Page 53 of Indecent Proposal

“I wish,” I muttered unhappily. “They’ll send another assassin once they realize that this one’s failed. We need to find the documents that Richard was hiding.”

“She was so sure that I had them,” Claire said, sounding defeated. “I just don’t understand why she’d be so certain. She must’ve searched my apartment. And she didn’t mention you.”

No, she hadn’t. Which was odd because I’d infiltrated the Hardman building and gotten files. It had to mean that there was something that wasn’t in them—the gaps the tech guys had found—that was in whatever documents Richard had.

“Richard wouldn’t have called me if he didn’t have anything,” Claire went on, raking a hand through her hair in frustration. “And it wasn’t in his papers in his desk because I searched them and then she did, too. She said she did. So where are they? Did he move them somewhere else?”

I shook my head. “I don’t think so. You said Richard was interrupted while talking to you, which is when Ace killed him, so he didn’t have time to hide the information somewhere else.”

Claire groaned. I led her out to the car, trying to lighten the mood. “He doesn’t have a secret room or tunnel in that swanky apartment of his, does he?”

“Honestly, I wouldn’t have been shocked,” Claire admitted as we got into the Jeep, with Ace’s body in the back. “Richard was old-fashioned. You saw his apartment. It wasn’t all… chrome and open floor plans the way most rich people in the city like it. All the dinner parties we’d go to at people’s apartments would have the same kind of… ultra-modern empty feel. Richard hated that. He wanted to feel like he was in some old mansion, he said once.”

Claire accompanied this statement with a roll of her eyes, followed by a look of guilt. She glanced away out the passenger window, and I put a hand on her knee comfortingly as we drove.

“It’s getting easier,” Claire admitted softly. “To be okay with how I feel about him, without feeling as much guilt.”

“I’m glad.” I searched for something else to help her not dwell on it. “So was all the stuff in his home actually antique? It sure looked it.”

“I mean, some of it was new but looked old-fashioned, but a lot of it was a genuine antique, he could afford it. I remember when he got that desk, actually, he was so excited…” Claire’s voice trailed off and her eyes went wide.

“What?”

“This is going to sound ridiculous,” Claire said quietly. “But—we should go—we should go to the apartment.”

“Why? You know where the papers are?”

“I’m a fucking idiot,” Claire hissed, smacking her forehead. “An absolute moron. Richard’s screaming at me from beyond the grave.”

I frowned at her rambling. “What are you talking about?”

“It’s in his desk!” Claire yelled. “He didn’t mean in hispapers. He meant literallyinthe desk!”

“Okay, now I’m going to sound like an absolute moron,” I said in a wry tone. “Spell this out for me.”

“Nobody can find what it was Richard had,” she said, sounding more excited now. “You found nothing with your IT guys when you downloaded the digital files, so they must’ve been wiped, but our assassin back there was still looking for whatever it was so it must’ve been a hard copy. That means that information is still out there, and Richard had it—but if it’s not in the papers in the desk, then where is it? Maybe he was talking literally in a way we didn’t think about. The desk is an antique. And a lot of antique desks had hidden compartments.”

Holy shit.

“Okay, now I also feel like a moron,” I admitted, though I was definitely impressed with Claire for figuring it out. I hit the accelerator. “Reset the GPS to Richard’s. We need to find those papers.”

If we could get those documents, then finally this would all blow up for Hardman, and Claire would be safe.

CHAPTER21

Claire

We pulled to a harsh stop on the street in front of Richard’s apartment building. I was already moving before Vaughn even got the Jeep into park, hurrying into the building using my keys.

The person who had been sent to kill me was dead, and in a movie, that would be the end of it. I would be safe, and Vaughn and I could—I don’t know—ride off into the sunset or something.

But this wasn’t a movie. Whoever had sent the assassin after me, and succeeded in killing Richard, would keep coming for me unless we got proof of what Richard had found and were able to go to the authorities with it—possibly even make it public.

I had to find what he had, and figure out what it meant.

“Claire!” Vaughn yelled after me with frustration, abandoning the Jeep to run after me. It probably wasn’t the smartest idea to leave the car with a dead body rolled up in a tarp in the back, but hey, nobody could see it and was going to suspect anything.

I ignored him and hurried to the elevator, mashing the button with my finger. Vaughn caught up to me. “It’s not going to arrive faster if you keep hitting it.”

---