Chapter 11
After several days with nothing else out of the ordinary, Kai wondered if they’d scared off her stalker. Then she remembered the note on the window. As she walked into the office, Tyson at her side, she said in a low voice, “Is he just waiting for us to make a move, to slack off our security, or do you think there’s any chance you guys scared him away?”
“Probably the first two. But does that mean he’s given up? I can’t say.”
“Neither can you sit here babysitting me all the time. As much as I love spending time with you, you can’t just stay here forever. You have a job to do. And it’s not babysitting me for nothing.” She deliberately avoided looking at him. He wasn’t getting paid to do this. That was fine and dandy for a day or two. But they were now five days in.
“I doubt he’ll let it go much longer.”
“Let what go much longer?”
“Let you off the hook for hanging around me. It’s eating away at him, making him miserable and angry. Then he’ll want to punish you for cheating on him.”
Kai gave him an outraged look. “I what?”
He nodded. “You and I know that’s not what you are doing. That doesn’t mean he agrees with us.”
“It’s such a bizarre feeling to think somebody out there is keeping track of my every move.”
“But he is. Even if he’s gone to ground for a few days.”
“It’s so damn frustrating. I want an enemy I can target, somebody you can go after. This hiding away in the background to jump out in the dark is not cool.”
Tyson chuckled. “You sure you don’t just want me gone?”
“Hell no. I wouldn’t mind having a vacation where we could take off, really enjoy ourselves,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him. “It’s fun playing house, but there’s always that pressure in the background.”
“Hopefully he’ll make a move soon.”
She walked into the office to find a definite edge in the atmosphere. She frowned. Tommy was here but avoided looking at her. She walked over and asked him, “What’s going on?”
He hunched his shoulders and said, “Please don’t ask me.”
She studied him for a long moment, glanced around and said, “Where is Warren?”
“In his office.”
She knocked on the door twice but got no answer. When there was no sound from inside, she knocked again harder. The door was flung open, and Warren stood with anger in his face. “If I don’t answer the door, maybe it’s because I don’t want to talk to you.”
She stepped back, surprised at his anger. She studied his face. “What’s going on?”
He thrust his chin at her. “You’ll find out when my lawyer contacts you. Until then, leave me the hell alone.” And he slammed the door in her face.
She stared at the door blankly, then turned to Tyson. “I have no idea why he’s upset.”
With a quick look around, she realized the others studiously kept their faces focused on their desks. And she realized it probably had something to do with her ownership buyout. “Like I need this now,” she said half under her breath. On the other hand, there was no good time.
“It needs to be solved one way or another,” Tyson said quietly.
She snorted as they walked to her corner office. She turned on her computer, waited until it booted up and checked her email. Tyson stood behind her, not prying. She brought up her emails to see one from her lawyer with the terse message, Call me.
She pulled out her cell phone, dialed his number and walked over to the boardroom. With Tyson standing at the door, she sat down in the empty room and waited for her lawyer to answer. When he did, he burst out, “Why did you go to the media?”
Shocked, she said, “Go to the media with what?”
“You know. You completely destroyed your partner in the media, called him all kinds of names. I’ve been hearing about it all morning from his lawyer.”
She stood, walked closer to Tyson. “What the hell are you talking about? I haven’t spoken to any media.”
Her lawyer was silent for a moment and asked, “Are you serious?”
“Yes, I’m serious. Maybe you should send me whatever it is I was supposed to have done. Because, as of right now, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Somebody hates you in a big way.”
She froze, turned slowly to look at Tyson and said, “Well, somebody does hate me, but it’s a police matter, and we certainly haven’t been able to ID who it is.”
Her lawyer’s tone turned brisk. “Talk to me. Why haven’t I heard about this before?”
“It’s my stalker and didn’t involve my company, so I didn’t tell you about it,” she said bluntly. “It’s a police matter.” She took a deep breath and explained further. When she finally ran out of words, she could almost hear the wheels of her lawyer’s head turning.
“That explains it. Somebody’s manipulating your life, that’s for sure. I don’t know how you can get out of this one because I doubt your partner will believe anything you say.”
