Page 14 of Blind Trust
“I’m not upset about it.” She stepped out of his touch and moved to the passenger side of her car. She opened the door, then grabbed her workout bag and a book. “The police have bigger issues to take care of than another one of Jerry Miller’s attempts to intimidate me.”
“This is more serious than the letters.” Nicolás’s gravelly voice was low and menacing. “This is a brick in the middle of your windshield. At your place of work.”
Lyla closed her car door and then felt silly when, out of habit, she hit the fob to lock it. She marched to the elevator with Nicolás and Jack trailing her and jabbed the button. Her eyes fell to her phone, where she’d taken a photo of the threatening note.
It wasn’t Jerry’s hatred scrawled on the page that made her uneasy. He was hardly the first to lash out in anger at her. Castillo’s threats from the other day came to mind. Caught criminals were desperate and said desperate things, but they were mostly empty threats.
What was unsettling to her was the timing. She’d only been back at the office for maybe twenty minutes, which meant whoever had done this might’ve been waiting for her. Or following her? It was like Jerry was proving every word of his message was true. At least up until that last line—You die next. She shuddered.
“Lyla.”
Nicolás stood by the open elevator, his hand holding the door ... on the eighth floor? Lost in her thoughts, she hadn’t realized she’d even gotten on the elevator and ridden up.
She closed the image on her phone and made her way to the office.
“I agree with Garcia.” Jack entered the security code and held the door open for them. “This escalation is troubling, and we need to be on alert.”
“Oh no.” Lyla shook her head and headed straight for her desk. She yanked open the bottom drawer. “I have no doubt that Jerome Michael Miller planned this whole thing to rile me up and set you guys off. I will not allow any of you to run me out of assignments or track my movements, ask for my schedule, run background checks on my friends, or”—she eyed Jack and Nicolás—“crash into a spa.”
Kekoa exited his office, head tilted to the side. “I’m sorry, what?”
“Tiny bubbles.” Jack whispered the nickname for the mortifying debacle he and Nicolás thought they were so clever to come up with because of the soap bubbles that lingered on their hair as they were shamefully led out of the Selah Day Spa by management. “We unintentionally interrupted Lyla’s friend’s bachelorette party.”
She narrowed her eyes on Nicolás. “Unintentionally?”
One hand gripped the back of his neck, the other tugged down on the brim of his cap. “Jerome Miller was meeting with the parole board that day. We couldn’t get ahold of Lyla, so we—”
“Busted in on a bunch of girls,” she finished for him. “Heavily armed with champagne and canapés.”
Lyla caught Kekoa’s lips tipping into a smile and Jack shook his head, but the message wasn’t received. He released a belly laugh that nearly shook the room. Nicolás hung his head as Kekoa began singing the Don Ho ballad.
“It’s not funny, Kekoa.” Lyla frowned. “I haven’t been invited to any more spa days with friends since. They’re worried about two grown men catching them looking like they’ve been mud wrestling.”
This only made Kekoa roar all the louder. And soon Jack joinedin. At least Nicolás had the good sense to look embarrassed. Lyla fought her own smile at the blossom of red coloring his cheeks. It reminded her of the shock on his face when he rushed into a room of women dressed in robes, their faces covered in mud. She didn’t know who was more horrified, Nicolás and Jack or the bride and bridesmaids.
“Believe me, Lyla”—Jack’s laughter rolled to an end—“Garcia and I don’t want that either, but we’re going to take this threat seriously.”
Jack’s tone sobered Kekoa’s laughter. “It’s true, sis. We got your back.”
“And I appreciate that.” She dug in her drawer, pulled out a folder, and set it on her desk. “But I don’t need you three hovering over me.”
“You keep the letters in your desk?”
Lyla caught Nicolás staring at the stack of threatening letters that began arriving randomly after she helped send Jerome Miller to prison for laundering millions of dollars for cybercriminals.
“They’re photocopies, and why wouldn’t I keep them? Jerry was my assignment.” She opened her laptop and quickly found the file on Zane Investments. “Kekoa, can you connect my computer so we can use the screens?”
“Don’t you think we should wait for Walsh?” Nicolás glanced back at Jack. “Let the police handle the investigation?”
Lyla’s jaw clenched. Were they seriously going to question her on this? “Look, I know the police are going to do their best, but let’s be honest, a threatening letter from a man already locked up in prison is low on the list compared to the murder, rape, domestic violence, and child abuse cases that happen every day.” Her gaze swung to Jack. “You said the police want a list of names, right? I say we go through the file and earmark anyone we think might still be working with or for Jerry. Once we hear back from Walsh, we can find out if Jerry had any visitors in jail who’d be willing to deliver his recent message and destroy my car.” She tapped herlip. “Which reminds me, I need to call my repair shop so I can get my windshield fixed ASAP.”
The three men hesitated. She folded her arms, staring each of them down until Jack finally sighed. She grabbed her laptop and moved to the conference table where Kekoa was setting up.
Nicolás pulled her chair out for her and she offered him a smile, but the one she got in return felt forced.Great. Was he upset with her again? Was their earlier conversation for nothing? Taking the chair next to her, he remained quiet, focused. She couldn’t shake the feeling that things were left unsaid earlier, but right now was not the time to figure it out.
“Since Kekoa wasn’t here during this assignment”—Jack’s voice pulled Lyla’s attention away from Nicolás—“why don’t we start from the beginning.”
“Okay.” Lyla opened several files, their contents popping up on the large screens overhead. “Jerome Michael Miller started Zane Investments, a shell company that laundered money for Eastern European cybercriminals. He recruited and supervised individuals,money mules, who hacked into and stole money from corporate and individual American bank accounts, which was then wired overseas.” She brought up a series of photos, including one of Jerry. “Just like in the Castillo assignment, I worked undercover as a receptionist for Zane Investments and was able to collect evidence along with the names of those working with Jerry. The FBI was able to move quickly and make several arrests, but I know there are more that we missed.”
