Page 39 of Dangerous Affair (The Phoenix Three #2)
L iam frowned when Quinn’s phone was on the move again. She—or at least her phone—had been stationary for twenty-nine minutes. “Quinn’s phone’s traveling.”
“Coming at us?” Grayson asked.
“No. The opposite direction. Do we stop at the senator’s house or follow the phone? She could still be there and someone else has her phone.”
Before Grayson or Cooper could respond, the car’s Bluetooth announced an incoming call, and their FBI friend Sean Danvers’s name appeared on the screen.
“Grayson here. I’m in the car with Liam and Cooper.”
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I have a feeling you’d rather I not ask where you’re going. Am I right?”
“Why you’re a good Fed,” Liam said.
Sean chuckled. “Just try to stay out of trouble. I have some news for you boys. Turns out Jasper Garrison is not dead.”
“Then who was the body in the cabin?” Liam didn’t like this at all.
“Garrison’s cousin, Joey Garrison. Coop, I’m sending you pics of both men. They could almost be twins. It was assumed it was Jasper because his wallet with his ID in it was found at the cabin. Fingerprints didn’t match up, though.”
“Where is Jasper if he’s not dead?” Liam asked. He had a very bad feeling about this.
“In the wind. I wanted to give you a heads-up. If I hear anything more, I’ll be in touch.”
“Thanks for that,” Grayson said.
“Anything you boys want to tell me?”
Liam shook his head as he shared a look with Grayson.
“Not at this time,” Grayson said.
“I was afraid you’d say that. Listen, you’re walking a fine line here. Don’t cross so far over that I can’t get you out of trouble.”
“We’ll do our best,” Liam said, but he wasn’t making any promises. He’d cross all the lines it took to keep Quinn safe, trouble or not.
Sean knew Garrison had kidnapped Quinn. They’d had to tell him that much to get him to keep an eye on the investigation into the murder.
They hadn’t shared with him that it appeared a powerful senator was involved or just what he was involved in.
If he knew, the Feds would step in, and that would have put Quinn in even more danger.
“That doesn’t reassure me, but I didn’t expect a different answer. Stay safe.” He disconnected.
“He’s not going to be happy when he finds out what’s going on,” Grayson said.
“Don’t care. You agreed that if we brought in the FBI before we were sure Quinn was safe that we wouldn’t be able to protect her.” She would’ve been their star witness and considering the people they were dealing with, that would have put a target on her back. An even bigger target.
“I did, and I still believe we did the right thing. Just saying, though.”
“We’ll just have to ask for forgiveness when it all goes down. Hell, we’ll be handing the FBI the case on a silver platter.”
“Look at these pictures,” Cooper said, holding out his iPad. “The cousins really do look like twins.”
Liam studied the side-by-side photos of the two men. “I’m not sure I’d be able to tell them apart in person.”
“The house is a half mile ahead,” Grayson said, stopping on the edge of the road. “What’s the plan?”
On an operation, Liam had a reputation in his Raider team for being able to sense things, especially danger. His teammates called it his Irish woo-woo. “Drive by the house slowly.”
The house was a two-story, one of the biggest in the area. As they passed, he opened his mind, trying to feel Quinn. He got nothing. Didn’t mean she wasn’t there, but he was going to trust that he’d know if she was.
He tapped the screen of his phone, his eyes on the dot no longer moving. That was where she was. You better be right, O’Rourke. “Keep going. I’ll tell you when to turn.”
When they reached her phone’s location, it was to find a boarded-up restaurant with no cars in the parking lot. “Let’s check out the back,” Grayson said as he drove around the building. “There’s a car back here.”
“That’s the car the deputy drove away from our place.” She was here! “I can feel her.” His brothers didn’t roll their eyes or question his sanity, and for that, he loved them.
Without a discussion between them, Grayson drove away. He found an empty house for sale and parked the Range Rover in the open carport. They slipped out of the SUV, moving swiftly and silently toward the restaurant. There was a dumpster at the back of the building, and they stopped behind it.
“It’s your party,” Grayson said. “How you want to do this?”
“We go in hot and heavy, we risk Quinn getting hurt, so we go in stealth mode.” He leaned around the dumpster and scanned the door and windows.
Although the windows were boarded up, the plywood didn’t reach the top, leaving about a six-inch gap for light to enter.
He glanced at Cooper, who was scanning the building with an infrared camera, which would pick up body heat. “What you got?”
“I’m seeing three bodies, all close together in the back left corner.”
“Think the missing Jasper Garrison’s one of them?” Grayson said.
Liam nodded. “Wouldn’t surprise me.”
“Weird,” Cooper said. “All three are horizontal and low to the floor. One isn’t moving, but two are…” Cooper hesitated, then lifted troubled eyes to Liam. “One of the larger bodies is on top of a smaller one, and it looks like they’re fighting.”
“Quinn’s the smaller one,” Liam said, knowing he was right. “We’re going in hot and heavy.” To hell with stealth. Quinn was in trouble. He took off running across the back parking lot, his brothers on his heels.
The back door was unlocked, and the first thing that hit him on entering was the moldy smell. The door opened into the kitchen, and a rat ran across his foot as he raced through the room. Fury burned through him that the deputy had brought Quinn to a place stinking of mold and home to rats.
Cooper had said she was in the back left corner of the building, so he raced to the left, running past bathrooms and down a hallway.
“Get off me!”
That was Quinn’s voice, filled with raw panic.
He reached the closed door at the end of the hall and kicked it so hard that the handle flew off and the wood splintered.
The sight that greeted him turned his blood to ice, and a red haze colored his vision.
Rage like he’d never known exploded. Unleashed, the beast inside him had only one thought.
Kill him.