Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
ARMY OF brOTHERS
The next morning, after sex, doggie break (my turn), coffee and date and peanut butter smoothies, Knox told me Cap was taking him into the office that morning.
We then made plans for me to pick him up for his doctor’s appointment, and if he got the all-clear, we’d go by his place so he could get his truck.
Even if Cap was his ride, he still walked me down to my car.
My run-in with his mother was annoying, but for me, it wasn’t that big of a deal.
He still was not taking any chances.
So many reasons to love my guy.
Tex’s special, as announced by the window, was s’more, and the illustration for the first time didn’t look that bad. I wasn’t sure he needed to add the fire when this s’more would come in coffee form, but it worked.
I turned in, parked, went in, stowed my bag, tied on my apron, headed out, and stopped dead when I saw Tex not making coffee in the cubby.
No.
He was sitting at Byron’s table with Byron and Tito.
This had never happened.
As such, this didn’t give me a good feeling because, even though, in very different ways, Tex and Tito were father-esque figures to all of us girls, and Dream worked weekends, so she was one of the girls, I didn’t think this was a them-sitting-him-down-and-asking-his-intentions chat.
I knew it wasn’t when Tex looked over his shoulder at me.
He had a lot of beard.
I could still see his face.
And it was serious.
Raye wasn’t in yet. Willow was probably helping in the cubby. We were barely open so there wasn’t anyone sitting at a table.
Those weren’t the reasons I rushed over to them.
“What?” I asked.
“Sit, Luna, please,” Tito said, giving up his seat for me.
But he stood by the table even after I sat down.
I didn’t know who to look at, but since we were in Byron’s space, I looked at him.
“What?”
“Cynthia Chambers fell off the face of the earth twenty-two years ago,” Byron said.
I wasn’t following.
“I’m sorry?”
“Knox’s mom ceased to exist twenty-two years ago,” Byron essentially repeated.
“That tracks. That’s about when she left them,” I said. “Sorry, you might not know, but she left Knox and his brothers and sister when he was eleven.”
“And she fell off the face of the earth,” Byron drove home.
“I don’t know why you keep telling me that,” I said.
Tito slid in next to Byron. “Luna, love, a woman can leave her husband, but she’ll still leave a footprint.”
It was hitting me.
“Nothing?” I asked Byron.
He shook his head. “No renewed driver’s license. No bank accounts. No credit cards. No taxes filed. No property holdings. No license plate registrations. No divorce proceedings. Not even any change of name petitions. Nothing.”
“I saw her. She got into a BMW. She was dressed really nice,” I told them.
No one said anything.
“So what does this mean?” I asked.
“One, that wasn’t Knox’s mom who you saw, or two, she’s so far off the grid, the grid forgot she existed,” Byron said.
Could some crazy lady be running around pretending to be Knox’s mom?
“She met with him,” I mumbled. “In Denver.”
And he would know her.
But he didn’t see the woman I saw.
“This is her driver’s license picture from back then,” Byron said, and turned his laptop to me.
It was her.
And I was right, she’d aged well. She certainly hadn’t struggled through life after she left her kids behind. A woman didn’t keep skin like hers unless she ate well, lived well and had regular spa visits.
“That’s her,” I confirmed.
The men exchanged looks.
I started to feel cold.
“Byron’s taking this to the men,” Tex grunted. “You got any other questions before he goes?”
“Wouldn’t they have vetted Knox pretty thoroughly when he started with them?” I asked.
“Mother out of the picture, not in his life, not for a long time, yeah. Probably. But when they didn’t find much, because of that and because Knox didn’t care to find her himself, they probably didn’t look any deeper,” Tex said. “Especially why she left.”
“Battered women, undoubtedly particularly those whose spouses are a criminal element, find new identities,” Byron explained.
“Did you find evidence of a new identity?” I queried.
He shook his head. “And I looked. But just to say, a new identity is put in place for precisely this reason. So no one can find you. I would assume, since Knox certainly told them of his family history, they would assume this was the reason she left no footprint.”
He was making sense, but I didn’t like this.
Something was hinky about it.
She told Knox she had no money and that was why she kept away.
But didn’t new identities cost a lot of money?
She introduced herself to me as Cynthia Chambers.
And if she was so keen to stay away from Knox’s dad, and stayed away because she thought he was a danger to her, would she get even as close as Phoenix to him?
Especially if Gypsy was talking to her, and shit was going down with that whole crew.
If there was ever a hazardous time to be around a Chambers, it was now.
“He needs to get to the boys, Luna. You got any questions?” Tex prompted.
I shook my head.
