Escaping Shadows, page 12
“Security!” Mrs. Greyson yelled. “Get this woman out of here right this instant.”
Kenzie threw a clump of whatever food she had on her at Mrs. Greyson and then made a run for it. She ran in the opposite direction Willa had walked off in and right past Sebastian, Greer, and Kord.
Security went running by and Kord casually moved his leg so the guard tripped over it. Hurt like the devil, but the guard when down, buying Kenzie enough time to hopefully leap into the limo.
“We had to hightail it out of here,” Ryker said into his comms. “I’ll get Kenzie, Willa, Porter, and Georgie onto the plane and be back to pick you all up.”
Kord held out his glass to Greer and Sebastian. They clinked glasses and took a long drink as they watched the chaos they’d created. Some people came to talk to Sebastian. But finally, they heard from Ryker. “I’m pulling in.”
“You know,” Kord said as things began to calm back down. “I thought Shadows Landing was interesting. I’m really beginning to wonder what Keeneston is like.”
Greer just grinned. “You did well up there, rookie, but I don’t know if you can handle Keeneston.”
“Why do you say that?” Kord asked. “I’ve handled pirate ghosts, treasure hunters, gangs after Nazi stolen art, and the knitting club. I think I can handle some small town in Kentucky.”
“Guys, security is walking to their car after eyeing me. I might be made,” Ryker said calmly.
Kord, Greer, and Sebastian walked around the corner and, as they passed the SUV belonging to security, Greer pulled a gun from under her skirt and shot it at the SUV. The gun didn’t sound as if it were firing a bullet. It sounded more like a paint gun, complete with a thwack sound when something hit the SUV. All of a sudden, the SUV began to melt. Kord stopped walking to stare right along with the security guards. It looked as if the SUV was nothing but paint being poured onto the ground.
“That’s why you can’t handle Keeneston,” Greer said as she grabbed his arm and nudged him to their limo.
“That is so freaking cool,” Kord whispered in awe as they drove away. “But, how is Georgie?”
“Kenzie is working on her. She’s hooking her up to an IV and taking blood samples. That should tell us what she’s on.”
“Has she woken up yet?” Kord asked as that tension wound tightly in his stomach. He wouldn’t feel better until she was awake and in his arms.
“Not yet,” Ryker said. “But we both know she wasn’t on drugs by her own volition.”
“I know,” Kord said with surety. “The question is, what does her family want from her that they can’t just take?”
16
Georgie felt very strange. It was as if she were floating above her body, flying through the air, while somehow weighing a ton and unable to move at the same time. Voices began to trickle through the darkness and she flinched. Something told her to be afraid.
However, a scent tickled at her nose. A familiar scent that her brain recognized as safe. She curled into the heat and the strength of that scent and felt a hand come up and rest on her head. She settled instantly. She was safe.
“Did anyone notice who was not at the party?” a woman’s voice that Georgie didn’t recognize asked. What party? Where was she? Who was speaking? “Heloise Blanchet Greyson. John Shaw’s wife.”
Georgie tensed. John Shaw. Something important happened with John Shaw. What was it?
“Does that matter?”
She knew that voice. Kord! Georgie struggled against the darkness. It felt as if her brain was struggling through molasses, but she had to get to him. She had to get to Kord. Her body was fighting to get to him. Her brain was slowly beginning to churn. Now if only she could open her eyes.
“Kenzie, I think something’s wrong with Georgie.” Kord’s voice was clearer this time. She felt his hands on her tighten as if something was wrong.
“She’s waking up.” It was her friend Kenzie. Was she in Shadows Landing? Because she had the strangest dream of being back at Martha’s Vineyard.
“Come on, Georgie,” she heard Kord say soothingly. “Wake up, sweetheart. You’re safe now.”
Now? Did that mean she hadn’t been? Then, like a hit to the head, bits and pieces of memories began to assault her. The dumpster at Harper’s. Her parent’s house. Her brother sitting on her bed. But the memories were fuzzy as if she could remember them but knew there were more just out of reach. What memories she had seemed like glitches in her brain.
