Monday, October 17, 2016
T
rey's Security Base
9:15 pm....
"What's up mate?" Jason greeted, shaking Trey's hand and placing his hands on his hips right after.
"Nothing much," Trey responded, lifting a hand to signal Billy over to them. Then he faced Jason. "Apparently, they're still moving. So we will have to wait and see. But Billy is saying there are glitches in the network so who knows," he ended with a shrug.
"He's smart," Jason said, "and I doubt he'll make it easy for you to catch him again this time. He'll probably account for the likelihood of Alexandra being tracked but I'm told they painted quite a clueless scene."
"Still..." Trey trailed off, pulling Jason along so they could catch up with Billy. When they did, he said, "Let's go to your office and talk."
"Of course."
Once inside, with the door closed, they each settled in seats and Trey continued with what he had been about to say. "I don't want to sound paranoid, but it's strange how he texted her after I had left the house. It's like he knew I wasn't available, and took advantage of that because Lexi would jump at any opportunity to see the kids."
"I know," Billy murmured, nodding. "I think I still suspect her as an insider."
Having been informed of their suspicions, Jason understood immediately who they were referring to. "But she has been working here for years and views Trey as something of a son. I highly doubt she would go against him just like that."
"Well, I doubt it too," Billy said, smiling a little. "But we don't think it's actually her."
"You think someone else is impersonating her?" Jason asked.
Instead of giving him a direct answer, Trey replied, "Think about it. The Maya we know is not afraid to scold us when we mistakenly bring our dirty shoes in; she sometimes throws a mop at us to undo our damage.
"This one smiles and shows so much teeth that it's creepy, and waves it off as okay. When it first happened, I wondered if she had hit her head or was at her limit," Trey said.
"True," Jason agreed. "I think I can count a few times where instead of scolding me for carrying Sierra around like a caveman when we argue, she smiled cheerily and continued her work."
Trey smiled. "So you do realize it. Maya cares very deeply when it comes to us three and our families, and I remember the look of disappointment in her eyes when I had kicked Lexi out.
"When the call had come considering Lexi's whereabouts, she had been willing to risk her job. But the Maya that had been around when Lexi came to get the rest of the things refused to let her in. The Maya I know would have allowed her in, then chewed my ears off if I tried to make a fuss about it.
"Since the babies got missing, I haven't seen any sad reaction, nor did me shouting about Lexi being missing shake her in any way. The Maya I know would have cried and hounded me not to rest till I found them."
He paused for a breath. "She also doesn't know how to address me. When Maya wants to be professional, she calls me sir or Mr. Robinson—never 'boss' like this one does. I don't think we're dealing with the real Maya in this house, and maybe that's how he has known some of our moves in advance."
"And also probably how he got cameras in here," Billy chimed in. "She has access to all areas of the house, doesn't she?"
"She does," Trey answered, "but even she doesn't know about the base."
"I see," Jason murmured, rubbing his chin as he sat, thinking. But he got distracted by the light beard scattered there, thinking about how much his wife loved the light scruff.
The door was opened from the other side, and they all turned their attention to it because no one who worked there was allowed to come in without knocking. But it turned out to be a confused looking Mitchell.
"Hey," Trey greeted, pushing a chair towards him. "How are you doing?"
"Good, good," he muttered absently as he closed and locked the door behind him.
Trey raised a brow at the action and shared a look with Jason and Billy. "Are you okay?" Jason asked, watching as Mitch dropped into the seat.
"Is it just me or Maya is behaving weirdly?" Then he looked at Trey. "Is she alright?"
The guys smiled at each other. "We were just talking about that, and I guess we haven't told you, but we suspect she's an insider. An outsider posing as Maya to find and give out information."
"That would make a lot of sense." Mitch bent over, placing his elbows on his knees. "She claimed I hadn't introduced Samantha to her when I have and she didn't look happy about me being here." He looked at Trey. "How long since you noticed?"
"It only occurred to me some time ago when it struck me severely how wrong she was addressing me compared to the usual," Trey said, sitting up in his seat.
"It's bad Trey," Mitch said. "If she finds out of this fake documentation you're going for to fool Ethan, or that we know Lexi's whereabouts, everything can go downhill from there." Then he stood to pace the small space he had. "By the way," he asked looking at Jason, "how is the transfer going?"
