Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86240 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
He said he’d look at security feeds of the garage based on an anonymous report that someone saw something funny happening. He agreed for me not to send in my report but to write it down and save it, leaving a time stamp of when I did it. With Ruin’s wealth and influence, it was likely he had someone in the bureau working against us. The question was how high up the person was.
I called Kelsey to relay the events. She put Griffin on the phone.
“What the hell, lassie.” It was the first time I’d ever heard Griffin speak with a Scottish accent. “Yer going to get my balls blown off. Shawn is in a shite mood.”
“If Shawn has something to say, he can come say it to me himself.”
Griffin grumbled something I didn’t understand. “Ye should have stayed in New York.”
“I couldn’t stay there forever, now could I?”
“Women,” Griffin mumbled.
“You love us,” I teased.
“Women, sure. They keep me bed warm. Ye, not so much. Shawn would kill me if I thought of ye as anything more than a little sister. Now, what did ye tell the feds?” There wasn’t a hint of flirtiness coming from him. Things were serious. So I told him what I said and what I should say. He had ideas too.
When I hung up, I wondered if Shawn would show up at my door.
31
MATT
My immediate reaction to the news that Tayla had left New York was to find a way to intercept the plane. Then I considered confronting her at the airport. I did neither.
The safest option for Tayla was me not being around.
Not a day later, I reconsidered my options. Someone had tried to kill her. The likely suspect was Ruin. But how would he know she was back in town? I thought back to my call with Cortez. He could have passed on that information that I’d cut Tayla loose to Ruin. Then Ruin could have used his resources to find out where she lived. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know her name.
I ground my teeth.
“Matt, are you still there?”
For a second, I’d forgotten I was on the phone. “Yeah, I’m here.”
“Did you hear me when I said I think I’ve pinned down the shell company he’s using?”
I hadn’t. Connor had been looking for years for a company tied to Ruin or his cronies. “What did you find?”
Connor was a genius hacker, and I wouldn’t doubt anything he said. “When I heard that Ruin called the women he’d kidnapped chattel, it reminded me of when you said at the auction he’d called the girls fillies. I began searching for horse farms, cattle farms, or livestock auction houses that weren’t attached to legitimate farms or ranch addresses in this area, and I found one.”
“What’s the name?” I asked.
“Check it. Niur Auction House.”
“Okay,” I said, not immediately getting it.
“Niur is Ruin backward.”
“Damn. Not original, but yeah, he’s full of himself.”
“Not original because he isn’t the first to invert a name, but clearly, it worked. I’ve been searching for him for years.”
“Are you sure it’s him?” I asked.
“Not a hundred percent, but enough to follow the trail. The company lists an auction. Time is nine at night. Suspicious for an animal auction.”
“But not for what he considers livestock,” I added.
“Exactly.”
“I think we can use this,” I said and laid out for him what I was thinking.
When I finished, he said, “And what about Tayla?”
Tayla had been in my every waking thought. “What about her?”
“Matt, Kalen and I have been in your position before. Don’t fuck this up.”
“I’d rather her be alive and hate me than dead.” Because I had no plans of talking to or seeing her until this was over.
“You haven’t called? So she doesn’t know?”
“I know the bureau. They have her place bugged and not because of anything she’s done. They are hoping to catch Ruin, hell, maybe even me. My handler thinks I’ve gone so deep undercover I can’t see daylight. I can’t risk anything we talk about being overheard.”
“Do you want me to get her a message?” he asked.
“No.” But I did have another question. “Do you know if she’s seen a doctor about the baby?” It had only been a few days, but it was possible.
“I haven’t, but if I hear, I’ll pass it along.”
“Thanks, brother,” I said because our friendship felt that close.
“No problem. You ought to know your nephew loves his shirt.” That made me grin. “He points to it and utters Unc Matty, but I think he’s just repeating what Lizzy says.”
“I wish I’d gotten to see him when I was in New York.”
“Don’t worry. Lizzy will send you enough videos. It’s like you're there.”
That made me think of my kid again. “Hey, I was thinking about buying a place here in Chicago.” My studio didn’t belong to me, and it wasn’t big enough for a couple, let alone a kid. “I’m hoping you can do what you did with your places, so no one knows I own it.”