Chapter One
Sean Taggart watched the quiet one. Of the three men sitting across from his team in the cool, ultra-modern conference room, the dark-haired man who hadn’t spoken once snared his attention. He was perfectly silent, listening in what appeared to be a submissive fashion. That was only right and proper since he was supposed to be a lowly assistant. Except that he was a lowly assistant wearing thousand dollar shoes. Sean had been in the covert business long enough to know that the little details usually gave a person away.
“The bastard has hit three of my facilities in the last year.” Peter Lincoln, the head of a lumber consortium, slapped at the heavy wooden table.
Sean hid a small smile as he risked a glance at his brother. Ian’s right eyebrow was practically in outer space.
Anyone who knew Ian Taggart would have backed off, but the CEO just kept on. His fist came down on the table again. “That son of a bitch isn’t costing me another dime, I tell you.”
Oh, but he would if Lincoln hired McKay/Taggart Security Services. That bastard, as Lincoln called him, would be costing his lumber company far more than a dime. Sean looked briefly at the men and woman who formed the core of the very selective security team. Ian sat at the head of the table, with his partner Alexander McKay at the other end. McKay looked vaguely amused at Ian’s annoyance. Liam O’Donnell sat to Sean’s left. O’Donnell’s eyes were red. He’d almost certainly been on another bender. They happened more and more often. It wouldn’t affect his work, and that was all that mattered. Eve St. James, resident tough chick, took a long drag off her ever-present latte and drummed her perfect fingernails on the table. Only Jake and Adam had been permitted to miss this little mess of a meeting.
“Perhaps you would like to explain exactly what you need, Mr. Lincoln.” Ian’s voice sent a wash of icy disdain across the room. Big brother was not in a good mood. Sean saw that his brother was also looking at the tall man in the expensive suit. The man was pretending to stare at his notes, his eyes surreptitiously glancing around the room, taking in everything. Sean exchanged a glance with Liam. The Irishman rolled his eyes and shook his head. Sean knew just what he was thinking. Government bureaucrats couldn’t do undercover to save their lives.
Lincoln waved a hand at the second man he’d brought with him. It was the arrogant command of a boss to his lackey. The lackey smiled good-naturedly and passed out folders. “Hello, everyone, I’m Gene, Mr. Lincoln’s personal assistant. I have dossiers on both of the Wright brothers. Matthew is the younger of the two. He’s the one we’re asking you to investigate, though obviously we’re trying to get to Patrick.”
“And Patrick Wright is a member of the Earth League.” Ian’s statement was made without a hint of question behind it.
Gene responded with an apologetic shrug. “My research isn’t perfect. That’s why we felt it was important to bring your firm in. As far as I can tell, Patrick Wright is the head of the Earth League. The group sprang up about ten years ago. They started out benignly enough, protesting pharmaceutical companies, lumber companies, big real estate developments, and SUV manufacturers. Then Patrick Wright joined up and took over. You have to understand, this guy changes names and identities as often as the rest of us change underwear. The police have questioned his followers, and the name of the group’s leader always changes. He’s probably had plastic surgery as well.”
Lincoln’s voice filled the room. “That son of a bitch! Fucking monkeywrenching cost me five million in the last three years alone, and now he’s threatening to bomb my goddamn house.”
The businessman continued to rant. Sean could see Ian‘s patience was wearing thin. It would be nice to see big bro toss this asshole out on his rear. The last thing Sean wanted to do was sit outside this jerk’s house trying to catch some “Save the Earth” whackadoodle. He had better things to do with his time, like perfecting his gnocchi recipe. It was almost there. It just needed a little more oomph to put it over the top. Sean forced himself to focus on the job at hand rather than his hobby. Despite the fact that he couldn’t stand executive types, they did pay well. And he was curious about the government man sitting so still across from him.
He turned to Liam. “Monkeywrenching?”
Liam spoke softly, but Sean could hear him even over the moans and complaints of Lincoln. “It’s a term for the way ecoterrorists mess with big business. They spike trees marked for cross cutting. It destroys very expensive saw blades. Often they destroy machinery. And sometimes they flat out torch places. E.L. is known for getting into places the timber industry thinks are secure and lighting it up. They’re branching out a bit though. Other types of businesses are getting hit.”
Sean nodded at Liam and settled back in his chair to glance through the myriad of photos Gene had collected. There was an old photo of Patrick Wright. He was a large guy in a band uniform. Sean chuckled to himself. If they were using his high school yearbook photo, this Wright guy was damn good at keeping off the radar.
There were several pictures of Matt Wright. He was thirty-nine, a well-dressed businessman. He was blandly good looking, in an all-American-apple-pie fashion. The photos were obviously taken when the subject didn’t know he was being photographed. PI, Sean figured. His hand stopped on one of the pictures. It was Matt Wright walking out of his office building. A woman walked behind him, her head down. She looked a bit plump, soft. Of course, Sean couldn’t tell for certain, given the bulky clothes she wore. Everything she wore was dark, from her slacks to the voluminous sweater that hid every curve. Her eyes were covered with sunglasses, and she carried a nondescript briefcase. The one bit of color on the woman’s body was the bright yellow of the stilettos peeking out from her sensible trousers.
Fuck me shoes. Damn. Any woman who wore those shoes had a streak of the unexpected. He wondered what her underwear looked like. Something delicate and lovely?
Suddenly interested in the case, Sean sat up, flipping through the file looking for any pertinent information. It was well put together, filled with carefully thought out analysis. It almost certainly hadn’t come from that prick Lincoln. “Matt Wright runs a temp agency?”
Lincoln was guzzling down coffee. It gave Gene a chance to respond. “Yes, one of the largest in Texas. His base is in Fort Worth, but his people work all over the state, as well as Louisiana and Arkansas. A couple of years back, he started brokering deals with temp agencies in India for information technology services. He’s branched out to include everything from temporary white collar workers to janitorial services. He’s been very successful.”