Page 53 of A Man of Wealth

I slowly place the box back where I found it and begin to retrace my steps. It’s quiet outside and I wonder if Vivienne had to bail on me. I want to call her but am afraid I’ll blow her cover. I take a calming breath and move slowly and carefully. I hear voices outside and pause at the door. The voices get farther away after a few seconds. I cautiously crack the door open. There are two guys walking toward the loading dock and no sign of the security detail that was outside this office. I’m not sure if that’s a good sign or a bad sign, I do know that I need to get back to the car. I don’t hear Vivienne and I can’t see her out on the street any longer.

I head back along the office wall. There’s one large open space and I need to clear it to get back to the far side and the cargo containers that give me cover. I see one camera up high. I follow its view.

I pull out my phone and make a call.

“Bryce,” I say when he picks up.

“For fuck’s sake, you owe me double this month.”

“Triple it. I need you to hack my father’s security camera. I need to bypass it.”

“Christ almighty. OK. Give me two minutes.”

“I don’t have two minutes. Make it happen now.”

“Don’t test me, Conner,” he growls as he hangs up. I try not to smirk. I’m tall and scary, but Bryce Gallagher is taller and scarier. I’d love to know his backstory.

I count the seconds as they pass, keeping an eye out for anyone coming this way. There are only four containers left on the ship. Pretty soon, the guys will be coming back this way. I need to be out of here.

The seconds tick by, and just as my phone buzzes with an incoming message, I see a car’s headlights coming onto the property from the main road. Shit. I can’t make out who it is, but an unscheduled visit by anyone down here at this hour isn’t a good thing.

I check my phone and see a thumbs-up from an unknown caller. Looking both ways, I walk across the open space as if I belong there. I glance toward the loading dock, but the guys down there are busy with a container. I close my eyes and listen. I can hear footsteps. I open my eyes and look the other way just as a man steps out from behind some cargo containers. I hold my breath as I quicken my pace.

He looks toward the loading dock. I’m walking faster, nearly running as I catch his head start to turn, but I’m saved when he pulls out his phone to answer a call. I make it to the nearest cargo container and lean against the side of it to breathe for a moment before continuing onward.

I weave in and out of the containers, quickly making my way back to the fence. I want to call Vivienne, but I don’t know if she’s safely alone yet. I’m most definitely going to fuck some sense into her when I see her. I’m so angry that she ran off and did that. She has no idea how dangerous this situation is. We’re risking everything. But she acted recklessly. There could have been another way had we taken five seconds to think it through.

I’m so close now. The paths are becoming darker. I can see the fence up ahead. The neighboring property is lit by only one security light on the far side. Granger Delcroy wouldn’t sell his property to my father if he needed the money to save his own life. Their rivalry goes back farther than my own life. I just know when Delcroy closed his shipping business, Dad tried to buy his property, but he refused, instead he let it decay. I often wonder what else transpired between them that he’d let his property turn into a wasteland of drug users and squatters instead of taking money from my father.

He keeps one security camera on, but it’s pointed on the other side of the building toward Dad’s office.

I bend down to slink through the fence opening when I hear someone behind me. I freeze and crouch lower.

“Anyone back there?” a voice calls out.

I quickly move behind a stack of wooden crates. I see a light shine to where I was a moment ago.

“Nope. It’s clear back here,” another voice replies as the light moves away from me. I need to get out of here now. Whatever is going on here, has me wanting to get as far from it as possible.

I crouch down and head back to the fence, wedging myself through the space and onto Delcroy’s property. My heart is racing as I head toward the car. I don’t see anyone near it from the long distance across the lot and that has me worrying that something has gone very wrong with Vivienne. I decide to stay against the wall of the building, remaining in the shadows. I wedge myself between an old wooden post and the brick façade. I pull out my phone again. No messages.

I peer around the wood post at the car in the distance. I pulled it to the side of a small building. There are a few other cars out that way, most of them without tires and sitting on cinder blocks. One was burned out long ago, only the metal exterior remains. Yet, the car we drove here looks intact.

I message Bryce again.

Me: Can you check the video footage across the street from Delcroy’s property? I want to make sure no one messed with the car.

I wait for a reply, keeping a lookout for Vivienne.

Unknown: Clear. Where’s Vivienne?

Shit. If Bryce noticed her absence too, then shit is not good. I look at the car and then back toward the road. I should go, but not without Vivienne.

Chapter22

Vivienne

“Are you sure you’re OK?”the man asks one final time as he stands and holds out his hand to help me up. I tentatively take it.

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