CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
CHAPTER
FORTY-THREE
Lana’s stomach churned at the current scene playing out on the screen from Ryan’s home cameras. She knew she’d started chewing on her lower lip when she felt Jayson’s fingers pull her lip from between her teeth gently.
“Holy shit! What the fuck? Is that Ellers and Jones standing there on Ryan’s doorstep?” Sunny asked in disbelief.
“Hell, I thought Hollywood and Swift were the sex freaks in the group!” Rocky murmured as she tilted her head slightly to the right.
“She’s only paying attention to Ellers. I don’t think she had planned on Jones being there by her actions.”
“I’m afraid to ask, but Ryan, do you have cameras in the house? Does she, by chance, know about those cameras?” Cullen asked softly.
“Yes, I have cameras in the house. And no, she doesn’t know about those.
I had those installed in case I needed better photos after someone broke in and the door camera didn’t get a good enough image,” Ryan answered, his voice cracking.
“We installed them in the living room and in the kitchen. The way I set the camera in the living room up, it shows the hallway leading toward the bedrooms.”
Lana cleared her throat. “We’ll look at that in a minute. Let’s go past this to see what or who else she’s had come to visit.”
Lana and the team watched more of the front door camera footage than they thought they would have. She felt sick to her stomach at a few of the scenes they had watched, her heart breaking for Ryan.
“This being a small town like it is, it’s well-known that Ryan and Jayson are brothers.
I can understand if it was Ashley doing this, trying to rub Jayson’s nose in the fact she could nail any Kenwood brother she wanted.
But this is Jayme pulling her shit and working with Ashley.
What’s confusing for me is why they are targeting the Kenwood brothers.
The Kenwoods aren’t wealthy financially, nor do they hold political power seats of any kind,” Rocky surmised as she looked between Jayson and Ryan.
“Both men have notoriety in the military. Even Bryan. All three of the brothers have achieved things most in special forces haven’t.
All three have made Delta Force, and even black ops units that aren’t known about.
They have made, or plan on making damn good careers out of the Army.
Now, maybe I’m biased, but all three men are damn good-looking and take no shit from anyone.
Ryan’s not a pushover. He’s an older version of Jayson.
Yeah, he’s been soft where Jayme is concerned, but I’m sure he has his reasons,” Lana defended Ryan to her best friend.
“I’m the only one you better think is good looking, Lana.” Jayson looked over at Lana, staring her down.
“That’s not what I mean, Lana. I was trying to figure out why they would target them. They are clearly being targeted whe…” Rocky went silent as something came to her mind at the same time Lana’s eyes went wild.
“Their connections to law enforcement,” Lana, Rocky, and Sgt. Bueller said at the same time.
“Hold up…” Hollywood put a hand up. “Which one of you two left the military first?”
“Jayson, due to an op that went south. I came home a year after he did,” Ryan murmured, but it was enough for everyone to hear.
Lana stared at the screen for a few minutes. Why was Ashley trying so hard to get information on Jayson?
They had a history, yes, but he had made it very clear. Every time she came around him, he wanted nothing to do with her.
Even when she’d drugged his drinks, he’d pushed her off of him, calling her name. The videos they’d gotten from Peter showed that much.
Lana couldn’t figure out why they wanted to monitor Jayson. Jayme didn’t have that much interaction with him.
“Okay, I have two questions. Ryan, does Jayme ask you questions about Jayson on a regular basis? Second question, when did the girls start disappearing?” Lana asked out loud as she continued to run the information through her head.
“The girls going missing has been going on for years. Even when I was in high school,” Ryan answered in confusion.
“It didn’t escalate to what it is now until last year.
And as for Jayme, not on a regular, but now and then.
Never really thought much about it because at least we were having a conversation and now then. ”
Lana caught the slight hesitation in Ryan’s voice when he looked at his brother for confirmation. When both men looked at her with confusion in their eyes, she knew she was about to open a can of worms they may not like.
“Okay, Ice, ice baby, fill the rest of us clueless peasants in on what that brain of yours is thinking,” Swift joked, a slight chuckle in her tone.
“Jayme’s friend, do you know if she’s originally from here or did she move here from somewhere else? I’m curious why Jayme’s friends from Texas knew the woman and if they have been back around since then,” Rocky asked her own questions, mirroring the ones Lana had brewing through her head.
“To the best of my knowledge, they have not been back in town. Jayme said that her friend from Texas was a cousin or something along those lines to the girl here. I believe she is also from Texas, like they were all from. Jayme supposedly graduated from the University of Texas in Austin in Fine Arts.”
Sgt. Bueller looked over at Swift and nodded. Lana knew exactly what she was about to do.
“If we can verify that she actually graduated, see if there’s someone still on staff when she went to school to see if we can find out who her friends were.
I don’t think the women were all friends, much less related.
Something doesn’t sound right with all of this,” Lana added to Swift, who just nodded at her in confirmation of what she was going to do.
“What are you thinking, Lana?” Jayson asked as he turned in his seat to face Lana.
“I think it’s time to reach out to some contacts.
I want to do a deep dive on the town of Hellburn Falls, as well as the county.
If these girls have been going missing since Ryan himself was in high school, there’s someone here that’s keeping the business going.
But what concerns me is the fact that at the rate they are going with the girls going missing, someone is getting power hungry and it’s not going to be safe to raise Dani or Jay here,” Lana admitted to Jayson, her lower lip being nibbled on again as she got lost in thought.