Discovered (19 page)

Ben nodded. “Truth be told, I suspected that
Manuel was planted here by James, although I had no proof to back that up.”

 “You may be right,” Layla agreed. “I overheard
Robert tell James that Manuel had seen Orton in Target and that wherever Orton
is, he is not far behind, which I assume meant Jay.”

“Well, that explains how they knew I was in
North Carolina, but what were they doing there in the first place?” Jay piped
in.

“Maybe they were there to meet with James,”
Joey guessed. “And by dumb luck, Manuel spotted you while you were shopping.”

“Dumb luck is right,” Ben replied, rolling his
eyes. “Of all the Targets in all of the United States…”

Something suddenly fell into place in Layla’s
mind as she remembered the broken glass on her kitchen floor five nights ago.
“I think James’ life might be in danger,” she said. “If James hired those men,
then they found out what it was he was after, wouldn’t it make sense that they
decided to cut him out of the deal entirely.”

“Possibly,” Jay agreed, “but why not just steal
the formula after they found it. How would James know the difference?”

“But how did they know where we were the
evening after the dance?” Layla questioned. “I think they already found your
whereabouts but saw me there, and decided they could use James to get to me.
The man on the phone said
‘
I have
something that you might want. Something you might even be interested in
trading your boyfriend for’.
What else
could that be?”

“So you think
Manuel and Robert had already spotted Jay when he was with you, and Robert
recognized you and decided that if he kidnapped James, you would lead them to Jay
in return for your mother’s boyfriend?” Issy asked, nodding as she said it.

“Yes, I think so,”
Layla replied. “But if that’s the case, then James’ life is in danger. We need
to notify the police.”

“Layla…” Jay
trailed off, shaking his head.

“Jay, we just can’t
leave him with those men,” she screeched.

“Remember, we’re
only guessing that’s how this went down,” Jay said, begging her with his eyes
to understand. “And it’s not like James is completely innocent. If we’re right,
he started this whole mess with his desire to steal something that doesn’t
belong to him.”

“So what should we
do?” she asked, exasperated. “Just leave him at the mercy of those men?”

“Again, if we’re
right, he’s more than likely relatively safe for the moment. I’m more concerned
that they’ll try to snatch you, now that they have James, and force you to lead
them to me.”

“How?” she
demanded.

“Have you ever seen
a man tortured, Layla?” Jay asked. “Especially one that you’re close to? How
long do you think you could stomach that?”

Layla pondered that
for a moment then nodded. “Okay, I see your point. So what now?”

“Now we head to
Jackson Heights and confront this Robert,” Ben said.

“How do we do
that?” Issy asked.

“Basically,
we
don’t.”
Jay said firmly. “You and Layla will stay far from this.”

“Oh, no,” Issy
said, shaking her head. “Since when can I not take care of myself? I’ve kicked
your butt in more than one fight.”

“I know,” Jay said.
“Let me rephrase. I would appreciate it if you could stay here with Layla while
Joey, Ben and I confront this guy.”

Issy nodded. “How
do you plan to do that?” she asked.

“We know where he
lives. We know what he looks like. We’ll go to his home and keep watch until we
catch him alone,” Joey said.

“Then what?” Issy
asked, putting her hands on her hips.

“First and
foremost, we get James out of danger,” Jay stated. “I’m not happy about that,
but I’ll do it for Layla’s sake. Then we’ll use
Robert
as a bargaining
chip.”

“Do you really
think Manuel would care if we had Robert?” Issy asked skeptically. “That’s one
less person to share the wealth with.”

“In that case, we bring
Robert back here, lock him up then go after the other three. We can snatch them
one at a time.”

“And…?” Issy
pushed.

“I don’t know,” Jay
said agitatedly, “keep them locked up here for eternity, for all I care.”

“When?” Joey
questioned.

“Tonight, I guess,”
Jay said. “We’ll go after it gets dark.”

“In the meantime,
we should head out to the Hamptons. There’s no point in going back to your
house until the damage is fixed,” Ben suggested.

Jay nodded. “I’ll
call Rick then give Layla a quick tour of the complex.”

“Dressed like
this?” Layla screeched.

“There are lots of
people walking around in scrubs on the second floor,” Issy told her.

