Susan Mallery: Living On The Edge

Tanner had tried to think of ways to get Blaine off the phone, but it turned out fate had been kind. Now it was just him and Hilliard.

“You must have been worried,” Tanner said.

“Of course. We’ve all been sick. That other company I hired—what a bunch of incompetent asses.”

“I’m sorry you had to go through that.” Tanner leaned back in his chair and prepared to begin the game. “What was the name of the company? The first one you hired.”

“Why do you want to know?”

“People ask me about the competition. I don’t want to recommend someone who can’t do the job.”

Hilliard chuckled. “I doubt you recommend anyone, Keane.”

Interesting. So Hilliard wasn’t going to tell him. Which made Tanner wonder if Madison had been right—maybe there hadn’t been a first company. Maybe Hilliard had simply waited to hire Tanner to make things look more desperate. That would help Blaine come to terms with such a steep ransom.

“How is she? Really, I mean,” Hilliard said. “Madison was never very strong emotionally.”

“Relieved. They beat her up pretty badly.”

“What? No. They wouldn’t have.”

Tanner nodded slowly. Not exactly the normal response of a worried and grieving husband.

“Why would they do that?” Hilliard ask. “They wanted ransom money, not to hurt her. I didn’t think kidnappers hurt their victims. I want those people found. I want them punished for what they did to my wife.”

It wasn’t much of a recovery, Tanner thought, but then maybe he was reading too much into the conversation. Still, it was interesting that Hilliard characterized his wife as emotionally weak. From what Tanner had seen of Madison, she was tough. She’d been through hell, possibly at the hands of her ex-husband, and she was still holding it together.

“Not my line of work,” Tanner told him. “You’ll have to find someone else for that job. Oh, I almost forgot. About the ransom…” He paused deliberately, giving Hilliard time to sweat.

“Yes? It was paid.”

“No. Once I had Madison, I sent my men to intercept it.”

There was only silence. Tanner waited. If Hilliard wasn’t involved and if he hadn’t done it for the money, he wouldn’t care one way or the other.

“Where is the money now?” Hilliard asked, his voice carefully neutral.

But Tanner had been in the business for too long to be fooled. The other man was angry and frustrated. He’d wanted the ransom delivered. Dammit all to hell, he thought grimly. Madison was right. Her ex was in this up to his eyeballs. But how? And why?

Questions to be answered later.

“I’m having the ransom delivered to Mr. Adams at his office. I’ve notified his banker, as well, so he’ll be there to take possession of the money. It’s a lot of cash to have lying around. I wouldn’t want anything to happen to it.”

“You’re very thorough,” Hilliard said, his rage barely concealed.

“That’s what you pay me to be. Speaking of which, you owe me the second half of my fee.”

“Yes. Of course.” Hilliard sucked in a breath. “Where is Madison? Are you having her delivered to her father’s office, as well?”

“That’s a funny thing,” Tanner said, enjoying the moment. “She’s pretty shaken, as you can imagine. Right now she just wants to lay low for a while.”

“What, exactly, does that mean?”

“She’ll be my guest for a few days.”

Hilliard swore. “You can’t do that. You’re just as bad as they are. I suppose we’ll be getting a ransom demand from you, as well.”

“I’m not holding your wife against her will, Mr. Hilliard. This is at her very specific request.”

“I want my wife back immediately. It’s what you were hired to do. If you don’t return her, I’ll go to the police.”

“In your position, that’s what I’d do, as well,” Tanner told him.

“You can’t do this.”

“I just did.”

Tanner hung up the phone and wondered what would happen next. If he and Madison were wrong and Hilliard wasn’t playing a game, he would go directly to the police. But Tanner doubted that was likely. There was something going on—something that had cost Hilliard twenty million dollars.

Christopher did his best to lose himself in work, but it was impossible. Rage interfered with his concentration. How could things have gone so badly?

He knew Madison was responsible. The bitch had been nothing but an impediment for the past three years. He’d married her expecting someone beautiful and brainless to decorate his world. Instead she’d gotten a job, gotten involved and made his life a living hell. She had opinions, damn her.

His phone rang. He wanted to rip it out of the wall, but he forced himself to answer it.

“Hilliard,” he said.

“Ah, Christopher. So glad I caught you.” Blaine Adams rambled on about problems with a circuit board.

Christopher tried to concentrate and offer reasonable suggestions when what he really wanted was to ask the old man how he could be so stupid. Didn’t he realize what was going on in his own company or with his own daughter? Better for Christopher that he didn’t, but how could one person be so unaware?

“Oh,” the older man said when they’d finished the mini brainstorming session. “A very nice young man stopped by earlier with the ransom money. That Mr. Keane said it would be delivered here, and it was. My banker has already taken possession of it. You were right to hire that Mr. Keane. A fine man.”

“One of the best,” Christopher said between clenched teeth. “I’d heard Keane was efficient.”

“And so he was. Now Madison can concentrate on relaxing and getting over this horrible ordeal. You’ll be there for her, won’t you, Christopher?”

“Of course. You know Madison is my life.”

“Yes, yes. It’s a pity she got so headstrong and left. I’m sure it was nothing but a misunderstanding. I’m counting on you to win her back. Show her your soft side. She’ll need that over the next few weeks. Unfortunately my little girl has too much of her mother in her. Little can be done with a weak mind.”

“I love her anyway,” Christopher said.

“I know. You’re a good man. Like a son to me.” Blaine chuckled. “What a cliché. All right, back to work, my boy. The same for me. These problems won’t solve themselves, will they?”

With that, the old man hung up. Christopher slammed the receiver back into place. What he wouldn’t give to get his hands on Madison. He wouldn’t just show her his softer side, as her father had requested, he would strangle the bitch with his bare hands.

How had it all gone wrong? Keane wasn’t supposed to intercept the ransom. Christopher had been counting on that money. He’d needed fifteen of the twenty million for his next payment to Stanislav. The Russian Mafia did not like to be kept waiting. The remaining five million had been to cover his gambling losses. What the hell was he supposed to do now?

He stood, crossed to the credenza against the wall, picked up the vase there and threw it into the closed door. The loud smash followed by the rain of shards on the hardwood floor made him feel better for a brief second or two, but then desperation and panic returned.

He needed the next phase of the jamming system. He’d already arranged a press conference to announce it and if he canceled now, people would talk. Word would travel around the industry that his program was in trouble. No, he had to get the money somehow.

He returned to his desk and glanced at the calendar. There wasn’t much time left. Stanislav had warned him that if he was late again, the Russian would find another buyer. Christopher couldn’t let that happen. He needed the cutting-edge technology and the billions it would bring in to his company and, therefore, to him. He wanted to be the biggest and the best, then he wanted to destroy everyone who had ever said he couldn’t do it.