“Oh, I will.” She lifted her untouched champagne glass and took a big sip. “Mmm,” she said through a closed-lip smile.
Satisfied, Weisser stood up, as did Wren, clutching the satchel’s handle.
“After you,” she said. As she followed Weisser inside, she glanced back and saw Gina spitting the champagne back into her glass as she stood up, preparing to follow them in at a discreet distance.
Then she listened as Gina told the team to prepare because Scrubs was about to deliver the goods.
Weisser didn’t lead Wren to the bathroom but to his office instead. He closed the door and Wren’s heart beat triple-time as claustrophobia kicked in. One more barrier between her and help. Then there was Weisser standing between her and the door. His face was bright red with fury.
She heard Gina update the team, telling them which room Weisser had taken her to.
They have a set of this godawful house’s blueprints and know right where I am.To calm herself further, Wren pictured Gina silently hurrying down the hall and stationing herself right outside the door. Wren walked backward until her butt hit his desk.
Weisser lunged forward, grabbed two handfuls of her silk blouse, and pulled it up. His eyes roamed her body. Thank God she and Gina had rehearsed this possibility.
“What are you doing?” she shrieked as she whacked his side with the satchel. She listened to Lachlan alert the team over her comm. The police were surrounding the house, getting ready.
He let go of the blouse and shushed her. “Looking for a wire.”
“Yeah, right. I’m recording us right now just so you know, because I really want to go to jail. Asshole.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm as she mentally did a victory dance.
Now it’s on the record that I told him he’s being recorded.
Weisser just glared. “I thought I told you to bring heralone, Brooke.”
“Without her security team? Oh, yeah, right. That wouldn’t look suspicious at all. She always keeps them outside anyway.”
“Fine. But here’s how it’s going to go. You’re going to tell Barbie you aren’t feeling well and need to leave and then you’re going outside and getting rid of her security team. I don’t care how you do it, just get them out of here.” He looked at her satchel. “The money’s in your bag, correct?”
“Yes.”
He grabbed it and dumped the bound stacks of fake bearer bonds onto the desk. “This doesn’t look like all of it.”
“It’s not. It’s only a down payment.” Wren moved until Weisser was no longer between her and the door as she listened to the team coordinate with the police. Then she tuned it out to focus on her job.
“That wasn’t the agreement,” he snarled.
“Neither was feeling me up for a wire. You think I’m going to give you everything you want without a guarantee that you’re going to let me in on the deal you made with the lenders?” She folded her arms. “Actually, I want more. I want six percent of every loan.”
He gawked at her. “Are you fucking crazy? That’s a percentage point over what they’re giving me.”
“You’re getting five percent from every single loan you direct to them when all you did was put a link to their company on Milestone’s website.” Then she went straight for his oversized ego. “An untrained monkey could have done that.”
His eyes grew big as saucers as his face turned white, mottled with red blotches.
“Bitch, you think that’s all I did? I did way more thanput up a link on the website,” he said, mocking her voice. “This was my brainchild.” He ticked off on his fingers. “I gave them the idea. I structured the payment plan to make sure patients would miss payments and accrue interest.” His chest puffed up. “I helped a goddamnedsenatordraft those bills. I set the whole thing up. Now get me the rest of my money or…”
“Or what?”
He gave her a feral smile. “Or I tell Barbie what you’re doing.”
Oh my God, this guy’s insane.
“Tell Barbie what exactly?”
“That you’re taking money out of her donation to bribe me.”
“She won’t believe you.”