Jay took Layla by
the hand and led her down the hall to a small elevator. He punched in a code
and waited only a second for the bell to beep and the door to slide open. Inside,
there was barely enough room for four people, and as Ben, Issy and Joey had decided
to ride up with them, they were squished together like sardines.

After a split
second ride, the doors opened to reveal three wooden doors in a tiny hallway.
“These are our private offices,” Jay explained. “We’re coming in through the
back. No one else has access to that elevator but us four.”

“Only three?” Layla
questioned.

“Ben and I share an
office,” Issy explained.

Jay led Layla through
the door to the left, into his own personal office while the other three went
their separate ways.

Jay’s office was
large and spacious with minimal furniture. A solid oak desk sat at the back of
the room facing a wall of windows that looked out on to the rear grounds of the
complex.  Against the far corner was a sectional couch angled around a glass
coffee table. The back wall was one huge bookshelf.

“It’s not much, I
know,” Jay said, “but the less distractions I have here, the better.”

Layla walked to the
back window and stared out at the lawns, the November sun giving the false
appearance of a bright summer day.  She quickly tried to digest all that she
had been told in the lab. “So this is where you work,” she said absentmindedly,
then stiffened when she felt arms fold around her waist from behind.

“Um,” Jay breathed,
running his nose up the side of her throat. “Speaking of distractions…” he
whispered then tilted her head to the side so that he could plant a soft kiss
on the side of her mouth. “I’d like to have this distraction here on a
permanent basis.”

“Are you offering
me a job, Mr. Vallen?” Layla asked in a raspy voice, feeling her knees weaken.

“Um, yes, I think
so,” he purred into her ear. “You could be my own personal desk ornament. The
position pays very well and comes with a complete benefit package.”

She turned in his
arms so that she was facing him and smirked. “So I’m being reduced to an object
already?”

Jay narrowed his
eyes. “Ah…oh…I’m sorry; I didn’t mean it that way,” he stammered.

Layla giggled. “No,
it’s okay. I was just teasing.”

“Little imp,” he
said then pressed his lips to hers.

She pulled away
from him and gazed up into his eyes. “Tell me more about this job offer, Mr.
Vallen. I think I like the sound of it.”

“Well…” he trailed
off and kissed her quickly. “It’s a very highly skilled position…” another
quick kiss. “The ideal candidate would have to be proficient in sitting on my
desk all day…” again, he kissed her, causing her to giggle. “…so that I could
gaze at her for hours…admiring her beauty.”

“And you consider
me a good candidate?” she whispered.

“The only
candidate,” he murmured and kissed her forcefully.

A long moment
later, he pulled away and shuddered. “Come on, let me show you the rest of the
building while I still have a tiny bit of composure left.” He put his arm
around her shoulder and pulled her close to him as he led her to the door.

Walking through the
main door to his office, Layla looked around at the spacious hallway of sea-foam-green
carpeting and white marbled walls speckled with tiny inlet lights. “Wow, this
is bright,” she said.

“I prefer to use
the term
cheerful
,” Jay replied. He let go of her shoulder and took her
hand, leading her past a reception area.

A middle-aged woman
looked up from the desk and smiled. “Hello, Mr. Vallen,” she said warmly.

“Hi, Margaret. This
is Layla,” he replied in an almost giddy voice.

Margaret narrowed
her eyes slightly and smiled with amusement. “It’s very nice to meet you, Layla,”
she said approvingly.

“You too,” Layla
answered.

“That’s the front
of Ben and Issy’s and Joey’s offices,” Jay rattled off as he led her quickly
down the hallway. “And those are offices belonging to a few other high-ranking
employees, plus our accountant, lawyers and whatnot.”

He led her into a
large,
spacious, two-story entry pavilion dotted with black leather
benches and a centrally located reception area manned by three security guards.
The front-facing glass wall, coupled with the circular skylights, created a
flood of natural lighting.

Jay waved over to
the security guards as he plodded quickly past, pulling Layla along with him.
Reaching the far side, he led her down a hallway into an enormous cafeteria with
cloth-covered tables and linen napkins—small bud vases sat elegantly in the
center of each.

Jay let go of
Layla’s hand. “We like to think that we treat our employees well,” he
explained. “Every person that works here gets a chef made choice of entrees
every afternoon, and dinner for those who work late.”