“Well, he should know better. It’s also my company. Why would I do anything that would hurt our own sales?”
“I hear you. But his lawyer is pissed.”
“I think it’s his job to be pissed for no reason,” she snapped in frustration. “I’ve got nothing to apologize for because I didn’t do anything. The fact that I’m being targeted is not my fault.” She hung up the phone and sat down in a boardroom chair. “Christ, this is so stupid.”
With Tyson asking some pointed questions, she got the story out. As she finished, Warren strode across the floor.
“I want you to get the hell out of this building.”
Tyson stepped between the two of them, his arms crossed.
Warren sneered. “Sure, go sleep with the help, why don’t you? Just so you could get a bodyguard. You probably made all the shit up, just to bring more drama into your life. What you did this morning was completely off the wall.”
She wanted to argue, but it didn’t make any sense. She didn’t know what she was supposed to have done, but she could imagine. “You are accusing me of having done something I didn’t do, and now you won’t listen to me.”
“Because nothing you say will make me believe you.”
She slowly said, “Then I guess it is time to dissolve our business association.”
“You can buy me out,” he said. “My lawyers are talking to your lawyer now.”
She snorted. “Really? It might be a little hard to come up with that kind of money.”
“Then we should shut down, and we’ll both lose big time.”
“So that means you’re not interested in buying me out?”
He shook his head. “This was a failing company when you joined. We’re a sinking ship right now. And after what you’ve done to it today, it’s really not worth anything. I’m not taking any more losses. Same price you bought in, buy me out, or we have to dissolve it as it stands.” Then Warren stalked back to his office, slamming his door.
Sounded like a lot of money lost and a lot of jobs out the windows. She sat, watching the sunrise for a long time. Finally she phoned her lawyer again and asked, “What’s going on?”
“He’s looking for a buyout. Same price you bought in.”
“I don’t have it,” she said bluntly. “See if you can get back some of my investment.” She hung up, stood and faced Tyson. “I need to go for a walk.”
He never said a word. They walked back to her computer. She quickly logged out, shut it down, grabbed her purse and walked outside.
She walked for what seemed like hours, her mind stewing, trying to find a way through. Warren had likely been on the edge of doing this for a long time now. Since Mark’s death. That Mark had left his shares to her had finished Warren. It had all come down at the same time, giving her the control that Warren had never planned on handing over—which was the final straw. She’d been fascinated with the potential the company had right from the beginning. And she certainly wasn’t against being the sole owner, but getting there was a different issue. Warren wanted a buyout. But it was still more money than she had. Going to the bank for that kind of money was likely impossible as well.
She walked to a coffee shop, picked up two coffees, one for each them, and came back outside. “Thanks for walking with me,” she said quietly as she took a seat at one of the outdoor tables.
He shrugged. “Sometimes it’s the best thing we can do. Life isn’t always fun or nice. Right now you apparently have a little more trouble than most people.”
She nodded. “Since the stalker can’t get at me personally, he’s getting at me professionally. Very smart.”
Tyson nodded slowly. “That would make sense.”
She slouched back in her chair and stared off, her mind still not locking on to anything in particular. Another heavy sigh broke free. She reached up and rubbed her temple. “Well, it’s not how I expected my day to go.”
“It’s been a rough week.”
She gave a snort. “Yes, it has. But I can’t see a way out of this one.”
“That’s because you’re not looking.”
Startled, she stared at him. “What did I miss?”
“A world full of money out there. Contact your investors.”
“Oh, I’ve done that before. But today I don’t have the means to put up any assets for collateral, nor do I really want any other partners after this mess with Warren. Unless he’s willing to drop his price, I can’t go it alone.”
“Well, he sees his company as in trouble. He wants to sell, so a good lawyer will pressure him to take half of what he’s asking for.”
A text came in just then. She looked at it and said, “The lawyer again.” She read the message. Basically what she already knew. She sent back a quick text. I can’t pull off that buy-out figure, but that’s more doable. Pressure him into selling at half of that, but I’ll still need some help raising the money.
She hit Send and sat back. “Even at half of Warren’s asking price, I sure don’t have that kind of money.”
“Do you know Logan?”
