Free Trent by Kathi S. Barton

on to the last
phase of his plan. His plan to be one very wealthy and happy man living as far
from here as he could.
    “Where the hell have you been? I’ve been
trying to contact you all day.” He cocked a brow at the tone of the man on the
other end of the phone and didn’t bother answering him. The sooner this man was
out of his life, the better that would be as well. “Did you see today’s paper?
What the hell are we going to do now? Huh? Answer me that. You said this was a
done deal. It doesn’t sound like a done deal to me.”
    “Perhaps if you gave me some idea as to what
I might have missed while trying to line up a meeting with our Mr. Calhoun,
then I could answer you.” Jefferson Marshall only huffed at him. Pulling his
gun from the top desk drawer and laying it on the top of his blotter, Max felt
better just knowing that soon this man would feel the bite of his wrath too. “Jefferson,
take a breath and tell me what I have missed.”
    “Trent Calhoun is out of town indefinitely.” That
certainly wasn’t in the plan, but was nothing that couldn’t be overcome. He
asked him why that was so earth shattering. “Because, according to this
morning’s paper that you have not even bothered to read, he might be closing
down his business. Sources say that he has had enough and won’t be opening when
he returns, if he even returns. I’m having someone look into seeing if this is
true or not. But I’m telling you right now, this will be the end of us if he
doesn’t help us out of this hole you got us in.”
    Max tried to slow his mind down to the
implications of what this would mean. What could have happened to Calhoun that
he’d just forsake all his clients? And he had a great many of them too. Max had
done his research on the man and knew that he had money enough to burn. And
then some. Something had gotten to him...or someone. Noah Stark. Max thought
for sure that Noah was behind this closure.
    Max realized that Jefferson was still talking
and asked him to please shut up. The silence was so abrupt, he’d thought he’d
hung up on him. Jefferson didn’t know the half of what was going on with their
business. He had no idea that Calhoun had backed out of their deal, and he
certainly had no idea that Noah was behind all of it, nor what Calhoun had said
to him that day in the office.
    “I’m sorry, but we’re going to have to
decline going into business with you.” Max had laughed a little and the younger
man only stared at him. “My brother and I have been looking into some of your
dealings, and we’ve found that you’re not telling the entire truth, are you? Like
for instance, where is the money for the retirement funds for the people that
work for you? Also, you haven’t paid their insurance premium in months, and the
company is going to cut them off soon.”
    “I don’t know where you’ve found that
information, but I assure you, none of it’s true. We’ve been in business for a
while now, and we’ve always kept up with those payments. I’ll have to talk to
my partner…perhaps he knows.” Elijah said nothing, but slid a paper toward Max.
Right there in black and white was his name on all the billings, as well as his
address. “This can be taken care of when you and your firm bail us out. It’s
what you do, right?”
    “No. We help companies grow…we don’t keep
them from prison. And we certainly don’t get in bed with crooks.” Elijah sat
down just as the door behind him opened. “Mr. Edwards will show you out, Mr.
Ford. Have a good day. And good luck with getting anyone else to loan you any
money.”
    And Elijah had been right. No one else would
touch him, not even enough for him to make an appointment to tell them what he
needed. He really needed this to work. But he had to get rid of Jefferson for
now.
    “I’ll call you back when I find out what is
going on with this. I’m sure that we just have to figure out what their plans
are for all of this. We can only hope that