“Georgie, come on, sweetheart. Open your eyes for me.”
Georgie battled her mind, the fog, the memories flashing here and there. She listened to Kord’s voice as he talked to her, telling her over and over again to just open her eyes. She tried. Goodness, how she tried to open them, but they felt as if they weighed a ton.
“There’s our girl,” Kenzie said as Georgie’s lids finally fluttered open. It was only for a split second, but it was enough to see Kord and Kenzie’s faces.
“Kord?” Georgie finally managed to say right before forcing her eyelids open again.
“I’m here, love.” Kord’s smiling face swam into view and then into focus. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Didn’t I just see you this morning?” Georgie asked before looking around. “Am I on a plane? Who are they?” Georgie didn’t recognize three of the people on the plane, but one looked really familiar. “I know you, right?”
“Willa Aldridge Davies. We’ve met at several society functions over the years.” Immediately Georgie shrank into Kord. No, she didn’t want back into that world. “Before I left that high society to be with my husband, Porter and live happily ever after in Keeneston.” Willa reached out and took her husband’s hand and smiled at him. It was clear they were madly in love.
Georgie relaxed a little at that. “We’re on Sebastian Abel’s plane,” Kord told her. “That’s Sebastian and his wife, Greer.”
“Georgie,” Ryker said from where he now had Kenzie sitting on the arm of his chair. “Porter and Greer are my cousins from Kentucky.”
Oh. Now she was beginning to remember. But why were they all here?
“Hello,” Greer said with a cheery smile. “It was a pleasure to rescue you from your parents’ house. I had a wonderful time and the food was delicious.”
“It wasn’t a dream, was it? I really was at my parents’ house on the Vineyard.” Georgie moved to sit up, but her head spun. She raised her arm to press her hand to her head and noticed the IV. “I think I was drugged.”
“I think so too,” Kenzie said. “I took a blood sample. We can run it when we get to Charleston. I also have you on a bag of fluids to try to flush whatever drugs they gave you from your system faster. Can you remember anything that happened?”
Georgie closed her eyes and leaned back into Kord’s chest. His arms came around her, holding her to him, and she felt herself finally relax fully. “I remember taking out the trash with Turtle. Then I remember waking up in my old bedroom. I went downstairs and something happened, but I can’t remember it all. Then I woke up and heard music. My brother was there and he got mad at me for something. That’s the last thing I remember.”
“I think we’re beginning to piece things together,” Porter said. He might be dressed in a tuxedo, but the tie was hanging loose and the top two buttons of his shirt were open. His jacket was off and he lounged back in the leather chair completely at ease in this incredibly bizarre situation Georgie found herself in. “I overheard your father talking to his lawyer. He was asking about a conservatorship for you since you refuse to go to rehab.”
Georgie closed her eyes. She felt her brow furrow as her brain slowly awakened. “If it wasn’t a dream, then at some point they kept trying to get me to sign something. I remember John Shaw getting mad at me for not signing some piece of paper.”
Georgie opened her eyes and saw Ryker and Sebastian nod silently at each other. They apparently understood it. “What is it?” Georgie asked them.
. This was beyond strange. Ryker and Sebastian Abel, both of them among the most powerful men in the world, were on this plane and helping her with family drama “We think,” Sebastian said as he steepled his fingers together, “that you have something they want and they need you to sign it over to them. When you didn’t do it, even when drugged, they were forced to look into having you declared legally unfit. It would then give them power to control all your assets.”
“But that doesn’t make sense. All I have is the trust fund that my grandfather started for me. John Shaw has one, too. But he also has ownership stakes in several companies through a holding company the family trust runs. I wasn’t allowed to do that. My job was to only look pretty and network.”
Willa frowned and shook her head. “I understand. My best friend, Tilly Bradford, experienced the same thing.” Willa paused and looked slightly uncomfortable. “I hate to ask you this, but do your parents have any legal standing to declare you unfit? I remember Sofia, and I remember you were friends with her. I’m so sorry to ask, but we need to know what you’re up against.”
