Chapter Three
Grayson
“Who are you?"
“Humbly, I don’t like repeating myself,” I said before sighing. I rose from the chair, heading toward the window of his office to watch the winter mix cascade down from the gray heavens above.
“So, Carrie’s dead husband, Robert Hale, was having an affair with his high school sweetheart, who followed him to St. Louis?” he asked, seeking confirmation.
I looked at him over my shoulder as I folded my arms over my chest. “Yes.”
“And your boy just happened to make the connection right before or during Carrie’s kidnapping.”
Peeling my gaze from him, I returned my attention to the window, watching as a black SUV swung into the parking lot.
Hayes was here.
The organ in my chest ached once more as I felt my shoulders sag. Suddenly, I realized I couldn’t face this alone. The danger, sure, but the mere possibility of Carrie being hurt or worse was poisoning me from the inside out. Swallowing the lump in my throat, I watched as Hayes folded himself out of the vehicle, his jaw set as his short, dirty blond hair shifting in the wind.
Fuck, I needed him here more than I’d realized.
Once he disappeared around to the front of the building, I moved, turning and heading out of Michael Humbly’s office just time to see my partner and friend at the front desk of the station. His eyes lifted to mine, and I was greeted with a familiar cold rage swirling within his green eyes. He was dressed in all black, a heavy backpack on his shoulder.
“That’s one of yours, I assume,” Humbly guessed from beside me.
“Hayes Mitchell,” I stated, lifting my chin to him.
“He can come back, Dorothy,” Humbly called out to the old woman at the front desk. She simply nodded, and Hayes moved around the counter.
I stepped forward, holding my hand out to him. “Thanks for getting here quickly,” I said.
Hayes slapped his hand against mine. “Anything for you, Gray. You know that.”
After introductions were made, Humbly took us to the station’s small meeting room, and Hayes immediately went to the whiteboard, jotting down the new information he’d learned.
“Where’s the drone?” I asked his back.
He pointed to his pack as he continued writing down what looked to be flight paths. “Pull that laptop out for me,” he ordered, his eyes focused.
“Are there reasons you’re writing down flight paths for New Jersey?” Humbly asked from the door, his brows furrowed as he studied Hayes.
Hayes turned, his eyes landing on the sheriff before coming to me. “He caught up?”
I nodded once, pulling out the laptop and opening it. Once the screen came to life, I was given a first-person view of the drone on the left side of the screen. “It’s there,” I noted, clicking on the video footage. The drone had landed on the roof, waiting for instruction.
“She’s small, but she’s fucking fast,” Hayes confirmed before turning back to Humbly. “To answer your question, Monica Larks, our top suspect, has been making daily phone calls to a Jersey number, and when our tech man, Jake, pulled the signal taps, it directed us to an abandoned building in the heart of Jersey City. Grayson wanted eyes on it.”
Humbly looked at me then. “And your man here can just get your eyes on anything you want in a matter of hours?” he asked, leaving the most important part of the question hanging in the air. Michael Humbly may be young, but he was smart. He had a good head on his shoulders, and despite everything, I had to respect that.
“Yes.”
His eyes flashed, his lips thinning. “Is this legal?”
“No, and neither was me threatening your life, but here we are,” I deadpanned.
Humbly opened his mouth to say something else, but he was cut off by Hayes. “Have you contacted St. Louis yet?”
I looked at him, leaning back in my chair. Hayes was standing at the head of the table, his eyes fierce, arms crossed over his chest, looking like the leader he was born to be.
“No, I haven’t.” That was a call I was dreading making. Jeremy would most likely put a hit out on me. Honestly, I couldn’t blame him. I’d promised him Carrie was safe and settled. The prince of St. Louis also had no idea I’d fallen for her in the process of making sure she was safe and settled. Leaning forward, I scrubbed my hand down my face. I shouldn’t be sitting in a police station, surrounded by warmth. I should be on the road, chasing after my sunshine. However, I couldn’t do that.
A good hunter knew what he was hunting, and I needed more information on Monica Larks. Before I’d come to the station, while I was on the phone with Jake, he informed me that the number Larks had been using was no longer in service. Her last known ping was just outside of Portland last night. However, there was a possibility Larks may head back to St. Louis. That was where she and Robert had spent the majority of their affair, after all.
“I need to get on a plane to St. Louis,” I declared, scratching my short beard.
Hayes pinned me with a look. “You think that’s wise?”
“Larks and Hale spent the majority of their affair in that city. She could have a special connection to it,” I explained.
