I clench my jaw, knowing the implications of Rhetthandlingshit. “Don’t do anything stupid. If you reach out to Blaze, he’ll tighten his grip. He’ll triple her security or move her off the grid. While he doesn’t realize we’re onto him, we have the upper hand.”
“Fine. I’ll be discreet. Let me know if your tech guys find anything before I do.”
“I will.”
The elevator opens and I enter my loft through the main door I barely ever use. I mostly enter from the parking lot, using the old-fashioned, private, lattice-gated elevator that stops in the open plan living area.
Broadway’s not alone like I expected. Ryder, Koby, and Jackson are stationed around the spacious kitchen island, three laptops before them, cables, hard drives, and other tech equipment taking up most of the dark-wood counter. They barely notice me enter, their eyes glued to the screens illuminating their faces.
“Should I open a bottle of champagne? Celebrate your newfound freedom?” Broadway asks, his cynical tone not escaping my attention.
“Stop pouting. I told you I knew what I was doing. The warrant was forged. He had nothing on me.”
“Well,Ididn’t knowthat. A little heads-up would’ve been nice. I don’t read minds, Carter.”
“Ignore him,” Jackson rumbles. “He’s a bit touchy because he mouthed off to Dante when Vaughn took you.”
A smirk curls my lips, the closest thing to a smile I’ve managed since Hailey disappeared. “You’re still breathing, so I guess he took it easy on you.”
“Yeah, special treatment seeing as you were in grave peril, and after your time at Lakeside everybody knows Broadway doesn’t handle separation all that well,” Koby pipes in, twisting the knife a little further.
“Fuck you,” Broadway grumbles. “So? How did the run-in with your future father-in-law go down?”
“As you’d expect. A lot of theatricalities, fist-on-table banging, and growling, but once we established neither of us had Hailey, he changed his tune. I have his blessing to—”
“What?” Ryder’s head whips to me so fast I hear a crack. “He doesn’t mind his only daughter dating a criminal?”
“I have his blessing to do whatever it takes to bring Hailey back safe,” I finish, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge. “He’s not happy about the dating part.” I stand behind Ryder, watching him attempt to... I don’t really know what the fuck he’s doing or what he can decipher from the gibberish on the screen. “You got anything?”
“Not yet. Patience, Carter. We’ll find her.”
“You’ve been saying that for a week.”
“Yeah, I have. Good job we never blindly follow your every order. I’ve been checking out Rhett’s enemies since the start.”
Another small smirk curves my lips. “That’s why you’re my people.”
He rolls his eyes, still annoyed at my shortsightedness. Hailey’s been turning my brain to mush since day one, but this puts me on a brand-new level of bad decisions.
“Maybe if Rhett hadn’t screwed over half of North America, I’d have landed on Noretto sooner.” Ryder waves me off, eyes back on the screen, fingers tapping the keyboard so fast they’re almost a blur. “Call Dante. He wants an update.”
I grab a burner phone and spend ten minutes briefing my boss. Turns out it wasn’t him who tipped off Rhett. So, like I thought, Rhett somehow bugged Vaughn’s phone. Or maybe his house. Or the precinct. Probably all three.
“Did you ever get a chance to look through Hailey’s texts?” Ryder asks when I’m done talking to Dante.
“I did.”
And I still break out in fucking hives thinking about it. I read them a few days ago when Jackson emailed over the contents of Hailey’s phone. I wanted her and Vaughn’s old messages, hoping I’d find clues.
I combed through every single word, but instead of clues, all I found were more reasons to kill a dead man and new reasons to maim Vaughn.
Jackson sent over the file while I was in Ohio, chasing improbable leads. I checked into a hotel for the night, opening the Alex-Hailey exchange first, a badass headache licking my temples. I promised her I wouldn’t invade her privacy again, but I had little choice.
She stopped hiding her diary after I slipped up and told her I’d read it, and started handing it over willingly whenever she added something new during our last days at Lakeside. But reading her texts, diving into a past she herself can’t remember, wasn’t something I took lightly.
With a glass of Bourbon in hand, I dived right in, skimming over the pages at first to find keywords.
Anything related to Vaughn, Aalyiah, or the evidence.
