Nothing To Lose: A Grey Justice Novel (43 page)

The puzzle of how to get inside the secure room continued to hound her. On Friday, she would meet with Nick, Grey and Eli, and she imagined this would be their main topic of discussion. Her goal was to arrive at that meeting with a plan.

She was overcompensating but couldn’t stop herself. Even though she had discovered a major piece of information, Kennedy recognized that she had been foolish. If she had been caught in her search, even with the lame excuse of looking for her earring, there might have been suspicion. Adam might not be the brightest star in the sky, but he had good instincts when it came to self-preservation. If he had been suspicious of her at all, everything could have fallen apart. Nick’s anger had been justified.
 

Nick.
How she wished she could have spent more time with him. His confession that he’d talked with Thomas had stunned her and his declaration of love was more than she could ever have hoped to hear from him.

“Rachel, is something wrong with your hearing?”

She jerked to attention. Adam was standing in front of her desk, the glare in his eyes an indication that he’d been there awhile.

“Sorry, I was concentrating on something and didn’t hear you come in.”

“You were staring out the window. Should I get you an office without one?”

Only by reminding herself that she needed to stay on his good side was she able to refrain from telling him exactly where he could stuff the damn window. Instead, using the same attitude she’d had since meeting him, she raised a cool, arrogant brow and remained silent.

His breath puffed out, telling her he’d had onions in his breakfast this morning. “Sorry. I’m just put out about a few things. My lunch with Maxwell Greene got canceled.”

She opened her day calendar. “What day did you reschedule?”

“I didn’t.”

That explained the sour mood. For the past few days, she’d seen a marked agitation in Adam and had a feeling the lack of support and funding on some new projects were the reasons. The amount of information he allowed her to know was limited. He didn’t quite trust her yet, which was another reason her middle-of-the-night search had been foolish.
 

Hoping the suggestion she was about to make wouldn’t come back and bite her in the ass,
 
she casually said, “When I was working with Eli, I became acquainted with Grey Justice. Have you considered approaching him as an investor?”

His eye gleamed with interest. “How close did you two get?”

For a man who didn’t seem all that interested in sex, Adam had a surprising one-track mind when it came to relationships between men and women. “Not that close,” she drawled. “I did hear him mention to Eli that he was looking to expand his portfolio beyond his current investments. Perhaps your ideas would be of interest to him.”

“That’s an excellent idea. Give the man a call. I’ve tried to approach him in the past, but he never seemed interested.”

“I’ll be glad to.”

When he continued to stand there, she realized he wanted her to make the call in front of him. Hoping that Grey would back her up, she checked her cellphone for contact information and placed the call.
 

Adam mouthed, “Put it on speaker.”

Less than a minute after she’d identified herself and asked to speak with Grey, he came on the line. “Hello, Ms. Walker,” Grey said warmly. “What can I do for you?”

Relieved he had accepted the call, Kennedy said, “Sorry to bother you, Mr. Justice. I’m now working for Adam Slater, and he has some interesting investment opportunities coming up. When I was working for Eli, I heard you mention that you wanted to expand your investment portfolio and thought you might be interested in some of Adam’s projects.”

“What an intriguing idea. I’ll give Adam a call. Thanks for thinking of me, Rachel.”

“My pleasure, Mr. Justice.”

“Good day.”

Kennedy released a silent, relieved breath and looked up at Adam. He was beaming at her as if she’d just split the atom. “I knew hiring you was a good decision. Sometimes my daddy doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground.”

Meaning Mathias hadn’t wanted Adam to hire her. Why? Was it because she had worked for Eli, who made no secret that he despised his father and brother, or was there another reason?

“Glad I could be of some help to you. I—” She halted when her intercom buzzer sounded and Adam’s secretary said, “Rachel, would you tell Adam that I have Grey Justice on the phone for him?”

His eyes wide with wonder at how fast Grey had called him, Adam flew out of her office. Smiling her satisfaction, she leaned back in her chair. Even though it might cost him some upfront money, she hoped that Grey would go along with at least one of Adam’s ideas. She needed to gain Adam’s trust. Bringing him an investor of Grey Justice’s ilk would go a long way to helping her achieve that trust.
 

She’d barely had that thought when Adam burst through the door, excitement dancing in his eyes. “He’s interested! I pitched an idea to him, and he wants to meet.”

She had no doubt that if she had been standing, the man would have hugged her. “That’s wonderful, Adam.”

“This has got to work out. If it does…if he’ll give me what I need, I’ll be able to get out from under the slime I’m dealing with now.”

Afraid to appear too interested in who and what he meant by slime, Kennedy said, “With a man like Grey Justice behind you, other well-known, strong investors will be interested, too.”

“Exactly. I’ll be able to go completely legit.”

Before she could even consider coming up with an appropriate response, Adam dashed toward the door again. “I’m gonna call Daddy and tell him who I’m having lunch with. He’ll shit his pants for sure.” He turned back before going out the door. “Grey wanted to make sure you came with me. I’ll get Barbara to make reservations. Be ready at noon. Oh, and I realized I forgot to tell you why I came in here before. There’s a fundraiser for some charity next Tuesday night at the civic center. DeAnne can’t attend, so I’ll need you. Be ready at six. We’ll have cocktails before.”

Feeling as though she’d made major inroads in gaining Adam’s trust, she turned her mind to her other dilemma—how to get inside his secure room and find something that would nail the son of a bitch for good.

The solution to getting inside the secure room came from the one person she never thought would be remotely helpful—Adam’s wife. Thursday morning, Adam left for an early breakfast meeting, leaving Kennedy to ride into the office alone. She had just stepped into the giant marble foyer when a shaky but determined female voice stopped her. “I suppose you think you’re something special to him.”

