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“The person using Connor’s card wasn’t Connor. Contact Rick Whitmore and invite him to Ember Ridge tomorrow morning.” I watch Cassie closely while I speak. She doesn’t look away. “Tell him we’re reviewing the forged loan documents and need the bank’s formal response. Present it as a business meeting between Dragorin Vineyards and Evergreen National.”
“Do you want legal counsel present?” Reid asks.
“Offer to include ours if Rick wants the bank’s attorney involved. Make cooperation easier than refusal.”
Reid hears what I haven’t said. “I’ll call him within ten minutes.”
After the call ends, I lead Drew outside and stop beside the second SUV, where the station windows and passing traffic give us some privacy. Cassie follows, which saves her the trouble of pretending she intends to give us any.
“Place Rick under observation,” I tell Drew. “I want his movements, his finances, and every person he meets after he leaves work. Keep the team far enough back that he doesn’t change his routine.”
Drew’s eyes narrow. He ran military security before he came to the vineyard, and he recognizes the difference between protecting a company and building pressure around a target. “How far into his finances?”
“Debt, liens, properties, gambling activity, business interests, and any shell companies connected to his name. Compare his spending with what he earns.”
“I’ll put Mercer on him.” Drew glances toward Cassie, then meets my eyes again. “If he takes an unexpected route?”
“Follow and document it. Do nothing that gives him reason to suspect us.”
Cassie waits until Drew steps away to call Mercer. “You’re inviting a possible suspect to your vineyard?”
“I invited the regional manager of my bank to explain fraudulent documents bearing my company’s name.”
“That sounded respectable enough for a board meeting,” Cassie says, nodding toward Drew. “Then you ordered him watched.”
“I did,” I reply.
She folds her arms. “What happens if Rick refuses the invitation?”
“He’ll come.” I take my keys from my pocket and start toward our SUV.
Cassie catches up with me, disbelief tightening her expression. “You can’t know that.”
“Refusing would tell me more than accepting, and Rick is too careful to give us that advantage.” I glance at her, then return my attention to the exit. “He’ll want to learn what we know, and he’ll believe he can manage the conversation.”
“Except it’ll happen on your property.” She watches me, waiting for me to deny it.
“Yes.”
Her steps slow. She understands that I’m bringing Rick into a place where every camera, guard, and locked door belongs to me, but she has no way of knowing what I once did to men who mistook restraint for weakness.
“What are you planning to do when he gets there?” she asks, lowering her voice.
“Ask questions and listen to what he doesn’t say.”
Her fingers tighten around her bag strap. “That isn’t all of it.”
I stop and turn toward her. “It’s all you need to worry about today.”
Her eyebrows rise. “You had to ruin a perfectly good answer.”
I take her elbow and guide her out of the path of a car pulling away from the pumps. “You’ll know what happens in the meeting.”
She looks down at my hand, then meets my eyes. “That was better.”
I release her elbow and open the passenger door. Drew and Benitez return to the second SUV while Cassie climbs into the seat beside me. By the time I hit the highway, Drew is several car lengths behind us, exactly where I told him to stay.
The dark SUV appears three minutes after we leave the station. It enters the highway several vehicles behind Drew and remains in the right lane when traffic opens around it. Dark paint, tinted windows, and a front plate obscured beneath a cover give me no proof that it is the vehicle seen near my lower gate. Its position gives me enough reason to watch.