“Free?” she
questioned.

He nodded. “It’s
just one of the little perks we throw in. To the back of the cafeteria is a
full gym with Olympic-sized pool. There’s also a nursery back there for our
working mothers, staffed with specialized caretakers and pediatric nurses.”

A few people walked
over to Jay to welcome him back and generally just brown-nose the boss. This
time, he didn’t introduce Layla to any of the men and women he spoke with.

He turned to Layla
and gestured for her to walk back the way they had come earlier. “Sorry about
that,” he said when they were out of ear-shot. “I wasn’t being rude. I just
didn’t want to draw any attention to you. The one thing that we’re strict about
is that no one here talks about us to media of any sort. It’s in every
employment contract, but you never know.”

“What about
Margaret?” Layla asked.

“I trust Margaret,”
Jay explained. “But some of the other employees I’m not very familiar with.”

When they were back
in the entry pavilion, Layla noticed Issy, Ben and Joey walking toward them,
coming from the opposite direction. She put her hand up and waved, but before
any of them could wave back, a flash of a bright light, coming from the right
side, caused Layla to turn sharply.

 A loud boom filled
the lobby as the wall of glass popped in and shattered, sending thousands of small
shards of glass flying in their direction.

As if in slow
motion, Jay dove in front of Layla to shield her from the onslaught, pushing
her backward.

The last thing Layla
felt was her head smack against the marble floor before she slipped into
unconsciousness.  

With adrenaline
coursing through her veins, Layla’s eyes fluttered open.

She looked up into
the faces of Jay, Issy, Ben and Joey, all staring down at her, worry etched in
their features.

She pushed herself
up into sitting position. “What happened?” she asked, her hand automatically
going to the back of her head.

“Robert, Manuel and
the other two tried their tactic of flushing us out again. This time shattering
the glass in the lobby and injuring two security guards,” Ben replied solemnly.

“I jumped in front
of you and unfortunately caused you to bang your head off the floor,” Jay said
apologetically. “We picked you up and ran to the basement before they could get
their hands on you.”

“None of you were
hurt?” Layla asked skeptically.

“By some miracle,
no,” Joey stated.

“How do you feel?”
Issy asked her.

“Surprisingly well
for someone who probably has a concussion,” Layla answered. “How long have I
been unconscious? I feel like I’ve slept for two whole days.”

“About thirty
minutes,” Issy answered.

“What happened to
Robert and those men?” Layla questioned.

“We don’t know,” Jay
answered. “We fled with you, but some of the employees called the police. They’re
upstairs as we speak.”

“Are you going to
talk to them?” she asked.

“No, I think it’s
best if we’re not involved in any police investigations. We’re heading out to
Issy and Ben’s house in the Hamptons as soon as Rick arrives, which won’t be
for an hour or two, unfortunately,” Jay explained.

“But if the police
find any evidence that matches the evidence at your house, won’t that lead to a
full investigation?” she queried.

“I’m not sure,” Jay
responded. “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. And it may have the
added benefit of leading the police right to them. We can claim that Manuel is
a disgruntled ex-employee looking for revenge for being fired.”

Layla jumped to her
feet energetically and looked around. She was back in the little room with the
old couch that she’d slept on the previous night.

They sat lulling
around the tiny room for over two hours, in strained conversation, until Rick
finally called to say he was waiting for them at the helicopter.

As they walked
toward Lucia, something nagged at Layla’s mind, a sudden clarity as though the
bump to her head had popped something back into place. How long ago did James
work for Vallen Enterprises? James was only thirty-two and had worked with her
father for ten years, having graduated from college well ahead of his age due
to having skipped a few years of high school for being some sort of whiz kid. He
would have been very young, but if that were the case, then Jay would have been
a little child and definitely not working on any research. Something just
wasn’t adding up, unless James had worked there recently and failed to mention
it to her mother or her. As she tried to roll this all around her mind, Jay
came up to her and grabbed her hand.

“I’m sorry I never
told you about knowing James,” he said as though reading her mind.

“I understand your
position,” she answered. “I probably should be mad at that, but since it falls
under the category of the initial lie, the one I’ve already forgiven you for, I
suppose I shouldn’t be.”

