Page 6 of Taylor’s Warrior

“Only to say he’s on it, but that the file formats are proving difficult to crack.”

Charity gave a thoughtful hum. “It must be tough if Tex hasn’t been able to break into the files yet.”

“He’s determined not to let it beat him.” Nick managed a wry smile. Tex had been fuming when he’d delivered the update twenty-four hours earlier. “How’s Tay doing?”

His wife sighed. “Still the same. Hurt. Confused. All the things you’d expect. She’s dealing with it by burying herself in work. I keep telling her not to beat herself up for letting this slide for so long, but she’s struggling to let go.”

“Who wouldn’t?” Nick rolled his right shoulder again. Though he tried to hide the wince, it didn’t escape his wife.

“Right. I think we need to take a ride out—you need a break. You’ve been working on this every free minute for over two days now.”

The idea was tempting. Horses had always played a massive part in his life, and riding them was in his blood. The Household Cavalry had been his inevitable destination when he’d passed out of Sandhurst. However, Taylor’s situation had to take priority. “Later, okay?”

Charity made a low sound of grudging acceptance. “I’d have preferred sooner, but I’m willing to compromise. I’ll hold you to it, though. So… something sketchy. What can we do about it? Where do we go with it?”

The million-dollar question. Several millions, in fact, from what he’d gleaned already, and what could doubtless develop into many, many millions more. Nick was looking at data from a certain point in time, but it was most likely the crime had started long before that date. The scale of embezzlement was potentially mind-blowing.

“I’ve been thinking about that,” Nick said. “Regardless of what Tex can find out, sooner or later, this has to go to the FBI, whether Tay likes it or not. Markham has committed a crime, and by sending all this to her, he could have put her at risk of criminal charges.” He ran a hand though his hair. “If it comes down to it, we could all be running the same risk.”

“Oh no.” Charity looked devastated. “I’ll talk to her.”

Nick reached for one of her hands and tugged her around the chair so she could sit on his lap. He shook his head. “It’s going to be a difficult conversation to have. I’ll do it. What?”

His wife’s expression had settled into a pensive frown. “Why would a father put his daughter in danger like that? He held onto these papers for a reason. If he’d really intended to blow the whistle on these activities, he’d have done it at the time. He could still do it now, but no, he sends it to Taylor and tells her to hold onto it until he can take it back. Why? What’s his motive for doing all that?”

A word popped into Nick’s mind. “Extortion. What if, all this time, he’s been holding this information and using it to extort money from the perpetrators?”

“Wait a minute—that’s a bit strong, don’t you think?” Charity’s frown deepened.

“Possibly, but just bear with me.”

“Okay.”

“The message he left for her—it lacks specifics but it’s very carefully worded, which makes me think it’s something he prepared in advance, just in case he got wind of something threatening to put an end to whatever game he was playing. Then he tells her to keep it safe, not to open it, or tell anyone she has it. You can interpret that a couple of ways.”

“Such as?”

“If you were being charitable—which I’m not—then you could say he was protecting her, but—again, my opinion—the best way to protect her would have been to take this information to the authorities at the start.”

“And since you aren’t being charitable?”

“You could say he fed her enough information to keep her quiet and prevent her opening the package until the threat passed and he could tell her to send everything back.”

Nick watched his wife’s expression change as she processed the thought. “You’re saying he was using her as a safe place to store his asset, until whatever made him send it in the first place blows over and he can then pick up where he left off?”

The notion clearly distressed her—Nick almost wished he hadn’t been so blunt, but the situation, as it appeared to him to be, made him so angry. “Correct.”

“I hate to say it, but it makes sense. He protected his collateral by sending it to Tay.” Charity bit her lower lip, a sure sign she was heading into even deeper thought. “All he knew was the address of the forwarding service, so by sending it to her, he could hide it in a place he didn’t even know about.”

As plans went, it was worthy of some respect—provided nothing went awry.

“True—unless whoever he’s hiding from can somehow extract the destination info from the forwarding service.”

Remote though the possibility was, it still made Nick more uncomfortable than he liked. Kilburn DefenseTech was a heavy hitter, and not just in the business of weapons manufacture. Whoever was behind the trigger for Markham to take the course of action he had could easily have the means—legitimate,00000 or more likely otherwise—to track down the address of Taylor’s PO box in town, if all the factors required came together. If that happened, trouble could land on their doorstep, putting the safety of everyone at Honey Fields at risk.

And that, he could not allow.

Charity kissed his temple. “What’s wrong now?”