Chapter 30
Grayson
I watched Carrie’s dot on my phone for a few more moments as she made her way to the store before I looked back at my computer screen. Last week, I had Jake ship me a desktop and bought a simple desk to set up in the spare bedroom. If I was going to stay with Carrie long-term, I needed a place to work. The laptop wasn’t enough, not now.
So, I’d set up shop in the pink room, and over the last week, the color was starting to grow on me.
My eyes scanned the image of the mystery woman on the traffic camera filling the screen in front of me. Her facial features were sharp, but the overall image was grainy. No matter what trick Jake tried to do, nothing could help sharpen the picture. Then again, this town was over a decade behind in terms of technology. I looked down at my notes, reading over what we were able to pull on Robert Hale—which wasn’t much. We’d been at this for over two weeks, and never, in the history of Red Snake, had it been this hard to find information. There was one man who would be able to give us the answers we needed and Hayes was in-route to visit him right now.
Carrie’s father: ex-mayor Bradley Gelling.
Robert Hale, the good boy on paper. The more time went on, the more worried my men and I became. Jake had scanned his medical records; Robert’s parents moved from Philly to St. Louis after Robert graduated high school, taking his other siblings with him. None of them were alive today. According to what Jake found, Robert’s brother, Brandon, died in a car crash three years ago. The toxicology report noted heavy amounts of drugs in his system. Their little sister, Amy, died shortly after the Hales uprooted their life from a complicated case of the flu. She was only ten years old.
Jake and Hayes had been looking into Robert’s education, discovering that the high school he graduated from wasn’t, in fact, a public high school at all. It was a small private school, only accepting fifty new students every year, so his brother, who was only a year younger than Robert, went to a public school. He was just set to start his senior year when their parents decided to follow Robert to college—in St. Louis.
Dominic was on his way to St. Louis right now to get some more information out of the Hales. All three of their children were dead, and according to social media, they didn’t care; they were only focused on the country club they joined. Amara Harrison had her suspicions about the Hale family, but she never pursued the lead due to office politics. So I trusted Dominic to get us some answers.
However, Carrie’s evil, twisted fuck of a father might not be as forthcoming as I expected the Hales to be.
As I glanced at Carrie’s location on my phone again, it started ringing.
Jake Murphy Calling.
“Grayson,” I answered, rubbing the back of my neck as I leaned back. I was on edge, had been for the last week. Things had been quiet on our end—too fucking quiet.
“We have a problem.”
No fucking shit.
“What’s going on?” I demanded.
“You were right about Robert Hale,” Jake declared, his voice dark.
“What did you find?” I asked, leaning forward again as Jake took over my screen, pulling up the information he found.
“Robert Hale was having an affair,” he said as my eyes landed on a cell phone call log. Thousands of them, all from Robert’s old phone to one single number. My eyes snapped to the time the calls were made, and I bit off a curse, nearly all the calls were made during Carrie’s morning workouts and after she went to sleep.
My eyes sliced to Carrie’s file, landing on her wedding photo. “ Christ, ” I hissed as rage stirred inside me, my mind trying to connect the dots.
Jake pulled up a picture of a brunette next, her face awfully similar to the woman who had—
“The woman stalking Carrie is Robert’s fucking lover, ” Jake cut through my thoughts. “They went to that private high school together, and when he moved to St. Louis, not only did his family follow, but she did as well. They’ve been in a relationship since they were teenagers, Gray.”
“Fuck,” I bit off, pushing back from the desk. I pinched the bridge of my nose, taking a breath. “I need her fucking name, Murphy.”
“Monica Larks, thirty-one years old,” Jake said, his voice filled with something I couldn’t figure out.
Larks.
I knew that fucking name. I’d seen it over a hundred times— in Carrie’s file .
My head snapped up, and I snatched Carrie’s file off the desk, flipping to page twenty-five. My eyes dropped to the halfway point, my gut twisting painfully. “She’s on the rehab roster.”
Monica was one of Carrie’s damn nurses.
She had been biding her time, waiting for the right moment to strike. A jealous lover. “She’s been watching Carrie since Robert’s death,” I concluded, slapping the file on the desk with a growl before turning to grab my gun from the safe.
I need to get to Carrie.
I need to get to Carrie.
I need to get to Carrie.
