5. Bex
Chapter Five
BEX
Slipping my feet back into the unforgiving fuck-me heels, I admired my self in the mirror. Even though I was a little softer around the middle since I left the army, I still took my training seriously and was probably more fit after all the physical therapy than I had been in my life.
My darkwash jeans was a little tighter, my black tank top a little clingier. With my hair hanging over my shoulders, I hoped to knock Logan off his feet.
I slid into my hatch back and pulled back out of the driveway at Forte Femme.
The name brought a smile to my face. My sister-in-law Cassie owned the manor and lived there until she married my youngest brother, Jake.
Since I met her, the house had been a home to some formidable women, including two more of my sisters in law.
While the drive to Logan’s was not too far, I did take my time. I wanted to calm my mind before I got there. We may have been hooking up for the first time as adults, but it was so much more than that. He was my person. In a different way I thought Curtis was.
Logan made me smile. He made me feel beautiful and important. Like I was a priority. Something I never had before. I mean my family loved me. But they had other things happening. As they should.
My cellphone ringing pulled me from my thoughts.I frowned at the name on the screen. Why on earth would Tex be calling me?
I rarely had any contact with the man. The last time I needed something from him, I got my sisters-in-law to handle it.
I pressed connect on the console. “Hello.”
“Bex.”
“Tex.”
He huffed a chuckle before speaking. “So there’s been some trouble brewing.”
“And you’re calling me?” Surely Nick was his point of contact. “This cannot be a good thing.”
“As far as I know, the last thing you’d want me to do is contact Nick about this particular brand of trouble.”
Oh shit. That could only mean one thing. Or one person
“Tex. What is happening?” Every cell in the body seized. My breath lodged in my throat. My knuckle paled around the steering wheel.”
“Dominic Bayers ran away from a safehouse in San Francisco.” There was so much to unpack about that state.
“I don’t have time for all the details now.
But the last I could track, he was on a bus to San Diego.
I can see a few Rideshares from the bus depot in SD to Marina De Ferrier.
Only one was cash. Stopped at Bowzer’s. Then another car was ordered from there.
Also cash. That one stopped at the corner of Main and Castlegate. ”
“Logan.” His building was on that corner. And considering I was on Castlegate, I could only imagine that was where the child was headed. “I’m on my way there now.”
“Bex whatever anyone tells you, or how they make it seem.” Tex’s voice was low and menacing. “Dominic’s instinct to run away was correct. I’ll let him tell you the details. If you need more, call me later.”
The line went dead, and I took the turn onto Main without taking my foot off the gas.
I was just pulling into the visitor’s parking when my phone rang.
I was on the list of people allowed in the building because of my Salinger Security credentials, so the guard didn’t have to call upstairs.
Seeing Logan’s name flash across my screen had my belly flipping for all the wrong reasons.
I pressed the answer button on my steering wheel as I picked a spot as close to the entrance as I could.
“Is he safe?”
The low growl did not do what it normally did to me but it was the pause that followed that had me concerned. “Bex, we have a bit of a situation.”
Unlike me and my siblings, Logan was not prone to melodrama. I switched off the car and pulled the phone to my ear. “I know. Is he safe?”
I heard a baby’s whimper in the background and pulled the phone away and checked we were still connected, frowning as I held the phone back to my ear.
“For now. How far are you?”
“I’m here. I just parked.” She slid out of the car and closed the door.
“I’ll tell you when you get up here.”
The original plan was to calmly make my way upstairs. There was no need to panic. I was Ranger, for fuck’s sake. I could keep my cool. The urgency and concern in his tone changed things though. I left my bag on the backseat and slipped the phone into my pocket.
It didn’t take more than a few minutes and an uneventful elevator ride to find myself knocking on Logan’s door.
The sight that met me as Logan opened the door had my breath hitching and I couldn’t help the gasp that passed my lips.
He held a hiccupping toddler? An image of all the baggage between us hung like a neon light over his head.
Who was the kid? Was he connected to Dominic?
Was it a patient? That was probably the case.
I’d overheard him complaining about how his fellow tenants knocked at odd hours instead of going to the ER.
“Something you want to tell me, Lo?”
“Lots, come in.”
I stepped inside and froze. A teenage boy held a baby while the little boy in Logan’s arms could not be more than three years old. “Bex, this is Dominic Bayers. He is holding his sister, and I’m holding his brother.”
“Dominic? Thank God, you’re safe.” My brain stalled at the overload of information. Nothing about this situation was right. “Tex just called to let me know you ran away from a safehouse?”
I stared at Logan as he placed the little boy on the black faux marble kitchen counter and picked up his medical bag. “Who’s Tex?”
“Not important, right now.” Something was wrong. My baby boy had gone to a childless couple. As far as I knew, the couple couldn’t have children of their own. “Okay, someone needs to make all the dots connect, explain to me what is going on. Slowly, like I’m stupid.”
The kid hitched the baby in his arms. His cheeks were hollow, but it was the emptiness in his eyes that worried me. “Two weeks ago, my mother and stepfather were murdered in front of me. Well, not actually in front of me since I didn’t see who did it. I was hiding upstairs.”
