“Are you sure?” she asked him, the three words sounding more like a plea for help than a confirmation.
“I’m sure what I heard, sweetie,” Carson replied, his voice gentle. “Maybe I’m wrong about what it means, but that’s what they said.”
But why? There had to be a why. Neither of them would go to such lengths if there wasn’t some sort of benefit in it for them. If I can’t find a why, there’s GOT to be another answer! She tried to put herself in their heads, to see what they would gain. She hadn’t taken any sizable amount of money, and what she had taken was hers, truly earned as a salary. But she didn’t have to take money to hurt them, she realized. She was costing them money – a lot. It was easy to find out if that was their motivation. She sat up, containing her emotions for the moment. Carson handed her a tissue.
“Thanks. Can I use your phone for a minute?”
“Who are you calling?”
“No one. I need to check something online.”
“Oh, OK. Just don’t turn the GPS on. And keep it quick just to be safe.”
Katie nodded, pulling up the website for the Securities and Exchange Commission. She was still, as far as she knew, on the Board of Directors of her father’s company, and that meant the merger between Brandon and her father required her sign-off to avoid the piles of money such a transfer would cost. Her father could remove her from the board, but doing so might raise a lot of questions that he’d be reluctant to answer. That meant they needed her consenting signature, and getting it by force would be one way to move forward.
Please don’t be there, she chanted to herself as she executed a search for Form TR-203. That was the form the company would have to submit for the in-family transfer, and once it was approved in principle by the SEC it just needed her and Brendan to sign it to make everything legal. The spinning arrow taunted her, making her wait, uninterested in just how badly Katie needed the information, but when the page finally loaded, she saw the Division of Corporation Finance Guidance form for the company with a status of Pending.
She handed the phone back to Carson, who immediately turned off the data and shoved it in his pocket. It was real. It couldn’t be, but her father, who was already quite a rich man, valued another pile of money over the life of his daughter. In fact, he’d put her life in jeopardy to make that extra pile.
“What did you find out?”
“That there are two evil bastard men in my life, not just one,” she told him. “My father had to sell off some divisions to avoid anti-trust lawsuits. That’s why Brendan came along. He had almost no capital, but he had his smaller company, so dad could transfer the divisions to him for next to nothing because of the family connection. That way, he’d really keep control and use Brendan as his rubber-stamp. But they can’t complete the deal without my signature, so the two of them probably set up this kidnapping.”
“Wait. Why would there be a ransom demand if that’s all they wanted?”
Katie had already figured that one out. “To make things look legitimate. Kidnappers don’t ask for signatures, they ask for cash or valuables. Dad is going to pay the ransom and Brendan will get most of it, launder it, and slowly funnel it back into the company. And once they had my signature, I doubt they’d give me the opportunity to tell anyone – like a federal regulator – I didn’t sign of my own free will.” She stopped as it all came together. “You’re right – I’d have been dead by Monday if this went any further.”
“Maybe not,” Carson hedged, trying to make her feel better. “He said he was going to convince you to work things out.”
Katie looked at him incredulously. How such a smart man could make such inane comments? “Really? You think I’d be willing to reconcile with that fucker? Even if I was, or even if I managed to fake it to save my ass, my body would be bouncing along the bottom of Lake Champlain within a week. No, they signed my death warrant the minute they started this plan.” Now that she’d analyzed everything and reached the only possible conclusion, her body gave into the stress, and she sagged back on her elbows, her entire body melting onto the bed like she was in a Dali painting.
“I’m sorry,” Carson said quietly. “I can’t imagine what it must feel like.”
Katie turned towards his feeble words, wishing she had a response to offer. She saw his eyes, still strong but letting the sympathy show. He was a good man. He’d risked his own life for her. He could have just turned and run, but he stayed and helped her, even though he’d been sure their relationship was over. Most importantly, she felt his strength, and she fed off it and found her own. It swelled throughout her body until her father’s betrayal and her husband’s deception were no longer things to mourn.
They were things to avenge.
“Fuck ‘em,” she said, her voice flint-hard. “Look, you said you were going after these bastards, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Then I don’t care what you do. I don’t care how it happens, and I don’t want to know the details. You just make
