He opened his mouth to speak. Paused. Then sighed. “I’ve never been at a loss for words. Talking is my stock in trade.”
“We understand,” she soothed, because that was her nature.
When she sat back again, Gideon pressed a grateful kiss to his wife’s temple. She cared for the people who worked for them on a personal level. She’d been so concerned about nepotism when he pushed her to join him at work, and it had taken some finessing to find initiatives that were unquestionably hers and not his, but her impact on employee morale had been evident from the outset.
With a brisk nod, Edoardo thrust the door open and stepped neatly outside. He was immediately hammered with questions that came in furious succession. “Tosti! Can we get a minute with Gideon or Eva? What’s the update on Ireland? Has she been found? Are you offering a reward? Do you know the identity of the abductors? Has a motive been determined?”
The limo pulled away from the barrier and drove up beside the Bentayga. Angus opened the door, and Victor hopped out first, turning to assist his daughter.
Gideon exited behind her and draped his arm across her hips. “Where’s Boudreaux?” he asked the man who was like a father to him.
“Once we determined that Ireland wasn’t here,” Angus answered, “he left.”
“And you let him?”
Angus shot him an arch look as he placed his large frame between them and the world. “I cannae abduct the man, lad. Let’s get you both inside the structure.”
Victor took up the rear at a strategic distance.
“We can’t be certain Boudreaux isn’t involved in some way,” Gideon argued tightly.
“Well, I can hunt him down, if need be, but according to him, he has Vidal Records to run in Ireland’s stead, and he’ll be in New York doing that until she’s able to do so herself.”
As they entered the garage, Gideon looked at the entrance boom gates, then at the cameras spaced at strategic points along the ceiling. Angus slowed to walk beside him.
Eva caught the Scot’s pale blue gaze. “At what point did keeping Vidal solvent become his goal?”
“Ach, Ireland appears to be the goal now. Or perhaps she always was.”
“That’s come to be my thought,” Gideon agreed grimly. He had to push that aside for the moment. “Ireland met with Graham Teller last Friday. From what I gather, he was at one of my properties when she confronted him. That’s a violation of our agreement, as is getting within one hundred yards of her.”
Angus nodded. “Indeed.”
“Teller went to a lot of trouble getting what he wanted just to blow it up forty-eight hours later—before giving us the demo tracks we’d need to fulfill our obligations. He struck me as an idiot, but that’s just asinine.”
“Maybe Ireland was his goal, too?” Angus speculated as he led them to the elevators, where a uniformed police officer was on watch.
“He wasn’t one of the two men we saw abduct her from the hotel entrance, but maybe he was behind the wheel. Find him.”
“On it,” Victor said behind them.
“What do we know now?” Eva queried.
“One of the three men from the hotel surveillance footage was found slumped over the wheel of a second vehicle—a blue sedan.”
“A bullet to the back of the head,” Victor offered as he pushed the call button. “This is an automated garage, so the NYPD is working on reaching the owners and getting access to the CCTVrecordings. We suggested that you might be able to contact the owners faster, but were warned that if we overstep, they’ll stop sharing information.”
“Tread lightly,” Gideon told him, “but don’t stop moving forward.”
“Understood.”
The elevator arrived, and Angus gestured for them to enter first. The car smelled vaguely of urine and had an unpleasant variety of mystery stains on the walls and floor. Gideon stood behind Eva and kept her tucked back-to-front against him. His foot tapped with his restive impatience.
Victor typed quickly on his phone with both hands.
“All of the vehicles are registered to the same LLC,” Angus continued, “and all have Lyft and Uber trackers and emblems. We’re running with the theory that they’re part of a rideshare account-sharing scam, which is widespread these days. Whether the rideshare fraud and abduction are connected isnae known yet. It’s possible the kidnappers just took advantage of someone else’s scam to cover their tracks.”
“The garage is equipped with number-plate recognition systems,” Gideon noted.
