“Kyle caught him on a bank security system about the time they raided your place. He was pulling out money, but it wasn’t an amount that seemed suspicious. So we’re not sure if it was part of some bigger plan or just a normal thing he was doing.” Reed shrugged and then picked up the knife, chopping off oneend of the onion before cutting it in half. I really wanted to question the sudden influx of men in my life making me dinner. The universe seemed to be on a kick lately, and I didn’t feel the need to argue about it. “Then he disappears. No use of his car. None of the cameras we could find caught him at any point. As far as we could tell, he never even went back to his apartment.”
“What’s his play here?” I asked aloud, but it was more of a rhetorical question. I knew neither of us had the answer. It felt like we were so close, yet we were missing something so obvious. “Why would he set me up and then go into hiding? What sense does that make?”
“Why would he leave his wife at home? She seems to be going on with her daily life like she doesn’t know anything. And his two kids are the same.” He moved on to chopping peppers.
“He has to know he’s fucked. That’s the only thing I can think of. Even though he’s set me up for the fall, there are still too many trails that lead to him and he doesn’t have time to cover them all.”
“Maybe that’s what he’s been doing,” Reed said, eyes going sharp as we exchanged a look. “We’ve been so focused on finding him that we haven’t… fuck.”
“It’s understandable. If you get him, the whole organization will likely crumble. You’ve been at it for years, chipping away slowly from the inside. Who would blame you for running full speed at a lead like this?”
“I feel like we’ve been playing right into his hand even though he has no fucking clue who we are.”
I had seen Reed tired. Seen him stressed. Seen him in love. And I’d seen the businessman mask that he wore for the outside world.
But I had never seen or heard him sound this enraged. It was a quiet anger, bubbling just under the surface, about ready to boil over. I could see it in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Hewasn’t going to give up. He wasn’t going to let Lipton play us anymore.
“What else am I missing?” he asked, pulling the anger back inside so he could focus. He shook his head and walked over to the stainless steel refrigerator, pulling open the door and reaching in for a huge pack of fresh chicken breasts. “Is chicken okay?”
“Yeah,” I said with a nod before quickly refocusing. “He has two vacation homes that I know of. One in Black Mountain, North Carolina, and a waterfront condo on Jekyll Island.”
“Hmm, we didn’t find those,” Reed said with a look of concentration. “They must not be in his name or his wife’s name.” He pulled out his phone and typed out a message. “I’ll get Kyle on it. Is the condo in a building or connected outside units?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been there.” I wished I could remember if he talked about the place. I felt helpless. “But I have been to the one in Black Mountain a handful of times. I could tell you how to get there.”
“Really?” His brows went up in surprise. “Maybe we should start there?”
“I mean, you seem to think that I know where he’d be hiding out, and other than the apartment and the family home in Charlotte, that’s the only other place I’m familiar with. So… seems like the most logical choice.”
“Even if he’s not there, maybe there’s something there that will give us a clue,” he said, doing his best to sound hopeful.
“Seems like the best idea,” I said, not sounding as hopeful as him. I wanted to see the end of this, but I had to stay grounded. I couldn’t build it up and then live with the letdown. Hope meant that you weren’t planning for what happened next. The after. And after the after. The places when the plan fell through and you had to be ready for what was next.
“We’ll stay here for a couple of days while we come up with a plan. That will give you and Austin a chance to recover from what just happened.” He eyed me with an expression that was full of apologies. “After that, I think it’s time to strike.”
“I do too,” I said with a slow nod. He was right, and I was ready.
The door leading to the garage opened and in walked the three members that Reed had brought and… Austin.
I did a double-take when I saw him.
“I’m sneaky,” he said with a wink and a cocksure smirk.
My face went flat as I stared at him. It shouldn’t have surprised me. This house was big enough that he could have left and I wouldn’t have known.
“He’s fine,” Dune said, looking at Reed as he slapped Austin’s shoulder as he passed him. “He was out there playing it up, trying to make me think his face was broken.” Even as he said this, he was digging around in the freezer for a package of peas, tossing it at Austin a second later.
“Was not,” Austin shot back, catching the bag with ease and instantly holding it against the side of his face. “I said I was fine.” His gaze snapped to mine. “Tell them. I told you I was fine.”
“He complained the whole ride here,” I teased, unable to take my eyes off Austin long enough to read the room’s expression.
The smirk slid off his face as he grumbled unhappily.
I hid my smile behind the top of the bottle as I tilted it back and gulped down the drink that wished it was a smoothie, trying not to grimace at the gritty texture that filled my mouth as the last of the liquid drained out.
“Broken nose, which I can’t do much about,” Dune said, tone a little more serious. “Sorry, that pretty cowboy face is just going to have to be a little off now.” Austin rolled his eyes. “Face took a beating, but swelling should go down by tomorrow if hekeeps ice on it. And there’s a bunch of bruising on his torso, but nothing a couple of days of taking it easy shouldn’t fix.”
“Glad you’re okay,” I said softly. It wasn’t great, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse.
