"Heading downtown."
"Too general to call. Not the Capitol though, clearly. Maybe the senator's house? Other properties on this line are in the name of Selby Corp, including the apartment that Alastair and Greg used when in the city."
"Okay, turning left," Nik's voice was calm and controlled and Manny shot him a glance.
"Narrowing it down to two other Selby properties and the apartment."
"She wouldn't take us to the apartment, would she?"
Nik said. "The press are all over the senator."
"Your guess is as good as mine," Manny commented as he stared forward and refused to take his eyes off of the black car ahead of him.
"This is bad, Manny. They're taking you somewhere we didn't scope." Worry filtered through the earpiece from Josh.
"So you'll scope it on the fly," Manny offered by way of appeasement.
"Another left," Nik interrupted.
"Left—hang on—okay, I have you. Away from the apartment and one of the properties, so what remains is one Selby property, although it's not definite that is the place they are taking you—"
"For want of something else to focus on, pull up intel for me." Manny calmed Josh with the words.
"Okay… eighties office block… seventeen stories… insurance firms, an oil company, couple brokerage firms. I can't see anything for Selby Corp. Tenth is empty, eleventh. Wait. Twelfth floor—registered address for Schofield Enterprises. Schofield. Schofield? Why do I know that name…" Josh went silent for a few seconds and Manny didn't push him. Moments like this when you were the handler on a moving case was where the magic happened. When information nested and twisted and
suddenly there was a connection.
"Selby owns Schofield. I knew it. So, let's focus on that being your destination. Twelfth floor, two office spaces, both owned by Schofield aka Selby. The building is called the Enstone building, that's not important. Four elevators for staff, one good elevator that goes to the lower basement. Parking under the building. I'm checking on street view."
"He's good," Nik mouthed silently as they halted at a red light behind the car they were following.
"I know," Manny mouthed back.
"Here. I have street cams linked in. Security is one desk and one guard. I'm not seeing anything fancy and the marketing for the building talks of low-impact firms. The Secretary of State's website for New York have Schofield described as a company specializing in book restoration.
Buying and selling services online. Incorporated nineteen eighty-eight, same year as the building was constructed."
Josh chuckled. "Built by Enstone Construction, yet another wholly own subsidiary of Selby."
"We're going off the main road onto Parkland drive," Nik said clearly.
"The building I'm talking about is the second block down on the right. Are they indicating?"
Manny waited and then exhaled when the dark car
indicated and slowed. "Yes."
"Okay. Underground parking is on one level with a single down ramp and a single up. No barriers, but I hooked into parking cams and there are about fifty or so cars and not many spaces. There is a large space for outside parking, a green area, even a fricking fountain."
"They're pulling in. Stopping in a no wait zone outside the front door," Nik confirmed. He followed suit and Manny tensed as only Emily Selby left the car. Shit. He could see this playing entirely the wrong way.
"Shit," Manny cursed.
Nik turned in the car. "Manny—"
"It's fine Nik. I'll stay with comms."
"Manny?" Great, now Josh was coming in on this.
"What's wrong? What's happening?"
Manny held up a hand to forestall whatever Nik was going to report—hoping that he would get the hint that he didn't want Josh worried. The bastard wasn't letting Manny get over this quite so easily.
"She's going in on her own, standing there waiting for Manny," Nik said quickly. "Left her driver in a no parking zone. He's driving to the parking—"
"No, Manny. Don't go in there on your own, wait for Nik," Josh said with no small amount of anxiety in his words.
"What do you think she's gonna do, guys? Strangle me with her pearls?"
"Don't trivialize what the Bullens can do, Manny.
Last guy the cops found had his intestines wrapped around his throat."
Manny swallowed hard at the visual. He'd seen worse in some of the cases that he had worked but he kind of liked his intestines where they were. Determined, he opened the door and looked back in at a serious, focused Nik.
"Keep talking, Nik. Come find me," he said. Nik nodded.
CHAPTER 11
He was by Emily in seconds; within a minute they were bypassing security who didn't bat a single eyelid, and were in the elevator. She pressed the large oval black-on-white button marked twelve and said nothing as the elevator moved upward. Manny wondered what was going through her head. He was listening to Josh who was intoning information about her. Fifty-three, two daughters, both married and long gone, one in New Zealand, one a wannabe actress in LA. She was from political royalty, granddaughter of a senator and daughter of a presidential hopeful who died young and never fulfilled his promise.
Married to Thomas Bullen, she had been part of the Bullens for over thirty years. She was the calm, supportive, and smiling face behind Thomas as he blustered with political rhetoric and campaign promises. Her husband had wanted president but he downgraded it to governor and hell, with a resignation hanging over him Manny wondered if the marriage would survive.
The elevator opened into a long corridor and two armed guards immediately formed a wall that Manny was not going to be passing anytime soon. Both over six foot, like two Niks but on steroids, neither of them would be easy to take down. Never before had he wished for Kayden's absolute skill in martial arts. There again. What would that prove? They'd probably think he was here to kill. Thoughtfully he regarded the goons.
"Are we really doing this?" he asked carefully.
Emily flicked her gaze over him and dismissed him as no threat in an instant. Manny had seen that look before.
"Your gun," she said. He had made a point of having his
