Chapter Twenty-Two
SETH PAUSED, MARKER hovering over the paper. “Got something?”
“Maybe. I’m not sure this will go anywhere. Could be a coincidence.”
“You know how many coincidences we have in this business.”
Grant quoted one of Echo unit’s favorite sayings. “Between slim and none, and slim is out of town.”
“Give us five minutes, and we’ll finish the lists.” Seth glanced around the suite’s living room. “Wrap it up. Five minutes.”
“Copy that.”
Rayne moved a straight-backed chair from the small table and set it beside Grant’s recliner. “Will you tell me what you discovered, or do I have to wait?”
“I want to double-check a couple of things before I’ll be ready to talk about what I found.”
“Will you at least tell me if the information you ran across is connected to our list or one of the other lists?”
“Ours.”
Minutes later, he sat back, staring at the screen. This was not good. He had to be wrong. No, he wanted to be wrong. Perhaps one of his teammates had stumbled across a red flag like he had.
“We’re ready, Grant.” Seth joined his wife on the couch. “What did you find?”
“I’d like to hear what everyone else discovered first. Any objections?”
Echo’s leader glanced at Elias. “You first. What did you and Iona discover?”
“Three of our men made it home alive but died in suspicious circumstances. The fourth is still alive.”
“Yeah, but for how long?” Andre muttered. “From where I’m sitting, those aren’t good odds.”
“Chase Freeman knows something is up because he’s been off the grid for the past month,” Iona said. “We couldn’t find any trace of him. He hasn’t used credit or debit cards. No signs of him on social media.”
“That’s not unusual,” Seth said. “None of us has a social media presence. The people we went up against on missions have long memories. Advertising where we’re located makes tracking us down and exacting revenge too easy.”
“Understandable. However, before last month, Freeman used his cards for everything. He never used cash.”
“Something else interesting,” Elias said. “A month ago, Freeman’s wife and children abruptly moved to live with her parents.”
Wait a minute. Grant frowned. “That makes little sense. Chase and Kristi have been madly in love for more than a decade. You’re telling us they’re divorced?”
“There’s no record of a divorce or a legal separation.”
Silence filled the room.
“Chase sent his family away to protect them,” Rayne said. “But why would he send them to Kristi’s parents? Anyone who knows Chase would know to look for them there.”
“Kristi’s parents are ultra-wealthy.” Seth’s eyes narrowed.
“Brandon Corelli owns several tech companies, and all of their shares are hotly traded on the market. With that kind of wealth comes the need for extreme security measures. If Chase was worried about his family’s safety and felt the best way to protect them was to separate himself from them, he’d send his family to the Corelli estate. ”
“That coincides with what Seth and I found,” Teagan said. “Ellis Lindsey, Gino Savage, and Barry Fritz are all alive as far as we can tell, but they’ve dropped off the grid as well. Looks like they’re living a cash-and-carry lifestyle like their buddy Freeman is.”
Seth pointed at Andre. “You and Riley are next. Report.”
“All of our Special Forces soldiers went down during Red Dawn,” Andre replied.
“We found nothing suspicious about their deaths,” Riley said. “Just a result of poor information.”
Seth nodded and turned to Grant. “Your turn. Share with the class.”
What if he was wrong? He’d be smearing a good man’s name for nothing. “Three of our four soldiers made it home alive and died under suspicious circumstances in the past four weeks. The only one still alive is Rex Lawson. Beau Reed, Isaac Hill, and Hal Vance died during Red Dawn.”
“So what caught your attention?” Elias asked.
“Two things. Rex Lawson also went off the grid a month ago. No credit or debit cards. No trace of his cell phone. Nothing. What caught my attention was Hal Vance’s brother.”
Seth stilled. “Hal had a brother?”
Grant pointed at him. “That’s the first thing that caught my eye. None of us knew Hal had a brother.”
“We spent hours in the field with Hal,” Andre said. “He never hinted that he had a sibling.”
“I thought he was an only child,” Elias admitted. “I felt so bad for his parents when he passed during Red Dawn because I thought they’d lost their only child.”
“All of us thought the same,” Seth said. “So, who is Hal’s brother?”
“Ever heard of Donovan Vance?”
Each member of Echo froze. Teagan clamped a hand over her mouth, eyes wide.
“You’re kidding,” Andre muttered.
“No way.” Seth shook his head. “That can’t be right.”
“I double-checked the information. Donovan is Hal’s stepbrother.”
“What’s the big deal about Donovan Vance?” Riley asked. “Who is he?”
“One of the best snipers in the world,” Teagan said. “If you want someone dead, you send in Vance. He never misses.”
