Chapter 62

chapter

sixty-two

Gage successfully made it through the traffic.

The police weren’t chasing him . . . yet.

It was just a matter of time. That meant he needed to move even faster.

The cab Nia was in eased to a stop beside an old warehouse.

Instead of pulling in behind the vehicle—which would have been too obvious—Gage stopped on the side of the street a block away. He reached into his pocket, grabbed a fifty-dollar bill, and shoved it into the taxi driver’s hand.

“Thank you for your cooperation,” Gage muttered.

The man scowled. “As if I had a choice.”

Gage didn’t argue. “You should call the police. Send them here. The sooner, the better.”

The driver stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. Gage couldn’t blame him .

He didn’t answer, but that would have to work for now.

He and Austin hurried toward the warehouse, careful to remain in the shadows.

“You want to tell me what’s going on?” Austin asked when they were away from the taxi driver.

“There was a note in the files,” Gage explained. “About the test subjects for Rob’s app. One of the psychologists working on the study made a note that the test subjects seemed to go into a trance-like state after using one part of the relaxation app.

“Is that because you can sometimes seem like you’re in a trance when you’re relaxed?”

“I don’t think so.” Gage crept along the building. “I think something about that app puts people into a highly suggestive hypnotic state. That’s why all these things have been happening.”

“This whole time I was thinking it was a serum that made people lose their memories,” Austin said. “But you’re right. I can totally see that.”

“I think when Nia opened the app at the restaurant that night, seeing it triggered something in her. I’m not sure what. But she fell into a trance-like state. People are vulnerable to suggestions in that mental state, and I think someone told her to go with Rob to his place.”

“What about Rob? Wouldn’t he have noticed Nia seemed off?”

“Not necessarily. My best guess is that he was put into a similar state.”

“That’s twisted,” Austin said .

“Yes, it is.”

They reached the door.

“What’s your plan?” Austin braced himself on one side of the entry while Gage stood on the other.

“It’s the worst kind of plan of all,” Gage said. “It’s the play it by ear plan. I have no idea what we’re going to find inside. But whatever happens, Nia can’t be hurt.”

Nia stared at Graham as he stood in front of her, two armed cronies at his side.

“ You were behind this the whole time?” she muttered, shaking her head with disgust.

“Right under your nose, and you didn’t even see it.” He smirked.

Nia stood her ground, careful to keep herself between Graham and her sister. “I don’t understand. What changed so quickly?”

He shrugged, looking a little too confident that his scheme was going to work.

Not if Nia had anything to do with it.

“You know those test results that were sent to Rob?” Graham said. “Since I was helping to oversee the project, they were sent to me as well. When I saw the part about the app putting people in a trance-like state, I got curious. I have connections with people who would find that ability very useful, especially if we could slide it in under the guise of an innocent little relaxation app.”

She mentally snapped a timeline in place. “So you must have gotten those test results right after our meeting with Rob in the office . . .”

“I did,” Graham said. “Rob had just climbed into his car to go home when I called him and told him about the results. He hadn’t read them yet, and he sounded as if he didn’t believe me. He said he wanted to check it out himself. But he didn’t seem excited about the opportunity of developing this more. In fact, he got antsy. Wanted nothing to do with it. That’s when I knew I would have to be clever in order to make this work.”

“So Rob went back to his apartment and called Cormac to get his opinion. I have a feeling that when Cormac saw something on the app, he realized that the study’s findings were correct. He was put into a trance-like state as well.” More pieces fell into place.

Graham grinned again. “That’s right. And I’m able to implement that state whenever I want, just by saying a few words. That’s what I did to you that night at the restaurant. Ran into you guys. Showed you something I’d ‘discovered’ on the app. As soon as I had you in the right mental state, I gave you the keywords. Told you what to do. When to do it. Made sure you and Rob both would forget I was ever there. Would forget anything you did while hypnotized, actually.”

“You manipulated the situation . . .” Nia murmured.

“That’s right. I always knew you were smart.” Condescension marred his words. “The same images that could make a person relax could also make them slip into a suggestable mental state. And I knew if I could add some type of directive during that time then I could make people do whatever I wanted.”

“It sounds dangerous,” Nia muttered.

“It can be,” Graham agreed. “That’s why I knew I needed to jump on this before too many people found out about it and shut it down.”

“So Rob tested the results, saw they were correct. He knew how dangerous this would be in the wrong hands. That’s when he called Gage to help him figure out how to handle this. He called me about the same time to see if we could cancel the contract.”

“Which I knew we couldn’t do. In fact, I called Rob back and asked him for the plans. I knew if I had the schematics of the app, that I could help develop something like that on my own. But Rob refused.”

“Why didn’t security cameras pick up on you being at Rob’s place?” Nia’s thoughts raced ahead as she tried to put the pieces together—and buy time.

“I went in the back way.”

“But how did you get inside?”

Satisfaction gleamed in his eyes. “A few weeks ago, after one of our meetings, Rob took me to his apartment to get some paperwork we needed. When he entered his security code, I paid attention. I memorized the sequence of numbers.”

Nia shook her head. Her company dealt in confidential information. What else had Graham been memorizing? “So, that’s how you got in. Then what happened?”

“I crept in after you both. Tried to talk Rob into giving me the information, but he refused. One thing led to another and . . . it didn’t end well for him.”

“But you left me alive,” Nia murmured. “Deleted the security footage of me going into the building even.”

“Some guys I hired helped with that.” He nodded toward his cronies.

“Why did you leave me alive?”

“I knew with your tech expertise you’d be able to figure out that stupid cyber key. But you’ve proven to be more difficult than I anticipated.”

“So you took it as far as to follow me. Shoot at me. Kidnap my sister.” Nia shook her head. “All so you can get a payout?”

“A very nice payout.” His eyes continued to gleam with smugness. “And, in my defense, I didn’t want to kill you at first. Only to scare you.”

“But those men shot at me on the street.”

His eyes darkened. “I didn’t authorize that. I told the men who want to buy this tech from me about what was going on. They wanted to scare you into submission. I told them to back off, that you were no good to me dead.”

“And the photo you sent me of Gage. Where did you get that?” She tried to make sense of everything.

“These guys I’m working with . . . they know things. They seemed to know something about this guy you’ve been hanging out with. In fact, they almost seemed to have a vendetta against him. He must have made some enemies. ”

Her heart thundered harder in her chest as the reality of Gage’s past career became clearer.

“When I saw you talking to Brittany, everything changed . . .” Graham continued. “That’s when I realized you knew too much. You became a liability. And the fact that you refused to do what I’d asked . . .” He glared at her.

“I can’t believe you’d do all this.” The thought made nausea churn inside her.

“All I want is a nice house on the beach and endless hours to do whatever I want. You can’t really blame me for that, can you? At the rate I’m going right now, I’ll be forced to work at least another fifteen years. That just won’t work for me.”

Nia’s neck stiffened as she stared at the very man she’d once hired to work at her company, the one she’d thought had potential. Who’d come highly recommended and full of accomplishment.

How could she have been so wrong?

She stared at Graham, not bothering to hide the disgust in her gaze. “It all sounds selfish, if you ask me.”

“Well, I didn’t ask you. Besides, you’re not going to remember most of this conversation anyway.” He held up a prototype of the app and hit a few buttons.

Nia knew what would happen next, and she pressed her eyes closed.

Was it even possible to stop herself from going into a trance-like state again?

She had no idea.