She frowned. “Yeah. His dad is a bigwig in the military.”
Tyson nodded. “He’s retired now.”
She nodded. “Logan and Flynn were buddies.”
“They still are.”
“And why does it matter right now?”
“Logan’s dad invests in all kinds of things.”
She studied Tyson for a long moment. “Like loans?”
Tyson smiled. “It depends on which deal is better, as an investor or as a loan.”
“I have no idea which way to go. There’s a hell of a difference between having a business partner versus a loan payment.”
He nodded. “I suggest we do something fun for the rest of the day. Give your mind a break.”
She shook her head. “I can’t do that. I have a bunch of phone calls to make, people to contact to smooth over whatever damage the media did today. Plus, I’m supposed to do a training session tomorrow, which I should probably cancel. Not to mention we have other tools I need to be pushing too.”
“Have you checked your emails or text messages?”
“Only my lawyer’s. I have his set to a certain ring tone so I know when he contacts me. The rest, well, it’s been going off at a steady rate.” At that, she picked up her phone, checked her Message screen and held it up so he could note her twenty-two unread messages.
He nodded. “Then let’s go back to the office. Business is business. Whether it’s rain or shine, it’s still business.”
Back at the office the staff was working hard and avoided looking at her. Warren’s office door was locked, and the lights were out, so she turned to Tommy. “Has he left for the day?”
Tommy nodded.
She headed to her office, sat down and proceeded to get to work.
No one else said a word. It was a very uncomfortable few hours, but she had so much work to do, it didn’t matter. She kept her head down and her focus on what she was doing. By the time she got through the emails and texts with apologies and simple explanations, she felt like somebody had put her through an old wringer washer. The entire time Tyson sat beside her on his phone.
She didn’t have a clue what he was doing, but she had to trust he was doing something useful.
The staff stayed quiet, working with their heads down, focusing on their work, making her realize just how strained and awkward her work environment had become.
Did she want to keep the company? Could she work with these people? Tommy probably. Not sure of the others. Did she want to have their livelihoods in her hands? It was more than she needed to deal with right now. But, if that was the case, then what? What would she do? She’d put a ton of money into this company.
She couldn’t afford to lose it, so she would continue limping along. And buy out Warren. Of course for a lot less now …
At the end of the day, Tommy got up and walked out, followed by the other staff—as if they had waited to go as a group. She wanted to say goodbye, but, since they didn’t say anything to her, she let them walk out in silence.
Her phone rang. “Hello, Levi.” She sat back with a tired sigh and asked, “Any news?”
“No, but as a smear campaign goes, this one has been relatively short. I spoke to several people who said they’d heard rumors that your company was in financial trouble but didn’t have any sources to back up the rumors.” He cleared his throat. “We did find something odd. One person did say they heard that you might have had something to do with Mark’s death.”
Too shocked to speak, silence filled the phone until she said, “Dear God. He was my friend.”
“And you gained his shares …”
“How sad anybody would even consider that,” she said. “People need to find something nice to focus on.”
“Not going to happen as long as something juicy is there to chew on instead.”
She gave a broken laugh, but inside her heart broke to think anyone could say that about her and Mark. “Well, hopefully this will die out fast too, and I can go back to being anonymous. This kind of directed attention is not my thing.”
Levi’s tone was quiet and empathetic as he said, “No, none of us wants to have the spotlight turned on us like this.” After a pause, he said, “Tyson said this has caused a breach in your partnership. Is that correct?”
“You could say that. But obviously there has been a crack in the relationship for a long time. Warren didn’t like how he had to sell out to me. But he could live with it as he still had a controlling interest. When Mark died, I got his shares and the balance of power shifted. Warren’s attitude changed completely. Then he became quite negative and disruptive.”
“Any chance he did any of this?” Levi asked. “We’re checking into Warren and Mark’s relationship. And still investigating Mark’s accident.”
Her eyes popped open. “I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t know why he would. He stands to make a lot of money if we can hold this company together and move forward.”
“But, if he doesn’t like the corporate structure, doesn’t believe in you and the situation he’s gotten himself into, maybe he just wants out.”
