Page 16

Every warning system I had was blaring that something wasn’t right. I didn’t know why, but Detective Chase was setting them off. He’d set my teeth on edge. The way he tried to discourage Keeley from continuing to hold out hope she’d find her sister was wrong. And I could tell he wasn’t happy that she was working with me to find her. Why would that matter? You’d think extra help would be welcomed. God knows the police were overworked, undermanned, and underfunded. Who cared which of us found her as long as she was?

I gestured for Keeley not to say anything and mouthed, Wait , because I wasn’t comfortable talking in here now. Still holding up my finger, I added out loud, “Keeley, I think we’re about aired out in here. Check to see if there is anything you want to take with you, and then I think we should go. It’s getting late.”

She instantly caught on to what I was doing.

“Okay, I’ll do another walk-through.”

Instead of doing that, she remained in the room with me. Not wasting time, I began to search in spots I hadn’t checked earlier. When I went through the first time, I was looking for clues as to who might’ve taken Kensington. This time, I was looking for listening devices and cameras. I knew the most logical places to put them. I’d placed enough to know the best spots for them. It didn’t take long for me to find them. There were no cameras, but there was an audio bug in the kitchen, bedroom, and living room. I left them where I found them. No use letting whoever placed them know we were on to them. I had a good guess as to who it was.

“Alright, I’m ready to go if you are,” Keeley said after I gave her the signal to speak. I’d pointed to the bugs so she would know what was going on.

“Let’s go,” I said.

We closed up the apartment and left. After getting into the car in the parking lot, I scanned the area closely. As I exited the apartment complex’s parking lot, I saw a car parked on the street pull out behind us. Whoever was driving it kept a respectable distance, but I knew how to spot a tail. We were for sure being followed.

Rather than heading straight to the hotel, I took a meandering route. The car never got closer, but it didn’t exit either. I waited until we were in heavier traffic before abruptly taking an off-ramp at the last second. By the time the other car got off, we’d pulled into a dark, used car lot that sat along the underpass. We had our lights off and were parked several rows back among the cars.

I snapped pictures of the following car with my cell phone camera to enlarge later. After it passed, I waited for it to circle back, which I knew it would do. As we did, I squeezed her hand.

“It’s okay to talk now. He had no idea which car was ours at the complex. This car isn’t bugged.”

“Who do you think that was? Was it the same one who put those bugs in Kensy’s apartment?” she asked.

“I do believe if it wasn’t the same one, they’re connected. But I’d put money on it being Detective Chase in that car, and he had access to your sister’s place to plant those bugs.”

“But why would he do that?”

“Have you ever gotten a weird feeling when you’ve been around him? Has he asked or said anything that you find odd?”

“At first, I was upset with him when he kept insisting Kensington took off on her own and just didn’t want to be found. It wasn’t until after I told his supervisor that I wanted someone else assigned to the case that he seemed to change his tune. He became helpful and told me he believed she hadn’t taken off. Once he did that, I had no problem leaving him on the case.”

“And that’s probably why he changed his approach. He needed to stay in contact so he’d know if the case was headed somewhere that he didn’t want it to go.”

“Didn’t want it to go? How? Beau, there’s no reason for a cop to bug my sister’s apartment unless he thought I was hiding something.”

“Or he was worried that you might figure out who took her. He wanted to make sure you didn’t discover the trail that would lead to her.”

“You think he had something to do with her disappearance?” she gasped.

“He might not have taken her himself, but he may know who did. What better person to have on your payroll than a police officer, especially a detective? If he can’t convince the ones involved to stop searching for the person, he can derail it while appearing to be helping.”

“I thought once or twice tonight that he wanted to smile or more when it wasn’t a smiling matter. I wouldn’t have noticed if I hadn’t been watching him so closely,” she confessed.

“He sure didn’t like finding out you hired outside help,” I smirked.

I touched her arm and pointed out the windshield. The same car was going by at a crawl. I was confident he wouldn’t see us back where we were. I breathed a sigh of relief when he took the on-ramp to the highway.

“Oh my God, he knows who you are and who you work for,” she gasped as I pulled out of the car lot. I avoided the highway and took the secondary streets instead.

“No, he doesn’t,” I assured her.

“Yes, he does. You gave him your business card.”

“No, I gave him Beau Winters’s business card. The phone number will go to an answering machine, and the email will go to a fake email. If he goes digging, the company name will lead to a non-existent company in Connecticut. When he runs the license on this rental back to the rental agency, he’ll be given my fake driver’s license and address.”

“You’re devious. Did you have those so I wouldn’t be able to find you?”

“There are times when pretending to be someone else is the safest thing. Even though you know my real name, there was no reason to leave a trail to me for others. Beau Winters is an alias I’ve used in the past.”

