Chapter 31

CHAPTER 31

" I t is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live."

—Marcus Aurelius

Valerio

Death was a necessary evil, but when someone else took it upon themselves to play God, that was reprehensible. Had I come close to snapping a few necks in my lifetime? Hell, yes. Did I desire to break a few others right now? You bet I did.

I knew I had it in me. I'd always told myself I had no conscience, no sense of morality, but after being around Selena for a few weeks, I sensed that wasn't the case.

I'd simply shut down.

Sure, I had my reasons. My mother would have told me when she was alive that I was fixating on my disease. My brothers would have said it was because I had my heart broken. Once. Only once.

I was smart enough to know the sadistic darkness in me wasn't normal.

I'd called my brothers on the way to the medical examiner's office, which was located inside the frigid morgue. I had no idea how anyone could work in a burial home or in a mortuary.

You had to be a little bit twisted to handle the gruesome, dank working conditions.

Both brothers arrived with seconds of each other, the two men as somber as I felt.

Our father had been dead for over a week, but this hit me harder than hearing about his death the first time.

Braxton approached first, not bothering to remove his sunglasses. Gage was only a few seconds later, finding it tough to look at me.

"I assume neither one of you told Gilly."

"I didn't," Braxton answered. "Why hurt her more than she already has been?"

"At least until the person responsible is caught. What did the examiner tell you?"

"Just that it was a slow-release poison."

"That means someone who knew him." Gage finally jerked his head up.

"Or something he ate or drank on a regular basis," I said in return.

Braxton exhaled. "He had a particular brand of coffee, refusing to drink anything else."

"Yeah, well, he also had tea in the afternoon because Gilly insisted on it." Fortunately, Gage had more ideas than I did for now.

"Let's find out what the examiner says."

As Braxton sighed, he finally removed his sunglasses. It was easy to tell how upset he'd gotten. His eyes were red. Murder was a tough pill for anyone to accept.

We headed inside, forced to ask at the stark front desk where Dr. Carter Reynolds' office was located. At least the hallway we were instructed to go down wasn't as dingy as the rest of the building. Even though the equipment was state of the art, the building was ancient, which had always surprised me. It would seem our wealthy city wasn't interested in updating their buildings for state employees.

His door was open, but I stepped just inside. "Dr. Reynolds."

I knew the man. We'd gone way back. I'd once considered him a close friend. We'd simply drifted apart. He stood, shaking my hand. "Valerio. Braxton. Gage. I think we can skip the formalities. And so you know, I should be contacting the police at this point."

"You can do that. All I ask is that you to wait for a couple days." I gave him a hard look as my brothers piled into his office.

"I need to be careful, or I'll lose my job."

"I assure you that I have pull with the department. What did you find?"

He was anxious enough he glanced at the open door. "It took me a little while to find and I had to call a buddy of mine who is a toxicologist for the FBI. Even he was stymied, which surprised me. I considered him one of the best in his profession."

"And?" Gage pressed.

"The poison used is a very toxic drug called polonium, radioactive with no cure. Before you ask, it's really only produced in Russia, which means whoever obtained this had connections. And money."

I sucked in my breath. "How is it ingested?"

"Food. Water. Air. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say it was food or maybe bottled water. If airborne, someone else would have likely gotten ill." Carter rubbed his eyes. "I had it triple checked and my buddy is trying to see if he can determine the source, but that's going to be like snatching a rock from the Kremlin."

"Then how are we going to hunt them down?" Braxton snarled.

"I'm not certain what you tell you, but I can check anything you believe he might have ingested. But from the amount still located in the tissues, the poisoning occurred over a lengthy period of time."

"How long?" Gage asked.

Carter shrugged. "Tough to substantiate but in my opinion, weeks."

I shook my head. "Jesus Christ. It could be anything. Does it have a color or bad taste?"

"Contrary to other poisons, it does not."

Half laughing, I thought about everything he'd told me. "Then I guess we still have our work cut out for us."

"What are the symptoms?" Gage asked.

"Likely exhaustion in the beginning. Nausea. Vomiting. The odd thing is I think in your father's case, his heart couldn't take anything else. But I won't be certain until a few additional tests come back. However, the cause is linked to the poisoning. If the source can be found," Carter continued, "you'll have your murderer."

"We need to contact my father's assistant and determine if his coffee and tea were separate orders."

"Good idea," Braxton said.

"If I find something that could be the cause, can you have it tested?" I asked Carter.

"Yes, but even that will take a little time. My lab isn't set up for that. But I'll have my buddy at the FBI on standby."

"Good," I hissed. "I will find the asshole one way or another."

"Remember if either of you feel nauseous, you should have it checked out," Carter offered.

Gage lifted his eyebrows. "But by then it would already be too late. Yes?"

Carter hesitated and all three of us knew the answer. If we'd ingested any, we could be dead men.

I glanced at my two brothers. How the hell were we going to get through this?

And what exactly would we do when we discovered all the ugly secrets?

Selena

I continued fretting over the laptop, but I was almost there. I was almost through the maze, unlocking the lion's share of the protected data. Or so I hoped. I was ready to pull my hair out and I only had an hour or so before I needed to leave for the fitting.

I'd almost cracked the file his father had put together. I'd never seen anything like it, the encryption not only multi-layered with security measures but also with layers of information. Even with a certain number of skills, it had proven to be a bear. I typed in another code, expecting another chirping sound, which meant I was way off base.

Huffing, I dropped my head into my hands. When I heard a different sound, I slowly glanced at the screen.