A deep breath came from him. “Going back to St. Louis will make this more complicated than it already is. Bringing in Oasis is the last thing we need. Their close ties to the Italian Mafia complicates things .”
“The Mafia?” Humbly parroted, looking back and forth between Hayes and me.
“Does it look like I care?” The only thing I fucking cared about was getting her back—to me.
“You want to owe a favor to Collin Stevens?” Hayes challenged. “You and I both know the things he’s fucking capable of. What if he asks for something we can’t give, Gray? What then?”
“If we get Jeremy involved, the chances of finding Carrie are much greater than if we did it on our own,” I said, trying to be a voice of reason. I knew it was a bat-shit crazy idea, but she’d only been gone a few hours, and I was going insane, bursting at the seams. Oasis had reach, and their hands were in networks I couldn’t get into because of Red Snake.
Hayes’ brow raised. “Are you saying Red Snake can’t handle this?”
I bit down on my jaw—hard. “She’s my fucking woman, Hayes.”
He nodded once. “I know she is, which is why the boys and I are willing to pull strings we normally shouldn’t be pulling—for her and you. We want her safe just as much as you, Gray.”
I looked away from him, unable to handle the pain in my gut.
His voice softened as he added, “She’s your happiness. Why the fuck wouldn’t we want to keep that safe?”
My eyes cut to him. He was right. If we wanted to pull the strings Red Snake had, we would need to keep this as far away from the Mafia as possible. Their involvement could lead to eyes on Red Snake, eyes we certainly didn’t fucking need.
“Fuck,” I muttered, running a hand through my hair.
“Sit down. Let’s get a visual on this building, and we’ll go from there, yeah?” Hayes said, stepping around the table.
We both took our seats, focusing on the screen.
A throat cleared, and we looked up to find Humbly staring at us with wide eyes. “The fucking Mafia?”
Sighing through my nose, I shot a glare at Hayes. “Humbly, there are a lot of things you don’t know about Carrie’s past, things I’m not willing to tell you. What you just heard is confidential, and from now on, you’re on a need-to-know basis. This is something you don’t need to know. Now, do me a favor and bring me that fucking video footage from the store. There’s no reason it should be taking this long.”
When Humbly was out of the room, we got to work.
A few minutes later, we had the footage we needed.
“What’s the news on Carrie’s father?” I asked as Hayes directed the drone back to our Charlotte office.
Carrie’s father, the ex-mayor of St. Louis, was currently in prison for human trafficking. He struck a deal with the Bratva, the Russian Mafia, and bit off more than he could chew. Due to his stupidity, Carrie’s husband was brutally murdered—chopped into pieces over a year ago. Carrie was the one who discovered the body. As time passed, I was beginning to think I needed to send a gift basket to Moscow, to the surviving members. Robert Hale was an abusive asshole, and if he hadn’t been dead already, I would’ve been the one to make sure he was six feet in the fucking ground.
Before Carrie was kidnapped, I’d sent Hayes to the prison where her father was serving his sentence for a little chat.
His eyes remained on the screen as he told me the harsh truth. “He refused to come out of his cell. According to the guards, he only comes out for one person.”
“Who?” I demanded.
Hayes’ eyes met mine, holding them for a moment. “James Garner.”
“Son of a fucking bitch,” I bit off, shaking my head.
“Yeah,” Hayes muttered.
Something snapped inside me.
Shooting up from my seat, I pulled out my phone and called Jake, Ash, and Dominic.
When they all answered, I declared, “This is a team meeting. Drop your shit and pay attention.”
Hayes slowly rose from his seat, his hands braced on the back of his chair, his eyes on the phone I’d just dropped onto the table. The team sounded off, and I dove in.
“We need to talk to Gelling.”
“Carrie’s father? I thought Hayes was there, making contact,” Ash said.
“Hayes is here with me. He was unable to make contact with Gelling, who refused to see him,” I told them. “We got footage on the building in New Jersey.”
“I’m sending the images to you, Jake. See what you can pull,” Hayes added, typing something out on his laptop.
“Done,” Jake said.
“The only person Gelling will see is Agent Garner, but we don’t need to bring anyone from St. Louis in on this. It will lead back to the Mafia, and we don’t need that,” Hayes explained, shooting me a look.
I gave him a single nod. He had been right after all.
“You can send me. I’ll see if I can get in,” Dominic offered.
“Oh, you’ll be going in,” I told him, my blood humming again. “And we’ll be coming in after you.” Silence stretched out over the line as Hayes gawked at me.
“Are you saying…” Ash trailed off, not wanting to say the words.
“That’s exactly what I’m saying.”
