Dominic scowled. “No. You’re going to be our guest here until we get the information we need. That was the plan, but now we have to step it up because of something your careless suitor did.”
“Me?” Law’s head shook. “Crap. The cameras in the hallway of the hotel?”
“Ding, ding, ding. Get the man a prize.” Dominic flicked on the television and quickly found one of the national cable news shows. Within five seconds, Law felt his eyes widen as a clip of grainy CCTV footage came over the television.
“Heiress Kinley Kohl was kidnapped yesterday afternoon from her hotel room in New York City. She was preparing for her four o’clock wedding to controversial tycoon, Greg Jansen…”
The news anchor went on, but Law barely heard her because he was far too busy watching the scene play out.
“That’s me,” Kinley said, watching the screen intently. “Oh, I look horrible. Is that when I asked you to marry me? No wonder you said no.”
Riley snorted. “Actually, I had a moment of insanity and said yes. Oh, here it comes.” On the screen, Law turned his face up and was captured right there for everyone in the world to see. “That’s the twenty-five-to-life shot, big brother.”
Fuck, how had he done something that sloppy? He hadn’t been thinking at all. He’d been worried about Kinley and forgotten about the cameras. Now he’d screwed everything up. “We’re on a clock.”
It could have taken the police days to realize Kinley Kohl wasn’t a runaway bride. He, Dom, and Riley should have had up to a week to really talk to her, to bring her to their side and win her help. With that one image, they were out of time.
Dominic kept his eyes on the screen. “Yep, and it started the minute you looked up at that camera. So we’re not going to play games anymore.” He turned to Kinley. “You will get up. You will dress yourself or I will do it for you. And you won’t like what I pick out for you. Are we clear?”
She moved to Law, reaching for him. “I want to go home.”
He let her take his hand. Just because he’d screwed up didn’t mean Dominic should take it out on her. “It’s going to be okay, Kinley. He’s not going to hurt you, either. Can you trust me?”
“I shouldn’t.”
“I promise you, I’ll keep you safe, baby. Just go get dressed. Then we’ll sit down and eat and have a perfectly nice talk. I know I look scary, but I won’t hurt you. Ever.”
She stepped back, and he felt the loss of her warmth. Just for a moment, she’d been looking up at him with softness in those eyes. “A-all right. Please excuse me. And you don’t look scary. You’re quite handsome, but I suspect you know that.”
Dominic stepped up, towering over Kinley. “Don’t try to run. The whole place is secure and you’ll only get hurt if you run.”
Her chin came up in a stubborn pout. “I think you would be surprised what I can do. Where are we? Upstate New York? We can’t have traveled too far. Somehow I think I could find my way to a road, Mr. Whatever your name is.”
“It’s Dominic Anthony, and this isn’t New York, honey. Welcome to Alaska.”
For the second time that morning, Kinley fainted, dropping into Law’s arms. He hoisted her up and held her to his chest before turning to Dominic. “I hope you’re fucking happy. She was starting to trust me. You just ruined all of that. I’m going to make sure she gets something to eat. She can’t give you information if she’s passed out or dead.”
Law carried her out, wondering why he’d ever agreed to this scheme in the first place.
Dominic walked into the kitchen, well aware that he was completely unwanted there. Law had taken his damn time. An hour had passed since he’d carried her out like a fainting Southern belle’s gallant beau.
“Wow, he’s serious,” Riley had said, then gone thoughtfully silent as they both waited.
Well, Dominic was serious, too, and it was long past time that he got Law firmly on the same page as him and Riley.
He stopped as he caught sight of her. She was sitting in front of the big bay windows, staring out at the expanse of trees and grass and mountains in the distance.
“That’s a whole lot of nature. Like way too much nature.” She shook her head. “Do you think there are animals out there?”
Law laughed, the sound of a deeply amused man. “Absolutely. You wouldn’t believe how many, baby.”
He needed to rein this thing in. She was beautiful and seemed fragile, but he knew something Law didn’t. “Tell him about your charity, Kinley. Tell him about the checks you’ve been writing.”
She turned, a startled expression settling on her face. “What? You can’t have abducted me to talk about Hope House.”
Luckily, he had everything laid out. He opened the folder in his hand and set the documents Riley had dug up on the table in front of her. “Is that your handwriting?”
She set her coffee mug down, then picked up one of the copies of the checks. Her face flushed. “Yes. That looks like my signature. But why is it made out to ‘Cash’? I never need cash for the charity. Everything comes through vendors and we use our Tax ID to get exemption. These are the private checks, but they’re just for backup. I’ve never used one.”
So she was going to play dumb. “Over the last six weeks, you’ve drained almost fifty thousand dollars out of that charity.”
She put her hand to her mouth. “No, I haven’t. You’re lying!”
And now Riley came in handy. He had his laptop open and ready. “This is your bank account for the charity. As you can see, over the last six weeks, there have been five checks written for cash, each for nine thousand nine hundred ninety-nine dollars and ninety-nine cents. One penny more and you would have been required to fill out forms. Someone knows their banking regulations. You’re down to almost nothing in that account.”
He saw Law’s face fall as he looked down at the evidence in front of him. Damn, Dominic knew he was to blame for this mistake. He’d allowed Law to focus fully on surveillance and hadn’t brought him into the loop during the investigative portion. All Law needed was firm proof that his honey was involved in Jansen’s organization, and he would stop thinking with his dick and be ready to roll on the mission again.
