“What was that about?”
“Dark pool liquidity.” Her voice was sharp as she shifted to face him. “The reason for all that negative press with my face being splashed across the news resulting in Blush stock prices plummeting? That’s what the hell that was all about,” she said bitingly. “A private forum has been buying large blocks of stock in secret all week. It was a setup. The bastards bought low, cashing in on Blush shares slipping on the market because of all the bad press. Then went to Ordway yesterday with a better offer than mine.”
“No rival investment brokers?”
“Perhaps them, too. But this is an anonymous, private group.”
“Any idea who they might be?”
“No. But you can bet I’ll damn well find out who’s going behind my back!”
“I doubt it’s personal.”
“Really? It feels extremely, damn well personal to me. More so because only a small handful of people I trusted even knew I was doing this.”
“Now what happens?”
“Now I wait to hear if upping my bid will get me my own damned company.”
Cruz looked as grim as Mia felt. “We’re going away for a few days until the dust settles.”
“Go where?”
He shrugged a broad shoulder. “Anywhere you like. Podunk? South of France?”
“Right now I live in Podunk,” Mia said with a small smile. “I’m not running. Ordway knows how important this leveraged buyout is to me. He’s got his orders. He’ll keep raising my offer until I’m able to buy the remaining stock. The others will drop out.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then I’ll have a very, very, freaking very expensive company on my hands when this is done. They won’t win. I’ll make damn sure they don’t. And when this is all over, I’m going to find out who was part of the dark pool and make them very sorry they screwed with me.”
Mia was already considering how she’d compensate for the rising cost of the buyout. She might have to sell off one of the divisions, cut staff . . . close some of the retail stores. . . . Whatever she did, her belt would have to tighten. She’d liquidate her personal assets, of course. Sell the houses, the plane, the horses, the cars. “The question is, who are the people making up this damned dark pool? Who’s putting the money into this forum to buy the stocks?”
“We’ll make a list when we get home of who has the money to pool or singularly fund it. We’ll include everyone you can think of, including the least likely.”
He was thinking about Todd, but Mia merely said, “Yes, let’s.”
That list had to be put on hold when they got back to the house, because Detective Hammell and several plainclothes detectives were waiting for them.
“Oh, Lord, what now?” Mia asked rhetorically, seeing two police cars and the group of men standing and talking in her driveway.
She hopped out of the truck when Cruz stopped, walking around the front of the vehicle, hand extended. “Detective Hammell, what can I do for you?”
His huge hand swallowed hers for a brief shake. “Sandy said Marcel was in a lather last night after he was released on his own reconnaissance, pending his court date. After the police chief himself posted bail. Seems like he told his sister he was coming here because he thought you were harboring Daisy.”
Mia waited. Hammell knew where Daisy was.
“Drunk as a coon dog,” he continued. “I came here looking for him. Did a walk around your property. Apparently he tried to gain entry to your house at some point last night. Fell off the ladder. Broke his fool neck.”
A black van pulled up behind the police cars, and two men got out with a stretcher. One of the suited men directed them to the back of the house.
“I didn’t hear anything last night.” Mia glanced up at Cruz, her cheeks burning at the thought of what they’d done after the fear of the possibility of an intruder had subsided. His under-the-table oral sex on her and the blow job she’d given him in the truck had only whetted their appetites for more. “Did you?”
“Not a thing.” He gave her a significant look. They’d made love for hours, and she’d been pretty vocal. It creeped her out that Latour might’ve been watching them through the window.
His gaze followed the men with the stretcher. “Where was the ladder?”
“Around back, third window.”
Her bedroom. She suddenly felt nauseated. She sagged against Cruz, and welcomed his arms around her.
“Dog didn’t bark?”
“We left Oso with Charlie for a few days,” Cruz told him.
“Latour didn’t knock on the back door or yell trying to rouse you?”