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CHAPTER TEN

SHEP

JJ was bouncing in his seat when Mason and I returned to the kitchen. His smile was as wide as it could be and while I loved seeing him happy, I knew something had happened.

“What?” Mason and I asked at the same time.

“I have a thought!” JJ jumped up. “I won’t know for sure until the twins are home, but I think my theory is sound.”

Mason waved for him to continue.

“Max had to pay ransom for his kiddo; he did, and nothing happened. Consortium wanted two million for their interference and retrieval of said childling.”

I chuckled at his wordage. “Okay…”

“Yet, they order his death before getting it because he spoke to someone? Why not do it after getting paid? You’re telling me they did this for nothing?” JJ snorted. “I think not.”

“It is curious.” Mason’s nose wrinkled. “So what are you thinking?”

JJ giggled. “I think the mercenaries that kidnapped Max’s daughter, Georgia, and the consortium are one and the same. Max had paid them. More would have worked, but they got what they sought originally. It also explains how out of nowhere they show up and are all, ‘Let us help you, strange man.’” JJ’s voice became deeper and more exaggerated as he impersonated the consortium.

“Interesting.” I ran my hand over my beard. “The twins could maybe track where the money was sent.”

JJ smacked the counter. “Yes!”

“Max?” Mason sat beside him.

“What?” Maxwell was a mess. Finding out this was true would be a huge blow to the already shaky man.

“This friend that you spoke to—have you known him long?”

Max sighed, his head bobbing back and forth. “ Hmm …maybe a year? I met him at the country club. We spend Sundays playing the green.”

Mason glared at JJ. “I have another theory,” JJ said.

Mason got up and pointed at JJ. “Nope, my theory.”

JJ rolled his eyes. “Fine.”

“Someone tell me what’s going on?” I asked. These two spoke a different language to each other.

“I suspect.” Mason narrowed his eyes at JJ when it appeared my vicious viper was going to interrupt. “I suspect this golf friend entered your life on purpose. This consortium isn’t one to be spontaneous. He very well may be working for them. They have people who are feelers in all sorts of businesses. He maybe got to know you, learned about your daughter, your job, and the consortium swooped in. After Georgia was returned, were your friend’s issues then discussed with you?”

Max’s eyes widened. “Actually, yes. He never indicated any problems before that. I’d gone to the club one day to shake off my worry for Georgia. My ex-wife was with her, so I was fine. And he was there, looked awful, I asked, and he told me.”

Mason hummed. “I think they were testing you to see if you’d talk. And you did. So they had their money and now needed nothing more from you. Even if they would have liked more, it wasn’t needed. And yes, to normal people it seems dumb to be the kidnapper and the rescuer when all the money goes to the same hand, but consider that they wanted all of it but protecting their organization was paramount.”

“Son of a bitch,” Max shouted. “I was played?”

“That’s my guess.” I smiled at Mason and JJ. “You both are like the Hardy Boys.”

JJ and Mason high-fived like the children they were. “Heck, yeah!” they said in unison.

“When Angel and the twins get here, we’ll share this with them and see how much of it—if not all of it—tracks. In the meantime, Max, tell us everything you know about your golf buddy.”

That was how we spent the next hour. Mason took notes while Max explained everything and the more he told the story, the more it revealed that JJ and Mason were really on to something. I was interrupted by my cell phone, so I excused myself and stepped out of the room.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Shep. Sorry to bother you, but do you think I can get some help at the shop tomorrow? I know you got some stuff going on at home, but I’m swamped.” Shit, Lizzy. I’d asked if she could handle things for a bit, and she’d agreed.

I was able to get the wedding cake to the reception hall but other than that, I’d gotten lost in all of this.

“Of course. I’m so sorry, Lizzy.”

“It’s cool, I get it, but it’s a lot and my class is tomorrow at seven for forty-five minutes. And we’re almost out of, like, everything.”

Shit . “I’ll be there first thing in the morning. I’ll bake until the afternoon and help you out all day.”

“Thanks, Boss…and maybe hire someone else.”

I chuckled. “Yep, that’s a priority.”

I disconnected and went back into the kitchen. JJ immediately met my eyes.

“Everything okay?”

“I gotta go to the shop tomorrow. Lizzy is dying over there on her own, and she has class in the morning. I need to bake and help her out.”

“It’s fine—nothing is happening at the hospital. I can take over after Gabe tomorrow and call in if there’s an issue,” Mason said.

“And I will go over everything with Angel and the twins when they get here.” JJ smiled. “We need to figure out where we’re removing the tracker anyway. That, and Noel and Nick will be computer bound all day, seeing if they can find the trail from the mercenaries’ payment to the consortium.”

I nodded. “Okay. It’s the best we can do for now. I think I’m gonna go through the applications at work tomorrow and get a couple of hires in.”

“Great idea.” JJ agreed.

We all fell into our beds at one in the morning. I wrapped JJ in my arms, and while I wanted to slide my cock into him and get lost in his scent, I had to get up in five hours to bake my butt off. And honestly, cuddling JJ was the best way to fall asleep…even if he snored.

Too soon my alarm went off, and I was stumbling to the shower. I left JJ asleep in our bed, per usual, and got ready for the day.

Mason was packing up to go to the hospital by the time I made my way down to the kitchen.

“You’re going to have to wake JJ before you head out.…Good luck.”

Mason huffed. “You couldn’t do that and then come downstairs?”

I jerked back. “And have him hate me? Never.”

I left the house, Mason’s laughter pulling a smile to my face. I was going to take my motorcycle but the sky was gray and I didn’t want to chance getting stuck in the rain, so I took one of the SUVs.

Lizzy wasn’t kidding when she said we were almost out of everything, so without hesitation I got baking.

I was a few hours in by the time Lizzy arrived. Thankfully, her class was super early and she was always able to help out.

“Wow, Boss, you’ve been busy.”

I pulled the corn muffins out of the oven and turned to her. “Yeah, sorry I left you in the lurch.”

“It’s cool, I’m just glad you’re here.”

“After the cases are full, I’ll check over some applications and make calls for them to come in.” I gestured toward the office. “Did you want to check them out and see if any seem like a good place to start?”

“Me?” Her brows rose.

“Lizzy, you practically run this shop—you have a huge say.”

She beamed and literally skipped over to my office.

By the time we opened—later than usual but for real, we had to have goods to sell—Lizzy had narrowed it down to five people, and I promised by the time the rush ended I’d make calls.

I really needed things to be calm here at the shop, because I had a bad feeling things were about to explode on the home front.