My Addiction (Club Desire #2)(31)
Chapter 9
Dex’s phone buzzed in his pocket, and he pulled it out under the table to see Shapiro’s name flash across the screen. Reluctantly he lifted the phone so Kate could see it. If the lead analyst on his case was calling this late, it had to be important. He cast her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry. Work. I need to take this. I’ll be right back.”
She shooed him away with a smile.
He realized she was once again reading him well, and had picked up on his discomfort about answering the phone to talk business while he was with her.
He made his way to the front door and ducked outside into the parking lot, where there were only a few people left milling about and talking in between their cars.
He quickly answered before Shapiro hung up.
“Alexander.”
“Dex. I’m sorry. Tanner said you were meeting with Kate Fretwell. Can you talk?”
Dex glanced around, and seeing no one close by, returned his attention to the conversation at hand. “Yes, for a minute. What’s going on?”
“We’ve found some possible ties between some of Miss Fretwell’s graphic design projects and the amounts and locations of the large cash deposits around the country. But we need more information.”
Dex stiffened, and his stomach churned at the thought of Kate involved in this. His first instinct was to protect her, especially now that he was her Dom, but he bit that back and shifted firmly into field agent mindset. “What do you need from me?”
Shapiro cleared his throat, and Dex heard papers shuffling over the phone line. “Find out everything you can about her projects for Merestone Resorts, and what kind of work she does for them. We’re digging into them from our side.”
“That’s kind of broad. What ties have you found?”
“There are changes she has implemented on the front pages of their sites at different locations around the nation that might correspond to amounts and locations of the deposits we’re seeing. It’s a tenuous connection right now, but I have a hunch it might be more solid than we realize.” The man paused for a moment as if catching his breath. “I don’t believe in coincidences. So far, we’ve identified eight over the last year, and are continuing to analyze for more. She does these changes for Merestone almost weekly.”
Dex took a deep breath, shoving aside his personal feelings and letting his logical side take over. “Give me a few quick examples so I know what kind of pattern to be on the lookout for.”
“Last month in Hawaii there was a change implemented that added five silver dollars to the front page of the site for the Big Island. Over the next week there was five hundred thousand dollars added across four accounts belonging to someone who lives on the island who we’ve had under surveillance on another case for having possible ties to recruiting for terrorist organizations.”
“Okay,” Dex said, waiting for more, since what he’d heard so far didn’t sound like much.
Shapiro drew in a heavy breath. “The month before that she added four cats to the front logo of the site for the time-share branch in South Dakota. Over the next week, four hundred thousand dollars was donated to two Super PACs of politicians who are from that state and are notorious for adding poison pills onto bills for special interests.”
A fire truck turned onto the street in front of the restaurant with sirens blazing. Dex waited until it was far enough away Shapiro would most likely be able to hear him again. “Sorry, go ahead.”
His analyst cleared his throat before going on. “I know it doesn’t sound like much, but we have things like this going back for over a year. In each instance, the change on a certain city’s site for Merestone Resorts coincides with a dollar amount that flowed into that city in some very prominent way. And each one has a possible or definite money trail back to known or suspected terrorists. We’ve identified the changes made to the sites, and now that we have an idea of the pattern, it will take some time to track down the corresponding money connections.”
Dex scowled. He had done searches like that many times when he was an analyst. He understood exactly how much time it could take. But that didn’t make it any easier to be patient when he was the one out in the field.
Two men stumbled out of the restaurant behind him, obviously drunk and weaving unsteadily. Since Norms didn’t serve alcohol, they must have either gone in drunk or snuck in some of their own.
Dex moved off to the right of the entrance to avoid them crashing into him.
Like Shapiro, he wasn’t a believer in coincidence, but he would bet Kate wasn’t knowingly involved in this. If he was right, he had to prove it, and find out who really was responsible. “Thanks, Shapiro. I’m on it. I’ve got to get back.”
When the man mumbled a goodbye and hung up, Dex pasted a smile on his face and headed inside to Kate.
Before he reached the table, he could see she had been crying again, and she looked upset. He sat and then took her hand in his. “What’s wrong?”
She raised her large green eyes to his, still glistening with moisture. “Aunt Gloria called me back.” She looked down at her plate, not meeting his gaze as he squeezed her hand. “Uncle Carl is as well as can be expected. He’s stable, and his prognosis looks good. You were right. Besides their kids and grandkids, there are a ton of reporters as well as law enforcement and his protection detail milling around.”