Seth glanced at his wife. “Have you met him?”
“I didn’t run in those elite circles when I was in the Army.”
“Know anything else about him?”
“Rumors say he has ice running through his veins. He never loses his cool on an op.”
“I heard he doesn’t show much emotion,” Andre said.
“He never shows emotion, on the job or off.” Teagan shuddered. “Vance is like a robot.”
“Creepy,” Iona murmured.
“Scary,” Teagan countered.
“Anything else you can tell us?” Seth asked.
“Not only is he an excellent shot, Vance is also known for his loyalty. As long as you don’t betray him, he’ll defend you to his last breath.”
Again, silence filled the room.
Grant shoved a hand through his hair. “The piece of information that caught my attention is that Donovan Vance was a Navy SEAL sniper.”
Elias gave a soft whistle.
“Oh, man,” Andre muttered. “You don’t want that guy after you for any reason.”
“If I’m right, we’re all on his hit list.”
“Why?” Seth scowled. “What did we do to him?”
“Not a thing except we let his stepbrother die on that mission.”
“His death wasn’t our fault,” Andre said.
“Donovan doesn’t agree with you.” Grant looked at his teammates. “Is anyone else on your list skilled enough to pull off these murders?”
Heads shook around the room.
Riley looked from one man to another. “What about the men who have gone off the grid?”
“They can pull this off just like all of us.” Andre wrapped his arm around her shoulders and tugged her against his side. “The soldiers aren’t as accurate with a rifle as Donovan, but they’re good enough to do this.”
“Wait a minute,” Iona said. “Didn’t we talk about the possibility of two shooters? If that guess is correct, who’s the second shooter?”
“You didn’t know about Donovan.” Rayne looked at Grant. “Is it possible there’s another sibling Hal didn’t talk about?”
His hand fisted. Had he missed another suspect? “I didn’t see one listed during my research.”
“Hal’s father passed away when he was in middle school,” Seth said. He rubbed his jaw. “I remember Hal talking about his mother marrying someone else when he started high school.”
“So it’s possible there is another sibling, a stepsister or brother.”
Grant’s gut knotted. “If so, someone buried that information deep because I didn’t see it.”
Iona studied him a moment. “There are a lot of moving pieces in this investigation, and members of Echo have been worried about whether their families are in danger.”
He shook his head. “That’s still not an excuse for missing an obvious suspect.”
“If he wasn’t buried under misdirection or an outright lie,” Iona insisted. “Not only were you and the rest of your teammates worried about your families, but you also had personal concerns for Rayne’s safety. Cut yourself some slack, Grant. We don’t get it right every time.”
But he didn’t make those kinds of mistakes. At least, not until now. Grant glanced at Andre, who scowled at him and inclined his head slightly toward Rayne.
He looked down at her and froze. Her gaze was locked on her clasped hands; her expression was one of misery. With all his griping and self-blame, he’d hurt Rayne. No doubt she thought he regretted officially beginning their relationship.
She couldn’t be more wrong. He would never regret having her in his life. He had to fix this. Now. Grant stood and held out his hand to Rayne.
Her eyebrows rose, but she put her hand in his and allowed him to tug her to her feet.
“We’ll be back in a few minutes,” Grant said into the silence that fell on the room. He led Rayne out the French doors onto the balcony, guiding the love of his life to the right corner where they were safe from curious gazes inside the suite and outside the hotel.
He faced Rayne. “I’m sorry.”
“For what? You did nothing wrong.”
But she said those words with no emotion. Yeah, he’d royally screwed up and had to make this right. “I could have expressed myself better while talking to the others. Baby, I never meant to imply you were to blame for me missing a second shooting suspect. That wasn’t on you. It’s totally on me.”
“But I am a distraction. Even Brent warned you about that possibility.”
He shook his head. “It’s my responsibility to stay focused.” He cupped her face between his palms. “I take full responsibility for missing any details I should have picked up on the first pass.”
Grant tugged her gently into his arms and simply held her against his chest for a few minutes. When her body finally melted against him, he eased back far enough to look down into her beloved face. “Am I forgiven?” he murmured.
“Of course.”
He cupped her chin with his palm and took his time kissing her. Yeah, their teammates were waiting. They could wait another two minutes. Well, maybe three.
When he broke the lip lock and raised his head, over three minutes had passed. He’d take whatever grief Seth and the others dished out. Making amends was more important. “Ready to go back inside?”
She nodded and followed him into the suite.
Grant reached back for her hand, then said to their teammates, “Sorry for the delay. What did we miss?”