He shuffled one ticket behind the other and whistled. “And I appreciatethis.These are some good seats here.” He set his eyes back on her. “Hey, I’ll let my brother tag along with me, but if something happens and you’re able to go after all, I could pick you up and we could make it a date.”
Sloane nodded. “I’ll keep that in mind. Thanks again for your help, Griffin.”
“Any time. Thankyou.”
“Au revoir.” As she headed for the door, something Griffin had said earlier came to mind.Mission accomplished.For him, the statement was true, but Sloane’s mission had only just begun.
Chapter 2
“Thank you for calling Extra Mile Aviation, where we are dedicated to keeping you and your passengers safe. We are experiencing a high volume of calls at this time, and we appreciate your patience. Please continue to hold for the next available representative. Or, if you prefer, visit our website at…”
Emmitt growled over the rest of the message and tossed a hand in the air. “See?” He glanced about the roundtable. “My freaking battery is about to die I’ve been waiting so long.”
Emmitt’s siblings, all but his oldest brother, Richard, were gathered for their weekly roundtable meeting. Here, the group discussed things pertaining to The Homestead Inn, the bed and breakfast they co-owned and operated. But that wasn’t all. The family, along with their significant others, also kept tabs on the safety report they received from Detective Lingley, their one and only contact from the relocation protection program.
Emmitt’s older sister, Andie, rested her elbows on the table and nodded to where his phone rested in the center. “Would you mind silencing that thing?”
Emmitt’s eyes went wide. “And chance missing it when they finally freaking answer?”
The message continued to cycle—a female with a French accent repeating the same tired words in a loop.“…where we are dedicated to keeping…”
“I don’t want him to stop it,” Maverick said. “She sounds sexy. I like the accent.”
Emmitt glared at Maverick, the only other unclaimed bachelor in the family. “It was sexy the first two thousand three hundred times. Now that voice is straight evil.” He reached for the phone, keeping it on speaker, and tapped down the volume before resting it beside the email he’d printed. Not that any of them seemed to care. They were too preoccupied with the recent phone call that set them all on edge.
Trenton, Andie’s husband, rested his copy of the aviation email on the table and locked eyes with Emmitt. “It sucks,” he said, “I’ll give you that. But I think the smartest thing to do here is to go along with it. We don’t want to cause any waves right now.”
Trenton, who’d been helping run The Homestead with his uncle since he was a kid, owned the other half of the inn. Andie, who’d never been much for cowboys, fell in love despite the fact that Trenton drove her mad when they’d first arrived. The two made a good match; plus, it made the family’s life-in-hiding a lot less complicated, having a business partner in the know about the unique danger they faced.
Still, Emmitt shifted his gaze to his sister, Andie. “You know I have a photographic memory—”
“Except when it comes to the name of the chicks you meet at the Pub & Grill,” Maverick blurted.
Emmitt shot him a glare and turned back to Andie. “You know I have a photographic memory when Iwantto,” he started to say, but this time Andie cut him off.
“You do,” she agreed. “Better than anyone I know. And trust me, I sympathize with you too, but I’m with Trenton—we don’t want to cause any waves. Besides, we’ve got bigger fish to fry right now.” She motioned to the two empty seats where Richard and his new bride, Ava, normally sat.
A clash of fear and shame burned through Emmitt at the sight of those two empty chairs. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like when they told them the bad news. News pertaining to the unique threat in Ava’s past, not theirs.
While the Duran family was hiding from the mafia—thanks to a plea bargain made by their imprisoned grandfather—Ava, formerly Anna Fielding, was hiding from her abusive, not to mention obsessive, ex-boyfriend Wren Brandler, a well-known business tycoon from the east coast. The guy may not have billions, like the Duran family did, but he definitely had millions, and he was likely putting those dollars to use in a hunt for the woman who left him.
Forget the fact that authorities created a death report for her, putting his missing persons claim to rest—it seemed he was still chasing leads. One that must have, somehow, prompted a call to the Homestead Inn where someone asked for Ava by her old name, Anna Fielding. The timing wasn’t great, seeing the couple had just driven off for their honeymoon getaway to a nearby cottage, but at least that call hadn’t come inbeforethey’d taken their vows; it would have spoiled or possibly even delayed the wedding.
“So we’re heading out there to tell them tomorrow, right?” his brother, Memphis, asked.
Andie nodded. “Yes. We’re taking them extra clothes, groceries, and that type of thing too,” Andie said. “Who knows how long they’ll have to stay there?”
“Maybe they’ll secretly be glad,” Maverick mumbled. “They get an extended honeymoon now. In the nicest place at The Homestead.”
“You can’t be serious,” Maverick’s twin, Memphis, hissed. “Ava has a psychopath after her—”
“Iwasn’tserious, Memphis, sheesh.” Maverick shook his head. “It’s a freaking joke. I’m as worried as anyone. I just…can’t believe they linked Ava to this place somehow. It ticks me off.”
Emmitt shook his head, bewildered by that fact as well. “What Lingley said makes sense,” he said, recalling what the detective surmised. “Wren is probably chasing hundreds of leads after he put up that reward money asking for help. Just sucks that one of those leads was actually right. The tipster somehow knew she’d done some accounting work here.”
Maverick shook his head. “Which doesn’t make any sense. Richard’s the only one who signed the tax forms. She just helped him with the numbers.”
“We need to make sure we have our story straight,” Memphis said. “Ty massages a lot of the workers here as well as the guests. For the employees who are expecting to see Richard and Ava come back this week, what is she supposed to say?”