“We’ve tracked Monica’s cell. She’s in Portland, staying in a cheap motel off of Highway 30, and she’s been in contact with an East Coast number almost daily.”
“Run that fucking number,” I growled, pulling open the safe.
“The number is linked to a moving company in Jersey,” he told me almost immediately.
I braced my hands on the desk, looking at the computer as Jake brought up a small Mom and Pop moving company. “Get me eyes on the building,” I ordered, looking at it on the map. “I want to know who owns it.”
Jake didn’t respond, but I could hear his fingers flying over his keyboard. “You want me to call in the drone?” he asked for confirmation.
“Let me get Hayes on the line,” I said, pulling my phone away as I added him to the call.
“Mitchell,” Hayes answered.
“You got me and Jake on the line. He’s activating the drone. You in a place to control it?” I asked.
“What’s going on?” Hayes demanded.
“The woman stalking Carrie is her dead husband’s lover,” Jake explained and then repeated the information he’d just told me to Hayes.
On the other end of the line, I heard a door open and close. “Give me five minutes,” Hayes stated firmly.
“You have two,” I returned, zooming in on the Google image of the moving company in Jersey. The image was fuzzy, not to mention over five years old.
Did Red Snake investigation have a “retired” military UAV drone? Yes.
Should we have it? Absolutely fucking not, but someone owed Hayes a favor and he cashed it in.
Was it illegal? Fuck yes.
Did I give a fuck? No.
Did my guys give a fuck? No.
“I’ll send it out, Grayson, but you need to get Carrie out of Astoria now,” Jake said, cutting into my thoughts. “Bring her here.”
I shoved the gun into the back of my jeans. “No, she can’t go there. Larks has been watching her, which means she knows about us. That would be the first place she’ll look—” I cut myself off as an idea hit me. “I’ll call you back.” I made my way into the living room as I dialed Mags.
It was in the middle of the day, but it was also winter. I held onto that thought as the phone rang four times. When he finally answered, I gave him everything as I packed a bag for Carrie and me. My eyes shot to Tic-Tac, who was curled up in the middle of our bed. Carrie would have to ask Sarah to take care of him for now.
We had to get out of town.
I had to get to Carrie. I pulled the phone away from my face and checked her location as Mags began to speak. She was still at the General Store. She’d been there for a few minutes, but she was probably talking to the couple who owned it. They were good people, but they did love to chat.
For right now, she was safe, and that was all that mattered.
“Bring her to Hallow Ranch,” Mags offered, his voice dark. “She’ll be protected here. You have my fucking word on that, Grayson.”
That was why I called him.
“Give Denver a heads up,” I said. That last thing we needed was Denver Langston pissed off for showing up at his ranch like it was some five star hotel.
“No need; you both can stay in my cabin,” my friend confirmed. “I have a spare room.”
I nodded to myself and headed down the stairs. “We’ll be there by midnight,” I assured him.
“Roger that.”
I shoved my phone into my pocket and yanked open the front door to find the last person I expected to see standing on Carrie’s porch.
Sarah Humbly.
Her hair was knotted on top of her head, and she was dressed in PJ’s, rain boots, and an overcoat that looked like it belonged to Michael. Her car was running, parked on the side of the road, and I could see her twins staring at the house. Sarah’s face was flushed, tears in her eyes, her body trembling.
“Grayson,” she breathed, her voice cracking.
My world began to spin. “Where’s Carrie?”
Sarah’s face crumbled. “She’s gone!” she screamed. “Someone came into the General Store and kidnapped her! Michael is there now. They—they shot Jimmy in the leg, Martha in the shoulder, and then grabbed Carrie!” She put her hands into her hair, her chest heaving as the beginning of a panic attack began to wash over her.
My heart exploded, pain searing through my body like hot pokers. I closed my eyes for a moment, grinding my molars. Panic wasn’t going get my woman back. Now wasn’t the time to feel.
It was time to be the man I’d always been.
I opened my eyes, pulled out my phone, and called Red Snake as I tried to keep my emotions at bay, Sarah pacing in front of me.
Ash answered on the second ring. “What do you need?” he asked.
“Red Snake,” I said into the phone, pain sparking through my body as fear coiled around my neck. “We have a code: Red fucking Snake. ”