Page 17 of Branded Souls (Ember Hollow Romance #3)

Fox

I grimaced at my monitors. Leaning back in my chair, I stretched my arms above my head, my muscles stiff from sitting in the same position for so long.

So long, and yet I had little to show for it.

I glanced at Skye’s laptop on my desk, plugged in to my larger system.

Whoever had planted the spyware on her computer knew what they were doing.

This was professional-grade stuff. Someone planted software that hijacked her camera and sent the feed to a remote server, while giving them access to control the entire system.

But they were bouncing the signal through so many proxies I couldn’t trace it in real-time.

I shoved a hand through my hair. It had been a long time since I’d seen something that had stumped me so thoroughly.

At least I’d gotten one answer, though. The thumb drive had nothing to do with it. But that came with something even more unsettling. I was pretty sure whoever put this on her computer had done it manually. They had physically touched the computer .

I didn’t know how, or who, but the thought of someone coming into her personal space had my blood roiling.

Skye was out working today on the documentary, and though I knew I couldn’t be with her all hours of the day, it made me anxious knowing someone might be out there, watching her.

But Skye was smart, and Emersyn cleared most of her schedule to be with Skye as much as possible so she wasn’t working alone.

I owed Emersyn.

A knock on my office door distracted me, and I turned my chair around to find Reid standing in the threshold.

“Got some time?” he asked.

“What’s up? Got any new info?” I wasn’t getting the information I needed from this stupid computer; maybe my brother had better news for me.

Reid stepped inside. “Unfortunately, not much.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I can’t find any trace of Skye’s mother after the approximate date she gave of her disappearance.

Which, to be honest, if she was fleeing an abusive situation, wouldn’t be out of the norm.

Especially back then. She could’ve gone and changed her name and that information would take me a lot longer to find since it was before most documents were digitized. ”

“Great,” I grumbled, not meaning to sound as annoyed as I did.

Reid tilted his head. “This is really getting to you, isn’t it?”

I didn’t bother to answer that question. I was tired of everyone pointing out the obvious of what I couldn’t control.

“You know,” Reid continued, “when Lark came back to town, at first I wasn’t sure how I felt about it. She brought back so many memories of the past that I wasn’t ready to face. ”

My fingers clenched tight around the armrests of my desk chair, my nails digging into the soft leather. “What’s your point?”

His expression softened. “The point is, big brother, that even though her presence back in my life hurt at first, it ended up being exactly what I needed. Wounds can’t heal unless you clean and flush them out.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. His relationship with Lark was different. Lark had been our sister’s best friend. She had been there the night Thea had died…she left town because of it.

Lark and Reid were never together back then. She didn’t love him and then leave him.

“Is there anything else?” I said, changing the subject.

Reid squinted suspiciously, but he didn’t push the subject. “We need to talk about Charles Adler.”

My pulse jumped. “You found him?”

“Not exactly.” He grimaced. “I’ve talked to some friends I still have at the department. Charles had retired by the time I’d become a cop, but apparently—he’d been basically forced out.”

“That doesn’t surprise me.” I leaned back in my chair. “What happened?”

“He had some old injuries that were worsening with his age. He’d already been put on desk duty, but there were rumors of his alcohol use and that he’d often come in drunk. The department started seeing him as more of a liability than anything else. ”

“He was always a piece of work,” I muttered, shaking my head. “The department should’ve done something about him long ago, and not just because he’s a liability for them.”

He was more than a liability for his children, and possibly his wife.

A look of disgust crossed my brother’s face. “Anyways, after he retired, he laid low for a while. People forgot about him, but then…”

The tone shift had my ears perking. “And then what?”

Reid raised his brows. “Charles went missing.”

My jaw dropped. “Missing?”

“Yup. There’s been no sign of him for the last seven years. His son reported him missing the day after he was last seen.”

I stared at my brother, letting the information sink in. “How the hell did no one know about this?”

In a town this small, you’d think that gossip would be all around town.

Reid shrugged. “That I don’t know. The police looked into it, but didn’t find any signs of foul play. Ash apparently was a wreck about it, but other than that, it was kept pretty quiet. Charles was never well liked and I’m not sure he had friends.”

I shoved a hand through my hair, suddenly feeling exhausted. After being woken up by Skye’s scream and bandaging up her hand, I hadn’t gotten much sleep before I’d woken up for the day at five in the morning.

