Page 36 of Betrayed

His phone buzzed. He dug it out of his pocket.Merde!The display showed three missed calls and voice messages, all from the same number.

“Jonas tried to reach me.”

“But you were tied up with the lovely widow.” Cap winced at the look he shot his way. “Sorry, poor choice of words.”

“But accurate, which compounds the situation further.”

“That is what we in the States call a clusterfuck.”

“An apt term.” Cap’s look of sympathy wasn’t helping matters. “Jonas told me he’s ready to present his findings to the team in the morning. Ten a.m. at the Rossi offices downtown. Does that work for you?”

He nodded, lost in thought, staring at the spot where he’d last seen Mari. If she was involved, he’d just become their prime suspect’s dom.

Cap clapped him on the shoulder. A sign of support he’d learned was common amongst Texas men. From such a big man, it jarred his body, but no delicate flower himself, Arturo didn’t budge, the tension in his body making him rigid as steel.

“Maybe it’s not as bleak as it seems,” were Cap’s parting words. He was gone the next minute, the rumble of his classic Mustang echoing in the night.

“Bleak,” he murmured.

Mari had used the same word for her situation. Coincidence or fate?

Whatever the case, to have to expose his new lover and submissive for her role in an international weapons plot would put quite a damper on his romantic plans.Putain!

* * *

THE FOLLOWING MORNING, sitting in the Rossi conference room as Jonas gave a rundown of Derek Hoffman’s assets, which now belonged solely to his widow, he decided bleak wasn’t a dismal enough term.

“Five million in life insurance death benefits, added to the estate, which included a five thousand square foot house in an elite area of Houston, three luxury sports cars, her boutique, and liquid assets brings her net worth to seventeen million dollars. Enough for her and her two kids to be living the good life for years to come.” Jonas paused, glancing up as the pen Arturo was holding snapped in his clenched fist. “With a little digging, I found more. There are three offshore accounts in the Caymans. Untouched in over three years, except for accumulating interest. I doubt she knows they’re there.”

“Or else she’s lying low, waiting for the heat to die down before tapping into them.”

Rick Sinclair, another of the Rossi owners, made this offhand comment. He quickly raised his hands in a defensive gesture when his comment drew several cool glares, not the least of them from Arturo.

“Sorry—devil’s advocate here. I haven’t had the chance to get to know Marilee, but it’s a possibility we have to consider.”

“There’s more,” Jonas put in quietly.

“Nom de Dieu, finissons-en.”

“Um...” Jonas looked at Dex for help.

“Don’t look at me,” he replied. “I’m fluent in Spanish, not French. But I believe the gist of it is that he wants you to get on with it.”

Arturo grunted his agreement. “Give it all to me and stop dragging it out.”

“On a hunch, I tracked the IP address of his funds transfers. He was smart, using a VPN proxy to cover his tracks. But I cross-checked all deposits in the nine months leading up to his death with his emails.”

“Obviously, he wasn’t smart enough to outwit you,” Cap interjected.

Jonas inclined his head. “He slipped up a week before his death.”

“The heat was on and he got sloppy,” Rick put in.

“Most likely. It allowed me to track his unsecured communications.” He glanced grimly at Arturo before he added, “To Marilee’s computer at her store.”

Unable to sit still any longer, his body vibrating with frustration, he shoved to his feet and began to pace. They needed more than circumstantial evidence to lay blame at her feet. Although after last night, having held her trembling body in his arms both when she recounted her loss after her husband’s death and as she climaxed, he’d need irrefutable evidence or an admission of guilt from Mari herself, before he’d believe she had anything to do with this.

He raised a hand to his brow and rubbed, as though he could ease the pressure building behind it. Maybe he was too close to see what was staring him in the face.

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