"Why were you out in the parking lot, talking to Fassell of all people?"
His cold voice broke her out of the moment of relaxation. Suddenly and unreasonably bitter, Maura snapped, "Because the fucking perv cornered me, of course. Do you think I'd seek out an abusive prick like your partner on my own?"
She enjoyed his shocked expression for just a moment. Never, she imagined, had anyone disrespected him since he'd risen the bloody ranks of the Corporation. "Are you mad?" James growled, "Who the fuck do you think you are?" He watched as his lover wandered through the main cabin, stripping off coat, shoes, and purse in a daze of exhaustion.
"Your employee who spent the day plugging the latest leak from the Corporation's house of horrors," she snarled. An exhausted giggle escaped her. "Or House of Whores, when the definition fits. And how is dear Flower, Mr. Pine?"
His eyes went from confused azure to frosty blue within seconds. "Shut up, Maura! I don't think you realize how much trouble our department is facing- this is the second major security breach in four weeks!"
Maura laughed, knowing she was only making it worse for herself but was somehow not able to care. "No, James, there's trouble facing Nicholas and me! You'll be free to carry on and murder as many people as you like-" Her angry rant was cut off abruptly as he furiously grabbed her upper arms, leaning over her menacingly. Her laugh cut off abruptly, but Maura refused to take her eyes from his. "Not to worry,Boss..."her angry hiss was sibilant. "No one's expecting you to save us. Carry on."
The grip around her upper arms was tightening, but Maura wouldn't look away. She watched as James' jaw clenched in rage, teeth gritting until she was sure a molar would crack. "Darling," he managed, "you're cross. Go to bed."
Maura refused to react, even when he angrily slammed the door, his furious footsteps pounding up the dock. When her keen ears heard the whine of the Jaguar starting up, she slid down the wooden door and cried, arms wrapped around herself in the parody of a hug that someone who loved her would offer.
Chapter 10: You're Compromised
In which Maura discovers how James handles hurt feelings. Which is to say, badly.
Maura woke up the next morning with a mild hangover and a huge feeling of foreboding. She'd yelled at James. Oh, God. She'd sworn, screamed, and sassed at James. Her boss. The man behind a multi-billion-dollar crime empire. Putting her forehead against her steering wheel, Maura wondered if she'd be shot before she even got into the building. Gathering her courage, she headed into the office where Nicholas was already perched like a depressed vulture over a bank of monitors, tapping on his keyboard.
"What do we know?" Maura asked, handing him a fresh cup of coffee.
Nicholas took a gulp. "The Big Three demanded we move another forty-eight million to nearly a dozen offshore accounts. They think dispersing funds will make these transactions harder to track."
Taking a sip of her own tea, Maura's brow wrinkled. "What transactions?" Leaning over his shoulder, she was stunned to see three different payments from the French account she'd tracked earlier and two Algerian contacts, over sixty million pounds total to the Corporation. "What the- wow, Nicholas. This is one hell of a lot of money to move around right now."
"You think?" he groaned, taking off his glasses and rubbing his eyes. "Will you take over on the Cayman Island accounts? We need to fit at least twenty million dollars through those."
"Sure," Maura sat, pulling up her multiple screens. As her fingers flew over the keys, she ventured "I've never seen the Corporation take in this much money at once. And from just three sources?"
"This is just the beginning," groaned Holbrook. "Kingston told me to get with the Offshore Accounts Division, we need to create at least twenty new untraceable accounts within the next forty-eight hours."
"Twenty?" Maura gasped, "We'll never be able to create the safeguards for that many accounts in two days!"
Absently sucking down another blistering mouthful of his coffee, Nicholas shook his head. "Yes, we will..."
"...if we like breathing." finished Maura. Somehow, their little inside joke didn't seem as amusing this morning. "Why so much?" she mused, still rapidly opening screens and adding new elements. "There must be a huge deal in the works for something of this magnitude."
"Definitely something to do with the Algerians in town last weekend," he agreed. "They'll be back for whatever's happening two days from now."
Scooting her rolling office chair to his, Maura pointed to something on one of the monitors. "Are you using this code? If not, I need it."
"Take it," he said, still blearily adding digits to another account shell he was creating.
"I don't get it, though." Maura's voice was deceptively casual. "Algeria has money from all those oil wells, but this much cash, all untraceable? Who’s sending them millions and millions of dollars?"
Nicholas shrugged. "They've got something. Because this isn't laundering money from somewhere else. Hey, can you head down to Offshore Accounts and get me their codes folder? I'm going to have to create something different for them."
"Sure," Maura got up, stretching.
"Um, say 'hi' to Anna for me, would you?" Nicholas wouldn't look at her, but Maura could see the flush creeping up his cheeks.
She suppressed a shudder, remembering her phone call with Yagura announcing he was about to go "balls-deep" in Holbrook's crush. "Erm, certainly."
Running into Yagura emerging from Anna's office with a smirk and zipping his fly was truly adding insult to injury, Maura thought as she rolled her eyes. "Really?" she hissed, "Here? You're remembering Fassell shot one of his guards when he caught him with simply a beer, correct?"
"Stop acting like such a goddamned virgin, MacLaren," he grinned. "That's Holbrook's job."
