Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(70)

“You’re playing the armchair shrink?” It wasn’t so surprising. It was kind of what Cathy did, and she was often right.

Cathy shrugged. “I’ve seen pretty much everything, and trust me I know the medical types. He’s angry. Like I said, I hoped it was all hero worship, though that inevitably goes bad. Knowing how he reacted to you dating makes me think he put you on a pedestal for a different reason. It’s okay. I’ll manage him from this end and I’ll start looking into how he treats the interns. Trust me, after dealing with a sick kiddo for days, I’m ready to bust some balls.”

“How is Billy?”

“Not happy to go back to school,” she said with a sigh. “But I was so happy to come back to work.”

“The stuff with Carter will have to wait. I have another job for you.” While Owen’s friend in Dallas was looking into it from an accounting end, she would have Cathy start searching for the paperwork trail. There had to be one.

Unless someone really had stolen almost a million dollars from her research account.

She explained the problem and Cathy took some notes, promising she would handle it.

“There must be something going around,” Becca said, getting to the second problem she was having, the one Owen was pushing her on. “Chuck’s been out for a couple of days, too. Can you go down to security and see if he’s back in the office? I’ve been trying to get some CCTV footage from last Saturday night, but the others said they couldn’t get it to me without clearance from Chuck. If he’s not in, maybe we can get him on the phone.”

“Did you not hear?” Cathy had gone a little pale. “Chuck quit. He left a message with Paul and said he wasn’t coming back.”

“Are you serious? I heard he was sick.”

“Yes, no idea why. He’s worked here for twenty years. He was supposed to retire soon. I can’t imagine why he would walk out. Security is kind of chaotic right now. Paul said he’ll have someone new in a few days, but for now the only person who can do the job is John, and he’s barely twenty-five.”

“Can you get me Chuck’s phone number?” Again her instincts were flaring. Right as she needed to talk to the head of security, he mysteriously decided to quit a job he’d claimed to love? It didn’t make sense.

“Of course,” Cathy promised. “And I’ll pull any requisition that matches these numbers. It’s probably that the account number was wrong and the other teams got it screwed up. It’s happened before. Don’t worry about it. Now, you’ve got a meeting with your team at noon. The new round of data is in and I’ve heard it’s phenomenal.”

She’d heard she would be happy with it, too. She was so close to being able to really push this new therapy.

It would be all right. Owen would help her figure out what was going on, and by this time next month, she would be writing up her paper and potentially taking on a wave of new research money. Then the big trials would begin and she would be one step closer to fulfilling the promise she’d made to herself the day her mother died.

She was already closer to the promise she’d made to her mother. Owen was making her happy, and she needed to concentrate on that.

Still, her curiosity was getting the best of her. “Could you clear my calendar for Friday afternoon?”

A brilliant smile crossed Cathy’s face. “Of course. You’re seeing your man again?”

She hoped Owen could take a long lunch break. She wasn’t dumb enough to go alone, but she needed to know who was going to be waiting for her there. “Yes, I’ll definitely be seeing him.”

Cathy started to talk about plans to have a double date night or to possibly have Owen out for dinner. Becca wasn’t completely sure that meeting Cathy and her crazy family wouldn’t make Owen run, but she nodded. Out on the floor, her team was buzzing around, prepping for the meeting later on.

Her eyes caught on a man delivering mail. It was just a glimpse of light brown hair and broad shoulders. There was something about the man that made her go still, pure terror seizing through her.

You should run, Dr. Walsh. Or I might have to show you why they call me Razor.

Bile rose in her throat and when she looked again, the man was gone.

“Becca? You went white.” Cathy stood in front of her, blocking her sight of the place where he’d stood.

Except he couldn’t stand because he was dead. Dead and gone. Now she was seeing ghosts.

She shook off the feeling. She was being paranoid. It was all about what had happened that Saturday night. It reminded her of the other time she’d been sure someone was stalking her. Of course that time, she’d been right and she’d run.

She wasn’t going to think about that man…that monster again. He had no power over her. “I’m fine. I had too much coffee, that’s all. I’m going to get ready for the meeting. And thanks for trying to look up that paperwork.”

She stayed there while Cathy went to work. Becca sat there trying to convince herself that the past was in the past.

After all, she’d just found her future.





“What do you mean the money leads back to Becca?” Owen felt his whole body go tight as Phoebe’s words sank in.

“I mean the money was moved from her research accounts to her charitable foundation. It was run through a Swiss account, but the numbers match up,” Phoebe replied over the connection through the computer. She was sitting in her beautifully decorated office in the middle of downtown Dallas. Phoebe Murdoch was a lovely woman with dark hair and intelligent eyes. She was wearing glasses and looked far more like the accountant she’d claimed to be for years than the CIA operative her accounting job covered for. She had a degree in accounting and had worked many jobs untangling financial data for both the Agency and then McKay-Taggart.