“Sounds in line with what Elisa told us about her ex.” Rojas considered his own words. Elisa hadn’t done or said anything yet to deserve having her word questioned.
“Yeah well, you didn’t exactly make great friends with those two officers. I’d be more worried about them than the PI. For the PI it wasn’t anything personal. He took his contract money and went on his way. He was local staffing and has plenty of business chasing adulterous spouses.” Cruz sounded disgusted. “The officers, though, we’ve got positive ID on them based on the security feed from Revolution MMA. They’re out of Richmond, Virginia, and were off-duty on vacation when they happened to stop by.”
“Long way out of their way for a visit.” Rojas didn’t like the sound of it.
“Yeah, Ky didn’t like it, either. He’s going to take it internal.” Cruz didn’t sound sad about it.
“As long as they don’t come back, I’m okay with that.” Rojas had plenty to worry about as it was. “What else is on your mind?”
Because Cruz hated talking on the phone as much as he did and his friend was lingering.
“This is a shit-ton of effort and resources to track down one woman.” Cruz let the air out of his lungs in a whoosh. “This is beyond early stalker behavior. He doesn’t just want to keep tabs on her. It’s escalating in an insanely short period of time and all signs point to him wanting to have her back in his hands ASAP.”
A cold knot started to gather in Rojas’s stomach. “Is there more information?”
“I did some digging and called in a favor or two. This guy is a textbook narcissist. I’d bet megalomania isn’t far off the mark, either. He doesn’t care about anyone but himself and it shows in his business.” Cruz’s voice turned grim. “Corbin Systems contracts services to several private military organizations. Everything on the record is too clean to believe.”
Meaning there had to be shady shit going on behind the scenes, just as Elisa had told them. Rojas didn’t like where this was going.
Cruz continued, “The CIO himself has been on a couple of discreet news releases as heading up a massive two-year project on some new weapons system design and integration. So there’s Elisa’s story confirmed. But here’s the catch. Phase one of the project just completed, and he is on the brink of closing a huge deal for phase two. It’s enough to take up the time of five heavy-hitting project managers. Why is this guy splitting his focus between the project and Elisa?”
A good question. “She’s an obsession.”
He could sort of relate to that. He’d thought of little besides Elisa since the night he’d met her, Boom being the number one exception.
“True. But why not be satisfied with knowing exactly where she is and what she’s doing? Why not be satisfied with occasionally messing up her head with the texts? Why escalate right now when focus is needed on this huge business deal?” Cruz’s questions all hit hard.
“He needs her. In person.”
“Didn’t Elisa say he took her everywhere with him? And she’s his biometric key, right?”
“Yes.” Rojas barely choked out the affirmative.
“This guy has high security at almost all of his facilities. The research and development plants all require fingerprint and retinal scan.” Cruz picked up momentum. “If you wanted to breach any of those security systems, who is the first person you’d grab?”
“Him.” Easy choice. The man probably had access to everything.
“Uh-uh.” Cruz was starting to sound very worried. “He hasn’t taken a tour of the facilities in six months or more. It’s mentioned in the a few speculative articles regarding the upcoming deal.”
Six months. Because Joseph Corbin Junior couldn’t access his own facilities. Elisa wasn’t with him. It was her fingerprint and retinal scan that were required.
“No.” Rojas shook his head, searching for holes in the theory. “They’re his companies. He could have the systems re-keyed. There’s always a password reset, even for biometrics.”
“For access to the facilities, yes.” Cruz shot back, ready for the challenge. “But he’s been able to keep tabs on her all this time. He knew where to find his key when he really needed it. But what if his pride and his obsession push him to go get his property, especially with phase two of his particular pet project about to be finalized?”
“Shit.” Cold spread through Rojas’s chest and out toward his limbs. “And this time it’s different. He’s losing control of her. He doesn’t know where she is all the time.”
“He’s on a time crunch now,” Cruz finished.
Her friend had walked in and pushed a button for him. And he’d completely gone ballistic. But it was too damned convenient for the woman to have found them away from Hope’s Crossing Kennels, in a restaurant in a completely different town.
He turned on his heel and started back, cursing himself as he went. Souze kept with him watchful in response to the sudden urgency. “Get a hold of Ky. I think there’s a problem. Tell him to head to New Hope.”