Law took a step back from Kinley. “When did the money start disappearing? What date? What time was the check cashed?”
Riley ran his hands across the computer screen. “The first date was May tenth and the time stamp on the check is two thirty-five pm.”
Law held up a hand. “Give me a minute.”
Kinley sank into her chair. “I don’t understand. I knew the balance was bad, but I had no idea the account was so close to empty. Greg promised he would write a check for a hundred thousand as a wedding present to me.”
“As a wedding present or to cover your tracks?” Dominic paced as he talked.
“What? No! It wasn’t to cover up anything. It was the first part of the fifty million he promised to endow the charity with.”
“All right. Did he ask you to take out the funds?”
There was a time and a place to be the good cop. He’d be the best cop ever if she could help him pin illegal activities on Jansen.
“Greg never mentioned anything about it. I know this looks bad.”
“This looks criminal,” Riley pointed out.
“But I didn’t have anything to do with this.”
Was she telling the truth? Dominic sat across from her. Sometimes he thought he’d become far too cynical because he saw lies everywhere. Still, he had those checks. She’d signed them. She’d taken the money. Maybe she’d had virtuous reasons. Maybe not.
Dominic felt a little wave of peace flow over him. He was in control again. This was right where he needed to be. She didn’t know it yet, but he was her best bet to avoid both jail time and her own murder. “Then don’t make me use this. Work with me. Let’s talk about your fiancé.”
“I already tried, man,” Riley said.
He ignored his friend. “The feds haven’t been able to catch your fiancé, but I’m going to.”
Her eyes came up, narrowing as she looked him over. “What did you say your name was?”
“I’m Dominic Anthony.” There was no reason to lie to her. At the end of the day, she would be grateful he’d helped her. And if her gratitude didn’t keep them out of the pen, then he would blackmail her with the information she was looking at.
“Are you any relation to Carrie Anthony?”
His gut turned a little. Had that fucker been talking about her? “Yes. She was my younger sister.”
Those brown eyes turned sympathetic. “I’m so sorry about her death. She was far too young to go.”
“Yes, she was.” He let a moment of silence pass. “Especially since Greg killed her.”
She should fully understand why he had chosen this path.
“Is that what this is all about?” She stared at him. “Mr. Anthony, I am truly sorry about your sister. Greg says she was a wonderful woman. He has a portrait of her that he keeps in the house. She was so beautiful.”
Rage threatened to choke him at the thought of Jansen staring at a picture of his sister and remembering how easy it had been to take her money and her life.
Kinley leaned forward, her hand almost touching his. “But she was sick. It wasn’t Greg’s fault. He tried to get her into rehab.”
Dominic practically saw red. Before he knew what he was doing, he flipped the table over, sending everything crashing to the ground. He was not going to listen to Jansen’s latest piece of ass tell him his sister had been a fucking drug addict. “She never took a drug in her life. He’s a greedy, murdering prick. Are you really this stupid?”
She raised her chin. “You’re obviously very upset. I’m sure you don’t want to believe—”
“He took out a two-million-dollar policy on my sister. Do you know what he bought with the money he got for killing her? A fucking condo. And two weeks later, he moved his mistress in.”
She leaned back in her chair as though needing to put space between them. “He didn’t kill her. He couldn’t do that.”
Dominic refused to allow the distance she sought. He stood and hovered over her. “Why would you say that? Because you can’t stand the thought that you fucked a murderer? Or because you’ve known all along what he’s capable of and you hate being caught?”
“Dom?” Riley ventured, his voice tense. “Down, boy. I think you’re scaring her.”
“I don’t think she’s scared enough.”
“I’m pretty scared, but you should know that I won’t let you break me. I might look silly and you can call me stupid all you like, but I won’t allow you to use me against the people I care for. So if this is your best shot, Mr. Anthony, you should know you’ve failed. I believe you dummied up those records. Or you stole the money yourself. You’re a grieving man, and I am so sorry that your sister is dead, but I won’t allow your need for revenge to ruin my life. Make a decision. Let me go or you should just take the revenge you so obviously need and make it fast.”
He stopped. “What?”
She was shaking, but she stared up at him with steady eyes. “I mean, I would prefer that you kill me quickly. You obviously can’t let me go, and this would be a great way to get back at Greg if he loved me. You know he doesn’t, though. I think he likes me all right, but he’s marrying me to help his business. I’m quite a good hostess and I can help him in high society. He’ll likely be upset, but I doubt he’ll mourn me for long.”
Kinley thought he was going to kill her? She actually believed he would take the life of a woman to avenge his sister. Suddenly, he couldn’t think of a single reason why she shouldn’t think he was a killer.
Dominic stepped back, nausea threatening. “I’m not going to kill you.”
“Then let me go home.”
He couldn’t do that. He’d put them all in this situation and there was nothing to do except go through with his plans. He had to prove Jansen’s guilt to her. He had to break her down. “No. You’ll rest for a while. Then we’re going to talk. I know you won’t believe me, but this is for your own good.”
“You can’t keep me here forever.”
He turned and started to walk out. He needed to ready the big guns. He’d hoped to spare her the worst of the knowledge, but she needed to understand exactly who she was trying to protect.
It made him a bastard, but he had to destroy all of her illusions. He wondered, just for the briefest of moments, if he was really saving her. If she was as innocent as she seemed, what he was about to show her might break her heart.
Well, he was proof positive that a person could live without one.
