20 Too Many Problems

Dane

"She's done what?" Dane said, far too quietly.

She stood in front of his table, both Chris and Dane seated behind it, staring at her over the computer they'd been looking at.

"She's hired counsel and they had a press conference to let everyone know they were taking you to court."

Dane sat back in his chair and put his hands over his face. His jacket was off and he'd rolled his sleeves up almost to his elbows, so she was able to admire the firm lines in his forearms for a second before she blinked and forced herself to concentrate.

Dane muttered something into his hands that sounded like cannot catch a fucking break, and Lila nodded.

"I was thinking about that walking down here," she said.

Dane's hands dropped. "Thinking about what?"

Chris looked back and forth between them as they talked.

"Thinking about how all of this is happening at once. How we can't seem to get ahead of it. What was that phone call you received? Is it linked? Are we actually dealing with two different things, or is it one big shitstorm?" She pulled a chair out at the table as Dane and Chris looked at each other.

"You go get Tank and Sam and get them in the conference room like we planned," Dane said quietly, firmly. "Tell them to watch the Press conference while we wait, in case it triggers anything for Sam." Chris nodded once and leapt up, all sign of the tension between the brothers gone when there was a crisis to attend to.

Dane turned back to Lila as the door closed on Chris behind her. She took a quick look to make sure he was really gone before settling in.

"There's somethings I need to fill you in on," he said soberly. "Things we wouldn't normally spring on a new employee. But I think you can handle it, and it may be an important part of this picture. So strap in, Miss Farris. You have yourself a shitstorm."

*****

Lila

Twenty minutes later her head was spinning even faster.

"So, you're telling me that the contacts I'm exploring around Becky Hanson are quite possibly the same—or a second faction—of contacts that have targeted you and your business since it began?

"Yes."

"Organized crime."

"Worse. Government sanctioned organized crime."

Lila closed her eyes. "Explain that part to me again."

Dane sighed. "There are parts of our country, our society, our government that rub shoulders with organized crime. Not your mafia bosses, or your thieves. We're talking, the kind of crime that looks like it's legit. And where the people who run it are friends with your local Police, the FBI, even the CIA."

"And they know that these people are criminals?"

"They use them specifically because they're criminals," he said darkly. "I'm sorry to be the one to tell you this, Miss Farris, but many many of our government officials are actually criminals themselves. They just don't have the police record to show for it.

"To be fair, there are parts of society that can really only be addressed through what are technically criminal means. These people serve a good purpose, sometimes. But most of the time they're just..."

"Just what?" she asked, breathless and angry.

"Corrupt," he said, shrugging.

Lila folded her hands in her lap and tried not to fidget. "What does this have to do with you? With Daniels Security? How do you know this if it's so well hidden?"

"Dane glanced at the clock on his desk and frowned. "I'm in security for the most prominent and wealthy people in our city—in our country—Delilah. It's my job to know these things." He started tapping something out on the laptop keyboard.

"But . . . but you aren't in this right? Why are they coming after you?"

His eyes raised from the computer to meet hers, a weird heat in his gaze that she knew had nothing to do with her. "They're coming for me because I know how to stop them. And whenever their schemes cross over or would target my clients, I do stop them. They don't like that."

"I can imagine that they don't," Lila said quietly. She chewed her lip. "Becky is a part of this?"

Dane raked a hand through his hair. "I don't know. That's why I want you to get very specific about what contacts she has. But given who her father is, I suspect either she's knowingly working with these people, or they're manipulating her—have been manipulating her all along."

"So, we can't be sure they're linked? But you think these people are coming after you personally, now?"

"I don't know. I know that my name is being spoken in circles where I'd rather it wasn't," he said tightly. "So, until I know for sure, I'm going to assume the two are linked. Though, since one is public and the other very private, I suspect our strategies will need to meet them very differently. Whether they're linked, or not."

Lila agreed. But she was still trying to understand how she could be in a good company, working for a good purpose, and yet be working against their government.

Or was Dane lying? Or being manipulated himself?

She looked at him, and he caught her gaze and stared straight back. As if he read her mind, he spoke quietly, through gritted teeth.

"I assure you, Delilah, I have witnessed these things first hand. I am not lying to you. I am not being lied to. I am a danger to people who would lie to you. That's why they're targeting my business. They know that in order to thwart them I need resources. If they can bankrupt me... he closed his mouth and looked back to the computer, started typing again. "Go find out who she's connected with. And if possible, when—did they all come through her father, or are there others involved? Our database can screen through which faction is using her, and we'll go from there."

"And the threat to you? To your safety?" she asked.

"That is for me and my team. You do not need to worry yourself with it," he said in a tight, clipped voice, so she wouldn't argue.

Frustrated, she almost did argue anyway. But she knew it was pointless. She was flying blind in this circle. So instead she got to her feet, slid the chair back and started for the door. But it was his voice—with a strange tone—that called her back. "Delilah?"

"Yes?" She stopped and turned back to face him.

He didn't look away from the computer, but she knew all his attention was on her. "Please be careful anytime you aren't in our building, or the home building. Let one of our drivers take you back and forth from home. And we have delivery services that can shop for you if it's needed. Just in case."

She frowned. "Was my name mentioned in your intelligence?"

"No, but you are a staff member here now, which comes with some level of risk regardless, if I'm being targeted. But on top of that, you are somewhat high profile yourself."

I feel my cheeks heat. "I've never run in the kinds of circles you're describing—"

"Delilah, please listen," Dane leaned forward, his eyes locked with hers now. "The timing of this is not coincidental. Your prominence in fixing scandals—these people will know you. Perhaps they even manipulated Chris in ways we don't know, to focus his attention on you. We cannot be sure. And until we are sure, I want to be utterly certain you are safe. Please use the drivers, and the services. I will make them available to you free of charge."

"You don't have to—"

"It's only because of me that you're potentially in danger. It's only right that I should bear the cost of keeping you safe."

She huffed a breath. "I really don't think—"

"No one does, until they're in the hands of these people. Please. You told me to trust you, that you know when and how to deal with scandals. Well, I believe you. Now I ask you to do the same. I know when and how to handle these people, Miss Farris. Use the car."

Lila wasn't sure what it was that made her so unwilling to give in. It wasn't a terrible thing he was asking her to do. Her feet were always sore at the end of the day, anyway.

But it seemed so . . . dramatic. And out of her control.

He didn't look away, and neither did she. He allowed her the time to think this through, but they both faced the other tense and certain.

In the end, Lila had to ask herself which was worse: To listen to him and find out there'd been no danger? Or to not listen, and to possibly be manipulated or harmed by these people? She sighed and finally broke the eye-contact. "I'll use the driver."

"Thank you." Dane went back to his laptop and didn't say anything else.

Lila gathered that she'd been dismissed, and walked out with her chin up. Though it didn't feel like she'd come out of that conversation any kind of winner.

.

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