“Fuck it,” Ash replied. “I’m down.”
“Should be easy enough,” Dominic mused.
I looked at Hayes, waiting for his approval. He looked to the ceiling and blew out a breath. “Whatever it takes.”
“Whatever it takes,” I repeated.
“I’d like to take this time to remind everyone here that breaking into a federal prison is illegal,” Jake said calmly.
“Says the bastard who hacked into the UK government’s server when he was studying abroad,” Ash deadpanned.
“I thought we weren’t talking about that ever again,” Jake shot back.
In the background, I could hear Dominic’s chuckle.
“This is for Carrie,” I barked, cutting them off.
Silence followed.
“We know that, Gray,” Dominic assured.
“We’re going to find her,” Ash vowed.
“Whatever it takes,” Jake added.
Hayes and I looked at each other once more.
Whatever it fucking takes.
A soft meow echoed through Carrie’s house as I pushed the door open. The meows got louder and louder as I heard the light padding of paws come down the wooden stairs. A second later, I saw a flash of orange darting to me.
As the cat rubbed his body against my legs, I muttered, “Hey, Tic-Tac.”
I stepped further inside, the smell of berries lingering in the air, reminding me of her. My eyes scanned the simple sectional in her living room, a spot where I’d planned on making love to her tonight. My jaw tightened as I attempted to swallow the lump in my throat, burning me.
“We need to get a move on, Gray,” a familiar voice said from behind me.
I looked over my shoulder to find Hayes not waiting in the car like I’d instructed. His face was set, but no matter how hard he tried, his eyes would always give him away, green and glimmering with a pain I’d come to know over the years of our friendship.
“Thought I told you to stay in the truck,” I told him, my voice strained.
A muscled ticked in his cheek. “Not letting you do this alone.”
Tic-Tac meowed, breaking our focus. Hayes’ eyes dropped down to the orange animal. “Is he coming or going?”
“Not leaving him here,” I answered instantly. Carrie would kill me if she knew I’d left him all alone.
“To Colorado then,” Hayes confirmed as I swooped the cat into my arms. Tic-Tac rubbed his head underneath my jaw, purring now.
I stepped inside and headed up the stairs. “Shut down everything down here, yeah?”
“On it.”
Once I was in Carrie’s room, I went into her closet, grabbing her backpack before returning to the bed, where I dropped Tic-Tac. He gave me a complaining meow, which I ignored, going into her bathroom to grab her usuals, then to her dresser to grab some clothes. I also grabbed her laptop, camera, and journal. Once I found her, she would be staying in Colorado with me until I could ensure she was one hundred percent safe. I wouldn’t be taking any more chances, not with her. Never again. I packed enough for her to last a few days and then headed back downstairs, the cat in tow. Hayes emerged from the second bedroom with the cat carrier and a few cans of food.
“Can’t believe I’m going to be flying a cat to Colorado,” he muttered.
“He means something to Carrie,” I told him, walking into the kitchen to double-check that the back door was locked.
Once that was done, I moved back into the living room to find Hayes gently putting Tic-Tac into his carrier.
A knock sounded at the front door, and my gaze collided with Hayes’, both of us reaching for our guns. We remained still, waiting for another knock, and when it didn’t come, I moved, Hayes falling in line behind me. I loaded a bullet into the chamber once I was to the door, and as I was about to look through the peephole, a female voice filled the air.
“Mr. Grayson? It’s me, Sarah Humbly.”
I looked back to Hayes.
“Mr. Grayson,” Sarah begged through the door. “I know you’re about to leave Astoria, but I just need a moment to speak with you—please.”
“Put your gun away,” I told Hayes.
“Absolutely not,” he returned, lowering it to his side as I shoved mine back into the waistband of my jeans. A second later, I yanked the door open to find Sarah Humbly wasn’t alone. Rossy, the owner of Rossy’s Books, was standing behind her, and to her right stood a scowling woman with black hair and neck tattoos. Margo.
“What do you want?” I demanded bluntly.
Sarah had tears running down her face. “Please tell me you have a lead. Michael won’t tell me anything.”
“He’s right for doing so,” Hayes said from behind me.
Margo’s eyes sliced to him, shooting daggers. “Bullshit. Carrie is our fucking family.”
Family.
The word kicked me in the gut. Carrie had really found her place here.
“We understand your concern, but—”
Margo cut Hayes off again, stepping forward. “You aren’t a fucking cop. You aren’t bound by the law. Tell us what you know,” she snapped.
