Deadly Temptation

Chapter 2

When they finished the tour of R & D, and with a promise of a complete tour of Redstone Headquarters later, Lilith asked Liana to join her in her office.

“We have a big job,” the woman said as she leaned against the edge of her desk and gestured Liana into a chair. “Stan Chilton left a lot of chaos behind him, after we caught him selling out Ian’s work. Ian himself is only now getting back to where he’d been when Chilton tried to destroy everything he’d done.”

“How certain are you that you’ve isolated the damage?”

“Fairly,” Lilith said. “But we’ll also need to check the project data that wasn’t tampered with anyway. After we’ve finished the more urgent tracking.”

Liana thought for a moment. “Do we know that the explosive-sensing material is the only thing Chilton sold?”

Lilith smiled, Liana guessed at her use of the word “we.” And she realized that Josh’s reaction to her concern about Logan Beck had cemented her perception of Redstone as indeed a family, and she already felt like a member.

“That’s one of the things we need to confirm,” Lilith said. “I’ve done the preliminary checking of our files, and haven’t found any sign yet. But this department is nothing if not prolific, so there’s a lot to track.”

Which was why she was here, Liana knew. “What access do I have?”

“Just about anything. You’ll likely want to go beyond traditional channels. And if you need something…more under the radar, Redstone Security has some interesting capabilities.”

Liana smothered a smile at her tone. “I imagine they do,” she said neutrally. “I assume our search needs to cover any entity in the world with the capability of completing any of the work that might have been stolen?”

“Yes.”

Her mind was already racing ahead, planning, figuring out how she would find those entities and track their actions, looking for any sudden leaps in progress, or heretofore unknown projects paralleling Redstone’s research, using Redstone’s massive resources to access information.

“You have an idea?” Lilith said quietly.

Liana nodded, still focused on her thoughts. “I assume you have IT people in house who could write me a program?”

“Of course.”

“Good. I’ll need one to monitor Web site changes.”

“You think something would show up publicly?”

“I think when you need to dig, you start at the surface,” Liana said absently, then realized she had sounded a bit less than deferential to her new boss. Her gaze shot to the woman’s face. “I’m sorry, that sounded rude. I—”

Lilith quickly waved her into silence. “It sounded like you’re off and running. That’s why we hired you, so don’t apologize.”

Liana smiled. “Thank you.”

“First, though, I understand you have another concern. Something about that police officer who’s being investigated?”

She blinked. How on earth had Lilith found out so quickly? She’d only told Josh, and that had been barely an hour ago.

“I…yes, I am concerned,” she admitted. “Because I know it can’t be true.”

“He’s the officer from your situation with the armed robber, isn’t he? I remember seeing the reports about that when it happened.”

Liana wasn’t surprised; the robbery had been headline news for days, as had the heroics of the police officer who had saved her life and nearly died in the process.

“Yes,” she said. Then, feeling more explanation was required, added, “I owe him my life.”

“Is it possible that’s coloring your perceptions?”

She couldn’t fault the question. “Normally I’d say that was possible,” she admitted honestly. “But the time I spent with him was under the kind of conditions where…you tend to tell the truth.”

“As hostages, you mean?”

“And after. When he was in the hospital.” She looked up then, meeting the woman’s gaze levelly. “When he thought he was going to die.”

Lilith looked surprised then. “I see. I didn’t realize.”

Whether she meant she hadn’t known Logan had expected to die, or that Liana had been with him in the hospital, Liana didn’t know. But clearly her words had had an effect, because Lilith nodded slowly.

“And you’re certain he can’t be complicit in this?”

“Absolutely certain.”

After a moment, her new boss nodded. “I imagine Security will be contacting you to ask some questions, then.”

“Just like that?” Liana asked, more than a little boggled by all this.

“You’re Redstone now,” Lilith said simply. “If we can help, we will. In fact,” she added as she glanced through her office window, “here comes help now.”

Liana turned, saw a tall, leggy woman striding their way. Her hair was that incredible shade of platinum blond one usually saw only in young children, and Liana saw that it was quite long, given that she had it up at the back of her head and secured with a clip that let a few strands escape to drape down to her shoulders.

The blonde tapped quietly on the office door, and at Lilith Mercer’s call, stuck her head in.

“Hello, Sam,” Lilith said.

“Hi, Lil.”

“Come on in.”

She had, Liana realized, the most amazingly bright blue eyes. Like Logan Beck’s had been, she thought suddenly, that day so long ago.

“You must be Liana,” the blonde said, with a smile so engaging Liana couldn’t help but return it and take the hand the woman held out to her. “Welcome to Redstone. I’m Samantha Gamble, Redstone Security.”

