“You tell me.You’re the one calling.”
“I’m calling because you’re gonna wanna see this,” Ghost snapped.“Look at the text I just sent you.”
Unease prickled his senses.He opened the message that came through and clicked on the link.A picture of a woman holding a small child filled his screen.Both the woman and the child were smiling.
His gut lurched.
It’s her.
He stared at her big blue eyes, her golden-blond hair, and the cherubic little boy in her arms.Unlike his mother, the boy had brown curls and mocha-colored eyes.
“Are you seeing what I’m seeing?”Ghost’s question punched through the speaker.
Brick couldn’t talk through the constriction in his chest.He struggled for a shuddering breath.“Yeah, man.”
“It’s her, isn’t it?”Ghost asked, impatience thick in his voice.“The woman you had me search for a while ago?Natasha Smith—or should I say Natalie Shaw.”
The constriction in Brick’s chest intensified.After his one-night stand in Fargo with Natasha—obviously an alias—he’d tried to find her.She’d bailed while he was sleeping and he’d had to rush to catch a flight back to Seattle.
He’d figured that the least stalkerish method of reaching out to her would be via social media, but he hadn’t been able to find her.Part of him had wanted to just let it go, but Christ.
Natasha, or Natalie, whatever the fuck her name was, had stayed on his mind for over three damn years.So he’d asked Ghost, the man who could find the most elusive criminals with terrifying ease, to check her out.
All he’d found was that the name Natasha Smith had been stolen.Brick had opted not to search for her after that because he wasn’t that desperate.
Now, looking at the photo of the woman who’d stolen his breath, the woman who’d seemed so damn sweet and innocent, he couldn’t believe the news caption: she was wanted for manslaughter.
And the little boy staring back at him...looked like his damn kid.
“You there?”More impatience from Ghost.
“Yeah, I’m here.I’m fucking reeling bro.Manslaughter?There’s just no way.”
“Maybe she’s like the female Ted Bundy and you dodged a bullet.”Ghost’s dry, empty tone told him he didn’t really give a shit what Brick was going through.Which was about as much as he’d expect from the prick.
“I need to find her.”The command came out rushed, without hesitation and without common sense.Thank god they had the power to do that.Probably had more capabilities than the authorities.Backcountry Protection Services, run by Brick’s bosses Rami Mitry and Toth Holmes, was an A-list team of retired military men.All of them had served in black ops.
Backcountry was equipped with facial recognition software, along with many other types of surveillance and hacking technology.Their complete services were what made their team the best bodyguard company on the West Coast.He’d been with Backcountry almost a year and a half, and so far, they’d never not found someone they were looking for.
Natalie wouldn’t be any different.He’d bet his life.
“You sure you want to do that?”
“Why else would you send this to me?”
“Ah, well, I figured you’d pined over her for a while.Didn’t realize you were still in that rut.”
“I’m not in a rut.I want to find her because there’s no way these allegations are true.”Okay, so he really didn’t know a damn thing about Natalie—everything she’d told him had likely been a lie.But he’d seen the softness in her eyes.Though she’d run from his bed in the middle of the night, he didn’t suspect her intent had been malicious.
“Any other reason?”Ghost taunted.
“Like?”
“Like the brown-eyed kid who looks more like you than her,” he retorted.
Brick blew out a breath.“The kid looks like me.I see it, too.”He’d already done the mental calculation.If the photo he stared at was recent, as the caption indicated, then he was about two and a half years old.Counting back nine months...well, there was a glaring possibility the child shared more than a resemblance with him.
But dammit.He wasn’t jumping to conclusions.Not until he spoke to Natalie.