Oh my God. That was worse than anything I could imagine.
I glanced over at Logan and swallowed hard.
There was a big chunk of the story I missed since I knew nothing about a stepfather and siblings but my heart ached for the boy in front of me.
“I am so sorry you lost her and that you had to see that.” I squared my shoulders and motioned for him to sit next to me on the dark gray sectional couch, while Logan checked the little boy.
I loved watching him do the doctor thing, but I had bigger things to deal with.
Dominic came to Logan, so he had obviously accessed the adoption records somehow. I didn’t think he was looking for replacement parents but he’d come to the right place. I could be exactly what he needed under the circumstances. “You want to tell me what happened?”
Dominic sat next to me, moving the baby to lie on his chest with her head on his shoulder, in much the same way I’d seen my brothers hold their kids. “It happened two weeks ago.”
“Okay.” I nodded. He seemed to be struggling with what to say so I prompted him. “Start at the beginning. Even if it seems insignificant.”
“My stepdad had scolded me and rushed me to do my homework. He’d been moody all afternoon. Then when Landon and Victoria had gone to bed, he urged me to do the same.”
The kid swallowed and Logan brought the toddler back with a lollipop in his fist. He placed the little boy between Dominic and me. Logan held his arms out for the little girl, but Dominic tightened his arms on her.
“Just let me check her over, and make sure her cries are just hunger or missing your mother. Was your mom still breastfeeding?”
Dominic shook his head. “She struggled and the doctors said it might have something to do with her having a kid so late. She had no trouble with Landy.”
He handed the baby over to Logan but his gaze remained on little Victoria.
I needed to get all the information while everyone in the room still had their emotions under control. “You were telling me your stepfather was agitated when he chased you to bed. Then what happened?”
Dominic frowned and, in that moment, he looked so much like Logan, I stifled a smile. “I didn’t go to sleep. Ever since my stepdad moved in, he thought he could boss me around like he was my father, but I’m not a kid. I know how to manage my time. Instead, I stayed up and read.”
And there was the Salinger stubbornness. I didn’t think he would like to know that, so I motioned for him to continue. “You didn’t stay in bed, did you?”
He nodded. “I heard a car outside, and looked out the window. My Dad had taught me to look out from the side of the window so I wasn’t easily spotted. My room was dark so they couldn’t see in as clearly as I could see out.”
Smart kid. It was something I learned from Logan long before the military had taught me the same thing. “Only one car?”
“Yes.” He pulled his brother onto his lap. The little boy stuck a thumb in his mouth and burrowed into Dominic. “Three men got out of the car. Two out of the backseat and one out of the front passenger seat.”
I nodded. So, there were four in total counting the driver. “Did they knock, ring the bell?”
“I don’t remember hearing it. There was a noise, a bang like something fell, my mom screamed. I remember hoping Landy and Vic stayed asleep and I crept along the hallway.”
“Dominic,” I scolded and the little boy startled in his brother’s arms. I dropped my voice to a harsh whisper. “Sorry, but that was really dangerous.”
He nodded and looked away. “I heard a gunshot and did what we were taught to do at school, I dropped to the ground. But I needed to get to them.” He dipped his chin to his brother.
“So, I crawled along the hallway, and as I passed the staircase, my mom lying at the bottom. My stepdad was still arguing but I couldn’t see the men.
I heard another two gunshots, but I was already outside the nursery.
One of the men said he was going to check upstairs. ”
For the first time that stoic facade cracked. Tears welled in his eyes. “I was so scared. Then I heard sirens, and I thought at least Landon and Victoria would be safe even if they found me. But they heard them too and ran out before they had a chance to look upstairs.
I stood and shook out my limbs as the full weight of what the kid was carrying suddenly overwhelmed me. “What you’re saying is that you’re the sole witness to a double homicide?”
“But I didn’t see it. My mom was on the ground and I heard the shots, but I don’t know anything.”
“Dominic, sweetie.” The kid stiffened for some reason.
I looked over at Logan knowing he was in just as much turmoil as me.
“You saw the men getting out of the car.
It doesn't matter who pulled the trigger. You know more than you think.” Another thought struck me and fear ricocheted through me. “Did you escape protective custody?”
He nodded while staring at his brother. “They found us at the safe house place we were put in. We were moved two days ago. And then I overheard a conversation that they were going to separate me from my brother and sister and I couldn’t do that.
I know it’s for their protection but they’re the only family I have, besides my grandmother. ”
I knelt in front of him. “You are not losing any more. Do you mind me asking what happened to your dad?”
“Cancer, six years ago.”
He didn’t need to say more. He had lost every parental figure he’d ever had, and he was forced to go to the ones who had given him up in the first place. “I take it you know what I do for a living.”
“Yes.” A half smile touched his lips. “I couldn’t find your address, so I came here instead.”
Okay, I still couldn’t lose it. There was lots to do. “Nothing’s happening tonight, so we’ll get some sleep. In the morning, I’ll get Jake to come here. I’m not leaving you guys unprotected. I’ll go and speak to my family. I have more questions but first I need to find out what we’re dealing with.”