She leaned back and rubbed her neck. “It’s possible. I just don’t know how I can come up with that kind of money.”
“Another reason I’m calling. I spoke to Gunner. I don’t know if you know him.”
“Logan’s father. Tyson mentioned him.”
“Yeah, he wants to meet with you. At least talk to you. Look at options.”
“I’m not sure I’m ready to take on another investor,” she said slowly. “I put a lot of my heart and soul into this company last year. It’s really shitty timing.”
“Maybe, and maybe he’d give you a loan instead. That would be the best. The product you guys came up with is huge. I know men who would like to invest. But, if you don’t want investors, I get it.”
“I have no idea at this point,” she said. “I have to talk to a few people and see what’s the best way to go.”
“Talk to Gunner. I trust him. He wouldn’t rip you off. He’s been around the block a few times. You could use the advice right now.”
She thanked Levi and put her phone on the desk. “Gunner wants to talk to me.”
Tyson glanced at her in surprise. “You know? That’s one of the things I like about Levi. Something gets mentioned, and, no questions asked, he is on it. He’s a doer, not just a thinker.”
She gave a slow smile. “Is Gunner trustworthy?”
“I’ve never done business with him directly, so I can’t say. But I’ve never heard anything other than good words about him.”
She looked at the name and number Levi had given her. “I guess it can’t hurt to talk to the man.” She called and was transferred to Gunner immediately. Under the circumstances, all agreed to a short phone conversation for the moment. When she hung up, she stood and said, “Gunner’s got good insights. I’ll consider some of his suggestions. For now I need to get out of here.”
“Good timing. It’s after six anyway.”
“Really?” She checked her watch and shook her head. “Well, I didn’t expect that. I had no idea so much time had gone by.”
“That happens when you’re having fun,” Tyson said with a smile as he stood and waited for her to collect her stuff. He wandered around the other desks. “Do you know these men’s histories? Do you know anything about them? Before buying into the company, did you research the intellectual property of the owners and employees? The brainpower working for a company is important. Did you know one of them used to be military?”
She nodded. “Larry, I think.”
“He was a paratrooper, and, according to a lot of people I contacted about him, he was very good at getting in and out of places he wasn’t supposed to.”
Her footsteps faltered as she made her way to the front door. She turned and looked at him. “As in that note on my living room window? As in getting into my bedroom?”
“Both are possible. What if this wasn’t about stalking you personally? What if it was more a case of Warren and Larry working together to get you to sell out? Hoping you’d ask him to buy you out at a serious discount so you could leave town?”
“He didn’t have the money then. How would he have any now? Besides he’s never said anything to me about it.”
“You don’t know where he sits financially. And that might have been the original plan until something changed. Let’s just ask Ice to look into Warren’s current financial status. It might explain why he now wants to sell.”
She shook her head. “I’m not following you. How does any of this explanation make sense? Why create the ugly media storm?”
“Maybe to increase the pressure on you?” Tyson shrugged. “To devalue the company? He needed money before, so he was forced to accept you as a co-owner. But, when you took over Mark’s shares, that business relationship has quickly deteriorated. Now that you have a stalker, maybe he thought you’d gladly sell and leave town. Now that the police are involved, any number of other issues could arise, including background checks into him and his personal life. Maybe he realizes he’s in danger of getting caught for having done something criminal. And now he just wants out. If he can get you to buy him out at the same rate that you paid last time, he can take his money and run. With any luck, he could avoid jail time too for whatever he’s done.”
She turned to stare at Warren’s office. “You think he got Larry to help?”
“Or what if he got Larry’s help in the beginning, only his help took on a life of its own?”
She stared at Tyson. “Oh, boy. That’s …”
He nodded. “It’s all conjecture. But nothing has been normal about Warren’s behavior. And now that we know he has somebody working for him with the skills necessary to do everything that’s been done so far …”
“You’ll check to see if Larry has a criminal record? If he’s ever been in any kind of difficulties with girlfriends, ever had any kind of assault charges dropped, anything like that?”
“Levi and Ice are looking into it further. And his military record. We’ll get answers soon,” Tyson promised.