"Trey already signed the necessary documents so we gave them up to tomorrow evening max to finish it. It's a lot of work so we gave them an incentive to speed it up," Jason replied. "We don't want to keep too long."
"Good. On my side, there's one more thing to look into and I'll let you know everything by tomorrow morning." He looked at Trey. "Is that okay?"
"Sure. I would rather know everything than have some without the rest."
"Nice." He opened the door again to leave. "I'll see you tomorrow morning then. Take care of Sam and Wren for me?"
"Of course," they all replied, rising to leave as well.
Trey's heart was beating fast and he doubted he would get any sleep. "Billy, leave the tracking to me while you and Jason take care of the posted men. I want to keep busy since I'm worried—it's been eight hours and they're still moving."
"Sure," he replied, patting Trey's shoulder once as he walked out with Jason.
*
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
7:26 am...
"So, what did you find?" Trey asked. They four had once again settled in Billy's office to hear of Mitchell's findings.
"I don't know how it's connected," Mitchell began, making Trey frown. "The only way your father is connected to your wife is through her mother." Trey's frown deepened just as Billy and Jason wore expressions of confusion.
Mitch gave them a small smile. "Her mother, Christine Butcher, was your dad's high school sweetheart."
Jason's eyes were bulging out of his head. "Old Andy is capable of feelings?"
Trey sent him a nasty glare that shut him up, then he signaled Mitch to go on. "Your father loved her a lot, I gather. And though they were on and off a few times because of how toxic the relationship was, it broke him when she decided she couldn't do it anymore.
"That is when she met Alexandra's father, a well established man of gentle temperament—Dexter Greene." He took a breath then continued, "Andrew was hurt and angry, of course, but it didn't compare to what he had felt when he found that during one of their breaks, his very own best friend, Thomas Wheeler, had tried to snatch her from under his nose.
"Christine had ended up getting pregnant for Wheeler, but when she realized she didn't want him or any part of him, she aborted the baby. Andrew had beaten Wheeler so badly that he had landed in police custody for a month, and when he got out, he sought to speak to Christine.
"Apparently, he saw her go out of a restaurant once with her new fiancé and had yelled that he would never forgive her for treating him like the bad one when she had cheated, and that he would make her pay for it.
"Christine got protection from Greene, of course, until they both died from your ex's plot. But Andrew had still been unable to make her pay until then." Mitch looked up from his findings.
"I'm not a hundred percent sure what's happening in this case, but there have been instances where people make the children pay for the 'sins' of their parents, and this could be something of that sort. You did say he has never really liked her."
"He hasn't," Trey confirmed, "but he has always kept his distance. Somehow, I don't feel he is responsible. And even if he is, I doubt this would be his motivation." Trey tilted his head back, closing his eyes.
"Since he began setting up his banking business, he has carefully extinguished any emotion, making sure none could influence his decisions—that is how he raised me. So if he did nothing to Christine all these years, I highly doubt he would to someone who had nothing to do with it. You get me?"
When they responded with 'yes' and 'true', he straightened and opened his eyes, looking at them. "You mentioned Mr. Wheeler was my father's best friend but Andrew cut him off after what he did." When Mitch nodded, he continued, "They talk now, and I could call them friends. How is that?"
Mitch pursed his lips. "I had wanted to leave this out but I guess not." He paused. "Who was your first big investor?"
"Wheeler," Trey answered without missing a beat, "which now strikes me as absurd, because he is almost always against anything I want to do and was influencing the other board members to do the same."
"Well, when you were starting your company, your father had kicked you out — Melissa deciding to leave with you. He knew that if he had tried investing in it, you wouldn't accept it. So he asked his ex best friend who had been begging for his forgiveness to invest in your company in exchange for another chance at friendship with him."
Trey sat still for a long time, processing that piece of information. "What?" he asked in a whisper.
"I was equally as surprised to find out," Mitch admitted, "because I was so sure your father hated you for always reminding him of past mistakes with your mother, Ashley." He sighed when Trey said nothing, then continued.
"With this bit of information, I think it's clear that though he might not look like it, he does care, which is why I highly doubt he has a hand in this. He surely wouldn't do something he knows will hurt you this much."
Trey still didn't speak so Mitch said, "We would still keep an eye on him though, as a suspect, in case our theory is wrong and he truly is behind it."
