When Keys pulled up Ritchie’s messages, Ghost was also able to see the ones he’d sent to Becks that were undeliverable because she’d blocked him. Keys was able to confirm that Ritchie’s Camaro was near Mount Grove the day Ranger and Becks disappeared. Whatever the siblings had plotted, they were smart enough not to leave a text message trail of their nefarious plans. Unfortunately, most of their text exchanges were explicit, including nude pictures on both their parts, leading to the conclusion that the stepsiblings were not only in relationships with Becks and Ranger, but also each other.
It made no sense. Ritchie was supposed to marry Becks, but then left her at the altar. Now he was part of kidnapping her? To what end? Why go after both siblings, who had clearly been the stepsiblings’ target all along?
Ghost had sent prospects Marcus and Jackson down to Alabama to guard Loretta. If Ranger and Becks were targets, he didn’t want to risk Loretta too.
Since Ghost refused to go back to the hospital, Tessa had to do his burn treatments at the clubhouse. Lucky was handling the funeral plans for Monica and Frankie, and was in contact with Deputy Pan’s family, and Dru’s husband Jett. The only information Ghost allowed himself to be sidetracked with was Grumpy’s condition. His eye hadn’t been his only injury, and he would be remaining in the burn unit for some time. He hadalready received two fish skin grafts, one on his left shoulder and the other on his left abdomen, and they were debating on a third for part of his back. He would not be eligible for reconstructive surgery until he was further along in the healing process.
To everyone’s surprise, Kelly, the waitress from the diner, had been staying with him at the hospital. Apparently, she’d been on the way to the bar for their first date when the explosion had happened. She had not been injured, and Ghost supposed she harbored some misplaced guilt for Grumpy’s condition.
Because that guilt belonged to two people: Cameron and Ritchie.
How had it been two days? Where were they, and what was being done to them? Ghost was going insane with the possibilities. He couldn’t even let himself think about the fact that Becks might be pregnant too. Ritchie and Becks had just as much of a history, if not more, than Ranger and Cameron did, yet Ghost did not believe that would save either of them. They’d been targeted for a reason. Based on the timelines of both relationships, this was not an impulsive plan.
Ghost twirled Becks’ wedding ring around between his fingers. He’d been wearing it on his pinky finger since it had been found in the parking lot. She’d taken off her fucking ring. The video footage was not clear enough for them to guess if it was accidental or on purpose. Either way, it didn’t matter—because the tracker he’d placed in it was now utterly useless.
His office door was already open when Keys came rushing in. The tech hadn’t gotten any more sleep than Ghost had the past two days. Both he and Jigsaw were working round the clock to try to find Ranger and Becks. Demo, as a former demolitions technician with the Air Force, and Bulldog were working closely with Carlos and the Mount Grove Fire Department to assist in the bombing investigation. To be honest, Ghost hadn’t been paying much attention when they came to him with updates.
It was callous and cruel, considering the friends and family who had died, but Ghost truly could not make himself concentrate on anything other than finding Becks and Ranger.
“I know why they want them!” Keys announced upon entry.
Ghost sat upright, slipping Becks’ wedding band back on his pinky finger for safekeeping. Itwouldgo back on Becks’ finger the second he found her. “Why?”
Maybe if they found out why, they could figure out where.
Keys came around the desk and set his laptop in front of Ghost. “Prior to his death, Andrew Fremont was the sole beneficiary to his mother’s fortune. Now, I’m not talking, like, Bill Gates-rich, but she had a decent amount to her name, about three-point-five million.”
Ghost’s bandaged hands pounded something awful. He couldn’t even hold a pencil right now, but he refused to take anything that might inhibit his ability to think or help Becks. “Andrew Fremont died on the job a decade ago,” he pointed out to Keys. Obviously the tech knew that, because he’d just said so, but Ghost didn’t understand what that had to do with the present.
“I know, I know, and after he died, she updated her Will so that, upon her death, her estate went to Andrew’s children, Liam and Rebecca Fremont.”
Ghost looked at the computer screen. It was a split screen of legal documents with too-small text for him to read anyway. “Not Loretta?”
Despite the fact that Ranger and Becks were not biologically Andrew Fremont’s children, both he and his entire family always treated them as if they were. Even after his death, Loretta never strayed from her mother-in-law. According to Ranger, they’d gotten closer in the years leading up to Bertha’s passing three months ago.
Keys shook his head. Clicking on something, he enlarged one of the documents. “So according to an email I found between Bertha Fremont and her lawyer, Loretta didn’t want it. She got the house and Andrew’s pension, plus she receives the benefits from him dying while on duty, but she didn’t want any cash. When he married Loretta, Andrew even created two trusts prior to his death that were to be gifted to Ranger and Becks on their twenty-fifth birthdays or when they graduated college.
“Now, Ranger was already older than twenty-five when Andrew was killed, so he got his right away, and Becks got hers around twenty-two when she graduated. It wasn’t much, only around fifty thousand each. Ranger used his to invest in the bar, similar to what you did, and he bought his motorcycle and such. Becks used hers to pay off her student loans and buy her cage. Both still have a little leftover that they aren’t really touching.” Keys clicked another button. “And a few days ago, both received a massive chunk of change into those trusts from their grandmother’s inheritance.”
Ghost frowned, flabbergasted. “She never told me.” They discussed finances, and he’d known about the trust from her father, but not this.
“I don’t think Ranger or Becks know.”
Ghost looked up at the young tech genius. “Come again?”
“There was a reading of the Will done after Bertha’s passing, but the date it was done on was the same day Becks had a dress fitting and Ranger was here in Mount Grove. Yet both,” he pulled up another document, “signed the paperwork, claiming they were present and accepted the terms of the Will.”
Ghost stared at Becks’ and Liam’s signatures on the paperwork. “You think their signatures were forged.”
“I do, and here’s why. You’ll never guess who the witness for both signatures was.” Keys pulled up a law firm’s website, and scrolled down to the employees listed. Anger filled Ghost at thesight of the smiling man staring out of the screen at them. “They haven’t updated their website since he was let go four weeks ago.”
Ghost’s voice was barely above a growl. “Ritchie worked for the law firm who handled the Will.” Meaning he would have known everything Keys just told Ghost. “He wasn’t going to marry Becks because he loved her. He wanted to become her spouse so he would get control of her trust if something happened to her.”
Keys’ expression was grave, making him look far older than his twenty-five years. “Yes, and from the recent searches on Ranger’s phone, that was Cameron’s plan as well.”
Fuck, Ghost hadn’t realized Ranger was even contemplating marrying Cameron. He’d always been clear that she wasn’t his ol’ lady. Had he really been reconsidering that?
“Bertha died three months ago. Do you think it was foul play?”
