Soon, the airplane took off, and they quickly reached cruising altitude. Alex had already briefed his fellow passengers on the length of the flight and meal service. When he spoke, Halo watched him with a curious look. He was sure she wasn’t aware of the expression on her face, but he wondered what it meant. Being from the fashion industry, she probably thought he was some sort of GI Joe meathead.
She smelled good, though. Her thighs looked delicious in her faded black skinny jeans, and her faded gray muscle shirt, which kissed her breasts so deliciously, looked old and washed too many times. But he knew enough about fashion to get that it was that way when she’d bought it.
Now he was in Control Room B, preparing for their arrival, which had been surprisingly challenging. It was the weekend, and it had been difficult to put a solid team in place. Even he would’ve been hard to pin down if Command Center had called an hour or two later. Earlier that afternoon, he’d been on his way to the airport when he’d gotten the call. He was about to board a private plane to Las Vegas. His good friend Davey was getting married and was having one last hoorah in Sin City before saddling up with a wife. The guys had planned to get hammered on the way over. Alex wasn’t a big drinker, but he had planned to have a few, and according to guidelines, he wouldn’t have been able to start the assignment until twenty-four hours after his last drink. A weekend in Las Vegas was supposed to have been his first stop in a two-week long vacation, one he more than deserved. He had planned to spend the rest of his time off fishing and skiing at his cabin in Lake Tahoe.
Alex had only been a mile away from San Francisco International Airport when he’d gotten the call and the download from the emergency center. Red Cloud himself had assigned Alex to the mission, and when RC spoke, everyone on the goddamn planet was supposed to listen.
He was given the assignment because he had already worked with Rosalie and Chance, and Command Center felt as though the death of the ambassador was linked to the previous case. Alex felt the same way.
Now that he had put together the best team possible on the ground, he could spend some time satisfying his curiosity. The last time he’d worked on the Sterling case, he had missed a lot because his attention was being pulled in about ten different directions. He had to prioritize, which was why he was thankful to have Chance and Rosalie on the ground, doing the legwork that couldn’t be done by agents he would’ve assigned to the tasks. So admittedly, there was a lot about the Sterlings he still had to learn, which included the children Conrad had fathered outside his marriage, and Alex wanted to know everything.
He took a few more bites of grilled New York steak and zucchini then logged into BFI, a dark cyberspace system in which agents could contact anonymous connects without either being traced. He drafted a message to Rembrandt Gillespie. Alex grinned as he placed the cursor on top of the green Go button. He owed the fact that he now had a working relationship with Rembrandt, also known as Ant, to Rosalie. Alex was sure Rosalie had no idea how much Ant actually trusted her. He’d been able to use his working relationship with Rosalie to at least get Ant to hear him out. After using Ant’s services for two cases, Alex had earned the paranoid hacker and programmer’s trust.
On their first case together, Alex had requested the phone records of a US senator who had become the focus of his investigation. A secret organization called APP, a group that never revealed what the acronym stood for—Alex guessed that it meant the Association for Purity in Politics—had hired them to find out what happened to a missing twenty-four-year-old man named Justin Johnson, who had been last seen with the senator.
Ant had gotten back to him in less than an hour with the phone records linking the senator to a known hit man. The hacker had also given him data that had put the hit man in the location of the Justin’s apartment, along with a text message from Jacob Eisenhower, one of the hit man’s aliases, to the senator. The text had read, “The project has been completed. I’ll have the report on your desk in the morning.”
Fifteen minutes later, the senator had responded, “I’ve read your report. Am satisfied.”
And that’s when Alex knew Justin was dead.
It didn’t take long to figure out all of Justin’s favorite hangouts and acquire video of the middle-aged senator and the young man dressed in full-on black leather, entering a secret sex den in New York City called the Red Cave.
Days later, after agency interrogators pressed the hit man about the whereabouts of the body, authorities made a deal with him, and he told them where to find what was left of the body. The victim had been carved into pieces and dumped in a Florida swamp as alligator food.
Thanks to Ant’s help, Alex had been able to put down that case faster than usual and collect enough of Justin’s remains to bring a kernel of comfort to his family.
Alex was sure Ant would be able to accumulate enough intelligence on the Sterlings that would include a few needles in the haystack. He pressed Send, and off went his request to Rembrandt Gillespie. He then studied the photos that had been taken of Charles Wentworth’s office after his body was discovered. The victim was on the floor, lying on his belly, with his eyes wide open. The guy had had no idea what was happening to him, and the terrified look in his eyes said so.
“Were you murdered, Mr. Wentworth?” Alex whispered.
