Epilogue
EPILOGUE
A t his desk, August smiled at the text from Gigi. As much as he hated being away from her, he loved coming home from work to her every night. And fuck, he loved receiving her flirty—and sometimes salty—messages during the day.
Today they were flirty and he was all over that shit.
It’d been over a month since everything had gone down with the cartel, and each day put the past further and further behind them. Each day was confirmation that she was safe and they could move forward.
August lifted his head as Rami appeared in the doorway, a cup of coffee in hand. “What’s up?” August asked, putting down his phone.
“I figured you were heading home so I wanted to tell you we got the Arnold case. Brick’s gonna take it, though, so you can have the weekend off.”
Exactly what he’d needed to hear. And he could already hear bedsprings squeaking and Gigi’s moans in his head. “Nice. Thanks.”
“Dana’s still here finishing up some things, but I’ll be clocking out last so I’ll close up. See ya.” He rapped his knuckles on the doorframe then crossed the hall to his office and shut the door.
Nearly 5:00 p.m., it was time for August to leave. He moved his mouse to shut down his computer, but an email notification made him hesitate. Clicking on it, he instantly straightened.
The email was from Dare.
Hey, sorry for the wait. It took quite a while to use facial recognition on someone last seen nearly three years ago—practically fucking impossible. But I found an image of a man who matches Zain’s facial analysis. Could be a dud. But check it out. Not sure I can be of any more help.
Dare
August stared at the photo. It was relatively clear, but the man wore a keffiyeh on his head and the shot was of his profile. Nonetheless, the man’s features were damn similar to Zain’s. August looked at the date on the image. The photo had been captured two-and-a-half years ago. He slumped and rubbed his temple.
It was probably a dead end. Fuck.
But if Zain had been alive then, there was a possibility he was alive now. Or not. Either way, it was the most helpful piece of information they’d found since Rami told August about his missing brother.
August opened the file he’d created for Zain months ago and brought up his driver’s license photo. He lined up the two images side by side.
Holy shit.
The resemblance was uncanny. August rubbed his fingers together. He hadn’t told Rami he’d asked Dare for help, nor had he had any solid leads to share until now. Thing was, he didn’t want to give Rami any false hope. He needed more intel. Especially considering how old the image was.
He’d much rather show Rami something recent.
Rami would never stop searching for Zain. He didn’t talk about his brother very much, but August suspected that on some of the nights he stayed late, he was doing research, trying to find out who’d taken Zain—and if they’d killed him. He needed closure.
He hadn’t had much time to work on finding Zain, but now that there could be a lead, he needed to dig more. Only he didn’t have the resources Dare did, and it seemed Dare felt as though he’d exhausted his efforts.
Maybe there was a better option. Someone who wasn’t as personally invested. Someone who had skills and connections.
He hit print and waited for the machine to spit out his findings. Then August stuffed the papers in a folder and made his way to Dana’s office. Over the last month he’d gotten to know Taschen’s sister. She was both extremely skilled and a conscientious hard worker. He knocked on her door.
“Come in,” Dana called.
“Got a sec?” When Dana nodded, he walked in and closed the door behind him.
Her neatly arched dark eyebrows drew together. “Everything okay?”
Tapping the file in his palm, he nodded. “Uh, yeah. Just heading home, but I wanted to ask you something.”
She leaned forward on her desk, her striking blue eyes lit with interest. “Shoot.”
He took a seat, flipped open the file, and passed it to her. The first page was an image of Zain’s driver’s license photo. Of Lebanese descent, Zain and Rami both had olive-toned skin as well as thick facial hair and a similar bone structure, but their eyes were drastically different. Zain’s were golden whereas Rami’s were blue. August slid out the page with the side-by-side images.
Dana’s expression turned serious. “Who is this?”
“Zain. Rami’s brother.”
She inhaled sharply. “The missing one? Did you find him?”
August shook his head. “No. But I want to. I know Rami’s looking, and I think we need more people on the case. I had a contact working on this, but he doesn’t think he can do more than he has, and this photo is two-and-a-half years old. I want something recent before I present this to Rami.”
Sympathy filled her eyes, and she picked up the picture. “You want my help?”
“I think we need your help.” He tilted his head. “You were FBI.”
Her mouth twitched and she blinked. “Yeah. That feels like a lifetime ago, but I still have colleagues I can reach out to.”
She swished her lips to the side then tucked her long, dark hair behind her ear. “Tell me more. When did he go missing?” She picked up a pen and a notepad.
August scratched his head. “Uh, about three years ago.”
“Where?”
“Middle east. He was working a black-ops mission and was kidnapped.”
Her intense eyes fixated on him. “And they don’t know who took him?”
He shrugged. “Terrorists.” He cleared his throat. “They murdered his whole team but, for some reason, took him.”
“Wow,” she mouthed. A stunned breath followed. “This is wild,” she said, flipping through the pages of the file.
“Think you can help?”
She flashed a smile. “No promises, but leave it with me.”
August got to his feet. “Thanks. I appreciate it.” He paused at the door. “Look, Rami doesn’t talk about Zain much. I think he’s afraid of a dead end when it comes to finding him. So maybe don’t mention it unless we get a solid lead.”
“Of course. Say hi to Gigi for me.”
“I will. She’s got Parmesan chicken cooking, so I need to head home before it gets cold.”
Dana chucked. “That sounds a helluva lot better than my leftovers.” She gave a little wave. “See ya Monday.”
For a moment, he watched Dana. She spread out the pages of the file on her desk, an earnest look in her sharp and determined gaze. August hoped to hell Taschen was right about how skilled she was.
If so, they might just have a shot at finding Zain.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Zain...