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“How long?” Gage asked.
Carter shrugged. “Tough to substantiate but in my opinion, weeks.”
I shook my head. “Jesus Christ. It could be anything. Does it have a color or bad taste?”
“Contrary to other poisons, it does not.”
Half laughing, I thought about everything he’d told me. “Then I guess we still have our work cut out for us.”
“What are the symptoms?” Gage asked.
“Likely exhaustion in the beginning. Nausea. Vomiting. The odd thing is I think in your father’s case, his heart couldn’t take anything else. But I won’t be certain until a few additional tests come back. However, the cause is linked to the poisoning. If the source can be found,” Carter continued, “you’ll have your murderer.”
“We need to contact my father’s assistant and determine if his coffee and tea were separate orders.”
“Good idea,” Braxton said.
“If I find something that could be the cause, can you have it tested?” I asked Carter.
“Yes, but even that will take a little time. My lab isn’t set up for that. But I’ll have my buddy at the FBI on standby.”
“Good,” I hissed. “I will find the asshole one way or another.”
“Remember if either of you feel nauseous, you should have it checked out,” Carter offered.
Gage lifted his eyebrows. “But by then it would already be too late. Yes?”
Carter hesitated and all three of us knew the answer. If we’d ingested any, we could be dead men.
I glanced at my two brothers. How the hell were we going to get through this?
And what exactly would we do when we discovered all the ugly secrets?
Selena
I continued fretting over the laptop, but I was almost there. I was almost through the maze, unlocking the lion’s share of the protected data. Or so I hoped. I was ready to pull my hair out and I only had an hour or so before I needed to leave for the fitting.
I’d almost cracked the file his father had put together. I’d never seen anything like it, the encryption not only multi-layered with security measures but also with layers of information. Even with a certain number of skills, it had proven to be a bear. I typed in another code, expecting another chirping sound, which meant I was way off base.
Huffing, I dropped my head into my hands. When I heard a different sound, I slowly glanced at the screen.
Holy shit. I’d broken into the damn thing. As files began to pop up, I was overly excited, shifting my gaze from one side to the other. Whatever Sebastian had been working on he’d been doing for well over a year.
And he hadn’t confided in his three sons?
After a few minutes, I jerked up and headed to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. Now we were getting somewhere.
As soon as I sat back down, I thought about calling Valerio but was determined to find something solid first.
As I searched the files, my eyes landed on one named ‘Sons.’ I was almost hesitant to open it but when I did, I was almost instantly sad. He’d written a letter to them collectively. I almost felt as if I was snooping by opening it but I knew that’s what Valerio would want me to do. When I did, I was struck by the date. He’d written it almost two months before.
Reading it was haunting, but it was obvious how much he loved his children and his wife. I closed my eyes at the end, realizing he’d predicted his death. He’d felt it. He’d had his doctors searching for a poison, but nothing had been found.
“Whew,” I whispered and was more than eager to continue. I opened file after file, realizing Sebastian had been amassing inconsistencies for a couple of years with finances and issues with bank accounts. Nothing glaring and nothing blatant, yet it all added up over time. Without seeing the financials, my guess was at least a million dollars had been stolen. Then it seemed his research had escalated over time. However, I hadn’t expected to find a smoking gun by way of an email that had either been sent or been about to be sent to my father.
Caldwell,
You refuse to speak to me, but I am hoping you’ll have the decency to open this as both your business and your life could depend on it. We were friends once. Good friends. I never intended on betraying you. I think you know that, but you’re one hardheaded man. You hold a grudge like no one else I know. It’s quite possible that if and when you do read this, I’ll be dead. I don’t know anything for certain, but I think I’m being poisoned.
