“No, no.” Leah’s face heated. “He and Iare…”
Marie grinned, faintly.
“Which is why he – the club – is worried about keeping this shop and you and dad safe.”
“Safe?” Her brows went up. “Surely you don’t thinkwe’llbe targeted, do you?”
“Mom, a guy’s dead. And two girls are missing.”
“Right.” She swallowed with obvious effort, and surveyed the shop floor with a critical eye from their tucked-away table. Her hand tightened on her mug, and her gaze lingered on a pair of men seated at a table by the window, both of them young and athletic-looking.
“We’re not trying to scare you,” Ava said, quickly. “But we want you guys to be warned, so you can keep a sharp eye out.”
The door opened with a cheerful jangle, and in walked an even more suspect pair of men. Tall, and jacketed, dressed in jeans and clinging black t-shirts. Save their hair – red-blond versus black-brown – they looked like a matched set, sunglasses and everything. Both of them, Leah noted as they approached their table, wore holstered guns on their hips, plain as day.
“Shit,” Ava muttered, tensing. One hand slipped down into her purse, and Leah knew she was grabbing her own gun.
Leah had nothing to grab but the edge of the table, her heart leaping up into her throat.
But the dark-haired man said, “Mrs. Cook? I’m Ray and this is Don. We’re with Elite Security. Mr. Shaman is stationing us here, and at your home, if that’s convenient.” He and Don produced wallets with credentials that Ava stood to scan, and which she then passed to Marie, who looked them over with bewilderment.
“Mr. Shaman? But I don’t understand.”
Leah did, though, a surge of warmth and affection smoothing out her racing pulse. Carter had said he’d talk to Ian, and he had, and here was the proof – here with the hulking, strong guys he’d gotten to keep her parents safe. If he’d been here now, she would have embarrassed them both with a public kiss.
“Shaman really sent you?” Ava asked.
Ray turned to her, dark brows drawing together, briefly. “He told us to, quote, ‘be dears and look after them like family.’”
“He called us ‘darling,’” Don added.
Ava snorted. “Yeah, that’s him.”
Thirty-Three
“Yeah, thanks, man. Let us know if you hear anything,” Aidan said, his smile appreciative, but unable to cover his frustration.
“Yeah, definitely,” the warehouse manager said, and waved them off.
“Cross another one off the list,” Aidan said, hands going in his pockets.
Beside him, Tango said, “We’re narrowing it down. That counts for something.”
Reese hadn’t gone into the manager’s office with them, and waited now at the massive rolltop door to the warehouse, watching them approach, the sun warm on the side of his face as he conducted one last survey of the main floor from behind his sunglasses. He looked in every corner, traversed every catwalk, and peeped in restrooms and storerooms; even opened a few boxes with his pocketknife when no one was looking, and had pressed his ear up against others, listening for sounds of human life. The manager was friendly with the club, and the staff had been cooperative, and, at this point, it seemed this warehouse wasn’t moonlighting as a stop on the human trafficking ring.
The three of them had spent the day on recon, nosing through a long stretch of industrial complexes that included garages, outbuildings, and warehouses – mostly the last. Everything from imported carpet wholesalers to food storage depots. They’d looked through lumber, and steel; fence materials, tractor parts, and cheap plastic toys and souvenirs, most of them orange and UT-themed. Ghost had reasoned that if the girls were being held in-town, it would either be in a private residence – impossible to search – barn or secluded bit of property, like in Texas, or in a warehouse, also like in Texas. Reese didn’t disagree, but he wished there was a more thorough and foolproof method for narrowing the search.
“We have to find Fred and Ricky,” he said when Aidan and Tango reached him.
“No shit, Sherlock,” Aidan muttered as they walked past.
Reese tailed along behind.
Tango turned to walk backward, holding this hair off his forehead as the wind took hold of it. “You’re right,” he told Reese. “We do need to find them, and then they’d lead us straight to the girls.”
“Or Mercy would work ‘em over,” Aidan said.
“Do you have any suggestions on doing that?”