She shook her head. “It won’t be soon enough.” They walked out of the office, turned and locked it behind them. She stood at the door and said, “We can access Warren’s computer, you know. I do own fifty-one percent of the company. Everything in there is mine, in terms of getting any information off the hard drives.”
Tyson gave her a ghost of a smile. “Already in progress.”
She groaned. “Maybe I don’t want to know.”
At that he laughed and led her out into the sunshine. “Maybe you don’t.”
*
As long as developments were ongoing, Kai had no need to get too worried about the lack of progress. But Tyson had to admit he wanted to get the asshole stalking her. Warren was Tyson’s prime suspect, but just because he was extremely disagreeable didn’t mean he was the guilty party.
“Are we going home to cook? Or do you want to go to a restaurant? Or shall we pick up a picnic and head someplace quiet?”
“The last one,” she said immediately. “Maybe that will still the noise in my mind.”
“No, it won’t. But it might help calm it down.”
They walked to a sandwich place a couple blocks away, ordered what they each wanted. A small grocery store was next door where Tyson picked up several pieces of fruit and bottles of water. Back at the vehicle Tyson said, “You okay if I drive?”
She nodded and got into the passenger side with the to-go bags. “If you have a place in mind, then let’s go there.”
He had a couple places. He chose one less traveled, but knew Levi and Ice could track the vehicle and would know where they were. When he pulled up to the small empty parking lot, he motioned toward the water in front of them. “I found this place just after I arrived.”
“Perfect.” She grabbed their meal, her sweater, locked her purse in the glove box and hopped out. They walked to the water’s edge and sat down. She tilted her face toward the sun and smiled. “I thought things were going so well until today.”
“Shit happens for no reason. And you just have to make your way through it.”
She gurgled with laughter and turned to look at him. “Now that’s a good saying.”
He gave her a lopsided grin, loving the brightness in her expression coming back. It was tough to see somebody you cared about sink into quagmires of stress. “And, if you’re up for it, at least consider what Logan’s father could do for you.”
“I have to talk to my investment advisor to see what he says too.” She stared mutely at the water, picked up a small rock beside her and tossed it into the surface. As she watched the ripples spread outward, she said, “I knew Warren wouldn’t be the easiest to deal with, but Mark was great, so I figured it was worth it. Then Mark died …”
“I know.”
“It makes no sense that Warren would want out right now,” she said. “If you think about it, we have a good product. Once we take it to the game market, it’ll be massive. Why does Warren want to get out before he makes a ton of money?”
She had a good point. One he couldn’t quite come up with an answer to. “You know what’s going on in his personal life?”
She shook her head. “He divorced a couple years ago, pitched a fit because of the settlement, and he’s had a couple girlfriends but nothing serious since.”
Tyson frowned. “I think we need to understand his motive. It’s possible he’s being threatened. It’s possible your stalker got to both of you. But that would certainly not fit the mold of a generic stalker.”
“I’m so afraid something is wrong with the software on one of the products, or we don’t own the patents we’re supposed to. That a house of cards is about to collapse in my face.”
He looked at her sharply. “You need to find out fast. Because, if he knows something like that and isn’t telling you …”
She nodded, pulled out her phone and sent her lawyer a detailed message. When done, she dropped the phone beside her and said, “God, I hate this shit.”
He linked her fingers with his. “How about chewing on the problems by eating something? Give the acid in your stomach something else to work on besides itself.”
She stared at the packages beside her. “Do you remember whose sandwich was whose?”
He pulled out one with her initials on the top and handed it to her. She opened it and took several bites. “Oh, my gosh, this is good,” she moaned. She glanced at his. “Yours is laced with jalapenos. How could you possibly taste the rest of the ingredients?”
He couldn’t answer as his mouth was full. When he finished the bite and swallowed, he said, “I love spicy food.”
“I like spicy food as long as some flavor still goes with the heat.”
When he’d eaten most of his sandwich, he reached for a bottle of water and took a big swig. His phone rang. He pulled it out and pressed the Speaker button. “Levi, what’s up?”
“Warren is planning to leave the country. He’s booked flights out of Dallas in six days.”