Liana blinked. She automatically glanced at the woman’s left hand, saw the simple gold band that matched the one she’d seen on Ian Gamble’s finger.

This was Ian’s wife? Lord, her brother had been right. And at first glance the combination seemed incomprehensible. But something in the woman’s eyes, some quick, clever intensity, brought to mind the crackling intelligence she’d sensed in the young inventor, and suddenly it didn’t seem so strange after all.

“Nice to meet you,” Liana said hastily, hoping the woman hadn’t noticed her moment of shocked recognition. Or perhaps she was so used to it she didn’t pay attention to people’s reactions anymore.

“I’m told you have something that you’d like us to look into.”

“I…” She didn’t know what to say. Her mouth twisted wryly. “Things move fast around here.”

Samantha laughed. “Yes, they tend to.”

“IT won’t have your setup complete for another hour or so,” Lilith said. “Why don’t you and Sam talk, and I’ll page you when they’re done and you can actually start work.”

Still not quite able to believe what was happening, Liana followed the stunning blonde out of Lilith’s office. Once outside in the lab area, she saw Samantha’s head turn. Liana looked in the same direction, saw the floppy-haired inventor she’d just met. There was the barest hesitation as their gazes locked, and Liana’s eyes widened at the nearly palpable connection between them across the big room. Then Ian winked, one corner of his mouth lifting in an endearing smile. Samantha grinned back at him, then resumed her brisk stride.

After a moment during which she could only think, “Wow!” Liana followed. If she’d had any lingering doubt about the marriage between the eccentric inventor and the daring security operative, it was gone now.

They walked in silence until they reached the end of the hall and the huge bay window that looked out on the courtyard. The building that was Redstone, Incorporated’s main headquarters was built around a cool, green garden with a big pond and waterfall. On her tour of the building she’d been told that in the heat of a California summer it was a preferred spot for all the employees.

“This is Ian’s favorite place when he needs to get out of the lab,” Samantha said as she gestured Liana into one of the comfortable chairs in a windowed alcove that looked out over the courtyard.

“I can see why,” Liana said as she sat down. If you looked down at the garden, you could almost imagine yourself on some tropical island.

Samantha studied her for a moment before saying simply, “Tell me what you need.”

“I…I’m not sure. I just found out this morning that…a friend is in trouble.”

The blonde nodded. “I read the newspaper article after Josh called.”

Liana’s eyes widened. “He called you? Himself?”

Samantha grinned. “Welcome to Redstone,” she repeated. “You’re family now, and Josh takes his family very seriously.”

“I’ve always heard that, but…”

“And you’re a special case,” Samantha added.

Liana blinked. “I am?”

Samantha nodded. “He knows perfectly well this job is a step down for you, that you were running your own department nearly the size of our R & D at JetCal.”

“I wanted to work for Redstone.”

“We know. And you were willing to take a job some would say was beneath you to do it.”

“I don’t plan to stay an assistant forever.”

Samantha smiled. “If you did, you wouldn’t be here.” She gave Liana a thoughtful, assessing look. “Josh also knows why you left JetCal.”

She’d made no secret of the fact that she’d parted ways with her previous employer over the business practices she’d found beyond distasteful. Including and especially the theft from Redstone. “I couldn’t work for a company that thought methods like that were justified,” she said.

“Exactly.” Then, briskly, “So, tell me about Logan Beck.”

“He…saved my life.”

“I know. And almost died doing it. So you understandably feel a debt.”

“It’s more than that. He just couldn’t have done this.”

“It would be hard to believe your hero could have feet of clay.”

Liana drew herself up. She might be new here, she might be more than a fool to clash with one of Redstone’s vaunted security team, but she simply couldn’t let that stand.

“Not hard. Impossible.”

“You said yourself you haven’t seen him in eight years,” Samantha said gently. “And you didn’t know him for long.”

“But under the most intense of circumstances,” Liana said. “We talked for hours when he was in the hospital. When there was a chance he would die. When he knew that. I don’t believe he hid who he was, not then.”

Samantha was silent for a long moment. Then, at last, she nodded. “Good enough. We’ll get started.”

Liana was startled at the turnaround. “What?”

“Not me, I don’t think,” Samantha said thoughtfully. “I’m afraid I might stand out a bit too much in the circles Beck’s been running in. But I know just the right person.”

They really were going to help, Liana thought numbly. The famous Redstone Security team, the group she’d heard such incredible stories about, was going to help. She’d been here a grand total of two hours and Redstone was already behind her. It was a feeling she knew she’d never forget.

“Someone will keep you posted,” Samantha said, getting to her feet. Slowly Liana followed suit.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Thank you is always good,” Samantha said with a grin.