“You have no idea
how much I regret all of this,” he said, stopping short and turning her around
to face him. “I just wish that I would’ve had the strength to leave you alone
while there was still time for you to go on with your life without getting
involved with all this crap.”

She sighed deeply.
“Yeah, but I didn’t want you to,” she answered, shrugging her shoulders. “So in
a way, I deserve to be here.”

“Layla, I care
about you so much,” he said, looking deep into her eyes. “If anything were to
happen to you…” he trailed off and grimaced as though the thought was too
unbearable to contemplate.

Layla put her hand
on his cheek in an effort to console him. “I’m in the thick of this now, so
there’s no point in having regrets. I know you didn’t do any of this on
purpose.”

“In a very twisted
way, these last few days have been the happiest of my life,” Jay admitted. “But
every time I forget why you’re here with me, and begin to bask in the exhilaration
of it, they come around to bring me back down to earth.”

“I know,” she
answered with a sad smile.

When they reached
Lucia, Rick was already on board flicking switches and pushing various buttons.
Layla climbed into the back and sat sandwiched between Jay and Joey while Ben
and Issy took the seats facing them.

They flew directly
over the Long Island Sound and touched down in a large deserted field within
thirty minutes.

When they were
safely off Lucia, Rick pulled her back up into the air.

“Where is he
going?” Layla questioned over the whirr of the main rotor blades.

“Back to
Greenwich,” Jay answered, taking her hand. “We have nowhere to keep the
helicopter out here.”

On the other side
of the field, Layla spotted a blue SUV waiting by a small patch of concrete.

 As they made their
way over the grass to the waiting car, a shiny black van ripped from behind the
trees to the right and headed in their direction.

“They were waiting
for us!” Jay yelled, pulling Layla behind him as he ran toward the waiting car.

Layla felt her
heart pound in her chest. She knew there was no way to make it to the parked
car on time.

The black van
swerved to a stop right in front of them.

Layla let out a
muffled scream as the masked men jumped from the vehicle, guns drawn.

Jay skirted to a
dead stop and tightened his stance, his hand going toward the inside of his
jacket, no doubt to retrieve his handgun.

“Don’t even think
about it, Vallen,” one of the men said.

“What do you want,
Robert?” Jay replied calmly.

Behind her, Layla
could sense the tension coming from Issy, Ben and Joey.

“Ah, so you’ve
figured out who I am?” the man replied.

“As a matter of
fact, we know who all of you are,” Joey answered, walking up slowly to stand
shoulder to shoulder with Jay.

“That’s right,” Ben
butted in, slowly approaching Jay’s other side. He shuffled slightly over. In
one slick move, Jay, Joey and Ben formed a shield in front of Issy and Layla.
“Manuel Castillez,” Ben said calmly. “How very nice to see you again, or it
would be if you’d remove the stupid mask. And who else do we have here? Oh yes,
Sam Sheevers and Jason Shepard.”

“Clever,” the first
man, who was more than likely Robert, said. “So why don’t you hand over what we
want before someone gets hurt.”

“I’m afraid I’m not
exactly sure what it is you’re after,” Jay replied. “For the life of me, I
can’t seem to figure out what I could have that would be of that much interest,
except of course, money.”

“You have something
much more valuable than money,” Robert answered.

“And what would
that be?” Joey queried, feigning confusion.

“Don’t play games with
me,” Robert said bluntly. He reached up and removed the mask from his head,
realizing its futility since they already knew who he was.  “How old are you?” he
questioned, smirking knowingly in Jay’s direction.

“Eighteen,” Jay
said frankly. “Why do you ask?”

“We both know
that’s a lie,” Robert replied. “James told me all about you. I know what it is
you have in your possession.”

“I have no idea
what you’re talking about,” Jay responded. “If it’s money you’re after, you can
have as much as you want, but trust me, it really
can’t
buy happiness.”

“Cute,” Robert
answered. “Now which of your friends would you like to say good-bye to first?
I’ll make this simple, you hand over the juice, or I start putting bullets in
them.”

“Again, I have no
clue what you’re on about,” Jay stated.

Layla instinctively
understood that Jay was playing for time, but had no clue as to what his plan
could be. Then from the side of her eyes, she noticed Issy slip a gun from her
inside pocket and hold it slightly behind her back. She pushed her foot over
next to Layla’s and tapped on Layla’s toes to get her attention. Layla looked
directly at Issy, who motioned for Layla to get behind her. Not understanding
how that helped, she obeyed anyway, seeing the determination in Issy’s eyes.

