what I have found so far.” Passing over a sheet of paper he also gave Gareth the office layout. “The security system is simple. You could do it in your sleep with both hands tied behind your back. They are all about the show, but little substance. I’ll delete all the electronic stuff from this end, and then create a new file once I have a copy of the sheet from that folder I gave you the number for.”
“We should stop for burgers,” Thomas said. “On the way there, or back, I’m not really picky. I saw an ad for a place not far from these offices that have this monster burger. Triple patties, cheese, and bacon.”
“Fucking hell, Thomas. Now I’m hungry,” Gareth bitched. “Fine, let’s gear up and we’ll go get burgers. Leave these two,” he pointed to Owen and Nolan, “to tend to their woman. How’s that going by the way?”
Owen flipped him the bird and noticed Nolan doing the same from his peripheral vision. “Get the fuck out of here,” he said. Shaking his head, he turned his attention to wiping out the electronic copies of the files while the guys debated fries with gravy over fries with salt and vinegar.