“Yes. Thank you.”

The tall blonde laughed then. “It’s amazing, isn’t it? I was one of Josh’s lowliest, most distant employees, at the Redstone Resort in Sitka. When I needed to make a change, the man himself flew all the way up there to talk me out of quitting and gave me the chance at this job.”

Liana shook her head. “I don’t know what to say to that, either,” she said wryly.

“It’s more like being adopted than getting a job,” Samantha said with another laugh. “Think of it as another perk of working for Redstone.”

Liana slowly made her way back to her new office, marveling at what had just happened. And it wasn’t until she was back there and sitting at her newly hooked up workstation that she thought to question whether Logan Beck was going to welcome what she’d done.

As he left the station after his second day of blistering interrogation, too aware of the glances of the cops he passed on the way to his car, there was only one thing Logan Beck was certain of: he wasn’t about to stay out of this as ordered. Damned if he was going to sit on his ass while those IA pogues decided his future—or if he was going to have one. He had too much at stake to sit on the sidelines.

There had been a time when he might have, when he might have trusted he’d be cleared simply because he was innocent. But that time, and that naive optimism, had died long ago. And even if he did still trust the system he was part of, he wasn’t sure anything could overcome the single biggest problem he had.

Somebody wanted him taken down.

Angrily he popped the clutch as he pulled out onto the street, and the bark of the tires on asphalt made him rein in the sporty BMW they’d given him as part of his cover. They’d likely be repossessing that soon, he thought, and he’d be on foot, since he’d sold his battered SUV when he’d gone under. But in the meantime, manually slamming through the gears gave him a certain satisfaction.

He drove with much more concentration than the task required midday on a Wednesday, trying to keep his mind out of what had already become a deep and seemingly endless rut. He couldn’t go back to the tiny apartment he’d been using—not yet. They were no doubt still combing over it for proof he’d turned.

Won’t find any, he told himself, but his gut was screaming that wasn’t necessarily true. After all, there was that bank deposit he’d have sworn didn’t exist, either. Whoever was setting him up was doing a thorough job of it, and the possibility that something had been planted in that apartment wasn’t at all unlikely.

He turned the car toward the beach, needing someplace to just think. Things had happened so fast he wasn’t sure where to even start trying to unravel it all.

That his cover had been compromised was the first, most logical conclusion. But that answer fell apart quickly; if Marcos had discovered he was a cop, wouldn’t he have just killed him on the spot? Of course, that didn’t mean that he simply hadn’t had time before IA had come knocking on Logan’s door. And it didn’t mean that Marcos wasn’t looking to kill him now that he knew he’d been played by a cop.

No sooner had the thought formed than the thing that had been niggling at the edge of his consciousness finally penetrated completely.

He was being followed.

On some level he’d been aware of the dark-blue sedan for a couple of miles now. The driver was good, very good, and if not for the brilliant sun—this was December in Southern California, after all—that seemed to make the metallic paint on the sedan flash, he might not have noticed just one more ordinary dark car several back in the line of traffic.

Of course, he was headed toward the beach. Maybe he was just paranoid.

He yanked the wheel of the BMW and dived right around the next corner. He slowed, waiting, his eyes on the road behind him. And after a moment, slowly, the blue sedan came around the corner. Definitely a tail.

What the hell did IA expect him to do? Head for the bank and pull out that money, maybe make a run for it?

“Probably,” he muttered under his breath.

He waited for a break in traffic in the outside lane. A main cross street was coming up, so he figured several cars would be making a right turn there and would leave him a gap. When it happened just as he’d hoped, he quickly switched lanes and slowed, downshifting to avoid the warning glare of brake lights.

The blue sedan had nowhere to go, and by shifting the rearview mirror, he got a good look at the driver.

It was a total stranger.

He knew everybody attached to IA. He knew most of the cops at the entire department by sight. This guy wasn’t any of them. He also knew most of Marcos’s men, and while this man looked as if he could be Hispanic, he didn’t look the sort.

Even more wary now, he thought quickly. He didn’t think the guy could be sure he’d been seen; Logan hadn’t looked directly at him, just used the mirror. And if he turned right up ahead at the next street, it might seem like he’d just changed lanes to prepare for the turn.

He made that turn, then went right again into the first parking lot he came to, in front of a medical building.

He parked the car in a visible spot near the doors. He didn’t dwell on the risks of what he was doing. They’d taken his duty weapon when they’d officially suspended him yesterday, so all he had was his personal two-inch backup. He hadn’t taken it into the station, for fear they’d take it, too, but instead had left it in the hidden compartment in the side door panel. The car had been confiscated in a drug bust up north, and had come with that and other interesting nonstandard accessories.

