Equity (Balance Sheet #3) Read online

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. The scanning, uploading and distribution of the book via the Internet or via any other means without permission is illegal and punishable by law. Please purchased only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support for the author’s rights is appreciated. For information address Wicked Truth Publishing.

  First Edition

  Copyright 2014 Shannon Dermott

  All rights reserved.

  THE ONLY AUTHORIZED SELLERS OF THIS WORK OF FICTION ARE AMAZON, BARNES & NOBLE AND KOBO. IF YOU GOT THIS COPY THROUGH ANY OTHER AGENT, PERSON, WEBSITE OR RETAILER, YOU ARE PARTICIPATING IN E-PIRACY.

  Table of Contents

  ONE.. 6

  Chapter Two 9

  THREE.. 12

  Chapter Four 15

  FIVE.. 17

  Chapter Six 20

  SEVEN.. 24

  Chapter Eight 29

  NINE.. 33

  Chapter Ten. 38

  ELEVEN.. 44

  Chapter Twelve 49

  THIRTEEN.. 54

  Chapter Fourteen. 57

  FIFTEEN.. 59

  Chapter Sixteen. 60

  SEVENTEEN.. 71

  Chapter Eighteen. 80

  NINETEEN.. 86

  Chapter Twenty. 93

  Twenty-One. 97

  Chapter Twenty-Two 103

  Twenty-Three. 110

  Chapter Twenty-Four 115

  Twenty-Five. 124

  Chapter Twenty-Six 128

  Twenty-Seven. 136

  Chapter Twenty-Eight 143

  Chapter Twenty-Nine 145

  Chapter Thirty. 154

  Thirty-One. 165

  Chapter Thirty-Two 173

  Thirty-Three. 182

  Chapter Thirty-Four 189

  Thirty-Five. 194

  Chapter Thirty-Six 203

  Thirty-Seven. 209

  Chapter Thirty-Eight 214

  Thirty-Nine. 217

  Chapter Forty. 230

  Chapter Forty-One 235

  Forty-Two. 242

  Chapter Forty-Three 250

  Epilogue. 257

  BONUS CHAPTER – LIZZY.. 267

  DEDICATION & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 274

  ONE

  Time melted away as I projected a calm I didn’t feel. Bailey was in the hands of someone with nothing to lose. Thus far even though hours had passed, they hadn’t contacted anyone that we knew of for ransom. So this was most likely personal. The longer she was gone, the more likelihood, we wouldn’t find her safe.

  Turner’s pacing came to stop. He looked up at me with fathomable eyes that clearly spoke of volumes of love for a woman I claimed as mine.

  “So who’s coming again?”

  I stopped myself from rolling my eyes. I’d already explained this to him, Bailey’s father and then to the council members of the community where she’d grown up. My temper flared, but I tamped it down. He held the same fear I did.

  “Matt,” I gritted. I took a second to breathe before I finished. “Lizzy, Bailey’s best friend from college’s brother.”

  A hand scrubbed over his face before he nodded. “Why would he fly here at a minute’s notice?”

  Frustration welled up in me. I felt the Gaelic words to express myself on my tongue. I held them back even though he wouldn’t understand them. I fought the urge to push back at the guy. It was bad enough she hadn’t chosen me. But to put up with his grilling of me was starting to crack my façade. “She’s his sister’s best friend and a cop,” I repeated in so many words.

  Turner wasn’t a stupid guy. He looked at me man to man, calling me on my bullshit.

  “I think he may have had a thing for her,” I admitted.

  He shook his head as if to say he figured as much.

  “I don’t think anything ever came of it. She’s really close to their family,” I said before I wondered why I was explaining myself.

  After taking a cleansing breath, I opened my eyes to find his brown eyes trained on me. “And a security team from a company you just purchased is picking this Matt up before heading here.”

  “Yes,” I said, my nerves frayed.

  “You bought a company in order to find her?”

  It was my turn to scrub my face in hopes of wiping the grimace off it before I spoke. “No, I escalated the purchase. I’d been looking at the company for a while.” I didn’t tell him that I’d been searching to buy a security firm to bring in-house to combat hackers and help screen future and current employees. I’d completed my due diligence weeks ago but had put off the purchase until I could clear my name of possible charges against me. I didn’t care anymore. I bought it now because it was an asset I could use to find her. He was right about that.

  His eyes conveyed he wasn’t convinced. “Why are you still here? Especially after—.”

  He didn’t have to finish. “Because it’s my problem.”

  A fire blazed in his eyes that mirrored my own. “She’s mine to worried about.”

  There was a part of me that wanted to dispute his claim. “If it weren’t for my company, she wouldn’t be in this situation. Even if it was someone else, I would be involved. I’m responsible.”

  It took a few moments before he nodded. “How long before he shows up?”

  A quick look at my watch revealed it would be soon. “Maybe a half an hour.”

  “Fine. I’m going to take a walk.”

