Hard to Handle (16 page)

“Listen to me!” she finally yelled. “It is my fault. I did this.”

Sam was the only one who considered that her words were literal. He stepped closer and leaned in.

“What exactly are you trying to say, Kaylee?” he demanded in a voice that sent chills down her spine.

“I'm saying that I set this whole thing up. These people came after me because I wanted them to.”

CHAPTER 16

“I think you better start from the beginning, Mikayla,” Evan suggested. “And don't leave anything out.”

Kaylee swallowed, and dropped down on the couch, feeling overwhelmed by a mix of conflicting emotions. She was scared and regretful about what had happened that evening, but also certain that it had been necessary. Junior sat beside her and took her hand, silently offering his unconditional support.

“It started in Baltimore, when I was writing for the
Journal
,” she began. “I was assigned to municipal politics and wanted to do a story on budget overspend. I had a lead from a friend that there were a couple of vendors that were always exceeding the costs they had originally quoted the city. So, I started looking in to how that was possible, maybe to expose flaws in the process or general mismanagement.

“I didn't find anything. No one in the mayor's office seemed to know or care about it, but my editor found out what I was doing and reassigned me to another page.”

“Jason Holt,” Sam said, his eyes squinting as he made the connection.

“Yeah. He was pissed because I had gone behind his back to follow my lead. Then someone from the city complained that I was harassing them. Which I wasn't, of course.”

“Wasn't Holt the guy George hired you guys to investigate a few years ago?” Evan asked Sam.

“Yeah, it was our first case for Clement Media, and it was a pretty easy one. Holt had been taking bribes in exchange for press coverage,” confirmed Sam.

“Wait,” Kaylee interrupted, looking up at Sam with obvious surprise. “You were involved in that?”

Sam only nodded, avoiding her eyes. She didn't need him to spell out that it was the reason he had been at the
Baltimore Journal
that fateful afternoon over four years ago.

“I was pretty upset about being reassigned and accused of harassment, and wanted some advice from my dad,” she continued. “He told me not to worry about it, that writing for another column was not a big deal. So I went back to work and tried to put it behind me. But then I heard Jason telling someone on the phone that he had ‘shut me down' and that he had done what had been asked.”

“Was he talking to the person from the city that had complained to him?” Junior asked.

“Maybe, but it was the way the conversation happened. Jason was talking in the staircase, and seemed really agitated,” Kaylee explained. “It just looked really suspicious to me. So I tried to look at his phone, hoping to see who he had talked to.”

Sam and Evan looked at each other.

“What did you find?” Sam finally asked.

“I didn't have time to go through the phone calls, and I didn't want to touch it in case it was locked or something and Jason would know I was snooping. But he did receive a text message, so I took a picture of the message with my phone. It said, ‘The package is on its way.' Then I got scared about the whole thing and rushed out of the office.”

“That was the day you tripped in the alley,” Sam concluded.

Kaylee nodded, avoiding his eyes.

“My dad told me later that evening that Jason had been fired. Then, a couple of days later, Dad announced his retirement as CEO. I left the paper and started working with my mom.”

“So, how did we get from then to now, Mikayla? What does Holt have to do with any of this?” asked Sam, folding his arms across his chest.

“A couple of years later, I was cleaning up my computer and found the picture I had taken of Jason's phone. I had looked at it a bunch of times before, but what I hadn't noticed was that his phone hadn't been locked after all, and his email inbox had been captured in the background. The text message had come in while the email application was open. The list of emails was blurry, but I could see the sender names. One was from Nate Battleford.”

“Battleford? Doesn't he work for Groveland Development?” Junior asked. “They do a lot of major infrastructure projects for Maryland and D.C.”

“Yes, exactly. And they also do building projects for the city of Baltimore. At least they used to.”

“I know the owner, Anthony Fleming, and I've met Nate Battleford. But what's the significance, Mikayla?” Evan asked. “What does this have to do with what's going on now?”