“So, he’s still technically missing?”

“As far as I could tell.” Reid scrubbed the back of his neck. “I think I need to talk to the brother. He had a short interview when Charles went missing, but I’d like some more information.”

I let out a long breath. “No.” I shook my head. “Ash and I go way back. I’ll talk to him.”

The last thing I wanted to do was talk to Ash. Even in a town as small as Ember Hollow, I’d been avoiding the man for years. It wasn’t because I didn’t like him, but we had a history I was still recovering from in many ways.

“Are you sure?”

I wasn’t, but I nodded anyway.

T he grungy smell of oil and gasoline surrounded me as I meandered into the auto shop. The receptionist, who’d worked there for as long as I could remember, beamed at me when she looked up from her computer.

“Fox!” she said in a distinct voice that seemed too low and scratchy for her bubbly personality. “What are you doing around here, hon? I didn’t think you were due for an oil change for a while.”

It surprised me how much that lady remembered. I stuck my hands in my pockets, doing my best to put on a smile that looked convincing. “No, no, I’m not here for service today.”

Her smile fell. “No? How can I help you then, sweetheart?”

I glanced at the door that led to the garage. I didn’t usually interact with any of the mechanics back there. August dropped my vehicle off for service when he could. Again, I’d been avoiding Ash Adler whenever possible and I didn’t know how to go about this without seeming strange.

“I was wondering if Ash had a minute to speak with me.”

“Ash?” She pushed a frosty lock of short hair out of her face. “I think he might. Let me go give him a holler. ”

She jumped out of her seat and disappeared into the garage. She wasn’t gone more than a few minutes before she returned, beaming once again, Ash following close behind.

He wore dark-navy coveralls with the shop’s logo embroidered on the right side of his chest. He wiped his hands on a rag hanging out of one of his pockets. When his eyes met mine, they looked weary.

“I caught him right before he was about to head out for lunch,” Flora said, taking her usual seat.

Ash didn’t smile at me. I didn’t blame him. But as he approached, something in my chest tightened. As if his proximity were a threat, though I knew it wasn’t.

Not anymore.

“Fox.” Ash gave me a curt nod.

Ash had grown since the last time I’d talked to him. His boyishness had faded. He looked harder. But he seemed…good. No fresh bruises. No noticeable limp or hint of injury.

“I was wondering if we could talk,” I said, low enough that Flora would have a hard time hearing.

He raised his brows. “It’s been a long time, but now you want to talk?”

“It’s important.”

Ash tilted his head. “Because my sister is back in town?”

I glanced quickly at Flora, who was definitely trying to eavesdrop…and trying hard to look like she wasn’t. She stared at her computer, but her eyes weren’t moving and she leaned one ear in our direction.

“Are you willing to talk with me or not?”

He adjusted the bill of his cap, seeming about as uncomfortable as I felt. Eventually, he shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Wanna have a beer at Callie’s? ”

A bar wasn’t the first place I had in mind, but it was better than here.

I nodded. The local joint was only a couple of blocks away, and I followed Ash as he led the way.

A sh slid a longneck beer in my direction as he sat down in the booth seat opposite me.

I’d chosen a table near the back corner.

It was quiet in the middle of the day. Most of the patrons were regulars who sat along the bar.

Quiet wasn’t always good, though, when it meant it was easier for curious ears to hear.

I’d made sure to sit as far away from anyone else as possible.

Ash took a sip of beer and leaned back against the crinkled leather cushion. “What’s so important that you had to come talk to me at work?”

Ash didn’t seem annoyed, more curious than anything else. I hadn’t seen the kid in a long while.

Not a kid, I supposed. Not anymore. The man was over thirty now.

I straightened my spine, gripping the cold glass bottle in front of me. “Thanks for agreeing to meet with me.”

Ash frowned. “Did I have much of a choice? I know you, Fox. You wouldn’t have let me avoid you for long if there was something important going on.”

The familiarity had me shifting uncomfortably as guilt hit me. Not that I’d done anything to Ash…it’s what I didn’t do.

Ash filled the silence when I failed to reply. He never liked the quiet much.

“Come on, now.” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “If this is about getting back into the fights, I’ve been out of that life for years now.”

My pulse spiked as I instinctively jerked back. “No, it’s not about that.”