There were three knocks on the door. Alex tore his eyes off the screen and rubbed them as he rushed over to answer it.
It was Martin, the steward.
“Yeah, what can I do for you?” Alex was anxious to get back to work.
“One of the passengers would like to see you,” Martin said.
Alex frowned and checked his watch. The first person that came to mind was Rosalie, but she had been so sleepy that she could hardly keep her eyes open. They were now four hours into the trip. Maybe she had gotten all the rest she needed and her active mind wanted to know more about the details.
“Her name is Halo, the model.” Martin raised his eyebrows in a way that suggested Alex would be a very lucky man if he entertained the passenger.
“Um…” Alex scratched the top of his head. “Give me five and then bring her in.”
Martin nodded and turned away. As soon as he was alone, Alex raced to power down all the computer systems. He made sure there were no documents in sight. Civilians were rarely allowed in the control room. Normally, he would say no to letting her in, but he couldn’t help wanting to be alone with her.
Five minutes later, there were three knocks on the door. Alex gave the room another once-over. All was clear, so he trotted over to let the caller in. His gaze met Halo’s. He was reminded of how inhumanly beautiful she was and how delicious she smelled.
She smiled. “Secret room, huh?”
Alex asked himself if being alone with her while on an assignment was a bad idea. He wasn’t the type to engage in funny business while on the job. But he could picture himself tugging her into the room and kissing her until she was just as hot and bothered as he was.
“Are you going to let me in? Or are you going to keep looking at me like I’m the bully who’s going to steal your lunch money.”
“The bully who stole what?” He took stock of how his expression might look to her. Finally, he stepped back. “Come in.” He couldn’t keep his eyes off her perfect ass as she strolled into the room with folded arms, taking it all in.
“So this is where you’ve been hiding.”
“Working,” he said, closing the door.
“Oh, you’ve been working?”
“Making sure we’re ready to go when we hit the ground.” He gestured to an empty chair in front of the control panel. “Have a seat.”
She studied him with intrigue as she walked slowly up to the electronic spread of connected monitors and three sets of individual key command centers.
“Doesn’t look like much work is going on in here,” she said then whipped around to catch his expression.
Alex knew he appeared as tongue-tied as he felt.
She smirked. “Did you turn everything off before you let me in?”
He chortled and raised his hands in defeat. “You got me.”
Finally, she sat down, slouching in the chair with her hands folded on top of her abdomen. “So is everything you do top secret?”
Alex worked like hell not to focus on her long, shapely legs and how the fabric of her muscle shirt rolled over her perky tits. It wasn’t the first time he realized that she didn’t wear a bra. And he was cognizant of the fact that she was aware of him staring at her breasts.
He snapped his eyes to her face. “Um, no, not everything is top secret.”
She kept watching him with a sly grin. “Good.” She abruptly sat up straight. “So Alex, what have you discovered in the last four hours?”
He nervously scratched the back of his head. “Excuse me?”
“Surely you’ve uncovered something.”
He decided to get professional, and with a swiftness. That would be the only way he could control his desire for Halo. Alex sat down in the chair beside her.
“I’m waiting for a contact to get back to me with more information on the entire Sterling family, including the children Conrad Sterling fathered outside of his marriage.”
She cut a tiny smile. “Including the children my grandfather ‘fathered’ outside of his marriage? What a polite way to put it.”
“Well, I’m a polite guy.”
They stared at each other, smiling.
“So, Mr. Polite Guy, I’m not abreast of my grandfather’s other children, but Baylor, Carlton, Penelope, and William”—she nudged herself in the chest with her thumb—“I can write an encyclopedia on each one of them. Of course the publication would have the scope and size of a pamphlet, but the theme would be simple. If the love of money is the root of all evil, then they are certainly in love with money—and just about everything they do to keep it is rooted in evil.”
He frowned as he chewed on everything she’d just said. “And this even applies to Penelope?”
She leaned toward him and made sure his gaze remained stuck on hers. “Absolutely Penelope. No human being becomes as successful as my mom without making deals with devils.” Halo sat back and crossed her legs. “But my mother has her own thing, and she’s never been concerned with getting her hands on the family chest, but believe me, she loves watching her brothers squirm.” She raised a finger. “All but William, though. For some godforsaken reason, they’re close.”
Alex nodded slowly, appreciating the insight. He was intrigued and wanted to know how her family affected her emotionally. “You don’t think it’s natural for your mother and William to be close?”
Halo lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. Her expression told him she was assessing whether she could trust him with whatever was going on in her mind. After a moment, she shrugged. “Forget it.”
