Shattered Lies (Web of Lies #3)(23)
Grant looked into her blue eyes streaked with electricity and rimmed with dark clouds. Her eyes were as wild as she was. Some men would want to tame that wildness, but not him. He longed to set her free. To do that, he had to let her go. Grant dropped his arms, opened the door, and watched the woman he desperately wanted in his life walk away from him.
* * *
Lizzy watched the closed bathroom door open and a red-rimmed Valeria step out. Her back straight and stiff, her eyes for a second showed confusion as she glanced back at Grant, but then hardened. That was the Valeria Lizzy knew. The one who would look death in the eye and give it the finger.
“That’s interesting,” Dalton whispered next to her.
“It’s distracting.”
Dalton’s eyebrows rose in response. “Am I a distraction? Sometimes love is a motivation, a reason to keep going, not a distraction, Lizzy.”
Lizzy looked at the resignation and longing etched in Grant’s face. He’d shaved since she had seen him last. His big thick beard was now what she’d consider a day’s overgrowth of scruff. It was dark auburn and only highlighted the sharp angles and muscles of his face. His matching dark auburn hair was slightly wild in an I-just-had-sex kind of way. And then those green eyes—they were like looking at the Highland mountains. This literal mountain man looked as if his heart ached for Valeria, but he was too tough to ever admit it. And it broke Lizzy’s own heart.
Lizzy leaned close to Dalton. “You’re right. Love isn’t a distraction. Love saved Birch. If Tate didn’t love him with all her heart, she wouldn’t have risked her life to protect him.”
“And love brought me to the South China Sea. I wanted to protect you. I wanted to soothe the hurt and deception Dan caused. And it’s what’s keeping me by your side through everything that may come.”
Dalton placed a kiss right below her ear as Valeria turned from talking to Alex. Grant stood next to Dalton, and everyone stopped talking and gave Valeria their full attention.
“Manuel Hernandez is the head of the Hermanos de Sangre cartel. He owns the local bank that I traced all the payments to Phylicia to, along with a $5,000,000 withdrawal made by Sandra Cummings that corresponds to the briefcase full of cash Branson Ames was supposed to deliver to the terrorists in Syria.” Valeria pointed to the records she’d pulled off Manuel’s computer.
“It’s imperative we pick up Sandra immediately,” Birch ordered.
“I’ve secured Thurmond in a former CIA black site here in DC. It hasn’t been used for five years but is still useable. I can pick her up and take her there,” Jason offered.
“Do it,” Birch ordered.
“And speaking of Sandra,” Humphrey’s little nasally voice said, “Alex has Thurmond’s computer and the dossier he put together at her request on natural disasters. We’ll discuss that next.”
“Actually,” Val said, “I bet that has to do with what else I found on Manuel’s computer. See, I followed the money not only to Sandra, but payouts to Dan, Hugo, Fitz, Phylicia, and about twenty other names.”
Val went to the next image and Lizzy gasped. “Stanworth.”
“Wait. Does that say SA Tech?” Birch’s voice sounded hollow at seeing his friend’s company listed.
“Yes. Sebastian is somehow tangled up in this. He told me he had to pay Manuel a fee in order to not have his business harassed in Mexico. However, it seems as if they do quite a bit of business.” Valeria didn’t seem too surprised or saddened by this fact. Lizzy, on the other hand, knew the feeling of betrayal Birch must be feeling.
“Here,” Val said, pointing to the screen, “is a $5,000,000 deposit by Sebastian just two days before Sandra’s withdrawal. It’s sloppy and obvious. Either they needed the money fast or he is being set up. I can’t tell which,” Val answered.
“Lizzy,” Birch said, his voice empty of emotion, “you’re to accompany Sebastian to the White House. I’m tired of being stuck in this hospital. You bring him to me as soon as I’m back home. I’ll be the one to question him. Go on, Valeria.”
“Well, you can see there are also payments to and from Bertie Geofferies, the Kamerons, and Governor Orson Benning. It reads like a who’s who of international players. Geofferies is Sebastian’s biggest competitor, the Kamerons make their money selling various products made in Mexico, and New York Governor Benning’s family owns a small but very luxurious resort on the Mexican coast. The trouble is figuring out who paid to do business and who paid to launder money. There are so many payments being made back and forth, it’s pretty much impossible to tell. However, we now have a list of names. Plus we have this.”
Val opened the next file. It was filled with communication and orders from Roland Westwood.
“Roland Westwood. I should have known,” Birch said.
“Who’s he?” Alex asked.
“Roland Westwood is the spoiled grandson and heir to Davenport Bank,” Tate told everyone. “His grandmother spoils him even as his not-so-loving father tries to keep him on the straight and narrow. For his twenty-fifth birthday, his grandmother handed the Davenport Bank in South Africa over to him after Roland told her he enjoys the surfing there. I did a story on the corruption coming out of those banks.”