15
Kinsley held her phone to her ear as she watched the Shadow Lake Survival team enter the cabin. She wanted to know what they had to report, but she wouldn’t end her call with Detective Stewart.
Stewart cleared his throat. “I got a hold of the detective who investigated the disappearance of Luongo’s wife.”
“And?” she asked, keeping an eye on the team as they moved into the dining room.
“And he hasn’t had any communication with Luongo in relationship to you or anyone else.” Stewart cleared his throat. “He hasn’t recently talked to anyone about it. Nor has he heard that Luongo was sniffing around for info either.”
“So could be a dead end.”
“Could be, but you can never rule this guy out.” His tone was filled with grit and determination. “I’d say keep your eyes open and your protection team nearby.”
She thanked him for checking into it and ended the call. She joined her protection team as they gathered around the dining table in the small cabin. Dev had called them, and they’d come immediately. All except Russ, who was on duty, and Ryan and Micha had delayed their trip to Portland after the drone incident so they could participate in this strategy meeting before they departed.
The guys got settled, and their larger-than-life presence filled the space with masculinity that was somewhat daunting. Thankfully, she’d had a chance to work with or interact with each member of the team so far and knew, despite their intimidating outward appearance, they were all caring men with hearts of gold who would do anything to help her. Anything at all.
And here they were, gathered together to figure out what they could do before their shooter and likely drone operator succeeded in making his way onto the property to injure her.
“Let’s get this party started so we can all do what we need to do.” Ryan leaned back in his chair and clasped his hands behind his head.
“Before we get started,” Kinsley said, “I should mention that was Detective Stewart on the phone.” She shared the conversation.
Dev’s eyes narrowed. “He’s right. We don’t rule Luongo out. We’ll keep our eyes open.”
“What did you learn from Sierra?” Ryan asked.
Dev planted his feet wide. “They’re nearly done with the scene, plus she took DNA samples from Bandit and his crate and will take those back to their lab at the end of the day for Emory to run.”
“Bandit?” Ryan popped his chair forward. “What’s he got to do with this?”
Dev explained Sierra’s experimental approach to collect DNA from animals.
Ryan shook his head. “Just when I think the geeks at Veritas can’t surprise me anymore, there’s something new. Good thing they’re on the side of good and not evil.”
“You got that right,” Reid said.
“She’ll take the drone back to their lab to run it for prints and DNA, then give it to Nick to pull the video card.” Dev frowned. “Fingerprint results could be back sometime tomorrow, but she won’t be able to give us names without the help from law enforcement.”
Reid took over, explaining why Sierra couldn’t access any official databases. “We’ll ask Russ to help, but, knowing our brother, he’s going to be a real stickler about it. We better be on our best behavior when he gets here so we can talk him into it.”
“He might be a tough guy on the outside, but he’s a sucker for a damsel in distress.” Ryan made eye contact with Kinsley. “You should turn on the waterworks if you can and add anything that you think might convince him to give Veritas his blessing to move forward.”
They were expecting her to help here, and that wasn’t an unreasonable request. Until this moment, she really hadn’t done much to help herself out, but she wasn’t sure she could pull off fake tears. “I’m afraid I’m not much of an actress. I’m awhat you see is what you getkind of person. I’ll do everything I can, but it’ll have to come from the heart.”
“Just do your best,” Dev said. “That’s all we can expect.”
Colin pressed his hands against the table. “While we wait for Russ, let’s go back to the beginning and try to figure out the identity of our most likely suspect.”
“And how do you suggest we do that?” Dev asked.
Colin locked gazes with Kinsley. “You honestly can’t think of anyone who might want to hurt you other than the men who’ve cast ambiguous threats at you?”
“Ambiguous?” Dev shot to his feet. “How can you say that? Just because these guys haven’t acted on them before now, doesn’t mean there isn’t fire behind the threats.”
“Relax.” Reid held out his hands and directed Dev to lower his voice. “Your brother isn’t downplaying the threat, he’s just trying to figure out if someone has a stronger motive to hurt her than the threats issued by these men.”
Dev didn’t relax. If anything his shoulders tensed more. “But we’ve been over this. She doesn’t know of anyone.”
