Page 22 of Justified Fear (TFH Team Bravo #2)

Twelve

L ate in the afternoon, Ryan stepped off the elevator and turned the corner to head to Charity’s office, Maya by his side.

The forensic technician had her office on the floor beneath the main TFH area.

Usually, he didn’t bother Charity. She was always good about keeping them updated on whatever investigation they were working.

Also, most of their cases were search and rescue, which didn’t really involve Charity.

He had heard more than once that the woman was territorial about her office, and he had learned a long time ago to respect spaces.

He stepped in to find her sitting in a chair with her head between her legs.

“Hey,” he said, hurrying forward. “Are you okay?”

Maya reached her first, apparently picking up on her distress. Charity righted herself and smiled down at Maya. When she looked up at him, her face was ashen, causing alarm to run through him. He reached out for her wrist, and she gave him a disgruntled look. Still, he took her pulse.

“I’m fine. Just a little dizzy spell.”

“Your pulse is a little high.”

“I do have a cute boy taking my pulse.”

He didn’t roll his eyes, but it was close. The woman was insanely in love with her husband, so Ryan knew she had no interest in him.

“Is it normally this high?”

“No. It’s fine, like I said. I stood up too fast, which my doctor has told me to be careful about. Did you need something?”

He sighed, knowing she wasn’t going to give him more than that. He didn’t know Charity well enough to know if she was lying to him. He let go of her wrist.

“I wanted to check on ballistics.”

“I haven’t gotten the bullets yet. Which is odd because usually Elle is good about that.”

She grabbed her phone, then made a face.

“What?” Whatever it was, it wasn’t going to be good. Nothing about this case had been going right since that first night.

“Can’t do ballistics. No bullets.”

“What?”

She looked up. “I don’t want to go into details, just…the dude or dudes policed their brass. She did say it was all the same caliber.”

He wanted to growl.

“Oh, wow, that’s a look I know well. Hammer gets it all the time when he’s frustrated.”

“Nothing in this case makes sense. It’s like it’s a massive puzzle, but only a few of the pieces fit, and they make no sense. And when you seem to get something to fit right, the rules seem to change.”

“I hear ya,” she said.

“There are no connections to anyone in that house. And did they want Keely, or were they just trying to get rid of witnesses? And if they wanted to get rid of witnesses, why leave the bartender alive?”

“Maybe they thought he was dead?”

“Believe me, these were the types of guys who would check.”

“Yeah. Their dossiers are littered with dead bodies, kidnappings, and arms deals. Has Nikki gotten back?”

His teammate had gone to the hospital to show Ray the pictures. Then, it hit him what she said. “Wait, did you say kidnappings?”

“Yes. There are three kinds of cases in which men worked together. They all had other things they liked to do, like that Freddy Sabato liked to traffic young women—may he rot in hell. But the ten other times they worked together, they handled three different kinds of deals. One time, they took out some rivals of a drug dealer. There were like fifteen people killed. They handled two illegal arms deals. But all the other times, seven to be exact, they were connected to kidnappings for hire. It was known as their specialty. I had just sent the report before I had the dizzy spell.”

“Thanks, Charity,” he said. “Was there anything else?”

She shook her head. “I haven’t found anything. No, wait. I just got a text from Emily over at Dillon a little bit ago. She’s been doing a deep dive on everything, and she doesn’t have to be as careful.”

“Meaning she breaks the law a little more than you do?”

She gasped. “I don’t break the law.”

He rolled his eyes again. “What did she find?”

She pulled up the text. “Okay. I wish I would have had this before Nikki went to the hospital. This Ray Gailbreath dude has no history prior to a few years ago. It’s like he just came on the scene then.

Says he went to Sam Houston High in Bedford, Texas, but she said a search revealed nothing much. ”

“What do you mean?”

“Okay, so he was listed as going there, i.e., courses, etc., but then there is no other proof he went to school there.”

“Proof?”

“No one under his name lived in Bedford at the time. Also…oh, damn, his social might be fake too. I bet she has that Sam woman helping her on this.” They had a mysterious woman who had been helping them for the past year or so.

“Either way, since I have next to nothing to look at from that homicide scene, I’m gonna start a deep dive on this Ray character.

I’ll call her and coordinate so we can handle this faster.

There might be a simple explanation for it. We have a guard on him, right?”

“Yeah. For his safety, but the hospital wants to release him tomorrow.”

“Then I’d better get to work.”

He turned to leave, but Charity stopped him. “We don’t have to mention this to Hammer, do we?”

“No. I mean I don’t have to, but you will.”

She frowned at him. “He would only worry. He’s already driving me up the wall.”

“Well, give him a research project. Tell him the doctor already told you that there’s nothing wrong—which she has, right?”

She nodded.

“Then tell Hammer you need help researching ways to deal with it. There are probably massive amounts of posts about it online. Give him something to do.”

“And you think that will get him off my back?”