“Wow, how do I know Powers is your real last name?” I heard the faint uneasiness in her voice.

“As soon as we get back to Hampton, I’ll take you not only to my work, but I’ll take you to my apartment. You can look through everything I have there, including my birth certificate. If you want, ask Reed to get his friend to investigate me. I’ll make sure he can get past any barriers put in place by the Patriots and the clubs.”

“Is that why Lennox’s friend couldn’t discover anything about you?”

“It is. If someone has the skills, they could probably find information, but they’d have to have mad capabilities. Smoke and Everly helped the Patriots set up backstops and such for key operatives. Sometimes, our lives depend on them.”

“God, I never thought of what you have to go through when you work. And I can’t believe Chase has been lying all this time or that he has anything to do with what happened to my sister. Could we be wrong?”

“Is there a chance? Sure, there could be. However, I’d be surprised if it’s not him in that car, and he wasn’t the one to plant those bugs. They hadn’t been there a long time. If they had been, there would’ve been more dust buildup. Other than you, no one has been in her place since she disappeared, other than the police, right?”

“You’re right. They had the key for a couple of weeks before it was returned to me. I’m the only one who has a copy.”

“We can assume that Detective Chase retained a copy for his own purposes. He’ll go in tonight to see if he can see if we took anything. As soon as we get to the hotel, we’ll send the license plate number along with the name and number I found at the apartment to our investigators, and we’ll see what those papers you found in the jewelry box say.”

“Lord, I forgot all about those,” she moaned.

“It’s alright. We’re almost there.”

She remained silent for the five minutes it took us to make it to the hotel. I parked the car in the rear lot with it facing so the rear license plate was hidden from view. The car didn’t have a front one. Sure, if Chase or anyone else happened along and spotted it, they could get out and check. However, the odds of that happening with the number of hotels in Billings were astronomical.

I checked in under my real name and identification. After settling into our room, with a single king bed, I got out my laptop. She watched as I sent over the picture and license number, the detective’s information, and the name and number on the paper I found. Keeley didn’t recognize the name. Once those were sent, she pulled out the papers in her pocket. There was a list of meaningless letters and numbers. I was about to have her put them away when I caught her smiling.

“Why’re you smiling?”

“Hang on, and I’ll show you.”

She jumped up and went to her bags. She came back with a notebook she had taken out of her laptop bag. She opened it to a clean page and began to write. She copied down what was on the papers from Kensington’s apartment. Underneath, she wrote out words and numbers that made sense. It was encoded.

“Dad loved to teach us how to leave messages in code. He hated the idea of just anyone being able to read what we wrote. This is one of his favorites. Unless you have the cipher key, which only she and I have, there’s no way to decode it. This is a list of names and dates. The last set of numbers is her personal shorthand. I’m not sure what those stand for.”

“It could be a bank account or some other account number with that many numbers. Let’s get the techs started on seeing if they can tell us who these people are. The dates aren’t birth dates since they’re all from the past few years. As for the last numbers, we’ll see if anything comes from them. They have to be important for her to encode them and hide them in her jewelry box.”

“She always kept important things that she didn’t want Dad to see there. Like if she had a boy’s phone number or something like that,” Keeley said with a sad smile.

I tugged her closer and kissed her on the cheek. “Don’t get discouraged. This is good news. We know the detective has something to do with whatever happened to her. She had these names for a reason. We just need someone to connect the dots. It might seem like we’re getting nowhere, but we are. Why don’t you take a shower while I send this information off? Then I’ll take mine. We have to be at the airport early.”

She nodded and wearily got to her feet. I got to work and tried not to let the fact that she was naked on the other side of the wall affect me. I wasn’t totally successful. When she came out, I hurried to take mine. I hid my erection behind my clean shorts. I wanted to seduce her, but tonight wasn’t the night. I’d be content to sleep in the same bed with her. She hadn’t objected to us sharing a room or bed. After all, we’d done it when we camped that night. There would be time for seduction after we made it to Hampton and spoke to my bosses. Since it was the weekend, we were meeting at Sean and Cassidy’s house. They were having a get-together. Keeley wasn’t aware of that part.

???

When I drove up into Sean’s driveway and stopped, Keeley turned her head to stare at me in confusion. “Beau, why are we stopping here? I thought we were supposed to meet your bosses and then go to your place.”

“We are.”

“So why are we stopping here?”

“This is where we’re meeting the guys. This is Sean and Cassidy’s house.”

Before she could say more, I got out and went around to open her door. As I held her hand and she got to her feet, the sound of kids playing drifted to us. It was a cozy neighborhood filled with young families. She narrowed her eyes at me.

“That sure doesn’t sound like your bosses to me.”

