Page 88 of Defender
She straight-up laughed. “You think Victor did this?” She shook her head. “That man couldn’t even order his own coffee. I’m the one who runs this company. I’m the one who actually knows what goes on here. The one who does the hiring, firing, or whatever unpleasant task the moment calls for, the way I have for decades, while men like Victor take all the credit and enjoy the benefits. So don’t think for a moment that he’ll be calling the shots here. You’ll be answering to me. So what will it be?”
Ah. The real Martha Lintz finally reared her ugly head. Gone was the meek and harried assistant. The Martha sitting on the other side of the desk was conniving and power hungry. But she hadn’t accounted for the strong stubborn streak of the Martinellis.
He stared into her cold eyes. “I won’t work for you or have anything to do with the Shadow Syndicate.” He threw it out there, hoping to get a reaction.
But Martha didn’t lose the cunning smile on her face as she stood and circled the desk. She glided to Michael, then bent over him and cupped his chin in her icy hand. “So…virtuous. Just like your mother.”
Michael drew in a sharp breath. His mother? What did she?—
“She was onto you, wasn’t she?” He yanked his head back, releasing himself from her grasp. “She was investigating the syndicate. That’s why she was killed.”
“That does tend to happen when you hang with drug dealers on the wrong side of town. Or when you try to cross Draven Frost. It actually worked out pretty well for us. Gave us an excuse to take Sean Fletcher out of the game. He was getting a little too big for his britches, as they say.”
Michael bit down on his molars to keep from launching himself at her. “You killed an innocent woman. A good woman.” The words he spoke through clenched teeth didn’t faze Martha.
She looked down her nose at him with a mixture of pity and superiority. “It was her choice, Michael. And you know what? Because I like you, I’m going to give you a chance to right her wrongs.” Martha leaned against the desk and crossed one ankle over the other. “Join us.”
The bodyguards moved in. With the cold steel of the semiautomatics pressed into his back, his chest, and his head, Michael gave her the only answer he could.
“Never!”
“So disappointing.” Martha sighed. “But if I’m honest, completely predictable.” She wiped her hands and stood. “You are so like your mother.”
To the man standing next to him, she said, “Take him away. He wants to meet Victor. I’ll be there with Wilson as soon as I’m done with this party.”
It didn’t surprise Dani all that much that it was Judd Downey at the syndicate’s beck and call, shoving her into the trunk of a car, her hands bound with duct tape behind her. But it did shock her system when the trunk later opened and Owen Rice pointed a Hi-Point C9 gun at her. Not to mention the overwhelming stench that hit her nostrils.
“Owen?”
He tsked. “I really liked you, Dani. I had hoped the time in the reefer would warn you off. Why didn’t you just stay out of it?”
“That was you? I thought it was Jim who threw me in there.”
“Nah. But I can see why you’d think that. Turns out he’s just very particular about how the recycling is sorted.” He grabbed her elbow and yanked her out of the car. They stood in the courtyard of an abandoned warehouse. A rusty metal sign hung crookedly on the building. RM Refuse and Recycling. The one Campos had told her about.
The old city dump.
“So, you’re working with Victor and the syndicate. Wow, Owen. Not cool.”
Owen laughed. “The syndicate, yeah, but Victor hasn’t been calling the shots for quite a while.”
Really? A cold sensation washed over Dani. “Where is he?”
Owen scrunched up his face like he was trying to remember. “I think they dumped his body at sea, off one of the ocean liners. Or maybe he was the first one we used the garbage truck for at the new disposal site…I can’t exactly recall.” He shrugged. “But his stellar reputation as a Renegade Bellmont has sure come in handy for Martha. She’s quite the businesswoman.” He paused. “Hey, you’re good with numbers. You could learn a thing or two from her.”
“I don’t think I’ll be signing up to hear her TED Talk anytime soon.”
“That’s too bad. Shirley and Van are really gonna miss you.”
Owen marched her toward the building at gunpoint. The rusty hinges on the door groaned when he opened the door. Dani needed to free her hands, and while she was at it, find out as much as she could.
And Owen didn’t seem to mind her questions. “How long have you been working with them?” She glanced around. Metal poles throughout the structure held up the roof. Stars twinkled, and a frigid wind blew through the broken windows and large holes in the ceiling. Dani didn’t bother to control the shivering. The weaker she seemed, the more likely she could catch Owen off guard.
“Martha and I go way back. I was the one that suggested using the trucks at Silas’s company when they needed to move product.” He sounded proud of it too. They kept walking toward the center, where a group of oil barrels stood. “It didn’t take long before they brought him into Continental. Then we really started doing business.”
A small rusty metal shard lay on top of one of the barrels. Probably part of the ceiling that had fallen. She backed up to it, and after groping behind her back, she managed to grab it.
“But how can you do it? How do you stab Silas in the back? Lie to your coworkers?” Dani couldn’t get a good angle to saw at the tape with her shard.
