Even if he wasn’t sure Taylor was innocent in all this, he’d be damned if he let her walk away with no protection.
Chapter 4
Neal glanced at Benjamin Escobar, the head of security for the Powers Group, as the man swiped his security card over the elevator pad. “You don’t need to come with me.”
Over six hours later, Neal had finally been allowed to return to the building now that Hugh’s body had been removed and Neal had been processed for gunshot residue. He had some on him, which was easily explainable since he’d been in the vicinity of Taylor when she’d allegedly shot at him and because he’d supposedly gone to the aid of Hugh. It would be strange if he didn’t have any on him, but there wasn’t a ton of blowback on his current clothing, which was good. Now he needed to get rid of the other clothes and weapon he’d stashed and he couldn’t do it with Escobar hanging around like his shadow.
Escobar, who was about the same height as him at five-ten, shot him a stony glance before motioning to the elevator door that opened. There was an intimidating air about him that Neal could never ignore. “I’m not leaving your side while you’re here.”
For some reason, Neal wasn’t sure if Escobar was shadowing him because he was concerned, or for other reasons. He couldn’t help but feel paranoid, especially after he’d killed Hugh, but Neal wondered if Escobar had somehow guessed. The man was a straight arrow and it was damn annoying. No, Neal was just being paranoid. How could Escobar have any clue?
“The security cameras are up and running again so you have nothing to worry about.” Much to his annoyance the police had wanted to look at the video feeds immediately. He’d expected that. What he hadn’t expected was for Escobar to be able to link everything back online so quickly, but he’d done it as soon as he’d arrived at the office that morning. Neal thought he’d knocked the system offline for a while. He knew he’d erased everything, but still…it made him edgy worrying about the clothes in the empty conference room.
“Hmm,” was all Escobar said. Then, “Did Taylor say anything after shooting Hugh?”
Neal shook his head. “No. It all happened so fast. I guess she might have said something, but I was just trying to run for my life. It was…crazy. I still can’t believe she killed him.”
“Me either.” As usual, Escobar’s tone was unreadable.
Since Escobar clearly wasn’t going to leave and Neal couldn’t afford to make him suspicious, he decided to make use of him. “Will you bring Paige and Marissa up to my office? I want to speak to them.”
Taylor had called Paige and Marissa after she’d gone on the run. He was still raging that his man hadn’t been able to track down Taylor, but her running made her look guilty, which was damn good to solidify his story to the police. He wanted her dead though. Dead and gone so she couldn’t cause him any trouble. And he still wasn’t positive he hadn’t shot her.
The police had examined the elevator and taken the bullets out of the outside of the doors, but they’d asked him a couple times if he’d been injured, wanting to take him down to the hospital. That line of questioning made him nervous. He hadn’t seen any blood or bullet destruction in the elevator, but maybe he’d missed something.
Escobar nodded without looking at him as they reached the top floor. “Of course. I’ll get them right now. What should I tell everyone else in the building?” He pressed the button to keep the door open as Neal stepped out.
Neal knew that almost everyone had stayed after he and Escobar had gone down to the police station. The crime scene and their floor was cordoned off from everyone and no one was actually working, but he guessed they didn’t want to just leave either. “Everyone can go home. I’ll let you handle making the announcement. I just…” He looked down, shaking his head as he covered his face with his hand, as if everything was too much for him to handle. “I can’t deal with everyone right now.” Taking a deep breath, he looked back up at the other man. “Tell everyone to come in tomorrow at ten. I’ll set something up in the lobby and speak to everyone at the same time.”
Escobar nodded and removed his hand from the elevator button, letting the doors close.
One of the first things Neal was going to do was fire that self-righteous bastard. But not right away. No, he needed to wait a couple months, to let everything die down before he made changes. For right now he couldn’t afford any extra scrutiny.
He owed some terrifying people money, but he’d been making his payments. The last six months he’d had no problem covering his debt. The interest was what was killing him, but the Chemagan deal he’d set up had been brilliant. In another three months he’d planned to close it down and call it a loss with no one being the wiser, but that fucking bitch Taylor had somehow figured out what he was doing.