No floor existed below the bottom mechanical floor.
However, they hadn’t ruled out that such a floor had existed and had been filled in. The concrete beneath the building’s foundation was suspect, and they were continuing their investigation.
I’d talk to my brother in a few minutes—and I wasn’t looking forward to telling him that Zee had found his wife’s business card on St. Andrew’s property—but first I had to see to Zee.
She stood rigid beside me.
She was frightened, for sure, but I had the feeling something else was bothering her as well. I decided not to press her, though. I couldn’t take the chance that she’d change her mind about talking to Hank Morgan.
I just hoped like hell Morgan didn’t freak her out. He was an asshole, to be sure, and bound and determined to pin this on one of us.
Zee was the one who could clear our names. Well, not technically, but she could make the case that there were a lot more people out there with motives to off Derek Wolfe. People other than disgruntled colleagues who he’d fucked over in business, although there were hundreds of them as well.
I grabbed Zee’s hand. It was cold as a winter day. “Hey,” I said. “It’s okay.”
She nodded, though I wasn’t convinced.
We walked through the reception area and down a long hallway to the small conference room where Morgan was doing the questioning. Moira Bancroft and Zach Hayes, two of our attorneys, sat across the table from Morgan.
I cleared my throat. “Zee, this is Moira Bancroft. She’ll be acting as your attorney during the questioning. And Zach Hayes, he’ll be acting as the attorney for Wolfe Enterprises.
Moira and Zach both rose.
“Nice to meet you.” Moira smiled. She was an older woman with silver hair and warm brown eyes. Very motherly, which was why we’d chosen her to represent Zee’s interests. She’d help put Zee at ease.
“Thank you,” Zee said.
“We’re glad you decided to talk to us today.” Zach held out a chair for Zee. “Moira and I are here to make sure you’re comfortable.”
Zee nodded and took the chair he offered. “Can’t Reid stay?”
I glared at Morgan. I’d had every intention of staying, but he wouldn’t hear of it, no matter how I balked. I’d be suing his ass later, but for now, I wanted Zee to tell her story, so I made sure she had an attorney like Moira who could make her feel comfortable.
“I’m afraid not,” Moira said, “but we’ll take good care of you.”
Detective Morgan stood then. “I’m Hank Morgan, NYPD.”
Zee simply nodded.
Morgan sat back down. “We’ll get right to it as soon as you go, Mr. Wolfe.”
My feet seemed to be glued to the carpet. I had some kind of alpha wolf instinct to protect my mate.
Zee wasn’t my mate, of course, but…
Damn. I had feelings for her that I didn’t want to have.
She deserved far better than me.
“Mr. Wolfe…” Morgan said again.
“Yeah. I’m going.” Asshole. I turned to Zee. “Moira and Zach will take good care of you, but if you need me, I’m only a text away.”
She nodded.
“I’m serious,” I said. “You just tell Moira you need to see me, and she’ll make it happen. Right, Moira?”
“Yes, of course, Mr. Wolfe.”
Zee nodded again. “I’m all right.”
“Okay.” I forced my feet to move from their glued spot. “Take it easy on her,” I said to Morgan. Then I left.
Rock was waiting for me outside the door. “We need to talk.”
“We do,” I concurred. However Rock wasn’t going to want to hear what I had to say.
“This hunting ground thing,” Rock said. “Lace and I think he must have gotten rid of it after Zee escaped.”
“Probably.”
“Which means he either stopped his little game, or—”
“He just started doing it somewhere else,” I finished for him.
“Right. That’s my bet.”
“Mine as well. Such a narcissist wouldn’t let the potential of being caught stop him. He’d continue his power-trip games. Just in a different place.”
“Has the report come in from the guys who searched St. Andrew’s? That’s my best bet for where it continued.”
“Mine too. That building is old and no doubt has crevices no one even knows about.”
“Definitely. And even if it doesn’t, Dad could have built a new playground.”
Rock shook his head. “Could he have? People are in and out of that church every day. I doubt he could have built anything. But it’s likely a place could already be there.”
“Maybe. When do you expect to hear from them?”
“Any time now.”
I cleared my throat. “Zee went to St. Andrew’s today.”
Rock’s eyebrows rose. “Why the hell would she do that?”
“I’m not quite clear on that one. Jim did her first communion, but then she said she used to talk to a pastor when she was a teen. Why go to St. Andrew’s when she knows what Father Jim did to her?”
Rock didn’t reply.
Fuck. Now or never. I pulled out my wallet and removed Lacey’s business card. I handed it to him.
Rock regarded it. “Lacey’s old card.”
“Yeah.”
“Why are you giving me this?”
“Zee found it,” I said. “In the rose garden behind St. Andrew’s.”
Rock’s face went pale. “Could mean nothing.”
“I know that. In fact, no one even needs to know I found it.”
“I’ll ask Lace about it. Care if I keep this?”
“Speak of the devil…” I said.
Lacey turned the corner and came toward us. “Good, there you are,” she said to Rock. “I need your signature on a few things. Charlie couldn’t find you and Jarrod and Carla didn’t know where you went off to. I figured you’d be down here keeping an eye on the detective.”
“We need to go to my office,” Rock said. “Now.”
“Sure, what’s up?” Lacey asked.
“Not here,” Rock said. “Reid, you come too.”
I followed my brother and his wife through the twists of the hallway to his corner office—the one that had been my father’s.
“You ever have this place checked for wires? Cameras?” Rock asked me.
“This was Dad’s office, so no, I didn’t.”
“Fuck. We’re going downstairs, then. Outside.”
I opened my mouth to respond, but Rock whisked past me, taking Lacey’s hand and dragging her along with him. I had no choice but to follow.
Ten minutes later, after a silent elevator ride and a brisk walk about a block away to an outdoor café where we got a table far away from any prying ears, I finally had the chance to speak.
“Dad wouldn’t be surveilling himself,” I said.
“Doesn’t mean he didn’t have equipment installed. I wouldn’t put it past the fucker to have it all ready and an order to turn it on if anything happened to him.”
I couldn’t fault my big brother’s logic. For someone who hadn’t been around for the last two decades, Rock seemed to know our father as well as or better than any of the rest of us.