Page 7 of Taylor’s Warrior

“Nothing,” he said blithely. “Just working out possible scenarios. What do you think about the situation?”

She bit her lower lip. “Like I said, what you’ve said makes perfect sense, but I can’t reconcile extortion with what Tay’s always told me about her father. It doesn’t add up.”

“Maybe so, but the fact remains, there’s a strong possibility that Taylor is in danger. Until we come up with a plan to deal with it, I want her to stay here and not go into town. I know we can’t secure the ranch—not the way I’d like to—but we do at least have the security cameras in now, so if any trespassers venture onto the property and approach the accommodation, we’ll be alerted to their presence.”

“Okay,” Charity agreed, “but there has to be more we can do. I mean… Tay’s father has to be holed up somewhere, right?”

A good question. “While we’re waiting for Tex to get back to us with information about the technical specs, I’m going to talk to him and Ghost about locating Markham. I want to question him about what the bloody hell’s going on, why it hasn’t been resolved the way he promised… and frankly, drag him over the coals for putting Tay through this. It’s no way to treat your child, even if she is an adult.” He couldn’t hold his anger in any longer.

Charity laid her palm against his cheek and guided his head to the perfect position for a deep, lingering kiss. She sighed. “I knew there was a reason why I love you so much.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “Only the one?”

Her eyes narrowed as she gave him one of her long-suffering looks. Then her lips curved into a smile that, if things went sideways, had the potential to shrivel his balls. “Think yourself lucky there is one.”

His arms tightened around her. “Oh, I know exactly how lucky I am.”

She brought her head closer to his, and he felt the soft brush of her lips across his cheek. “So do I.”

The naked emotion in her whispered words brought a familiar lump to his throat. “I’m going to message Ghost and Tex to arrange a call to discuss what we can do about finding Charles Markham. Do you want to join in?”

His wife shook her head. “I’ll leave it to you. Y’all will probably start talking in military shorthand again, and I won’t understand a word anyway. I’ll go keep Tay company for a while—and break the news to her that she shouldn’t go into town for a while.”

“Good idea, and thanks. I’ll give you both an update as soon as I have one.”

Given the demands on his friends’ time—and the somewhat significant fact that Ghost was a serving Delta Force officer—Nick didn’t expect to get a response from both men within less than five minutes. He’d expected even less to be deep in a conference call with them five minutes after that, providing a concise briefing to bring them up to date with everything that had happened.

“This connected with the data you sent me a couple days ago?” Tex asked.

“I’m afraid so. Have you managed to make any progress with that?” Nick was aware he was asking a lot.

“You know what? I was getting ready to give you a call. We finally managed to get into the files.”

“And?” Nick prompted.

“I’m not an expert. I reached out to a contact in the materials field with more technical know-how than I have when it comes to weapons and the finer details of MIL-STD-810,” the other man replied. “He’s on a business trip for a few days, said he’d get back to me when he’s back in town in a day or two—as soon as he does, I’ll let you know. All I will say is, those specs looked off to me.”

“Thanks, Tex.” Nick’s tone was grim—even without the details, Tex’s reply was not what he’d wanted to hear.

“Okay. So, what we’ve got is a missing accountant, some financial records and contracts for an arms manufacturer that don’t look right, and specifications for some of their products that look like they don’t meet the standard. Gotta say, I got a bad feeling about this,” Ghost commented.

“You’re not the only one,” Nick responded.

Taking everything into account—his own findings from examining the financial records, the growing list of points of concern already raised by Spectrum’s general counsel, and what Tex and Ghost had to say, everything pointed to a situation that was potentially much worse than he’d originally imagined.

“I need to talk to Charles Markham. It’s imperative I track him down and find out what the hell he’s up to.”

“Nick, you know you could just hand it all over to the FBI, let them deal with it,” Ghost suggested. “You could be letting yourself in for a whole world of pain.”

“I know.” It was an opinion shared by former DEA agent Rachel Thompson when Nick had first consulted her. “That would be the sensible thing to do. It’s what my head tells me to do.”

“But your gut disagrees.”

Ghost understood him too well. “For Taylor’s sake, if her father’s been doing what I think he’s been doing, I want him to have a chance to hand himself in. Tex, what are the chances of finding him, given he’s gone into hiding?”

“Depends whether he’s gone off grid or not. If he has, I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s not going to be easy. I got a feeling an accountant from New York City’s not going do that. At least, not for long. You really think he’s the bad guy in all this?”

“I don’t know. And I don’t know for sure he’s a good guy, either.”