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“Tell Tyler to send itover.”
“Thanks, Kyls. I oweyou.”
He ended the call and checked his messages. “Tyler, send the video footage to Ms. Peterson. I’ll text you her secure FTP site and thecredentials.”
Noresponse.
Grant looked up from his phone and felt the sudden tension in the vehicle. “Tyler, did you hearme?”
“Yes,boss.”
“Good.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” Tylerreplied.
“Why the hell not?” he frowned. “Kylie is the best in herfield.”
“So is Lowell’s lab and it’s their specialty. They’re already processing the Bentley, they can process the video,” Tylersaid.
“I’m not taking any chances. I know Kylie can do it, so do as you’re told,” Grant ordered.What thehell?
Tyler’s jaw tightened and Grant caught his glare in the rearview mirror. “Do we have a problem,Tyler?”
“I think this is the problem,” Jake broke in as he handed Grant a tablet. “Scroll through thebookmarks.”
A series of tabloid articles featuring he and Kylie stared back at him. “What the fuck,” he muttered. “This is bullshit.” Then a more troubling thought crossed his mind. “Tell me Blaire didn’t seethis.”
“She searched for news about you when you stopped talking to her,” Jake derided. “Of course, she sawit.”
“And you did nothing to discourage her?” Grantsnapped.
Donovan turned in his seat to face him. “It isn’t my place to restrict Blaire’s access to the internet. If she was messing with the Dark Web, then maybe. I explained to her that Kylie was helping secure our servers. You managed to have lunch, dinner, drinks, and coffee with Ms. Peterson without giving Blaire five minutes of yourtime.”
This was worse than he thought, Grant groaned inwardly. “I’ve fucked up so bad,” he admitted, and even without his men’s assent, he could almost feel them nodding in agreement. “That Galleria Development needed all my attention.” The only time he could touch base with Kylie regarding the security patches was during those times over a meal, coffee, or drinks. The majority of his time was spent in the suffocating confines of the office and boardroom, but he could see how those tabloid pictures could bemisinterpreted.
Grant brought up Kylie’s number to call her back and tell her he didn’t need herhelp.
23
Grant
Grant watchedthe swinging spheres of the Newton Cradle sitting on his desk. The gadget usually relaxed his mind while he was waiting on results of an acquisition, merger, or expansion, but this time he was waiting on the results of the forensic lab. He’d thrown enough money at them that Jake had to stop him from paying more, since he’d already tripled the expedited rate so they’d have firstpriority.
It had been fourteen hours since Blaire was taken. He couldn’t sleep; he’d barely eaten. Coffee was his friend. He didn’t touch alcohol. If decisions needed to be made, he’d need a clearhead.
His phone buzzed and he snatched it up to see who was calling. It was Rafe. He’d been avoiding the calls of his managing director since the night before. He knew what he wanted to talk about. They’d been gearing up for an even bigger acquisition. The Meridian Shopping Center in Moscow would be the biggest mixed-used commercial property deal, not only in Russia, but for Grant’scompany.
And he asked himself again—when would it be enough? But he couldn’t leave Rafe hanging. Before the call went to voicemail, he picked up. “Thorne.”
“Grant!” Rafe exclaimed and he could hear the relief in his voice. “I know it’s a bad time, man. How’s your mom?” He’d received several voicemails from friends and business associates expressing their concern. He hadn’t called any of themback.
“She’sokay.”
“I totally understand if you’re staying in Boston over the weekend, but are you coming back onMonday?”
“No.”
“Grant, we’re kicking off the acquisition of the Meridian to theboard.”