Kai’s eyebrows shot up. “Why not Houston?”
“No idea. The bigger question is, where is he going?” Tyson said.
“Per his office computer he’s been searching for data on living as an ex-pat in Thailand and also for disappearing completely,” Levi said.
“What if the company doesn’t own one of the patents it’s supposed to own, or something illegal is going on?”
“We’re tugging those lines and will call if we find something,” Levi said. “But does that make him the stalker?”
“Not necessarily. Not if he’s trying to leave the country,” Tyson said.
“A lot of buy-out money is at stake,” Kai added. “Something very serious must be going on if he’s leaving without getting his money back.”
When Levi hung up, Kai could feel the fear coming off her shoulders in waves. “Holy crap. Did I really make a bad investment?”
“Did you do your due diligence research?”
She nodded. “Definitely. But, if Warren’s a lying, cheating, stealing fraud, then maybe I missed something.”
“Give Levi a chance to dig around. It’s not the first time he’s seen things like this.” Tyson shrugged. “At this point it is just guesses though.”
“And that’s very frustrating,” she said.
He nodded, handing her a bottle of water. “You’re not alone. Remember that.”
With the news from Levi, Tyson had to admit too many bad options were possibly working right now that they weren’t even aware of yet. And he wasn’t feeling terribly comfortable with any of them. Warren was a sleazebag, but that didn’t make him a criminal. If he was involved, something had spooked him. There was no other reason to sell his shares, take less than they were worth, right before a huge payday. Fear was a hell of a motivator. Guys like Warren were weak and easy to manipulate. So the real question was, what the hell was really going on with the stalker? And did Warren have anything to do with it?
She bounced to her feet and was suddenly at his side. “Let’s walk. I feel like a sitting duck here.”
He packed up their garbage and headed with her to walk the path. He kept watch but saw nothing.
As they neared the parking lot, he heard a single hard crack. Immediately he tucked her behind him, and they pressed up against a group of trees.
“Now my stalker has a gun?” Kai whispered.
“But so do I,” Tyson said in a hard voice. He reached down and pulled out a small handgun out of his ankle holster and handed it to her. “Now so do you.”
She stared at it for a long moment, then snatched it out of his hand. “Damn. When I left the military I’d hoped this life was over.”
“The way the world is these days, that life might never be over. If you don’t have a handgun use my spare until we can get you one.” He searched their surroundings but found nothing out of the ordinary. “He’s escalating, like we thought he would.” Through the woods he spotted their SUV, alone in the parking lot. No one else was around. They waited, but nothing more happened. Telling Kai to stay put, he raced to the vehicle for a closer look. He called Levi. “Someone shot out one of the tires.”
“Damn. Stay hidden,” he said. “Calvary’s coming.”
Staying hidden wasn’t exactly what he wanted to do, but no way could he leave Kai alone. He couldn’t take that chance. There was no way to know if the shooter was working alone or had someone coming up behind them even now. He raced back to her. “Levi’s coming. The vehicle has a tire shot out.”
She looked pale but didn’t say a word. That was something else he really liked about her. She was good people—solid, dependable, never got into a frenzy during an emergency.
On the highway he caught sight of a vehicle on the shoulder. He motioned toward it, asking if she could make out more than the fact it was a truck.
She studied it, then shook her head. “Just a truck to me.”
He pulled out his phone and called Ice. “A truck’s sitting on the highway just past the turnoff to the park. Can you bring it up on satellite and get an ID?” He studied the horizon, catching sight of another rooftop. “There is also a car.”
“On it. Levi should be there within ten minutes,” Ice said.
“Was he in town?”
“He’s been in town most of the day,” she said. “Found them. Now I’ll work on getting the license plates.” Then she said suddenly, “Have to go.”
He put away his phone. “Ice confirmed a car and a truck are up there. She’s trying to get an ID on both.”
“Any chance my stalker hijacked the GPS on Levi’s SUV and is following us?”
“He doesn’t really have to. He put his own tracker on it. I found it yesterday.”
She spun and stared at him with outrage. “You didn’t tell me.”
He turned a flat stare at her. “What was the point? You have enough to worry about.”