Page 44 of Dark Reunion

CHAPTER 16

TREV

“Iknow it doesn’t make sense, but there has to be something to it,” Trev shared as he slowly paced his office, phone glued to his ear. He was trying to unravel the mystery of the message he’d received a few days ago.

“Are you sure someone isn’t just fucking with you?” Kes asked.

Trev shook his head even though Kes couldn’t see him. “No, my gut tells me there is something to this. It’s the same anonymous number and voice as the one that told me to go to the police station to begin with.”

“Okay fine, but what the hell does it mean?”

The desert dog leaves no tracks, only red sand behind him. Vultures circle wide, looking for their prey, but will soon be closing in to pick the flesh off the bones. When the sun falls, the trail dies with the light. Seek the dog, or what it chases will be gone like a flash of purple fading into the dark.

“Well, if I knew, then I wouldn’t need to ask you now, would I?” Trev’s annoyance bled into his tone.

“You’re in a right mood,” Kes grumbled.

Trev walked over to the window of the corner office and stared out at the city.

“I’m sorry, it is highly unusual for me not to be able to piece clues together. I feel like I should know this, and it shouldn’t be this hard to figure out. I’m losing my touch.”

Trev looked over his shoulder as the door opened, and his lip twitched as Cody walked in. He’d had a late business dinner with a new client and was holding a takeout container in his hand. He pointed to it and mouthed that it was for Trev.

“No, I think you’re just over complicating it. If it is from an ally, then they most likely know our past. Who does that fit?” Kes asked.

Trev’s eyebrow rose with irritation. “I doubt the message is about an actual dog. The sands seem to point to our time overseas.”

Trev straightened, his mind traveling back in time to when they’d all been trapped and on the run in the desert. They were being hunted, but there was only one person that even had a nickname close to dog.

“Could it be Wolf?”

“It says dog.”

“No, I mean Wolf, like our Wolf.” Trev marched over to his desk where Cody was now standing and watching him. He pushed a couple papers out of the way and pulled out the code that he’d printed off.

“It’s possible but what about the rest?”

“Okay let’s think about this. The desert dog leaves no tracks. It’s a play on words. Tracks for tracker, dog meaning wolf, but also could mean Jimmy’s dog that Wolf carried on his shoulders. What was his name…Duke. Either way I think it is pointing to Wolf.”

“If that’s the case, then red sands behind him…that would be all of us, and the death that was in our wake. So, meaning the team maybe?” Kes queried.

Trev hit speaker and placed the phone down.

“Cody is here so I’ve got you on speaker phone. Again, assuming we are on the right path then vultures would be enemies, they were always circling us, waiting for our deaths. We continuously threw sand and stones at them to keep them away.”

“What if this one is literal, like enemies are actually circling him? Either they haven’t found him yet and are closing in, or they are waiting for something before they attack. The part that worries me is the picking flesh from bone. To me that sounds like it is not just a search it is a kill mission,” Kes ventured.

“Yes, it sounds that way to me too.” Trev scribbled the ideas down on the paper, separating out each line.

Cody wandered over, suit jacket and tie off, shirt unbuttoned to show off a V of skin, and his cuffs rolled up. Trev took a moment to appreciate the sexy man he was lucky to call his.

“I’d say that, when the sun falls, the trail dies with the light, is very matter of fact,” Cody offered and gave a shrug. “If he’s a tracker then when darkness falls, you’ll lose the trail, or it could be that you’ll lose the opportunity to find him if you don’t act fast. It really could have a double meaning, but both mean act fast.”

Trev smiled at Cody.

“That’s good, so that just leaves the purple fading into the dark. Any suggestions?” Trev looked at Cody who was deep in thought. He could almost hear Kes thinking on the other end of the line.

“No idea about the purple. I can’t think of anything from back then that would fit other than a purple heart or maybe a great sunset…not sure,” Kes offered. Unfortunately, neither of those seemed accurate.