“Heather’s off on medical leave, though,” K.J. said. “How is she involved?”
“Details are sketchy, but it happened in Hughes Heights. I think someone called for her help, or something? All I know is medical choppers are carrying TSP.Major Crimes.”
And the only hospital with a helipad since the tornado was FCGH. “Then let’s get over there. I’ll have my team meet me there with a van. We’ll get the second team to the scene. Where is it?”
“Powell Barratt’s parents’ house. They were held hostage, I think.” Lila already had her phone at her ear. “I’m calling in the rest of Major Crimes. It’s going to be a long night, ladies. Let’s get busy.”
Chief Marshall came in and gave a five-minute briefing. She texted in her extra crews; fear making her almost sick. She waited until the chief was finished, then looked at Magda. “I’mgoing to be at the hospital. If we have injured—I’m going to be there when they are processed. I’m just going to be there.”
Madison just needed to know where they all were. Especially…Dom. Because if it was Major Crimes—he was out there somewhere. And trouble just always seemed to find him.
18
It had beena blood bath tonight. Chaos described the scene around him, but Dom kept his cool. Kept from revealing the fear. It was his job to figure outwhy.To determine what had happened. People he considered his closest friends in the world, as close as brothers, were counting on him to do that now.
And one innocent man was already dead. A private bodyguard hired by Mason Barratt to guard his only daughter. No more than twenty-four years old, with two toddlers waiting for him at home. The other guard—well, no one knew if he’d pull through or not.
And there were several more injured.
Daniel and Gunnar had been beaten to bloody pulps out there—before taking bullets to the upper chest. It was a miracle both of them were still alive right now. And Heather…damn it, that woman just couldn’t catch a break lately.
It was Dom’s job to find the sons of bitches who had escaped. Preliminary reports were that at least three men, including the doctor who had created OPJ to begin with, were still at large.
Dom took that last very seriously.
The man next to him was his best option at getting started. “Give me the rundown. Fast. I have some hunting to do.”
“Likewise. Grundenman ismine.”
Miguel was practically vibrating with impatience. He was watching a woman nearby. Heather’s oldest sister. Interesting. Why had Heather’s sister been out there on scene tonight?
Strange coincidence that it would be Bonnie out there when her brother-in-law Timothy Grundenman was one of the men they were after now. The brother-in-law that had somehow miraculously gotten away—right before Bonnie and some of her family had made itinsidethe crime scene.
There was a lot of dark shit circling around that family lately. And once again, there were Colesons around everywhere when the shit hit the fan. Just like with Hope and Heather and Wilson before. There had been one of Heather and Hope’s sisters in that parking lot that night—plus two of their nieces. Coincidence most likely? Well, Dom just didn’t know. He wasn’t ruling anything out.
Dom didn’t believe in coincidences like that. Not for one minute.Somethingto do with Heather had led them here. He just needed to dig deeper. That woman could very well be the key to everything. And she probably didn’t even know it. Word was that Grundenman Junior had made it very clearHeatherhad almost caught them a few times before.
Heather and her best pal Miggy, anyway.
Dom studied the eldest Coleson sister now.
Bonnie was a beautiful woman. A very beautiful woman, even though it was more graceful and understated than Heather’s in your face sex appeal. But they resembled each other, those two. Greatly.
There were rumors Bonnie knew more than what she was saying. About a lot of things in Finley Creek. Dom had always been a suspicious man. For good reason. He neverbelieved rumors, but he was good at following leads with that information.
He still hadn’t figured out Bonita Coleson. Not yet.
The woman was as complicated, as fascinating, and as secretive as her younger sisters.
Now, she was just scared. For Heather. Hell, so was Dom.
Heather had been airlifted out of this rich swanky neighborhood five minutes after Dom had arrived. She hadn’t looked so great. Bonnie was speaking to Charlie Fields now.
“How are the Colesons involved?” Heather’s own brother-in-law and his son had been responsible for the abduction of Heather Coleson and Powell Barratt just a little over a week ago. Powell’s parents’ house was the crime scene now. It was all connected to that damned OPJ—the brother-in-law was suspected of creating OPJ in the first place. Connections. There were connections to things he had seen recently tickling his damned brain.
“Trey Grundenman forced his way inside the Barratts’ home a little over ninety minutes ago,” Miguel said, practically prowling in place. “He and at least six other men, though they weren’t all inside at the same time. A few took off before I even got here. APB already out on them now. They were moving that damned drug from the house across the road. Powell Barratt’s most recent property acquisition. They’ve been playing cat-and-mouse with Powell for years. Using foreclosures as hiding grounds for the drugs, protected by the gates and probably the security team in this damned place, until she bought all those foreclosures up in the last year and sent them scrambling. It was why she was targeted for that abduction last month. They didn’t want her getting in their business. Literally. She and Heather stumbled right into them. The damned abduction wasn’t planned at all.”
He knew what drug the other man meant. OPJ was a designer drug that had originated in Finley Creek several years earlier. At the hospital where Dom’s father and step-mother both worked. Where the nurse he watched now had been abducted.
