She took the computer from him and waited while he swung the suitcase and the two bags of groceries up onto the dock. He glanced around, making sure he had everything he wanted out of the boat. Then he stepped onto the dock.
“Ready?” he said.
Not waiting for a reply, he scooped up the bags of groceries with an easy motion and tucked one into the crook of each arm. His aura flashed with impatience and a really scary excitement. The pulses of dark energy were becoming increasingly agitated. This wasn’t just business, she realized. He was actually looking forward to murdering her. Her own fury flared higher.
“Of course.” She gave him her best professional smile, the one she used to greet his guests and business associates. She thought of it as her stage smile. “But just out of curiosity, when do you plan to do it?”
“Do what?” he said. He was already turning away from her, heading toward the small SUV parked at the end of the dock.
“Kill me.”
He froze in mid-stride. She watched the torrent of shock crash through his aura. The indescribable colors flashed across the spectrum. She really had taken him by surprise, she realized. Had he actually believed that he could plot her death without her sensing it? Evidently the answer to that question was a resounding yes. Then again, she had never told him all of her secrets.
When he turned to face her his expression was a mix of anger and impatience.
“What the hell are you talking about?” he said. “Is this your idea of a bad joke?”
She folded her arms, hugging herself a little.
“We both know it isn’t a joke,” she said quietly. “You brought me here with the intention of murdering me.”
“I haven’t got time for this. I’ve got work to do.”
“I assume I’m going to be the victim of a tragic drowning accident?” She smiled bleakly. “So sad. The butler went swimming and went under. Happens all the time.”
He searched her face as though wondering if she had a high fever and then shook his head. “I don’t believe this.”
“I didn’t, either. But in hindsight I saw it coming weeks ago.”
“All right, let’s play this out,” he said with the air of a man who has begun to suspect that he is dealing with a crazy person. “You and I have been a team for a long time. Twelve years. Why would I want to kill you now?”
“I think there are a couple of reasons. The first one, of course, is that I recently discovered that for the past few months you’ve been allowing some very nasty people to use the resources of Crocker World as a cover for illegal arms dealing. All that agricultural equipment you so generously donated to various developing countries? Turns out those tractors and plows fire real bullets. Imagine my surprise.”
For an instant she thought he was going to continue the charade a little longer. But this was Martin. He could get to the bottom line faster than anyone else she had ever met. That was part of his talent.
He smiled with just the right touch of genuine regret and put down the grocery bags. “I knew you would have problems with my little sideline. That’s why I didn’t bring you on board at the start of the project.”
“It isn’t just what you’re dealing, although that’s bad enough. It’s the people you’re working for.”
Fury sparked in his eyes and in his aura.
“I don’t work for anyone else,” he said through his teeth. “Crocker World is mine. I built the company, damn it. I am Crocker World.”
“You
were Crocker World. But you’ve handed the company you built, that I
helped you build, to some sort of criminal organization.”
“You had nothing to do with my success. You should be down on your knees thanking me for what I did for you. If I hadn’t come along, you’d still be working in that low-rent flower shop, living all by yourself with a couple of cats because you scare off every man you meet. Hell, sometimes you even scare me.”
That shook her. “What?”
“The way you take one look at a person and figure out what makes him tick. What he’d kill for. What scares the shit out of him. His strengths and weaknesses. It’s damned spooky. Why do you think I’m getting rid of you?”
“You’re forgetting something, Martin. If you hadn’t offered me a job twelve years ago, you’d still be operating a cheap way-off-the-strip casino in Binge, Nevada. I’m the one who identified the cheats who were robbing you blind. I’m the one who helped you pay off that mob boss. If it hadn’t been for me, you’d have been buried in some shallow grave out in the desert by now.”
“That’s a lie.”
“And I’m the one who identified those first investors for you, the venture capitalists who backed you when you decided to sell the casino and start building condo towers.”
Martin’s aura was an inferno now.
“I would have found the investors on my own,” he shouted.
“That’s not true. You’re a mid-range strategy talent, Martin. You can sense opportunities and put together a plan with a skill few can match because you’re psychic in that way. But you’re no good when it comes to reading people.”
“Shut your stupid mouth.”
“Without that talent, all the business insight in the world is useless. Building a financial empire isn’t just about numbers and the bottom line. It’s about identifying and exploiting your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses.”
He gave her a sharklike smile. “You think I need a lecture on the art of the deal from you?”
“For twelve years I’ve been your personal profiler. I’m the one who tells you when a business associate is in trouble, either financially or in his personal life. I warn you when someone is trying to con you. I identify the strengths and weaknesses of your opponents and your partners. I tell you exactly what you need to offer to someone in order to close the deal, and I’m the one who tells you when your best option is to walk away from the table.”
“You had your uses, I’ll grant you that. But I don’t need you anymore. Before we finish this, though, I’d really like to know how you tumbled on to my little arms-dealing sideline.”
“As far as your guests and business associates are concerned, I’m just a trusted member of the staff. No one looks twice at me. No one notices me. But I take a good look at them. That’s what you pay me to do, after all. Sometimes I see things and sometimes I hear things. And I am very, very good when it comes to research, remember?”
“How much do you know?”
“About the people you’re involved with?” She raised one shoulder slightly. “Not a lot. Just that it’s some sort of cartel run by very powerful sensitives and that they’ve seduced you into doing their dirty work.”
Martin’s aura flared higher. “No one has seduced me.”
“Until recently I would never have believed that anyone could buy you,” she said. “I mean, what could a bunch of gangsters offer one of the most successful men on the planet that would make it worth his while to risk his freedom, his reputation and his life?”
Martin’s rage showed in his eyes now. “You don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. The organization isn’t some mob.”
“Yes, it is, Martin. The first time you brought those two men to the Miami residence, I told you they were very, very dangerous.”
“So am I,” Martin hissed. He reached up and slowly removed his mirrored glasses. “More dangerous than you can imagine, thanks to my new business associates. And thanks to them, I no longer need you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The organization those two men represent is about much more than money. It’s all about power, real power; the kind that world leaders and warlords and billionaires can only dream about.”
Suddenly she understood. She had not thought that she could be any more appalled than she already was but she had been wrong.
“I guess this explains the changes in your aura in the past couple of months,” she said.