“It’s not. Those are children. They thought it would be more relaxing for all of us if we met here. It was their idea to have food and drinks. The wives have been asking to meet you. This being a weekend, this was the easiest way to do it,” I explained.

“And you couldn’t have warned me of it? At least if you had, I would’ve dressed nicer,” she hissed.

She was dressed in jeans and a pretty top. I didn’t see what the big deal was. No one expected us to come dressed to the nines. When I informed her she looked great and didn’t need to be dressed better, she scowled at me. I knew I’d be made to pay for not telling her later.

She almost crushed my fingers on the way to the front door. When we reached it, I knocked rather than rang the doorbell. I didn’t want to risk waking up a baby. I knocked a second time, a tad louder. This time, the door opened less than a minute later. Standing there was Sean. He smiled and waved us inside.

“Come on in. No need to stand on the porch and freeze. Your coats go there.” He pointed to the closet. “And your shoes can stay on or come off, whichever you prefer. However, you may want them on. Your feet will thank me after you keep stepping on Noah’s toys. I swear he plants them like landmines. Keeley, it’s good to meet you in the flesh.” Sean leaned forward to give her a quick hug. She was startled, but she returned it.

As we shed our outerwear, she replied, “Thank you for meeting with us over the weekend. I thought we were doing this at the office.”

He chuckled. “Beau didn’t tell you, I see. It’ll be more comfortable here. Follow me, and I’ll introduce you to the others. Don’t worry. They’ve all had their shots,” he said the last part louder as we entered the living room.

It was a chaotic mess in there. The older kids were playing with toys in the middle of the floor, and the adults were gathered around that room and in the kitchen. The adults booed him for his remark and then got quiet. The kids didn’t even look up. Sean took us to the kitchen first, where Cassidy and Gemma were. The others made their way over to us.

“Keeley, let me introduce my wife, Cassidy, and our youngest, Nash. This is Gemma, Gabe’s wife. The one holding the newest addition is Hadley. She’s Griffin’s wife, and this is their son, Travis. He’s just over a week old. Lastly, this is Mark’s wife, Sloan. And as you can tell, she’s about to have their second child in a month. Ladies, this is Keeley Mills.”

He paused to allow them to all say hello, and since the Patriot women weren’t shy, they hugged Keeley. Once they were through, Gabe, Griff, and Undertaker all welcomed her with brief hugs as well.

Suddenly, as if they’d finally noticed I was in the house, I heard the bigger boys scream my name, and Noah and Caleb came running to me. They were the oldest, at three and a half and almost two and a half years. Greer, Gabe, and Gemma’s daughter let out a frustrated yell. She was stuck in the baby swing. Gabe chuckled as he went to get her while I was mobbed by the boys. I hadn’t seen them for a while, so they clamored for my attention. It took a bit for me to get them to quiet down and let me talk. When they saw Keeley, Noah marched over to her.

He scanned her from top to bottom before he asked, “Who are you?”

“I’m Keeley.”

“I’m Noah. That’s my baby brother Nash. These are my cousins. Why are you in my house?”

“Be polite. We invited her, Noah,” his mom told him.

“She’s with me,” I told him.

I watched as his gaze sharpened on her. He had never seen me with a woman. Since he hadn’t, he came to a natural conclusion. No one said the boy wasn’t smart. “She your wife?”

As everyone laughed, I answered for her because I saw her trying to come up with an answer. “I’m trying to get her to be my girlfriend. You’ll have to help me make her mine.”

As the men snickered and the ladies gasped, Noah smiled. “I’ll help, Uncle Beau. Come see my cars,” he told her.

Although the adults told him to leave her be, Keeley shook her head, smiled, and went with him. She didn’t appear to be embarrassed to sit on the floor with him. The two of them, along with Caleb and now Greer, started pushing cars and making motor noises. Keeley studiously listened as the two oldest ones told her about their cars and trucks.

“Well, if that doesn’t make her run out the door screaming, then she’s good. So what’s this about making her your girlfriend? Why are we just hearing about this now?” Sloan asked.

Knowing I’d pay for it later, but I wanted to stir things up because it was a favorite pastime of mine with this group, I shrugged and said, “I don’t know why you’re acting all surprised. Your husbands knew about it.”

This earned me death threats from the guys and threats of another kind from their wives to them. The laughter and loudness got the attention of the kids and Keeley. She convinced them to let her return to the kitchen. As she strolled over, I drank in the sight of her. She was smiling. When she made it to me, I wrapped my arm around her and brought her up against me. She didn’t try to get away. When her arm went around my waist, I was thrilled.

“What did I miss, or should I not ask?” she asked with a smirk.

“We warned our husbands of the torture they would suffer for knowing about you and Beau but not telling us. We also were about to devise what to do to Beau,” Sloan told her.