Byron slammed his laptop closed.
Tito slid out.
“I’ll get you a dirty chai for the road,” I told Byron.
He nodded.
I hustled behind the bar and got started on his chai.
Raye wandered in while I was doing that.
She felt the vibe immediately and came to me.
“What’s going on?”
I looked over my shoulder at Byron then to her. “I asked Byron to look into Knox’s mom. He couldn’t find anything on her. Not a thing.”
“So she disappeared. That isn’t news,” Raye said.
“Nothing, Raye. No trace,” I replied.
“Is that weird?” she asked softly.
“I’m making Byron’s dirty chai to go because he’s going to NI&S. So yeah. That’s weird.”
She pressed her lips together.
I gave Byron his chai.
He took off.
“Hold the fort?” I asked.
She nodded.
I slipped back to the employee room and pulled out my phone.
I called Knox.
“Hey, gorgeous,” he greeted.
“Hey, honey, um…well, just to say, I wanted to maybe get on top of your mom sitch in case something happened with that, so I asked Byron to look into her.”
“Coulda saved you the trouble. Brody did a deep dive into her when they were vetting me.”
Good to know.
However…
“Byron’s coming in,” I informed him. “He, Tex and Tito are tweaked that there isn’t more on her.”
“I know. She erased herself.”
“Entirely?”
“Brody couldn’t find anything, so yeah.”
“You don’t think this is weird?”
“I think Dad was pissed she left. He’s an asshole, but he didn’t marry her because she was good at laundry. He loved her. He didn’t want her to go. I think she probably knew he’d look for her so she took care. I explained this to the guys.”
I didn’t reply.
“You’re tweaked,” he noted.
“I’m tweaked because Tex, Tito and Byron are tweaked.”
“They should have called and asked me. I would have—” he stopped talking abruptly.
“What?” I prompted.
He didn’t say anything.
“Knox?” I called.
“Brody is really good with computers.”
“I know.”
“But Byron ferrets out terrorists.”
A chill slid down my spine.
“Fuck,” he bit off.
“So what you’re saying is, if he can’t find her…” I started it.
“…shit is hinky,” he finished it.
“Byron’s on his way,” I promised.
“Gotcha. I’ll tell the men.”
“I’ll let you go.”
“All right, baby. Love you. See you soon.”
“You will. Love you too, Knox.”
We hung up.
Willow came into the locker room.
“Raye’s dealing with some customers, but she sent me in to see if you’re good.” She studied me. “You good?”
“There’s something hinky with Knox’s mom.”
Her eyes rounded then they got pissed. “You guys don’t need any more nonsense.”
She could say that again.
“I asked Byron to look into her. He didn’t find anything. That’s weird, so he’s going to NI&S to talk to them about it,” I shared.
She came to me and slid her arm along my waist. “That’s good, honey. It’s in the right hands then.”
I hoped so.
But something was off.
None of it fit together.
Okay, sure, a woman escapes a dangerous husband, that tracks.
But a Jason Bourne-level disappearing act?
I had no answers. I just had feelings.
So the only thing I could do was go to work.
And that was what I did.
* * *
I circumvented the whole “pick me up outside” thing of Knox’s by leaving work extra early and driving downtown.
I parked under NI&S’s building, made sure I had my ticket so Marjorie could validate it (their parking cost a whack), and headed up to the offices.
The minute I entered the mothership was the first time I felt okay all day, or all day after my chat with Tex, Tito and Byron.
That was because, between the kickass lighting, the bronze statue of a Phoenix in the corner, and the sleek, expensive furniture, the offices of Nightingale Security & Investigation screamed, We have a shedload of money because we earn your money because we get the job done!
They got the job done.
I blew out a breath.
Marjorie, behind the receptionist desks, snapped, “He’s been here all day.”
I walked up to the desk. “Hey.”
She didn’t return my greeting.
“I know you’re here to take him to his follow-up appointment, but I’ll have it on record that means his follow-up hasn’t happened yet, and therefore he’s still not officially cleared for work, and he’s been here six hours.”
“I feel your pain, sister,” I lied.
Her face got pointy.
The door to the bridge of this particular Enterprise (that being the door that led to the inner workings, including Mace’s office, Shirleen’s office, the control room, the shared office the men used that only had two desks because the men hated desk work so avoided it like the plague, a conference room, their workout room, which was the room the men used the most and was the size of three of Mace’s offices—and his office wasn’t small—a locker/shower room, a kitchen/break room, an equipment room, along with several empty rooms that were “room to grow—and yes, the Angels had previously been given a tour).
Out of that door strutted Shirleen.