“No. But it will make him feel like he has control of the situation. He’s worried that the one person who means more to him than anything else in the world is going through something scary. Guys need something to pull them in.”

She smiled at him. “You really are a sweetie, aren’t you?”

He felt his face go a little hot, and she giggled. “And you blush. Be gone. I have work to do.”

As he headed out, he started to text Nikki to see if she was still at the hospital when his phone vibrated.

Seth: Common room. Five minutes.

By the time he got up there, everyone else was there, including Nikki.

“Did he know the guys?”

She shook her head. “I couldn’t put my finger on it, but I think he was lying about something.”

“Maybe about who he is?” Seth asked. He looked at Ryan. “I heard Charity got some info from Emily?”

He nodded. “Ray Gailbreath didn’t exist until a few years ago. He said he went to high school in Texas, but there is very little proof of that.”

“Also, he didn’t start his socials until about nine months ago,” Seth said. “This is starting to make absolutely no sense.”

“Starting?” Kap said. He was sitting at the conference table. “I don’t think this whole insane situation has been normal since the first night. I also know that everyone found out the guy claimed to be from Texas. There’s that connection again.”

He’d picked up on that, too. Things seemed to keep circling back to Keely. Or at least back to Texas.

“I think we need to question her again,” Rami said.

“No.”

He blinked as he studied Ryan. “You can’t be objective.”

“Yes, I can. The one person who seemed to check out, who never changed her story, and doesn’t seem to have anything lurking in her background?—”

“Other than an NFL legend of a father,” Nikki said.

“True, but how many of us want to use our family in an investigation? Also, it is more of a testament because she could have easily proclaimed she was Riki Templeton’s daughter to keep us from bothering her.”

“Exactly,” Seth said. “We can double-check things, but she has been up front and honest with us every step of the way. Still, I don’t think we should ignore her connection.”

“What?”

Seth held up his hands. “Calm down, Morrison. I mean, the whole reason behind this might have had to do with her. Her family is so rich, a kidnapping makes sense. And since our three dead men all have worked together on kidnappings, we have to assume she was the target. They let Ray go. They killed everyone else.”

He rolled his shoulders. He knew there was something nasty brewing beneath the surface of this investigation. Something they were missing.

“I know she has protection, but I’m assuming you’re going back over tonight?”

He felt almost everyone turn their gaze back to him. He nodded.

“Good. Since we have no idea what is happening, but it feels more and more like she was the reason for the attack, we need as many people with eyes on her as possible. Also, I heard the menu tonight, so you’re lucky.”

“Menu?”

He nodded. “Mix texted Autumn to throw it in her face that he was having lobster.”

“Just keep an eye out. I’m going to make sure that Dillon Security is kept up to date, but until we figure out why this happened, we can’t be sure Keely isn’t in trouble.”

“What are you thinking?” Kap asked.

“Not sure, but everything seems to go back to Keely, and because of that, I worry that she might be in more trouble than we understand.”

And, if they couldn’t start to understand that, Ryan knew that the threat could come from anywhere. She would be safer in a safe house.

“I sent all of you an avenue for research. If we divide and conquer, we can make much faster progress. Ryan, can I see you in my office?”

He nodded and followed his boss into his office. Maya came with him. He had a bad feeling about what this discussion was going to be about, and he wasn’t going to like it. Seth was a former SEAL, so Ryan knew that if he wanted to hand his ass to him, he would do it in private.

“Close the door.”

Ryan did as his boss ordered. He sat down behind the desk as Ryan continued to stand.

“Sit down. You’re not in trouble.”

Once he settled in the chair, Maya sat down next to him.

“How are you handling this?”

“What do you mean?”

“Listen, I get that you love to be the whole brooding former LAPD with a dark past.”

He snorted. “I don’t have a dark past. I had a partner who turned out to have one weakness.”

“Okay, true. I need to know that you’re still fully engaged in the game. I understand more than most about having someone you care about in trouble.”

After years of searching for the cult leader who had raised her, Autumn had gone to face off with the bastard on her own. Seth had almost come undone.

“I’m fine.”

It was Seth’s turn to snort. “Dude, I have a feeling your mom would have something to say about that.”

“Well…I am. I’m just frustrated. Usually, we have a case, and the pieces start to fit. But I was just telling Charity that as soon as some pieces start to fit, other things start falling apart.”

“Yeah, that is a good way of describing it. What if that’s on purpose?”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing seems to add up, until it does…then it doesn’t. It feels like this is by design.”

“Like someone is toying with us?”

Seth nodded. Ryan thought over the case. The night of the attack, they spent their time looking for Keely, and then they started researching the people who were killed. Then, they had a triple homicide, and then Ray was found.

“Yeah. You’re right.”

“Our only problem is that we have to figure out who is fucking with us before they can pull the final lever.”

What he didn’t say was that until they did, Keely would be in danger.