Ethel’s jaw clenched. “Goon squad? I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“I’m talking about your deliberate campaign of harassment, intimidation, and attempts to destroy my wife’s reputation.”
Ethel stiffened. “That’s ridiculous.”
Alarmed by the cold energy radiating from Drake, Alice jumped to her feet.
“I don’t think . . . ” she began.
But no one was listening to her. Even Houdini was ignoring her. He was sleeked out and ready for battle.
The blood drained from Ethel’s face. “How dare you threaten me and my family?”
“It’s not a threat,” Drake said. “It’s a solemn promise. You’ve been running Whitcomb Industries long enough to know your way around the business world. You are aware that I can do what I say I can do.”
“That little whore murdered my son.”
“This meeting is over,” Drake said. He started toward Alice. “You might want to contact your people who are working on the Morgan project, Ethel. As soon as we leave here today, I’m going to call Paul Morgan and tell him that Whitcomb is having some serious financial problems that have not yet become known to investors. The deal you’re doing with him will be dead by five o’clock tonight.”
“But Whitcomb isn’t having any financial problems,” Ethel whispered, shocked.
Drake gave her an icy-cold smile and took Alice’s arm. “You know how it is when it comes to rumors in our world, Ethel. When word gets out that Morgan stepped back from a deal with Whitcomb, the gossip will spread like wildfire.”
“No,” Ethel said. “You can’t do this to me and my family.” She pointed a shaking finger at Alice. “Not because of . . . of her.”
“Because of my wife,” Drake corrected. “And, yes, to protect her, I will destroy you and everything you have built.”
Ethel sank slowly down into her chair. She stared at Drake. “She’s hypnotized you, just like she hypnotized my son. Don’t you see?”
Drake’s mouth twisted in a humorless smile. “I see more than you can possibly imagine, Mrs. Whitcomb.”
“Enough,” Alice said. She stepped between Ethel and Drake. “There is no need to crush the entire Whitcomb family, not that I don’t appreciate the gesture. I mean, no one has ever offered to do anything like that for me before and I’m touched, really I am.”
Ethel looked at her, evidently speechless. Alice smiled and then turned back to Drake.
“But we need to keep in mind that stalking me was Ethel’s idea—”
“I am not a stalker,” Ethel shouted.
“And it was a perfectly understandable reaction, if somewhat over the top,” Alice concluded.
“What?” Drake asked.
“She honestly believed that I murdered her son and that there would be no justice.” Alice turned to Ethel. “In your shoes and given your resources, I would have gone looking for a little rough justice, too. But it would have been nice if you had first made sure you had the real killer.”
“Don’t you dare lecture me,” Ethel snapped.
“Just sit down and read the contents of that folder,” Alice said. “After what you did to me this past year, it’s the least you can do. You’re an intelligent woman. Look at the evidence. And then, please, just leave me alone. That’s all I ask. If you stay away from me, I promise you that Drake won’t go after Whitcomb Industries.”
Ethel appeared nonplussed. She looked at Drake.
“Do I have your word on that?” she asked.
Drake’s mouth hardened. He gave the question some thought and then he shrugged. “What the hell. All right, it’s a deal. But if I suspect at any time in the future that you have inconvenienced my wife in any way—if she even gets a parking ticket—I will assume that you are behind the said inconvenience. I will use all of the Sebastian, Inc. resources available to me to take down Whitcomb Industries. Do we understand each other?”
“Yes,” Ethel said. She collapsed back into her chair. “Please go now.”
Drake took Alice’s arm and steered her toward the door. Neither of them spoke until they were back in the car. Drake sat quietly behind the wheel for a moment.
“I should have known that you would go soft on me,” he said.
“I told you, I didn’t want revenge,” Alice said. “I understood her anger. All I wanted was for her to leave me alone.”
“She will.” Drake smiled his coldest smile and rezzed the car’s flash-rock engine. “Ethel Whitcomb won’t bother you again. She knows that if she does make trouble for you, I’ll take her company apart piece by piece.”
“You’d really do it, wouldn’t you?”
Drake turned his head to look at her. Light flashed on his mirrored glasses. “In a heartbeat.”
Alice took a deep breath. “She believed you.”
“Yes.”
“Hopefully, she’ll believe the evidence in that folder, as well.”
“Don’t count on it.” Drake eased the car away from the curb. “Can’t expect a mother to believe the worst of her son. But maybe, in time, she’ll accept the fact that he wasn’t the man she wanted him to be. Or not.”
A wistful sensation wafted through Alice. She smiled a little and reached up to touch Houdini.
“Family,” she said. “Sometimes the rules are different.”
“Yes,” Drake said. “When it comes to family, the rules are always different. You’re my wife. I’d bend every rule in the book for you.”
Warmth rushed through her.
“Drake, there’s something I need to tell you, something important.”
He started to turn his head to look at her, but at that instant his phone buzzed.
“Damn,” he said. “That’s my emergency number. No one uses it unless there’s a real problem.”
He hit the speaker button. “Drake Sebastian.”
“There’s trouble at the para-psych hospital, Mr. Sebastian. Zara Tucker has escaped to the roof with a hostage. Tucker is asking for a helicopter, a lot of money . . . and you.”
“I’m on the way,” Drake said.
Alice groaned. “I knew she was going to be a problem.”
Chapter 47
ALICE STOOD WITH DRAKE IN THE DOORWAY OF THE rooftop stairwell. Together they looked out at the scene unfolding on top of the twelve-story hospital.
Zara Tucker stood at the edge of the wide circle that marked the helicopter landing pad. She was dressed in the oversized green scrubs that she had stolen from a supply cupboard. Her blonde hair was blowing in the snapping breeze. She held a mag-rez pistol on her hostage, a middle-aged woman named Dr. Harriet Metford.
Drake glanced back over his shoulder at the small crowd in the stairwell. The hospital administrator, two para-psych doctors, a couple of strong orderlies, and the guard who had lost his weapon to Zara were crammed into the space.
“What’s the status on the helicopter?” Drake asked the guard.
“The chopper is on standby on the roof of Sebastian, Inc. headquarters, as you ordered. The FBPI negotiator and his team are on the way.”
“Trust me, she won’t wait long enough to allow you to get into extended negotiations,” Drake said. “Tell the pilot to take off and hover over the hospital. Tell him to be ready to land as soon as I raise my hand.”
The guard asked no questions. Responding to Drake’s cool air of authority, he immediately turned away to speak into his phone.
Drake looked at Alice. “Ready?”
Who was ever actually ready to confront a madwoman with a gun? Alice wondered.
“I might have a mild touch of stage fright,” Alice admitted. “But they say that sharpens the act.”