“You asked for
this,” Robert said, then lifted his gun and pointed it toward Joey. “How about
I shoot this one first?”

“No, please don’t!”
Jay screeched, yet somehow Layla didn’t sense sincerity in his horror. It was
almost as if Jay was pretending to be afraid. What could he be playing at? He
would get Joey shot for sure.

“Give me the
juice,” Robert said again.

“I don’t know what
you’re talking about,” Jay replied frantically.

“Okay, then,”
Robert said and pulled the trigger.

Layla screamed as
Joey fell to the ground, blood oozing from his chest.

Jay rushed at
Robert and tried to wrestle the gun from his hand while Ben pulled his own gun
and fired directly at Manuel. Manuel crumbled to the ground, horrified at
taking a direct hit.

Issy stood
protectively in front of Layla and fired a couple of rounds, causing Jason and
Sam to run back to the van, fleeing the onslaught of bullets.

Just before Jay was
able to get the gun from Robert’s tight grip, it went off, and Jay fell over.

Layla screamed
again, shaking uncontrollably.

“Stay behind me,”
Issy warned, sensing that Layla was about to run to Jay. “It’s alright, just
stay behind me.”

Layla tried to come
to grips with what Issy had just said. How could this be all right? Joey and
Jay lay motionless on the ground, bleeding out. She made a move to run when
Issy’s voice grew louder, forceful. “Stay where you are!” Issy demanded as she
continued to fire shots in the direction of the men, she and Ben shoulder to
shoulder with Layla crouched down behind them.

Robert, Sam and
Jason retreated to the van and climbed in. As they sped away, Robert fired one
more shot, hitting Ben in the thigh.

Layla crawled to
Jay, gut wrenching grief and horror threatening to consume her last ounce of
sanity. She felt the void of his loss so severe, it made it hard to breathe. She
leaned over him, begging him to open his eyes.

Issy was staring
straight at Ben’s thigh as though she expected it to do something other than
bleed profusely. She turned her worried glance to Joey then Jay then back to
Ben again expectantly, locking her gaze with his. They stared into each other’s
eyes silently, the blood seeping through Ben’s fingers that rested over the
wound.

“Call an
ambulance!” Layla bellowed through heavy sobs.

“We can’t,” Issy
replied in a soft, apologetic voice. She walked over to Joey and put her hand
on his neck, feeling for a pulse, and then she walked to Jay and rolled him
over. She put her fingers to his throat in a similar manner.

“Well?” Ben asked, concern
for his friends thick in his voice.

Issy shrugged and
shook her head, her expression one of silent panic.

“Call an ambulance!”
Layla yelled again. “What’s wrong with you two? Why are you just standing
around like you’re waiting for something to happen?”

Ben staggered back
suddenly and lost his footing, landing on his back, his face ashen from loss of
blood. Issy knelt down beside him and put her hand on his forehead, glancing
back and forth between his face and his wound, her perplexed expression deepening.

Layla sat up
straight and wiped her eyes with the bottom of the light-blue scrubs. If Issy
was not going to do anything, then she would have to. She pulled out her cell
phone and turned it on.

Issy’s head whipped
around. “NO!” she bellowed. “Layla, put the phone away!”

“I’m calling an
ambulance,” Layla responded curtly.

Issy jumped up and
rushed over to Layla, holding out her hand. “Give me the phone!” she snapped.

“What the hell is
wrong with you?” Layla gasped.

But before Issy
could reply, Layla’s eyes widened as she observed the scene some feet away. The
bullet that was lodged in Ben’s leg suddenly popped out and landed on the grass
beside him.

“How the…?” Layla
trailed off as she watched Issy rush back to her husband, a huge smile of
relief spread across her face.

“Can you sit up?”
Issy asked Ben, almost seeming excited.

“I’m fine,” he
replied, pushing himself up from the ground.

Issy threw her eyes
up to the sky. “Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she muttered.

To Layla’s utter
shock, Ben’s thigh had stopped bleeding completely, and the color had returned
to his face, making him look as though nothing had ever happened.