Trey rubbed a hand over his face, as though still in shock. But before he could speak, the phone in Billy's office rang. "Give me a minute," he said before answering, "William Armstrong speaking."
The voice that spoke surprised him to the core, because he hadn't expected they would hear from him anytime soon. "Great. This is Leander Matthews speaking, and there's something you need to know. Get your boss on the line as well as soon as possible. I don't have much time."
Billy's eyes went wide while Trey's brow was lifted in question. Billy lifted a finger, asking him to hold on so he could reply to Leander. "Mr. Robinson is here. Give me a second and I'll put you on speaker."
"Sure."
Billy did and pushed the phone somewhere between them. "We are listening—Mr. Robinson, Mr. Adams, Mr. Turner and myself."
"Who is this?" Trey asked, looking at Billy.
"It's Leander," came the quick response. Trey shared a look with the other three, but when he said nothing else, Leander spoke up. "I've managed after two days of pleading to be allowed a phone call."
"We're listening," Trey said, leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees.
"This is coming from Valerie, and I saw it myself. She merely asked me to tell you because you might not believe her."
Trey locked eyes with Billy for a second before shifting it to the phone. "What is it that she wants you to tell me?"
There was a short pause, then he spoke. "The housekeeper in your house currently isn't the real one."
Trey shared another look with the others, because as it turned out, they had come to the right conclusion the day before concerning 'Maya'. All he said in response though was, "I see."
"Yes. And Donovan isn't the one behind it all. Someone has been pushing those two from behind to get them to do his wish. Didn't you find it odd that after years of letting you be, they suddenly made it their aim to turn your world upside down almost at the same time?"
"Well," Trey muttered, "now that I think about it, yes, it was strange and sudden. But Nicolysse had done enough damage already before getting direct."
"That's true. She didn't get direct at first because she knew how taken you were with your wife and that you'd have her back no matter what," Leander explained. "But she has an incentive now—an assurance that this time, you will be all hers in the end."
"I see," Trey replied again, running a hand through his hair.
He paused. "Listen. Your wife is not safe, and once she gets to Ethan, she might survive as long as it takes to lure you and your money in."
Trey sat up. "Might survive?"
"Yes. His main motive for coming back isn't love. He may act obsessed with her but what he's really obsessed with is causing her pain and he's the kind that won't hesitate to hit a girl who pisses him off. Your stepmother admits to having known the full extent of Ethan's anger."
Trey stood to pace, cussing repeatedly under his breath. "She was already contacted, and she's already gone."
"Then get her back as soon as possible," he said. "Unless she isn't going to be her usual self that is disgusted by him, she won't come back to you the same. He's going to break her to the point where she sees all men as the enemy, you included. And I don't know how far he might go, but if he can kill without conscience, she's just not safe."
Trey felt like he would go crazy as he ran his hands through his hair repeatedly, then he turned on Billy who looked angry at himself for letting Lexi go. Without a word to him, Trey turned to Jason, asking, "Is it ready Jace?"
Jason shook his head sadly, replying, "Not until this evening."
"That's good enough. We'll go then. Have them fax it to me." He nodded, and Trey walked to the desk where the phone was, placing both palms flat on its surface. "Matthews, did she say anything regarding the one behind this?"
"All she knows is that he drives an expensive looking car she hasn't seen before—I tried getting her to describe but she doesn't fancy cars so she paid no attention," Leander responded.
Trey cursed under his breath again. "And she doesn't know who it is either?"
"No. The voice was unrecognizable and the person wouldn't let her see him. But Ethan had let it slip that it was because he is related to both of you in some way. Donovan is the only one who knows the real person."
"This keeps getting messier and messier," Trey growled. He was also wondering if this information incriminated Andrew more. He was the only one who owned a one of a kind car in all of Britain—the J19.
Additionally, relationship wise, he was Trey's father and Alexandra's father in law. Trey's irrational side urged him to take up a fight with his father, but the rational side said to wait and bide his time.
He was going for Lexi and the babies though. Before he could ask any more questions, a faint voice said on the other side, 'Your time is up.' So Trey swallowed his questions and thanked Leander for the information, before hanging up.
"I have an idea, and it might involve a little bit of interrogation." Then he straightened. "Who's up to come with?"