Turning, she faced DeAnne Slater. Since moving in, this was the closest she’d been to Adam’s wife. She’d gotten occasional glimpses of her going from room to room like a sad, ghostly apparition. Standing slim and erect, makeup and hair perfect, shoulders so stiff they looked close to breaking, the woman held herself with a proud but fragile dignity.
 

Kennedy shook her head, easily recognizing the other woman’s jealousy and hurt. “I’m nothing to him but an executive assistant…an employee. That’s all.”

DeAnne mouth twisted in a bitter smile. “That’s what they all say at first, but they’re lying, just like you are. He won’t leave me for you.” Her mouth twisted even tighter as she added, “He needs my money too much.”

“I assure you, Mrs. Slater. I am not interested in your husband beyond my duties as an assistant.”

As if she hadn’t heard her, DeAnne nodded to something behind Kennedy. “He’ll replace you as easily as I replace those flowers. Every three days a florist brings in new flowers and throws the old ones away. That’s what will happen to you…he’ll throw you away, too.”

Knowing she wouldn’t convince the woman, Kennedy murmured a soft, “You’re worrying for nothing, Mrs. Slater,” and walked out the door.
 

As she slid into the backseat of the limo, she couldn’t help but feel sorry for the woman. Her husband was a slimeball, but it was obvious that she loved him.
 

She was in the elevator, headed up to her office, when the solution struck her. Could it be done? If there was anyone who had the ability to arrange such a thing, it was Grey Justice.

Friday morning, Kennedy arrived for her meeting at the spa, confident she had the perfect plan. She had thought of little else the last twenty-four hours and was certain this was the easiest and quickest way inside.
 

Nick had greeted her with a hug and a quick kiss, bringing color to her cheeks. This was the first public display of affection he’d ever given her. Not that this was exactly public. They were meeting in a small, private room at the back of the spa with only Nick, herself and Grey in attendance. Eli hadn’t been able to get away.

“Let me get this straight,” Grey said. “You want me to send one of my people into Adam’s house as a florist employee, break into his secure room, and copy incriminating documents?”

Hearing Grey put her idea into actual words made her plan sound much less brilliant.
 

“I know that it might be difficult to find someone like that.” She shrugged, deflated that her idea hadn’t panned out.

“I have at least a half-dozen someones like that.”

“Really? So you think—”

He flashed a quick, approving look her way. “I think it’s a damn solid idea.”

Nick was shaking his head, apparently not agreeing.

“You don’t think it’s a good idea, Gallagher?”

“Actually, I think it’s a great idea, and I have no doubt you have an arsenal of people who could break into the room.”

A smile tugged at Grey’s mouth. “Not an arsenal but enough. So what don’t you like?”

“Any evidence we gather on Adam won’t be obtained legally and could be inadmissible in court. Our goal is to nail the bastards for good. The Slaters have their own arsenal, all attorneys, whose number one goal is to make sure they keep their clients out of trouble.”

As if a little thing like “inadmissible in court” was barely worth mentioning, Grey said, “You let me worry about that. Let’s just get something.”

Chapter Forty-one

Monday morning, a florist van pulled up in front of Adam Slater’s residence, and four people emerged. As was usual, two went inside to dispose of the old flowers and clean up any residue. While this took place, two others would begin the process of bringing in vases of artfully arranged fresh flowers.
 

Since this same florist had been performing these duties every three days for six years without any issues, the Slater staff paid little attention as they went about their own duties. No one noticed the slender young woman with a large bouquet in her hands disappear down a hallway in the direction of the owner’s private office. If anyone had seen her, nothing would have been said. After all, there was a long, narrow table only a few yards from that location, so this was perfectly normal behavior.

Setting the flowers on the table, she took a moment to shift the vase to show the flowers in their best light and then took another second to sniff appreciatively at a perfect rose. Satisfied, she nimbly took the few necessary steps to the keypad she’d been told to look for. Sure enough, there it was. Expert eyes assessed the make, model and style. The realization of its type caused her to huff out a disappointed breath. She had been told to expect anything, but this was beyond a bummer.

She shrugged philosophically…a job was a job. Maybe what was behind the door would offer more of a challenge. With that cheerful thought, she plugged a small device into the top of the pad and in an instant the numbers popped up on the screen. She keyed in the numbers and heard a click. With a slight push, the wall smoothly opened, and she stepped inside.

A quick glance at her watch told her she had seventeen minutes. Plenty of time to find this guy’s secrets. With the tune of the theme from the old
Batman
show humming in her mind, she set to work. Within minutes she was huffing her disappointment again. This dude really was kind of pathetic. Apparently, he thought the keypad and concealed door were enough, because he hid nothing away. No locked desk drawers or cabinets, no secret safes to offer any kind of challenge. Heck, the guy didn’t even have his computer files password protected.
 

As a flash drive copied his computer files, her little camera whirred like a dervish as it rapidly photographed page after page of paper files. She paid no attention to what she was copying. Her job was to get everything she could and bring it to her boss. This Slater guy was making it too easy for her to do just that.

She closed the last drawer just as the flash drive indicated all files had been copied. Depositing the small device into her smock pocket, she took a moment to ensure her initial assessment was correct and there were no cleverly hidden safes or compartments. The room was boring and empty…just blah. Still slightly disappointed but comforting herself that she had achieved her assigned task, she pulled back on the wall opening and listened. Assured she was safe, she stepped back into the hallway and closed the panel behind her.

Taking another moment to give the flowers on the hallway table one last sniff, she then strode down the hallway toward the front of the house. She took a deep breath and smiled at the scent of fresh flowers that filled the air. She might live in a dumpy apartment with only an ornery cat as company but she could still appreciate the finer things of life.