He quickly got the small revolver out and strapped on the ankle holster. He checked the narrow sheath sewn onto the back of it, where the slim, razor-sharp blade he carried was secured; that little precaution had saved a life once, when he’d used it to cut through the seat belt of a burning car and pulled the occupant to safety. He unsnapped the safety strap that held the pistol in place; if he needed it, he’d need it in a hurry.

When the driver of the blue sedan had had time to spot him, he got out and headed into the medical building.

He paused in front of the directory as if reading it, trusting his peripheral vision to let him know whether the tail took the bait.

He did. The blue sedan cruised slowly through the parking lot. Logan turned then, briskly, as if he’d found what he was looking for in the directory. He headed toward the back of the building, guessing the tail would find a place to park and wait where he could watch the BMW.

Unless he decided to follow him in.

Fine, Logan thought. Bring it on. I feel like punching somebody about now.

His thoughts were bitter, but he couldn’t stop them. His world was crashing down around him, and so fast he was going to be lucky not to be crushed underneath the rubble.

He waited for a few minutes, out of sight from the front doors, but no one came in. Impatient, he looked around, spotted a side exit and headed that way. The door was, thankfully, glass, and he checked the row of cars parked along that side of the building for the blue sedan. It wasn’t there, so he stepped outside and headed toward the front of the building. He’d nearly cleared the corner when a sliver of blue caught his eye from the parking lot of the convenience store next door. And there, parked mostly hidden behind a big Dumpster, was the blue sedan.

Good job, Logan thought again. If I hadn’t been already looking for him, I never would have seen him.

Logan used the Dumpster as cover and edged across the narrow strip of pavement between the medical building and the slightly higher parking lot next door. The sedan was parked heading out, so he could slide into a tailing position as soon as the BMW was on the move again. For a moment Logan thought about doing just that and leading his follower to a more private place for a confrontation, but decided quickly he didn’t have the patience to spare for a cat-and-mouse game just now. He kept going.

The sedan was empty.

He’d been outmaneuvered.

Chapter 3

Logan swore under his breath at his own stupidity. Then he sensed rather than saw a movement to his right, and crouched and spun in the same motion.

The man who was standing there, giving him a rather rueful smile, held both hands up in front of his chest, indicating he had no weapon.

“Detective Beck, I underestimated you,” the man said. “Sorry.”

Logan studied the man assessingly. Just slightly shorter than his own six feet, Logan estimated. And despite the total lack of accent, he was still guessing Hispanic from the dark eyes and golden-brown skin tones.

“Who the hell are you?”

“My name’s Tony Alvera.”

He’d wanted considerably more than just a name, but he sensed the man knew that.

“IA recruiting from outside now?” he asked.

“I’m not a cop.”

Logan frowned. “Marcos hiring a higher class of thug now?”

The man laughed. “I’ll take that as a compliment. But no, I don’t work for him, either.”

So he was working for somebody, Logan thought.

“And,” the man went on in a tone that matched the first ruefulness of his expression, “if the man I do work for ever finds out how easily you burned me, I may not be working for him much longer, either.”

“Who,” Logan said carefully, “is your boss?”

“Name’s Draven. John Draven.”

Logan frowned at the unfamiliar name.

“Yeah, not many on the outside have heard of him. He likes it that way.”

“Outside of what? Or where?”

“You might have heard of his boss, though,” Alvera said. “Most people have.”

“Look I don’t have time for games. Who the hell sent you to tail me?”

“Joshua Redstone.”

Logan Beck was not often astonished, but he was now. He knew he was gaping at Alvera, but he was stunned.

“Joshua Redstone?” He said the famous name incredulously. “The gazillionaire of Redstone Aviation?”

“The same,” Alvera confirmed. “And Redstone Resorts, Redstone Technologies and Development, and a few other assorted divisions of the empire.”

“Why? What have I got to do with Redstone?”

“Nothing,” Alvera admitted. “It’s more the other way around.”

Completely baffled now, Logan shook his head as if that would somehow make this all make sense.

“What,” he said slowly, carefully, “are you talking about?”

“I’m Redstone Security.”

Logan straightened up sharply. Usually, to the police, the mention of private security resulted in either visions of retired cops who were more often than not well past their prime or who had left the job ignominiously, or wannabes who couldn’t cut it as real cops. Neither engendered much respect.

But Redstone Security was a different story. Anybody who ever dealt with them, be it local law enforcement, the feds, military, or any other agency, universally came away respecting the efficiency and capabilities of the team Josh Redstone had built. Their reputation preceded them in most quarters, and they were, in fact, the envy of many for their freedom to do what needed to be done without jumping through the myriad hoops traditional authorities had to deal with.