Page 27 of Controlled
“What are you referring to, Kane?”
“Paul and his buddies.”
“O-kay,” I said as I placed the file on my desk, knuckling the surface before leaning over. “You’re going to need to enlighten me.” I’d sent both Kane and Christen on a fact-finding mission, wanting to confirm then confront the bastards who’d made a deal with my three former employees. I didn’t care if they were wealthy Arabs or not, which is what the limited information had led me to believe.
“The fucking Arabs we noticed in town and on that video illuminating their betrayal?”
“Yes.”
“They were freaking actors hired to pretend they were wealthy Saudis, one dude pretending to be a prince.”
Now that did catch me off guard. I moved from around the back of my desk, folding my arms as I studied him. “Who the fuck would go to that extreme? Paul?” He’d never struck me as that industrious.
“No,” Kane said, grinning. “That’s what I believed at first but from everything I’ve found, Paul and his buddies believed they were doing business with a Saudi prince, if you can believe that. I easily hacked the kid’s phone and email. He’d received messages from this Abdul Arani starting three months ago. Now, I can tell you the kid tried to ignore them, but the texts became threatening, right down to sending Paul a box with body parts in it. He immediately made contact with this fake Abdul on the phone, which the kid recorded. I knew Paul pretty well, but I’ve never heard him so angry. Incidentally, there is a real Abdul Arani and he is a prince, but after doing some extensive checking, it’s apparent the Saudi hasn’t been to the US, doesn’t care and certainly never made contact with Paul or one of the others. And there were similar calls and boxes sent to Wally and the other guy.”
What the fuck was going on?
“Who did Paul think had been mutilated?”
Kane sighed. “His sister, who is learning impaired.”
“But she wasn’t.”
“All I know is that the girl was abducted from the special school she was at about thirty miles from here. She hasn’t been seen.”
“Fuck.”
“Yeah. She was just a kid, barely seventeen.”
No wonder Paul had freaked. I usually didn’t give a shit about learning anything about my employees’ lives after they clocked out, but I’d heard chatter about his sister and Paul’s devotion. The poor dumb fuck and his buddies had gotten themselves mixed up in something they’d felt they had no control over. For a man with no conscience, I almost felt guilty. Almost. However, the men could have come to me instead of becoming traitors.
He gave me a look that called for sympathy. I was startled. There was no doubt about it. “Let me get this straight. Some actor pretending to be a prince of a goddamn oil empire managed to convince Paul and his buddies that their families were being targeted and that they’d need to provide weapons and other merchandise to them or else their families would be slaughtered like pigs.”
“That pretty well sums it up.” Kane acted as if he wanted to smile but there was nothing to be happy about.
“Except why the stupid kids didn’t come to me in the first fucking place.” I wasn’t the kind of man to feel a moment’s worth of guilt about anything, but for someone to play the three young men the way they’d been was more reprehensible than the majority of shit I’d done in my life.
Kane looked uncomfortable, even looking out the window as he answered. “Sorry, boss. I mean no disrespect but you’re not the warmest man when it comes to shit like that. Remember, the ranks are well aware you have no tolerance for bullshit, and I’d put that rattrap on the top of a shitty list of garbage.”
The man had a colorful way of putting things. I glared at him smugly. “Let’s just say for the sake of argument that’s true, Paul knew he’d face my wrath. I could see it in his face.”
“We might not know for sure but the one thing you’ve yet to do in your career is to take out your anger on a woman, even in the act of revenge.”
“Are you trying to tell me I have a conscience or a heart? If so, think the fuck again.”
“I wouldn’t go that far, boss. However, you’re one of the smartest men I’ve ever known. You’ve figured out that women are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to insecurities or weaknesses of your enemies. Plus, I do think you have a thing for the fairer sex.” He grinned all over again, provided with limited details of what had occurred the night before. I might have ended up in bed alone, but I’d reeked of her perfume and in truth, I still did.
I’d taken a hot shower after spending almost an hour boxing, sweating up a storm but her sweetness had stained my skin.
“Fine. So the kid succumbed to the lesser of the enemies so to speak. Please tell me you have a line on who hired this fake prince and some kind of intelligent reason why.”
He shoved one hand into his pocket while he blew on his folded fingers, rubbing his knuckles down the front of his jacket. The man was trying my patience, and he had to know I wasn’t in the fucking mood to play games, including with him. I was attempting to free my calendar for a few days so I could enjoy my upcoming guest.
“Well, not the why just yet, but I had a tip from one of our informants that the fucker impersonating the prince, whose real name is Santos Abbott, made the mistake of bragging about some rich acting job he got. Your name was overheard. He was at a bar last night buying a couple rounds for his buddies.”
“Oh, really.” Fascinating but not enough for me to alter my plans just yet.
“I was going to let you know last night but I wasn’t certain if you were busy with other more important things.”