Free Trent by Kathi S. Barton Page A

it’s nothing more than an
overzealous reporter with too much time on his hands.” It would be just Max’s luck
if it were true and he’d be out all his money. Noah was going to pay for
fucking this up for him. “I’ll talk to you tomorrow when I go into the offices.
In the meantime, just sit tight and let me handle this.”
    “Letting you handle things is what got us
into this in the first place.” Max started to tell the man to fuck off, but
didn’t get the chance before he spoke again. “You fuck this up, Max, and I
swear to you I’ll not work with you again.” Big threat. He wasn’t going to be
around to work with anyone.
    After he hung up, Max tried to think of what
he could do now. He didn’t even have enough to leave the country right now. All
his money had gone into making a good impression on the stupid dog and to Max’s
accounting firm overseas. His plan to leave the country with a great deal of
ready cash was slowly falling apart. Calhoun had really fucked up his plans in
backing out. Max wanted to think of a way to make him come up to the plate with
money in hand, or he was going to have to think of more creative ways to get
the money from someone else. He wasn’t above kidnapping and holding someone for
ransom at this point.
    “But it wouldn’t get me nearly what I want in
all of this. And there is the risk of it not working. Then I’ll be fucked too.”
There was money, a great deal of it. Just where he couldn’t get to it just now.
Max had thought as he was sending his money out that he should have some rainy
day money and he’d had a little, but he’d spent it. Lavish dinners, limo
drivers, and a few new suits had taken care of that. He had travel expenses to
gather, and he wanted to go out with a bang. When he left this country, he was
going to make sure that everyone knew that he’d been here.
    Max knew that he could call and get money
wired to his bank here. And he’d thought of it several times over the last few
days. But doing that would be evidence that he had money elsewhere. Not to
mention the penalties and fines that he would incur when he did that. Max
looked down at his new suit and smiled. Being broke right now had really given
him a fine set of clothes.
    When his phone rang a little before seven,
Max actually thought about not answering it. He was in the middle of making
plans, poor ones, but making them all the same, and finally reached for it with
a bark of his name. When he was greeted with silence on the other end. It took
him several seconds to realize that he might have pissed someone off, like he
even cared.
    “Mr. Ford?” He felt his balls crawl up into
his body. No one had this number but his business partner and his butler. They
were the only two that could call him directly. The voice at the other end of
the line had a tone that made him think that they’d gone to great links to get the
number…and not only that, they had enjoyed it too. “Mr. Max Ford, correct?”
    “Yes.” Max thought he knew the voice. It was eerily
quiet on the other end, but he was pretty sure that Noah was calling him. “Who
is this?”
    “Oh, I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now. Please
tell me that you’ve not forgotten our little play time together. I will be very
hurt if you have.” Max wanted to hang up, but fear made him pull the phone
tighter to his ear. “What do you think you’re doing, threatening my friends? And
lying too. You should know that liars always get what’s coming to them. And you
are one of the biggest ones I know.”
    “Look, Noah. I don’t know what she told you,
but I just wanted to hire her as my...to come and work for me.” He had no idea
what the woman could do other than predict the market better than most men he
knew. But getting her in his home had seemed like a good plan at the time. “I
had no idea that she was related to you.”
    “Then why did you tell her that you were
going to need to talk to me? What reason could you think that