“Or you’ll what?” Hayes challenged, shoving past me. Margo was taller than Carrie, but Hayes still towered over her. “We aren’t obligated to tell you jack shit, and from where I’m fucking standing, everyone in this fucking town is a suspect.”
Margo’s nostrils flared, and she bared her teeth. “We would never do anything to hurt Cardinal,” she seethed, pointing at Hayes’ face.
“Cardinal?” I parroted.
Margo’s eyes sliced to me, and I could feel the anger radiating from her. “Carrie. That’s my nickname for her. The day she came into Rossy’s, she was wearing a Cardinal hoodie. I’ll never forget it.”
“We would never do anything to hurt Carrie,” Sarah said softly, looking at Hayes, and then at me. Her bottom lip trembled. “Please, Mr. Grayson. Tell me she’s going to be okay. Tell me you’re going to find her and bring her home.”
My blood was humming again as visions of Carrie’s smiling face came forth, her light blinding me all over again. “We’re going to do everything we can,” I promised.
Rossy, who was still behind Sarah, remained silent, his face grim. He was an older man with graying hair. His hands were tucked into his coat pockets, a maroon scarf around his neck.
“Do you think it was the woman?” Margo asked, turning her body away from Hayes, who was now studying her intently.
My spine straightened. “Have you seen her since the day she came in and was staring at Carrie?”
Margo’s eyes widened.
“Yeah,” I clipped. “I know all about that.”
“No,” Rossy cut in. “We haven’t seen that woman since, and Carrie’s never mentioned her again.”
“Of course not,” Sarah muttered. “She was trying to start over.”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “The woman is our prime suspect, and we’re leaving Astoria to follow that lead.”
The three of them were silent for a moment, eventually nodding. That was all I could give them. I couldn’t risk putting anyone else in danger.
“Now, if you’ll excuse us, we have to get on the road,” Hayes said, breaking the silence.
Sarah wiped her cheeks. “Yes, of course.” She gave me one final look before turning and heading down the porch steps.
Margo shot a glare at Hayes and then at me. “You don’t bring her back, I’m killing you both.”
“Love to see you try, Temper,” Hayes told her calmly, his eyes flashing.
She flipped him off before pointing at me. “You bring my girl home, yeah?”
I nodded once, and then she was following Sarah.
I turned to Rossy, waiting for his demands and threats, but he didn’t give me any. Instead, he stepped up to me, his eyes holding mine as he confessed, “I should’ve gone to the store myself. Carrie insisted.”
I bit down on my jaw.
Rossy looked out to Carrie’s small yard that was covered in crisp, white snow, the purity of it slapping all of us in the face. “My late wife, Jennifer, was a light,” he murmured, his English accent thicker than before. I stiffened as he continued, “I’ve been all over the world since her passing, Mr. Grayson, and I’d never found anything like Jennifer’s light…until Carrie.” He looked back at me. “When you find her, don’t let that light burn out. You hold onto it, you fight for it, for the rest of your days, do you understand?”
He didn’t me time to answer. Instead, he quietly turned and walked away.
Once Sarah’s van was out of sight, Hayes put his hand on my shoulder. “You alright?”
“No,” I bit off, turning to go back inside. I did a final walk-through, shut off all the lights, and whispered goodbye to the blue house. Then, Hayes, Tic-Tac, and I were headed to the airstrip.
“You sure you’ll be able to fly in this?” I asked, looking up to the clouds as I pulled onto the main road.
Hayes rubbed his lips with his finger, shaking his head. A small chuckle left him. “Flew in the middle of a literal war zone, Gray. I can handle some cold rain.”
I looked over at him to find him staring straight ahead, his elbow resting on the windowsill of the passenger door. “Gonna need you to keep me in check,” I said to him, my voice level.
His neck twisted towards me as I looked back out the windshield, my chest burning as violent thoughts swirled in my mind. “I can’t go back there, Hayes,” I confessed, my fist tightening on the steering wheel. I’d seen and done horrible things in my life, but nothing compared to the shit that Mags and I had to endure in the Marines. That was when the darkness was born inside me, filling the scars I’d gained. I’d worked hard to get out of that place, putting all my focus on Red Snake, and doing my own twisted version of good in the world.
Mags found his peace in Hallow Ranch.
I found my peace in Red Snake.
We fought our demons every damn day, keeping the darkness shoved down. However, a man like me could only take so much. Carrie was gone. The future was uncertain. I only had a taste of true happiness with Carrie, and if I lost her…
“You have my word, Grayson. I will not let you go back there,” Hayes vowed from beside me.
I nodded, remaining silent.
There was nothing else to say.
I had a hunt to focus on.