  I watched him go and breathed a sigh of relief. His tension only added to my own. I took the opportunity to answer e-mail on my tablet, after which I made a few phone calls trying not to think about what someone might be doing to my girl. A sobering huff escaped my lips. She wasn’t my girl. She hadn’t chosen me. I wasn’t even sure why I thought I had even stood a chance against a guy she’d known her entire life.

  It was her eyes. The way she gazed at me, even after I showed up. They betrayed her words in every way. I’d had no reason to doubt she would be in my arms. Instead, she’d allowed him…

  With irritation, I pushed back at my hair before stepping outside to find space to breathe. I would never understand women, and I would never let another woman into my heart again. Ever.

  The satellite phone buzzed in my pocket. “Glenn,” I said by way of greeting.

  “ETA, five minutes.”

  Unceremoniously, I clicked the phone off and headed to the path she’d most likely been taken through in the stalks. I decided not to waste time to find Turner. There was nothing he could do anyway. I had to brief the team and get them started fast. Time was not in our favor. It was more like quicksand. We had to find her alive. And although the thought of seeing her unharmed elated me, what I would have to say to her gave me a choking sensation.

  Chapter Two

  Clawing my way to the surface of consciousness was slow. It felt as if I was reaching for a pinprick of light at the end of a very long tunnel. Through it all, I caught snatches of whispered conversation to my left. The words were indistinct and indiscernible. I felt the urge to move my head in that direction to give my ears better chance of making out what was being said. Something stopped me.

  Feeling my limbs stretched out to four corners, I remembered. I’d been outside trying to come to terms with my decision. I’d been trying to come up with how I was go
ing to explain myself to Kalen when I heard a noise. I’d turned too late. An arm clamped around me from behind before I could defend myself. A cloth pressed against my mouth and nose. A smell faintly sickly sweet filled my nostrils. Darkness closed in on me like a shut door to the face. With a lingering thought, I didn’t know if it was the smell or lack of oxygen that claimed me.

  It was a slow cloud that parted leading me into consciousness. Knowing my situation may have been perilous, I didn’t move. I tried to fight the nausea that threatened to overtake me. For once, I needed to be smart. If I was to survive, I needed to figure a way out. With as slight a movement as I could muster, I tested the bonds on my left foot and arm. There was no give. I cracked my eyes opened, and tried to keep my breathing slow and steady.

  My head was faced to the right towards faint light that filtered through heavy drapes. Below the window was a beige AC unit that hummed in the background. Just to the left of the window I spied a door. My guess was I was in a motel of some sort. Where, I had no idea. I also didn’t know how long I’d been out.

  Calming my brain, I tried to listen again to the continued murmurs from the other side of the room. There was no hope. They were doing a good job of being quiet enough so that I couldn’t tell for sure if the voices were female, male or one of each.

  There was no way to know without seeing. Could it have been Mike? Turner and Kalen’s plan had been to lock him in the jail, but maybe they hadn’t caught him. If it was Mike, oh god… I racked my brain trying to figure out whom else. There was another option. Whoever trashed Lizzy’s apartment was more likely the culprit. The words die bitch written on my wall was certainly telling. I wasn’t sure which fate was better, death or the sick things Mike might try. In the end, if he had killed old man Fisher, set fire to Mary’s house, he was capable of kidnaping as well. A quick death at the hands of the people stealing from Kalen’s company sounded like the better option.

  Kalen. It all came back to him. The idea that I might never be able to explain myself hurt so deep I nearly cried. The fact that I thought of Kalen and not Turner first caused me to lose control over the retching that had been threatening since I first woke up.

  Nothing was in my stomach. I gagged uncontrollably at my fear of death and whatever else my unknown enemy had planned for me.

  When I stopped dry heaving, there was silence before movement. There was no need not to look. I turned my head and simultaneously pulled at my bonds. Rope bit into my skin as someone donning a mask filled my vision. The black cat-like disguise covered the person’s head like a sock. Blonde hair that looked too fake to be real sprouted from the top. There were tiny holes at the places where eyes, a nose and a mouth should be. I couldn’t understand how whoever wore it could see or breathe.

  “Pretty,” the cat-like woman purred. Once she was closer, I could take my eyes off her hooded face. I took in the rest of her. She wore a black leotard with what appeared like a tail curling off to the side from the back. What was this?

  A black-gloved hand reached out and stroked hair that had come lose from my bun off my face. “Pretty,” she purred again. I shifted my head as much as I could from her touch. Warning flares shot off in my head. Could this be worse than Mike or the embezzlers? Had I been snatched by someone else at random? Or was Mike the other person in the room?

  Her hand stroked down my cheek, not stopping there. She caressed from my face to my neck and lower still. When she palmed my breast while straddling me, I didn’t even fight the nausea that boiled over in my gut. Her hand left my breast and roughly turned my head to the left at the gagging noise I began to make. Apparently she didn’t want me to choke on my vomit and die. That couldn’t be good. They wanted me to live for what?