Georgie looked around the plane. She hadn’t talked to anyone about this. How could she talk to a group in which half of them were strangers? “Why are you all here?” Georgie asked instead of answering.
“Ryker called me, looking for intel on your parents and why they were suddenly back in your life,” Willa answered. “Family helps family.”
“But I’m not family,” Georgie pointed out.
“You took a bullet for my wife. You’re family,” Ryker said in a way that let her know the discussion was over.
“I came along since I was a spy and am pretty good at this stuff,” Porter said as if it were no biggie.
Willa rolled her eyes. “You have got to stop saying that. You were a spy for like two weeks.”
“Fine, I’m here as her plus one.” Porter winked at Georgie and she smiled.
“We’re here because I used to be part of FBI Hostage Rescue,” Greer said with the same cheery smile she’d had when Georgie opened her eyes. “And Bash could get us three tickets. I work for the president now and was able to get fake documentation for Kord here to go as a fellow presidential advisor.”
“All the political advisors I knew were stuffy old lawyers,” Georgie said with a hint of suspicion.
Greer just smiled amiably in response. She looked so sweet, but there was something more behind that smile.
“Well, I don’t know how to thank you all enough. You all came to my rescue even though some of you don’t even know me.” Georgie paused. “Wait, how did I get out of the house?”
“We took a guard down and then Kord made a sling out of your quilt and lowered you out of the window to where Bash and Porter caught you,” Greer told her as if it were a fun night out.
“There is something I wanted to ask you,” Willa said. “We noticed your sister-in-law, Heloise, wasn’t at the party. Do you know why?”
Georgie closed her eyes and tried to remember. It gave her a headache, but a thought that had been just out of reach came into focus. “It’s not much, but I remember my brother saying something like Heloise was more loyal to her family than to him and a business deal. But, I feel as if my memory is very sketchy, so I could be wrong.”
“Business deal?” Willa said with a frown. “I thought all the business was done when John Shaw married Heloise.”
“I don’t know. I left just six months after they married. I know it was a big deal that John Shaw got a percentage of Belle Femme. In return, I think Heloise got a chunk of the pharmaceutical company and a small part of a real estate company the family owns. I know it was worth billions between them both and diversified both Heloise and John Shaw’s holdings.”
Sebastian looked down at his phone at the same time Ryker did. “We have news,” Ryker said.
Sebastian sent his phone to the speakers in the plane and Georgie heard a voice echo through the cabin. “Dude.”
“Did you find anything?” Ryker asked.
“Who is that?” Georgie whispered to Kord.
Kord shook his head and closed his eyes when the guy said dude again. “He’s the dude,” Kord answered.
“I looked into Mr. and Mrs. Greyson’s financials. I knew they were leaking money, but dude.”
Kord groaned and Georgie smiled before turning back to the dude. “My parents have massive trust funds. They shouldn’t be losing money.”
“Dude, dude, dude, look what I found.” Georgie could just hear the speaker’s head shaking back and forth.
The flat screen that had been blank suddenly switched on to display a list of investments and companies from the various LLCs, all under Greyson Holdings LLC, which was owned by the Greyson Family Enterprises Trust. There were several red lines under the pharmaceutical company. “Dude, your parents’ company developed a great drug. The trouble is, they developed five horrible ones first. They moved the production of those drugs to Pardia. To say manufacturing there is subpar is an understatement. There’s no regulation or testing. The red lines denote lawsuits filed against the company and match up to the decrease in their cash balances and investments. Your parents are going broke paying off the settlements with non-disclosure agreements.”
“Why don’t they just stop making the drugs?” Georgie asked.
“Because they have a five-year manufacturing deal with Pardia. They would have to pay a massive penalty if they backed out of it. And they think they can do it cheaper by quietly settling the lawsuits and waiting out the contract,” the dude explained. “Unless they get access to the bulk of the family fortune in the Greyson Family Enterprises Trust, they might go broke.”
