Page 78 of The Money Man
An odd sense of comfort warmed Alice, loosening more of the nerves that still held her body in a tight grip. Derek would be protecting her into the future.
When the hacker had been escorted out of the office, Tully holstered his gun and sat down in the chair Barsky had vacated. “I’m sorry he got the jump on my security team. That shouldn’t have happened.” He gave Alice an apologetic nod, his expression stern with self-recrimination. “Ma’am, I’m especially regretful that you had to go through the hell of being held hostage.”
Alice was beginning to feel shaky again but she summoned up a smile. “We all underestimated Barsky, myself more than anyone else.”
Derek strolled over to drop a hand on her shoulder with a gentle squeeze. “Luckily, Barsky underestimatedyou.” He turned to Leland and Tully, his expression grim. “Barsky had her in a choke hold with a gun to her head. She made this incredible move to break his grip, shoved him off-balance, and gave me a clear shot at him. Without her courage, we’d probably be in a standoff at gunpoint right now.”
“It wouldn’t have helped if you hadn’t had that very convincing epileptic seizure,” Alice said. “That put Ivan out of commission.”
“So Barsky wasn’t kidding when he said you were a couple of ninjas,” Leland said, even as he kept an eye on the computer screen. “I wondered about that.” He swiveled to face Alice and Derek. “I owe you an apology too. I thought my electronic security system was unbeatable but Barsky got past it.”
Derek waved a hand in dismissal. “None of us were expecting to deal with a psychopath who’s also a computer genius.”
“Well, genius might be more than he deserves,” Leland said. “But he’s very good.”
Tully held up a finger to silence them as he listened to his earpiece. When he lowered it, he said, “Now we know how Barsky was planning to escape. A helicopter just landed on the roof of the building. We’re taking the pilot into custody but the agents think he’s just hired help, not part of the BalanceTrakR organization.”
“He must have had a lot of clients to go to such trouble and expense,” Alice said.
“It was more than the money,” Derek said. “He hated his father, who was a small business owner. Dad didn’t recognize his son’s genius.” He smiled down at Alice. “He also hated to lose to a couple of expletive-deleted accountants.”
Tully stood up. “I have a lot of respect for accountants, especially you, ma’am.” He tipped an imaginary hat to Alice. “Without you a whole lot of folks would have lost their livelihoods, maybe even their life savings.”
“Tully’s right,” Leland said. “If you hadn’t been so conscientious and persistent, no one would have caught this until it was too late.”
Derek smiled down at her. “Alice is nothing short of amazing.”
The admiration on his face and the compliments from his partners were too much for her. She could feel tears welling up in her eyes. She stood up. “I need to go check on my cats.”
“Your cats?” Tully repeated.
“Of course,” Derek said, putting his arm around her waist once again and steering her to the door.
Now she had to work hard to force the tears back because she didn’t want Derek to see her cry.
When they got to the media room, the door was wide open. “Oh no!” she said, breaking away from Derek to dash into the room. Someone had opened the curtain so she could see clearly that neither cat was in sight. Calling their names, she dropped to her knees and peered under the couch. Both were there, their gold eyes bright in the dimness.
“Thank God!” She slumped back onto her heels, all the pent-up emotions of the last couple of hours overwhelming her. Uncontrollable tears streamed down her cheeks.
She heard the door to the room close and then Derek was beside her. He offered his hand to help her up but her knees just wouldn’t support her. Instead she dropped her face into her hands and tried not to sob too loudly.
“Alice!” Strong arms wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her against Derek’s chest where he knelt beside her. “Are the cats hurt?”
She burrowed into him, her tears soaking into his shirt. “N-n-n-o, they’re ... they’re fine as far as I know.”
“What is it? Barsky won’t be able to hurt anyone ever again, I promise.” His concern made her cry harder.
“I-I thought we were going to die. Those guns ...” She shuddered at the memory of the chilling black holes staring at them.
“I would have a found a way to stop that.” She felt the brush of his lips on the crown of her head.
“That made it even worse because I knew you would,” she wailed. “I kept imagining your body riddled with bleeding bullet wounds.” Her imagination conjured up the image again and another shiver ran through her.
“Alice, it’s over.” His embrace tightened in comfort while one of his hands stroked up and down her back, soothing her. “We’re both alive and well. And so are Sylvester and Audley.”
She tried to chuckle but it came out as more of a choked sob. “You renamed him Morse.”
“It can be his new middle name.”
