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“He was on the floor with a couple of bullets in him. Yes,he was dead.” Now she was even more confused.
“Excellent,” Josh announced as though pleased. “Then wedon’t have to worry about him. Let’s get the lowdown and figure out how toproceed. And who your friend is. She looks different.”
Case joined them in the elevator. “That sounds like a plan.If only the Dawsons had thought so far ahead.”
“I’ve found the older generation is overly dramatic,” Joshsaid as the doors closed. “Probably trauma or something. I hear a lot of crapabout the eighties, man.”
“Josh.” Why wasn’t he taking this seriously?
He reached out and took her hand. “It’s going to be okaynow, Nic. I’m glad this happened. We’re going to drag whatever is haunting youinto the light.”
But they didn’t understand. And when they did it would allfall down around her. The reprieve seemed cruel, but then Nic knew the wholeworld was.
ChapterFourteen
Grim wrapped the robe he’d found around Nicole andwished she would relax. She was stiff, her voice a monotone when she waswilling to speak at all. She’d been quiet the whole trip up, lying still in hisarms.
What the hell had she been through? And who did he need tokill to ensure she never had to go through it again?
He might start with Harlow’s dads. He didn’t have theconnection with them Josh had. He didn’t call them uncle. He could easily takethem out. Well, maybe not easily since they were still fit and used to be NavySEALs, though from what he’d heard in the elevator, the blonde had taken one ofthem down quite easily. Heather. Except that wasn’t her name, and she wasn’tmerely Nicole’s friend. She was apparently an ex-CIA operative.
“Hey, Heather who isn’t Heather, are you for hire?” Grimasked. “Because I might be looking for an assassin.”
Josh frowned his way. “I think we can handle it.”
“Is he talking about us?” Ben asked his twin. They weresitting across the big, luxurious space Taggart called an office, puttingcareful distance between them and he, Josh, and Nicole. He knew it was Bentalking because Chase had a red mark across his neck where he’d nearly beenchoked out by Heather not Heather and the baton she carried.
“I think so,” Chase agreed. “And they should calm the fuckdown because they don’t know the whole story. We were only doing what Jackasked us to do which is look into the potentially dangerous situation his sonsare in.”
“You mean look into the woman his sons are dating. She’s nothreat to anyone.” Heather moved across the office, clearly picking her side.She held a hand out to Grim. “And my name is Kimberly Kent. Maiden nameSolomon, hence the prior nickname Solo. I went by it for years when I worked asa CIA operative. Now I work with a group that searches for missing persons.That’s how I became involved in this case. And Mr. Burch, I don’t assassinatepeople anymore, though I might be willing to come out of retirement for thatone. He’s obnoxious. Tell me something, Mr. Dawson, how did you figure it outso quickly? From what I understood, your daughter’s only been on the case for afew days, and you for less. Did she share her intel with you?”
Harlow frowned, her arms crossed over her chest. “No. I didnot. I was unaware they’d been hired. I work with a woman named Ruby Lockwood.She’s an excellent hacker and has some truly good facial recognition software.She told me she would get back to me with news today. When she hadn’t by thisevening, I called her. She told me she didn’t bother to call because my dadswere going to inform me. She gave them all the information. I still don’t knowanything beyond the fact that there’s a warrant for Nicole’s arrest in Oregon.Ruby tried to explain the situation to me, but she was at a rave or somethingand I could barely hear her. I realized what my fathers would do and ran towarn Josh and Grim.”
“We didn’t want you involved,” Chase said, reaching for hisdaughter’s hand. “When we realized how bad the situation was, we made thedecision to handle it for you. For all of you. Josh, Grim, I understand you’reupset…”
“Oh, you have no idea.” Josh strode over to his uncle,pointing a finger his way. “You could have ruined everything. Do you think Ididn’t know something was wrong? I sure as hell did, and I was handling it. Youtell my father he’ll be lucky if I talk to him in the next decade.”
“He was trying to protect you,” Ben insisted.
“Do I look like a child to you?” Josh asked.
“Yes,” the Dawson brothers said at the same time.
Harlow’s head fell back, and she growled. “You two are goingto be the death of me.”
They started arguing amongst themselves.
It hadn’t gone unnoticed that Mia Taggart had snuck into thebig office. She sat on her husband’s lap, an arm draped around his shoulders.Grim was pretty sure at some point Case had called his brother and put him onspeaker to listen to what he’d called “the drama.” He wasn’t sure whichTaggart, but they definitely had an audience.
He wished they didn’t, but they needed help.
Nicole was silent beside him, her eyes on the floor ahead.
He put a hand over hers. “Baby, can I get you something todrink? We can go up to the room. We don’t have to stay here.”
She shook her head. “You should know the truth. I have somequestions, too. I’d like to know how Heather…I’m sorry…Mrs. Kent came to behunting me.”
“Call me Kim, and I wasn’t hunting you.” Kim sat down on thesofa as Josh was telling off Chase and threatening bloody vengeance if thepolice were called in. “I’m sure it feels like it, but I was searching for you.I was hired by your in-laws. They told me the police had let the case go cold,and they wanted my company to find you and bring you to justice.”