He quietly sat in the chair beside her. “I thought we were being frank with each other.”
Again, she narrowed her eyes, assessing him. “Are we?”
“Yes.”
“Well…” She moved so close that he could feel the warmth coming off her skin. “Are you attracted to me?”
“Yes,” he answered without hesitation. “But I’m sure that’s common when it comes to you.”
She smirked. “But it’s not common for me to care.”
All of a sudden, his heart was racing a mile a minute. Halo sat back again, and he immediately missed her nearness.
“Bill’s a spoiled and entitled prick,” she blurted. “And the fact that he thinks he can get away with anything makes him dangerous.”
“What does he think he can get away with?”
She studied him again. One thing was for sure, it wasn’t easy for Halo to trust. But he showed her his patient and open expression, hoping she wouldn’t clam up.
“Once, I was doing fashion shows in Paris,” she said. “It was my birthday, and so after the show, Claude Demure threw me a party at his private mansion.” She tilted her head. “You ever heard of Claude Demure?”
He shook his head. “No.”
She grunted, amused. “Then I guess you were telling the truth when you said your ex-girlfriend was the fashionista.”
Hell, he wanted to kiss her. “You thought I was lying?” Whatever was going on inside him not only felt good, but he was smiling more than usual.
She shrugged, grinning. “No, but sometimes I like to entertain a more interesting personal story.” She abruptly shifted in her seat. “Anyway, I have no idea how Bill even heard about the party.
“The party?” he asked.
“At Claude Demure’s mansion.”
Shit, she had his mind splitting in a number of directions, but he was back on track. “Right. The reason why you don’t trust your uncle.”
“He and I were never close,” she continued. “But he was always traveling here and there, drinking and chasing snatch.”
“Snatch?” he asked.
“Pussy.”
Embarrassment made his skin run hot. “Oh.”
Halo smiled slightly. “So I guess by fate, he and I ended up at the same party.” She looked off as if she were envisioning that day. “If I hadn’t made it to that room when I did…” She closed her eyes and shook her head.
“What room?” Alex asked, edging her on. He was totally enthralled by her recount about her uncle. He thought for sure William had done something to her, something unforgiveable. Alex already wanted to wring the guy’s neck.
“I like to explore new places, you know. So, I figured it’s an old mansion in Paris. I mean, the floors were actually paved by history. So I went down one hall, and then another, and then down steps. And then I heard a woman cry, ‘no.’ I mean, she kept repeating it, and she started pleading for her life. So… I’m a fighter.”
“I bet you are,” he said.
Halo shook her head. “No, really, I’m a trained mixed martial arts fighter. I started it because it was a way to keep me exercising, but I was good at it so I kept it up.”
That explained her lean, strong, yet feminine body.
“Then you didn’t run away from the crying?”
“No, I didn’t. And I found my uncle.” She took a deep breath. “My uncle had a leather belt wrapped around this woman’s neck, strangling her, and at this point, she was just gasping for air.”
“Whoa.” Alex hadn’t expected to hear that William Sterling was trying to commit murder.
“Yeah, so I beat his ass to a pulp, and when I was done, we called the police. He was taken to the hospital, but they also arrested him for attempted murder. But in less than twenty-four hours, he was being flown back to the United States, and all the charges had been dropped.”
“Then he got away with attempted murder?” Alex asked, although he wasn’t at all stunned by the story. The Sterlings were powerful people, and on the scale of shit they could get away with, strangling a woman was at the top.
“Yes.” Halo narrowed an eye. “But the way he did it, the look on his face… It was like he had no expression at all as he watched her eyes bulge and saw her trying to struggle for breath. I mean, he’s a sick-ass motherfucker, and I’m positive he had done it before.” She nodded. “I rightfully kicked his ass. I put him in the hospital for weeks. And that girl, her name is Chelsea Lawry, we’re friends still. But we had to become friends. So…” She smashed her lips together.
“So?”
“She pursued a case against my uncle, and I stood by her side. People rarely stay alive when they go against the Sterlings.
“He didn’t stand trial, did he?” Alex was sure William Sterling hadn’t because the fact would’ve come up the last time he worked with Chance and Rosalie.
Halo snorted facetiously as she rolled her eyes. “My grandmother threw up a Hail Mary pass, and Chelsea was smart enough to catch it.”
He frowned. “A Hail Mary pass?”
“Grandmother offered Chelsea ten million dollars to disappear and not testify against William. But Chelsea refused the offer. She wasn’t poor. In the modeling world, she was rising up the food chain.”
“Then she was a model?”