“Ooh, I love torture, especially when men are the ones to receive it. I have some ideas if you need more. I can be rather inventive. And if you want to know some disposal methods, let’s talk,” Keeley calmly added.

“God, I think I love her. Can I adopt you as a sister? I’ve always wanted one, and all I got was him,” Cassidy said with a roll of her eyes as she pointed to Undertaker.

“Keep talking smack, sis. You know you got the best when you were born as my little sister. I mean, sure, if you want a sister just for the hell of it, go for it. But we all know I’m the best sibling, hands down,” Undertaker retorted.

She gave him the middle finger, but only after she made sure the three bigger kids weren’t close enough to see it. Cass turned back to Keeley immediately after she did it.

“Ignore him. He’s delusional. Anyway, welcome to our home. Please make yourself comfortable. Don’t mind the kids. If they get too demanding, just tell them to stop. They love new people, and don’t be surprised if Beau disappears for a while. They have to get time with Uncle Beau.”

“Thank you. I was surprised we were meeting here. Beau mentioned something about food. Do you need any help preparing anything? I wish I’d known so I could’ve brought something.” She frowned at me.

“No worries. Why don’t we ladies have a glass of wine, or whatever you prefer, and we’ll sit and chat? It’ll let us get to know each other. The men can go do whatever,” Sloan said as she came over to put her arm through Keeley’s and gently pulled her away from me.

I didn’t want to let go, but it would be good for her to get to know them. And I wanted the women to like her. After all, if things went the way I hoped, Keeley would be one of them. Gemma followed Sloan and pushed at me so I’d move. She took Keeley’s other arm, and just like that, she was whisked away. They went further into the kitchen to get drinks. I glanced over at the guys.

“Well, you know what that means. We’re in the living room and on kid watch for a while,” Sean said without rancor.

The others nodded. He went to grab beers from the fridge. He playfully pushed the women out of the way, which earned him threats. When we all had a beer, we settled on the couch and chairs. Noah, Caleb, and Greer were playing. Gabe had his eyes on his daughter to be sure she didn’t try to eat something she shouldn’t. Cassidy put Nash in the baby swing, and that left the women to handle Travis, who was busy sleeping.

“How has it been?” Griffin asked.

“Not bad, but wait until I tell you what happened last night,” I said, then launched into the retelling of our visit to the apartment and everything else after that. When I was done, they were all frowning as they considered what I’d told them. I let them mull it over to see what they came up with.

“I assume you have the investigators looking into this Detective Chase, and the names you got from that slip of paper, as well as the bigger one she decoded,” Gabe said first. It was rhetorical rather than an actual question. They all knew I would’ve done it right away, but I nodded anyway.

“We can assume they’ll find something, but it may not be enough. Do we want to wait or go ahead and pass this same information along to Smoke?” Sean asked the group.

“The longer we wait, the less chance we have of recovering her,” Undertaker added.

It was unnecessary, but we all liked to talk aloud about things. Sometimes, it helps to trigger other ideas in ourselves or from others. We would’ve included their wives, but they were busy with Keeley. I knew their husbands would bring them up to speed later.

“I already thought the same thing, Undertaker, so I sent it off to Smoke and Everly last night as well,” I told them.

“Good. You two are here for a few days, then head back. Do you think that’s a good idea? When Detective Chase isn’t able to find anything on you other than the basics, he’ll be frustrated and possibly worried. He may come looking for both of you. He has her information and can easily track her down,” Gabe warned.

“I already thought of that. It’s a risk we’ll take. If he comes sniffing around her, I’ll make sure he knows what’ll happen if he harms a single hair on her head. I want this bastard if he’s involved. And honestly, it had to be him who planted those bugs. I already got word this morning that the car that followed us is registered to him. It’s his personal vehicle.”

“I hate when cops and others who are supposed to serve and protect are dirty. Fucking makes me want to punch someone,” Griffin muttered.

“We don’t know that he is,” Sean cautioned.

“Well, someone is, and if he was following them, it sure makes it seem like he either suspects them or is covering something up,” Gabe argued.

“Maybe he is. I admit he warrants investigation, but don’t get too disappointed if it turns out he’s clean,” Sean cautioned.

I was like the rest. I didn’t see how Chase wasn’t involved in this. And if he was, this was unlikely to be a tiny, rinky-dink outfit that took Kensington, which made our job harder. Those who had clout and money backing them usually were well insulated. It would take a lot of peeling back of layers to find the sources and Kensy.

We spent several hours with all of them. It was fun, and I got to relax and enjoy playtime with the kids and watch how Keeley did with them. Just as the Warriors were like family to me, so were the Patriots, especially the bosses and their families. I was happy to see how Keeley fit in with them. It was late when we eventually said goodbye to everyone.