  Off in the distance, hidden in the shadows in the back of the room towards what appeared to be a bathroom, was another figure. It was too dark and my panic too much in hyper focus for me to tell if the shape was man or woman.

  I didn’t have to wait long. A voice rang out. “Don’t.” That one word was all I needed. It was familiar.

  THREE

  I took command of the mobile unit that showed up. They parked their truck, which was equipped to rival any Crime Scene Unit, several yards away from the evidence. One of the team members stepped from the back to begin to videotape everything we did. Rulers were set on the ground to measure both the length and width positions of the tread before high quality photos were taken.

  Matt stood next to me watching my security team work. “What did you need me for?” he asked quizzically.

  “I wasn’t sure how good these guys would be. I couldn’t take chances. I needed a point person to oversee and let us know what we should do.”

  He stared at me with cop eyes I couldn’t read. “Did you call the authorities?” he asked, watching my eyes as if to tell if I was lying.

  “What for? It’s a well-known fact that the police don’t do anything about a missing person for 24 hours.”

  He nodded. “What do you know?”

  It wasn’t much. I told him about looking for Bailey. How we searched the grounds and asked around before ending up back here. I pointed to the disturbance in the wheat stalks. We walked over, leaving the lab guys to finish at the tire tread. Just as we approached the opening, Turner stepped through.

  “You didn’t come get me,” he accused.

  “Time was a factor. I assumed you’d appreciate that I was getting my guys on finding Bailey and not you.”

  He caught the dig but didn’t flinch. “You’re Matt,” he said to the other man.

  Matt reached out a hand. “Yeah, you are…”

  “Turner. Bailey’s fiancé,” he announced, taking Matt’s hand in a firm but quick handshake.

  Matt’s head snapped in my direction. I pinched the bridge of my nose. It wasn’t the time for a pissing contest.

  “I appreciate you coming out to help,” he said, his face looking hopeful.

  “There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Bailey,” Matt said.

  This was getting ridiculous. If we didn’t find Bailey soon, none of this posturing would matter.

  “Kalen said you had interest in Bailey.”

  Matt sized up Turner, measuring his response. “I love Bailey.” Matt stopped and let Turner absorb that statement. “Like a sister though. I won’t lie and say I didn’t make a play for her when I finally took my head out of my ass. But Kalen here had already stolen her from me.”

  Had Matt just taken my side? “Matt,” I said, ready to steer this conversation back on task. I pointed to where Turner had just stepped out of stalks as tall as those in the movie Children of the Corn. “This is where we believe he, or whoever it was, came through.”

  The cop moved forward, back in investigation mode. Turner gave me a look I ignored. I understood his need to stake a claim. Hell, I might have done the same if I’d had a leg to stand on. Bailey, however, had made her choice. Instead, I followed Matt, ending up back behind Violet’s house.

  “Whose place is this?” Matt looked between us.

  “Violet’s house. Bailey’s sister. She shares it with her loose cannon of a husband,” I stated, beating Turner to the punch.

  “Loose cannon?” Matt asked.

  I shared the story of the night before. Matt’s frown deepened when I gave him the details of the fire, Violet’s injuries and the scuffle that resulted in Mike’s capture.

  “And you’re sure this guy had nothing to do with Bailey’s disappearance?”

  Turner and I shared a glance. “We checked. He’s still locked up,” Turner offered.

  It was easy to tell Matt wanted to see for himself and maybe interrogate our prisoner. “We’ll take you to him.”

  I called the leader of the security team on the way and instructed him to let me know immediately when they had something. The guys appeared efficient. They gave me an update and suggested looking into video feeds of nearby cameras. Matt waved away my restating of their ideas. He didn’t want to know about such thi
ngs. A cop through and through he was. However, it didn’t seem like he wasn’t going to stand in the way of helping us locate Bailey by any means necessary.

  The building we approached was unassuming from the front. It looked like any other building in the town. Turner opened the door, which wasn’t locked. We stepped inside into what looked like a living room. There were plenty of places to sit and lounge. Having been here before I knew that beyond the next door lay a room with metal cages. Turner opened the door and stopped. Matt and I crowded in behind to see over his shoulder. All three cages were empty.

  Chapter Four

  When my retching subsided, my captor’s hand tightened around my neck. So much for thinking they didn’t want me dead.

  “Play nice with the kitty or you won’t live through the day.”

  I didn’t have time to analyze the other’s voice in the room for the unwelcome touch started to blur my vision. As suddenly as her hand tightened around my neck it loosened. Her other hand appeared holding a syringe.

  The disembodied voice said only a few words before I fell into darkness again. “Not too much.”

  When I woke again all was quiet. Nervously I turned my head slightly to the left. All I could see was a faint glow on the ground. Someone was in the bathroom. Feeling like this might be my only chance I pulled on my bonds more forcefully than the first time. They were taut with very little give. Unable to move anything but my head I started to feel as though there was little hope of my escape.