Georgie was already shaking her head. “They have access to it. When Grandpa Greyson retired, he handed the keys to the empire over to my father, including making him co-trustee of GFE.”
“Dude,” the guy said slowly. “You’ve missed a lot.”
“Then fill me in, dude.” Georgie rolled her eyes and Kord chuckled.
“Do you know the terms of your trust fund?” the dude asked.
“No. My parents never told me. Everything was paid for, so I never thought about it,” Georgie admitted ruefully. “I took a lot of things for granted back then.”
“Dude, your trust was untouchable except for education until you turned twenty-eight or you got married. Then your trustees, AKA either of your parents or your grandfather, could give you or your spouse money without needing documentation for the reason.”
Georgie shrugged. “Yeah, I’m twenty-seven now, so I guess I can access it next year. I still don’t understand.”
“Your parents wanted to marry you off to that Prince of Pardia so they could access your trust. When you ran away, they asked for a straight up deal instead of a dowry-type situation. The prince gave them one but locked them into the five years and oh so much money. But a month ago, things got really interesting.”
“What happened a month ago?” Georgie asked.
“Dude.”
Georgie rolled her eyes. “If I knew, I wouldn’t be asking.”
“What did you do a month ago?” the dude asked.
“Worked?” An email popped up on the screen. Not just an email, her email. “That’s an email to my grandfather! That’s private!”
The email was taken down, but not before everyone saw Georgie confessing to her grandfather that there was a man she really liked, that she’d bought herself her own truck, and the fact that Harper was letting her take over more of a role in the business side of the bar. Then she replied to him about some of his business questions he’d asked her. It was something fun they’d started doing. Dorky, but fun. It was a way to bond with the grandfather she thought had never cared about her.
“The day after your grandfather got this email, he changed his will, GFE, and all of the individual trust funds,” the dude said.
“I don’t understand. Grandpa and I have been emailing for a long time. What changed?” Georgie looked up at Kord, who shrugged, showing he didn’t understand either.
“See, your grandfather set up not only your trust fund but your brother’s and your father’s. He changed yours to give you full and complete access to it from that day forth. No marriage requirement. No age requirement. No parental sign-off requirement as your trustees. In fact, he changed the trustees to just you and him, but since it requires no sign-off from him on expenditures. It’s basically yours. All of it. Free and clear. He also went in and changed your father’s and John Shaw’s to require his approval for any withdrawal. And, he removed your father as a trustee on the GFE trust.”
“They have to get my grandfather’s permission for anything they spend?” Georgie was shocked.
“That’s right. And all those lawsuits and that payment to Pardia? They all came from your father’s trust after they depleted your mother’s trust to hide it all from your grandfather. Even John Shaw’s is practically depleted. But they’re all locked out now. No one in the family can access any money without your grandfather’s approval.”
“They drugged me to force me to give them access to my trust. And when I didn’t, they began to look for ways to get me in a conservatorship so they could have full control over me and the money my grandfather assigned to me.” Georgie should have been furious. Instead, she was heartbroken.
“Here’s your trust.”
The screen lit up again. Georgie knew how to read financial documents, thanks to her business degree. Her trust was pretty steady until about eighteen months ago. Since then, it’s been growing exponentially.
“Whoa, where is all that new investment coming from?” she asked.
“Dude, your grandpa is dope. He’s been buying up the shares of the publicly traded companies that are held by Greyson Holdings that your father has been selling as president of Greyson Holdings and all their subsidiaries and putting them in your personal trust. Now, look at your grandfather’s personal trust.”
Next to her investment portfolio appeared her grandfather’s. It was considerably larger than hers and even earned a low whistle from Ryker. “His goes down as mine goes up, so I can see where he’s buying the shares, but—” Georgie leaned forward to read the notes under the charts. “He’s buying some for himself too. It’s a takeover of the family assets. My dad thinks he’s selling Greyson Holding’s assets, which he is. But my grandfather is buying those shares and putting them in my name and his privately so my father can’t reach them as assets of Greyson Holding.”
