that played to his strengths and thought that would keep him busy enough to stay out of trouble. The last thing he’d expected was for any of the shit with the Tampa Mafia to escalate out of control and hit the firm, where anyone here could find out about it.
Even then, he thought he’d had a lid on it until Dane Hollister had stumbled over it and he’d nearly had a stroke. Thank god at least Hollister had come to Peter about it first. He’d denied the whole thing, then chewed Owen’s ass to shreds.
But what a fucking mess. Hollister had backed off a little, but Peter knew he wasn’t through digging into it. Then Owen had decided to ‘fix’ it his own way and made a bigger mess.
Kendrick took another swallow of his drink.
“So now we have the sister-in-law who, like some avenging angel, is hell-bent on finding the driver. It’s a good thing I’ve been keeping tabs on her. I managed to make sure the traffic cops are out of the way and she couldn’t hire anyone to help her. But now she’s found these people I never heard of and no one I reach out to knows about them, either. I can’t find out shit. Whoever they are and whatever they do, they keep a very low profile and that makes me very nervous. We have to fix this, Warren.”
Sulzberger snorted. “What do you expect me to do? Get rid of the sister? You don’t think that would make even more noise? I know I’m stating the obvious here, but your son made a fucking big mess. If I fix this, how are you going to control him going forward?”
Kendrick ground his teeth. Sulzberger was right, only it had never entered his mind that Owen would think murder was the answer.
“He’s my problem and I’m handling it. I am more concerned right now with the people Peyton West managed to hire. I haven’t been able to find a single thing about them except their name. Not even a phone number. Nothing. It’s making me nervous.” Kendrick drained his glass and rose to refill it at the bar against the wall. “You have the kind of connections that can get that information. I want to know everything there is, right down to how they brush their teeth. Then I want to know how to neutralize them.”
“Neutralize them?” Sulzberger snorted. “You don’t want much, do you? Why don’t you do it yourself? You’ve got people who can check them out.”
“I’ve already tried and hit a wall. Listen, you’re the sneakiest bastard I know. You have much better resources for that than I do. Plus, you have people who can do it without leaving a trail or getting their attention. I want to know what the fuck kind of people don’t have an office and fly around in a plane that costs millions of dollars?”
Sulzberger was silent for a long time before he spoke again.
“What happens when you get your information?”
“I’ll use it appropriately.” Kendrick knocked backed a healthy swallow of the bourbon.
“Peter, if you make a bigger mess out of this, we’ll both be in trouble.” Sulzberger rubbed his jaw. “You can’t kill off everyone who knows what a wild card your son is.”
“No, but I can steer them in another direction. Or throw up misdirection, if I just know exactly who they are and how they operate. We’re meeting with the team next week to start implementing the program we created.”
Sulzberger’s laugh had a sarcastic tone to it.
“You weren’t able to keep Owen from getting in trouble over his head and trying to kill his way out of it, and you want him to become governor?”
“He’ll be fine.” Kendrick wanted to grit his teeth. “I just have to get him elected to the office. Then I’ll be pulling all the strings and managing the work.”
“And you’re sure this is going to work?”
“I’m betting heavily on it. First the governor’s office, then the Senate, then, if it all shakes out, the White House.” His smile had a touch of evil to it. “And a chance for you to finally get your revenge, if you help me with this.”
Sulzberger was quiet for a long time.
“If someone besides the sister decides to start pushing,” he said at last, “we may have trouble with the police report of the accident.”
Kendrick scowled. “What kind of trouble? They entered it in the computer, right? And put in what we told them to?”
“Yes, but it’s