Holy shit. I'd broken into the damn thing. As files began to pop up, I was overly excited, shifting my gaze from one side to the other. Whatever Sebastian had been working on he'd been doing for well over a year.

And he hadn't confided in his three sons?

After a few minutes, I jerked up and headed to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. Now we were getting somewhere.

As soon as I sat back down, I thought about calling Valerio but was determined to find something solid first.

As I searched the files, my eyes landed on one named ‘Sons.' I was almost hesitant to open it but when I did, I was almost instantly sad. He'd written a letter to them collectively. I almost felt as if I was snooping by opening it but I knew that's what Valerio would want me to do. When I did, I was struck by the date. He'd written it almost two months before.

Reading it was haunting, but it was obvious how much he loved his children and his wife. I closed my eyes at the end, realizing he'd predicted his death. He'd felt it. He'd had his doctors searching for a poison, but nothing had been found.

"Whew," I whispered and was more than eager to continue. I opened file after file, realizing Sebastian had been amassing inconsistencies for a couple of years with finances and issues with bank accounts. Nothing glaring and nothing blatant, yet it all added up over time. Without seeing the financials, my guess was at least a million dollars had been stolen. Then it seemed his research had escalated over time. However, I hadn't expected to find a smoking gun by way of an email that had either been sent or been about to be sent to my father.

Caldwell,

You refuse to speak to me, but I am hoping you'll have the decency to open this as both your business and your life could depend on it. We were friends once. Good friends. I never intended on betraying you. I think you know that, but you're one hardheaded man. You hold a grudge like no one else I know. It's quite possible that if and when you do read this, I'll be dead. I don't know anything for certain, but I think I'm being poisoned.

I have suspicions that someone in my firm is working with an outside firm to gain control of my company. I also have some proof that your company is being targeted as well. I think we need to meet and talk. I'll show you what I have then. Call me.

What the hell?

After taking a deep breath, I realized my hand was shaky. I grabbed my phone, trying to figure out who to contact first. My father. Right now. He could be in more danger than I knew. I dialed his office, knowing I'd get his assistant, Molly.

As expected, my father's extension rang and she was the one who answered.

"Caldwell Michaels' office."

"Molly. This is Selena Michaels. I need to speak to my father right now."

She snorted as if I was an idiot. We'd never gotten along because she'd believed I'd taken her job as office manager. "I'm sorry, Selena, but your father doesn't want to talk to you. He's made that very clear."

"Put him on the phone right now. I do mean right now. This could be a matter of life and death."

"I will be happy to relay your message, but I can't say that will matter."

"Fine." You bitch. "Tell him I am forwarding him an email from his dead former friend Sebastian Royal. Tell him his life could be in danger."

"Why, surely. I'll tell him."

She ended the call and if I could, I'd smash her head against a table. Damn it. After tossing the phone, I shifted my attention back to the computer, allowing my fingers to fly while I sent forwarded the message to his private email. Maybe, just maybe he'd look.

I was panting as I continued searching through the other files, loathing the fact we hadn't connected the laptop to a printer yet. The deeper I delved into the saved information, the worse Sebastian's certainties became.

Then I found two names that by all rights shouldn't be connected together.

"Oh. My. God."

Barely able to breathe, I snatched my phone all over again. This time dialing Valerio. It immediately went to voicemail but there was something odd about it, clicking noises. Shit. I tried a second time. Same thing. I couldn't even leave a message.

This couldn't wait. I was certain of it.

Especially if Valerio opened his mouth to anyone about the poisoning. Oh, God. I flew out of my chair to grab my shoes and my purse. To hell with an escort. This was something I needed to do on my own.

And I would.

I would save the man I loved.

As I flew out the door, I tried one more time, finally getting through at least to leave a message.

Or so I hoped.

"Valerio. I'm on my way to see you. Call me. I know who betrayed your father."

Valerio

Now, standing outside the medical examiner's building seemed surreal. As if the entire world had changed in a matter of minutes.

"What now?" Braxton asked.

"Fuck if I know," I answered, which sadly was the truth. First of all, I would find out where the hell my father had gotten his various drinks, and have a few samples tested. It couldn't hurt.

"What if we're next?" Gage asked, which I knew was something all three of us had on our minds.

"And the wedding?" Braxton added.

A caterer was being used, which meant it was entirely possible to contaminate a source. "I don't know yet. I need to think this through. In the meantime, I think Selena is close to being able to get into the secure files she found on Pops' computer. I'm headed back to the house."

"Shit. This is insane, a conspiracy." Gage scratched his head.

"This is murder. Let's not forget that. Our father lost his life because of the company." I headed to the car, a blipping sound indicating a voicemail. I waited until I'd unlocked the door to pull my phone into my hand. Selena. A sick feeling popped into my stomach. As soon as I listened to it, the message breaking up at the end, my gut told me she was also in immediate danger.

"What is it?" Braxton asked, my brother knowing me too well.

I lifted my head, glancing from one brother to the other. They walked closer.

"Something is wrong." Braxton cocked his head.

"That was Selena. I don't know but I have a bad feeling everything is coming to a head. Follow me. She's on her way to me. I'm sure you're going to want to hear what she has to say."

"You're damn straight," Braxton huffed. "Let's get going."

As I climbed into my vehicle, I had a very bad feeling that something terrible was about to happen. Unable to shake it, after starting the engine and throwing the gear into drive, I dialed her number. I only prayed to God she'd answer.

Nothing had better happen to the lady or I would hunt down every asshole responsible.

And I would kill them.