rocks glasses and handed one to his son. He sipped his slowly as he gathered his thoughts. Ever since the night Owen had burst in with the devastating news, his life had been in turmoil. His practice was in more danger than if the Tampa Mafia connection had finished wreaking its vengeance on the firm and using Owen to do it. He’d gotten Sulzberger involved and now the SEALs the man had betrayed might pin a target on him. Not to mention, they were not the kind of people he could control.
He took another slow sip to help him force a calm he didn’t feel. When he spoke, he chose his words carefully, locking his anger away for the moment.
“Then you had to go and take stupid to a higher level. I’d have thought you were smart enough to know that murder only exacerbates a problem. Someone always has to pay for it. I’ll say again, killing Dane and almost killing his wife was the worst thing you could do.”
“Enough already,” Owen shouted, raking his fingers through his hair. “You don’t need to keep repeating yourself.”
“Apparently I do, since you still don’t want to listen to me.” Kendrick shook his head. “It has taken a lot of money and a lot of pressure to wipe any trace of you from that event. You’re not so dumb you aren’t aware of that. And now we have other problems, which is why I wanted you to drive up to see me. Peyton West has hired men who can’t be bought or influenced and who don’t give up. Ever. That’s why I wanted Diane to come with you.”
“I told you and told you. I want to leave Diane out of this.” He practically spat the words. “She has nothing to do with this. In fact, she begged to come with me, but I’m keeping her as far away as possible. That’s how it is.”
“No, that’s not an option.”
Kendrick was doing his best to hold on to his rapidly fraying temper. What the fuck was with this whole thing about keeping his wife out of it? One of the things he liked about Diane was her pedigree and her classy image. She came from wealth and blended easily into the parts of society that were so important, not just for Owen’s legal practice but for the forthcoming political campaign. She needed to be here, showing her support for her husband.
Owen glared at him. “I’m telling you—”
“Forget it.” Kendrick snapped the words. “The choice is no longer yours. I want her up here. Warren Sulzberger pulled every string he could to get this thing covered up. Do you have any idea how hard it was to bury the CCTV tapes? Neutralize witnesses? Have the cops bury it? Not to mention getting rid of your damned car. You think it wasn’t a big problem? I wanted you gone until we got the worst of the mess cleared up, but now you need to be here before people start asking questions. And the public needs to see your wife standing in solidarity with you in the current situation. Mourning the sad death of one of your colleagues.”
“If everything’s taken care of, why do you need her?”
“Damn it, Owen.” He wanted to smack his son. “Like I told you, the current situation has changed. We have trouble out there I wasn’t expecting or prepared for.”
Owen stared at him. “I’m asking you, what current situation? You just said you and Sulzberger managed to shut all the doors on Brianne Hollister’s sister. That’s what he was helping you with. Right?”
“Right. Until he ran into a problem of his own. Now we may be stuck because of it.”
“Stuck?” Fear flashed across Owen’s face. “What does that mean exactly?”
“Warren made sure none of the top firms would let her hire them to look into what happened. However, someone turned her on to a very special firm who took the case and are working to get her answers.”
“Damn it, Dad. How special? Why are they different?”
“These are not your average investigators. They’re all former Navy SEALs, the cream of the crop. If anyone can get her the answers she wants, it will be them.”
“But you told me there was nothing left for anyone to find,” Owen reminded his father.
“Under normal circumstances, yes, except these people aren’t normal. They don’t understand the meaning of the word ‘no’. Trust me. They know how to do this. They’ll dig and dig and dig until they get