“Nineteen years old and from somewhere in Ohio. But understand, Alex, my grandmother is very smart. She generally knows how to outthink her opposition, and that’s her tactic. Killing, murdering was more my grandfather’s style. So my grandmother took her offer to Chelsea’s parents, and they convinced their daughter to take the money.”
“And that’s how it ended?”
Halo nodded. “Chelsea got on the first flight to South Africa, and all charges were dropped because the victim couldn’t be found.”
“But you were a witness,” Alex said.
Halo closed her eyes and sighed forcefully. He could tell she had more memories playing through her mind. “You know, I wanted to keep it going. I tried to talk Chelsea out of taking the deal, but her parents insisted, and the greatest weapon parents have to use against their children is the threat of taking their love away.”
Alex closed his mouth and swallowed. The more Halo talked, the less he saw her long, sexy legs and exotically beautiful face and instead simply admired her strength and amazing ability to be open. But he was still falling for her at an alarming speed.
She shrugged nonchalantly. “Anyway, that’s the story. And my uncle and I have been mortal enemies ever since.”
Alex almost didn’t know what to say next. “Sorry” was the first thing that came to mind.
She shook her head. “You don’t have to apologize, Security Chief.” Her trademark smirk was back. “That’s the fucking Sterlings for you, which is why I spend eighty-five percent of my family time with the Boyds—my dad’s people.”
“Roger Boyd, used to play power forward for the Maryland Tigers,” he said leadingly. He just wanted her to keep talking and revealing more about herself.
“The one and only,” she said, staring somberly at her brown leather ankle boots.
He waited for her to say more, but unfortunately, she fell silent.
“Listen,” he said to get her talking again. “What you said earlier about William probably having strangled women before… I think you’re right.”
“Of course I’m right.” She scooted to the edge of her seat. “And do you know what my mom told me?”
He shook his head.
“She said, ‘Sterlings stick together no matter what, got it?’ She was fucking chastising me!”
“Wow,” Alex said.
“Yeah. I gave her the middle finger, and, um, we stopped talking for a while. It just felt…” She covered her face with both hands and took a deep breath.
“Like shit?” Alex asked.
She removed her hands and cleared her throat. “Worse than that. It’s why I…”
Again, he waited for her to finish, but instead her eyes grew wide as though she didn’t want to complete whatever she was going to say.
“We’re being frank, right?” she asked.
He smiled slightly. “Yes, we are.”
She took a deep breath. “So I was in treatment for cocaine.” She wiggled her head. “Chance thinks I was in treatment for alcohol, but no, I was—it made me feel—I could get through my fucking life when I was high.”
Now he really didn’t know what to say. However, he was searching deep inside of himself for some encouraging words.
Halo raised her hand. “So, I’m Halo Boyd, and I’m an addict. And my mother’s family is fucked up and full of murderers and liars, and I don’t know why in the hell I agreed to come on this trip with Chance.” She put her hand down. “My decision feels sort of codependent to me, and I’m working on not being codependent.”
“The reason you’re here?” He shrugged. “That’s easy. We need you.”
She frowned. “You do?”
“Yeah. Everything you told me… I need to know the true Sterlings if we’re to figure out whether someone in your family was involved in Wentworth’s death. I like Chance. He’s a good guy, but he seems purposely oblivious to shit his family is capable of.”
“Extremely,” she said emphatically.
“I warned him about facing Doug Sterling alone. I’ve been doing my job long enough to know what comprises a killer, and Doug Sterling was textbook.”
She slapped a hand over her heart. “Really? You tried to warn him?”
“Yes, I did, but he wouldn’t listen. I probably should’ve stopped him anyway.”
She shook her head adamantly. “No way. There’s no stopping Chance when he thinks he’s right about something. He’s always been the kind of person who thinks evil isn’t evil until he experiences it, and then he forgets what he experienced and has to experience it again to remember it. It’s like a never-ending cycle.” She sighed as though she felt her words had gotten away from her, but Alex understood her perfectly.
Halo’s natural intuitiveness and intelligence had inspired him. “Look.” He swiveled in his chair to face the control center. “Perhaps you can help me connect some dots.” He powered on the system.
Halo scooted closer to the control board. Alex could feel her enthusiasm radiating from her.
“What are the dots?” she asked.
“We can start with profiles of your uncles and—”
“What about Grandmother?”
He quickly turned to face her. “Edna Sterling?”
“She’s alive, you know. At least she was a month ago. So if you want to stop all the madness, then dead or alive, just find her.”
“Even with the physical evidence that was found?”
“Especially with the physical evidence that was found,” she said.