“It's about the government contracts,” she explained. “My friend who told me about the budget overspend said the contracts were for building projects. At the time, I was more focused on city officials and the audit process. I wasn't thinking about the building companies. Until I saw Jason's emails. Why would the head of a building company be emailing my editor just days after I was at city hall trying to understand how city contractors billed the city? The same day that he tells someone that he shut me down?”

“You think Nate Battleford was the one who bribed Holt,” Evan concluded.

“I know he did,” she confirmed.

“It's likely,” Sam added. “We weren't able to determine who it was at the time, so Battleford is as good a suspect as anyone. But that's hardly surprising or unusual. Corruption in government contracting is pretty common practice in big cities.”

“Believe me, I know that, Sam,” she replied with a trace of bitterness. “I know it's tolerated and ignored as long as everyone benefits. But, at the time, I was thinking it would still make a good story.”

“I don't understand,” Junior said. “What story? You aren't a journalist anymore.”

“I know, but I wanted to be,” she explained to her brother. “I was working for Mom, and liked doing charitable work. But I missed writing, and I wanted to go back to it. So, at the time, when I found this connection between Groveland Development and Jason, it felt like an inside scoop had fallen in my lap. I decided to reach out to Jason and see if he'd be willing to tell me what he knew, as an anonymous source.”

“What did Holt tell you?” Sam asked.

“Nothing. Jason's dead. His car blew up about two months after he was fired from the
Journal
.”

There was silence as the group looked around at each other.

“I assume that didn't stop you from digging into it more,” Sam said sarcastically.

“I didn't know what to do. Two years ago, Groveland was all over the news. They were working on several high-profile projects in D.C., and Anthony Fleming was well known within our family social circles,” Kaylee explained with a sigh. “So I asked my dad about Groveland, and he freaked out.”

Evan straightened up. “What do you mean, freaked out?”

“He told me I didn't know what I was talking about and I should never bring it up again. When I said I had evidence that Anthony had had one of his men bribe Jason, he started yelling, forbidding me to look into it further,” she explained, trying not to remember the anger and fear in her father's eyes. “He was drinking at the time, so I thought he wasn't really thinking straight. But after that, he started keeping tabs on me, constantly grilling me about what I was doing and where I was going. And his drinking got worse and worse. It took me a little bit of time, but I finally understood.”

“Fleming had forced your dad to retire from Clement Media,” Evan filled in.

“Jesus!” swore Junior.

Sam sighed, and the two friends exchanged a look.

“You knew?” Kaylee accused Evan with surprise and disappointment.

“No,” he denied. “But I knew your dad was hiding something at the time. He didn't want Fortis to continue the investigation into who had bribed Holt. That wasn't like him at all, and when I tried to discuss it, he made me promise not to look into it further.”

She sighed and looked at her brother. He was looking at the ground and he was angry.

“Why didn't you tell me all this, Kayla?” he finally demanded, standing to face her. “The whole time that we've watched Dad decline into a drunken mess, you knew the reason and you said nothing. Mom and I have struggled to deal with it, to figure out what was going on, why he turned his back on us and turned into someone none of us could stand to be around. And you knew the reason.”

“Junior, I tried,” she insisted.

“You didn't try!” he yelled back, leaning into Kaylee aggressively. “You didn't tell me or Mom. You just packed up and left. You moved to New York to work for your boyfriend and didn't look back.”

“Junior,” Evan interrupted, grabbing the younger man by the arm and pulling him back.

“He got so much worse after you left, Mikayla. And you didn't give a shit!” Junior finished.

“You know that's not true,” Kaylee yelled back.

“Okay, let's calm down,” Sam added, stepping between the siblings. “This isn't getting us anywhere.”

Junior pulled his arm out of Evan's grip and walked a few steps away, clearly trying to control his anger.

