Page 75 of Cruel Ice

She tried another drawer. Locked, too. “Is he the type that would know you were looking at buying Abyss?”

He didn’t have a ready comeback.

Her head turned toward him. “Is he?” She’d bet that Pierre was. “Because a good assistant always knows where his boss is. In a company like yours, I bet he’s always aware of any potential acquisitions that you might make.” Her hand had pulled away from the locked drawers. “I bet he was aware of, say, when you flew down to Savannah to meet your brother.”

“He didn’t know why I went to Savannah. Only James knew about Royal. But…” His eyes flickered.

She edged closer to him. “That seems like a really bigbut…”

“All this…” His hand gestured toward the empty desk. “Because my assistant happens to be late?”

She caught his hand. “All of this…” Her hold tightened on him. “Because you may have tried to sideline me, but I have actually still been working your case. I don’t have full access to your life, but I can still come up with suspicions. When I think of people who would know your travel schedule, who would know about your acquisitions, who would know where you would be and when…a couple of folks pop to mind for me. People at the top of my suspect list.” A slow exhale because he was not goingto like what she had to say, but the words needed to be spoken. “People like James, of course.”

His expression tightened. “Of course. Let’s not overlook James.”

She wouldn’t dream of overlooking him. “He was with you in Augusta, after all. I doubt there are many moves you make that James isn’t aware of.”

“He didn’t know I was considering buying Abyss. I don’t normally discuss every acquisition with him. Besides, the place is a bit out of my normal wheelhouse.”

And that was interesting. “So why even consider it?”

“Maybe I was looking for something new.”

No emotion. So that meant he was probably seething inside. She got it. Hearing that the person closest to you was on her suspect list—the list of the people she thought might want Declan tortured and killed—would hurt. It would even hurt the man who liked to say he didn’t feel.I’m starting to think you feel too much, Declan. Not too little.“Cade and Hunter.”

He didn’t even blink.

“They are both extremely dangerous men. They are at the top of your security team. They each have full clearance to all aspects of your world. Again, they were with you in Augusta. They were supposed to protect you and yet, they weren’t there when you needed them.” Another fact that bothered her… “I was the one to spot the shooter in the alley. I would have thought one of them would do the job.” She liked the men. She did. But liking them didn’t mean that she couldn’t suspect them at the same time.

“So you don’t think the enemy is from the outside, huh?” They could have been talking about the weather because he seemed so very casual. “You think it’s an enemy within my inner circle. You think people close to me hate me enough to arrange my abduction and torture.”

“I think the mastermind knew your favorite drink. So that means it’s either someone close to you or the perp we’re after has beenusingsomeone close to you in order to gather intel about you. Intel like…where you’d be. What you drink. When you might be unprotected because you ditch guards and take off on your own because you need the occasional escape. To discover these details, you’d have to get access to someone who knew your habits incredibly well. Someone who knows you better than you know yourself.”

“No one knows me well.”

Not true. “I think Pierre knows your habits far better than you realize.” She wet her lips. Didn’t let go of him. “Last night, when I tried to get in to see you here, he told me that you never allowed visitors that weren’t on your schedule.”

“I don’t. I don’t like surprises.”

Yes, well, considering his last surprise had involved him waking up drugged in a basement, she could understand that. Truly. “I told him you shouldn’t be working so late. He told me that you never left before nine p.m. on a workday. And then he rattled off your schedule to me. Telling me when you normally arrive at work. When you leave for lunch. Telling me that I couldn’t interrupt you at all because you were a busy man with commitments that had to be met. Then, you know, he tried to actually block me with his body so I couldn’t get to you. At the time, I thought he was freakishly dedicated to his boss and his job.”

No response.

“And then I opened your door later and told him to leave. He was…he was on the phone with someone.” She played the scene in her mind again. “Cell phone. Not business. I could have sworn that he stared at me with some hot anger before the emotion vanished. I was planning to have a one-on-one chat with him today?—”

“You mean you were going to interrogate him.”

“I meanwewere going to interrogate him.” One of the reasons she’d so readily agreed to visit Declan’s office. “But your faithful assistant isn’t here. His desk hasn’t been disturbed, and I suspect every single drawer that he has is locked.”

“Pierre doesn’t have the stomach to torture me.”

“No, but he may have the stomach to take a ton of cash and sell you out to someone who does want to torture you. Someone who needed an inside man in order to learn everything possible about you. Pierre has access to every part of your life. Don’t you think we need to investigate that? Investigate him?”

His square jaw hardened the tiniest bit.

And…

Ding.

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