“So, then what, Mikayla?” Evan encouraged her. “You think Fleming forced your dad to retire. What happened next?”

“It was more than his retirement, Evan. I think they threatened his family in order to keep him quiet,” she said. “It's the only thing that explains his behavior, especially once I told him I have evidence on Anthony Fleming. And it's been eating him up.”

“Then why did you leave, Mikayla?” Junior demanded, stepping to her again. “How could that possibly have helped the situation?”

“I had to, Junior,” she snapped back. “Don't you get it? Nobody cares about how Groveland makes their money, or that politicians and city officials line their pockets with every contract they award. That people, good people like Dad, are forced to aid their corruption. It's just business as usual, nobody gets hurt.”

She took a deep breath, trying to stay calm and factual.

“There's no story unless the public cares, and no one will care unless they see tangible damage.”

Sam had been watching and listening to Kaylee's story with mounting frustration. Deep down, he had known the truth almost from the beginning, but hadn't wanted to acknowledge it. It was too crazy. But all the pieces finally fit together.

“Jesus Christ, Kaylee,” Sam exclaimed, raking a hand through his hair. “You were the bait. Are you frigging mad, lass?”

“What does that mean?” Junior demanded, obviously too angry to see what was soon to be obvious.

Sam looked at her, teeth clenched against the urge to tell the rest of the story himself.

“I spent months looking into Groveland and how they did business, how they'd managed to become a monopoly for building projects in Baltimore,” she explained, avoiding Sam's eyes. “It was so simple. They would undercut anyone who dared to bid against them, and then, after they won the bid, they just overcharged. Materials were more expensive, the project took longer. It had been going on for years.

“And it wasn't only in Baltimore. They were doing the same thing in several other cities across the Northeast under a bunch of different front companies,” she explained. “If anyone complained or investigated, they were shut up pretty quickly. If the city started any sort of official audit or investigation, Anthony Fleming would just dissolve that company and reopen business under another name.”

“You have proof of this,” Evan asked.

“A year ago, I had plenty of proof that Groveland had monopolies in several cities operating under different names,” Kaylee confirmed. “But that wasn't enough. Not to shut down Groveland and protect my family. I needed more than just aggressive business practices.”

“You needed proof of criminal coercions,” Sam said.

“Yes,” she agreed. “And since Jason was dead and my dad wasn't well, I needed more evidence.”

Junior finally stopped pacing and looked at his sister with something other than anger.

“That's why you started working for Terry?” he asked.

“Eventually. But only after I tried to find someone who was willing to come forward with real information. I couldn't use our family contacts without risk of exposure,” she explained. “Then I ran into Terry at one of the foundation events, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity. If I was working in the building industry, I could witness their illegal tactics firsthand.”

“You could be the witness,” Evan finally deduced.

Sam shoved his hands in his pockets to keep from grabbing Kaylee by the shoulders to shake some sense into her. When she had claimed that the events earlier were because of her, Kaylee had meant it literally.

“Holy shit, Mikayla,” Junior mumbled. “Does Terry know this? That you're using his company to investigate Anthony Fleming?”

“Terry knows some of it, but not all. And it's not his company, it's mine,” she said. “I used my trust fund for the start-up and bought the right to use the Antonoli name in North America. But I couldn't present myself as the owner of a new building company; it would draw too much attention, even if I used the name Kaylee Stone. I couldn't risk that someone would realize I was the daughter of George Clement.”

“But no one would pay attention to an executive assistant,” Sam finished.

“Unless they needed leverage,” Kaylee whispered.

“I can't believe this,” whispered Junior. “This is what you set out to do? To make yourself a victim for men who use threats and force to get what they want? This is crazy, Mikayla!”

“Don't you see, Junior? It was the only way. Our family has been completely destroyed! Dad is slowly killing himself because of what these people have done. They need to be stopped, and I had the means to do it.”

“Mikayla, your brother is right. This is insane,” Evan added.