Chapter 6
6
ETHAN
I'd barely sat in my chair in the conference room before Nick came through the door with two cup carriers filled with to-go cups from Joe’s. He set them on the table and tossed a bag beside them. “Picked up some coffee. They’re all black, but the bag has creamer cups.”
Mila smiled and reached for a coffee before digging into the bag. “What did we do to deserve this?”
“Did you miss us while you were gone last week?” Kyle teased.
Nick shook his head and smirked while he slid into his seat. “This is the shit I get for doing something nice.”
Jax grabbed a coffee and took his seat at the head of the table. “Looks like we’re all here.”
“Aren’t we missing some?” Mila asked while looking around the room.
Jax grabbed the last coffee and took off the lid. “Landon has a meeting this morning with the club owner at Crush. I sent Chris with him since Pike is on his honeymoon.”
Pike’s wedding was this past Saturday, and every single employee at Elite attended.
Including Mila.
Wearing the slinkiest blue dress I’d ever seen.
After seeing that, I congratulated Pike and his wife, Bella, before I got out of there. I thought I’d get a reprieve on Sunday, but then Brody called and said he was sending Kyle and me shopping with Mila and Beth. The goal was to get Beth out in the open to see if we could force Max Skinner to react in any way. That all made sense, and in any other situation, I’d be happy to go, but I needed a break, and it didn’t look like I was getting one any time soon.
Needing to stop talking about the wedding so I could hopefully stop picturing her in that dress, I changed the subject. “I thought we pulled out of Crush.”
“No.” Jax gestured toward Brody. “We met with him last week and told him we were out if he didn’t quit blocking our recommendations. He didn’t seem to care until the police were called this past weekend and found drugs on-site.”
“Fastest way to lose your place is to let drugs in.”
“Exactly,” Brody agreed.
“Speaking of Pike’s wedding…” Kyle leaned forward and put his elbows on the table.
“We weren’t.” Jax spoke up quickly, but he had to know he wasn’t going to shut Kyle down.
Kyle smirked and tipped his chin in Mila’s direction. “You have a good time, Mila?”
She tried to hide her grin before she answered him, but we all saw it. “I did.”
“That was one hell of a dress.”
“Thank you,” she answered while lifting her cup of coffee to her lips.
He clicked his tongue and shook his head. “Between that dress and the stores you dragged us to while Ethan and I were shopping with you?—”
“Heard about the shopping trip.” Striker interrupted, knowing, just like we all did, that Mila and Kyle could debate this for a long time.
Mila shifted her attention to Striker. “Wasn’t a secret.”
“I didn’t get a text.”
“Figured you needed to focus,” she replied. “I’m not sure you could do that if you knew Beth wasn’t behind her locked apartment door.”
“They weren’t alone, brother, and I gave the okay.” Brody intervened, and I shifted my attention to him. “We agreed she needs to change things up. Beth doesn’t go shopping or to get her nails done. A girls’ day out for Beth is not predictable.”
“She needs to be out so we can get him to move.” Jax spoke up. “He’s just sitting on this shit. You knew this was the plan.”
Striker was obviously listening to what Jax and Brody were saying, but his attention stayed locked on Mila. “She should not be the bait.”
“She’s the one he’s after,” she pointed out. “He’s not making a move for anyone else, and we made sure she was safe while we did it.”
“Did he make a move?” Striker asked.
“Not yet, but something has to force his hand.” Mila gestured toward me. “Ethan and I have been following him, but we’re getting nothing. We found nothing in the cousin’s house. I hoped her flaunting her freedom by working and getting engaged would have drawn him out, but it didn’t. We needed to up the ante some.”
Mila wasn’t wrong. We’d done just about everything we could think of to get a reaction from Max Skinner. Between the fake engagement to Striker and spending the day shopping, we had hoped something would make Skinner mad enough that he’d make a mistake, but he hadn’t budged so far. The only thing coming out of the engagement and Striker moving in with Beth was a lot of tension between them.
“If upping the ante puts her in danger—” Striker started.
“I made a promise to you.” Mila interrupted. “And I intend to keep it. But my assignment isn’t to sit back and wait. It’s to find a way to draw him out, so that’s what I’m doing. You don’t have to like it or me, but you do have to let me do my job. And for that to be effective, you need to protect her while I do it. The way I see it, we both have a stake in this, and the only way we’re going to get what we want is to find a way to work together.”
Striker put his elbows on the table and leaned in while we all waited. Mila was right, and it was obvious to me that Striker recognized that, but his feelings for Beth overrode his common sense. Glancing at Mila, I somehow knew exactly how he felt.
“I still don’t trust you,” Striker announced.
She mirrored his stance and met his glare from across the table. “And I still don’t care.”
“Mila’s right. You two have to figure out a way to work this case together,” Brody said, and my stare shifted to Striker when Brody continued. “What did you find out?”
This was the reason we were meeting this morning. Since the delivery boy denied that Max Skinner asked him to deliver the tainted pizza after being shown a picture, Kyle had returned to work. After a lot of digging, Kyle got a hit on another known associate of Daniel Sullivan, and they sent Striker out yesterday to track him.
Striker leaned back in his chair. “Got a name. Kevin Samson. I talked to Beth before I left yesterday, and she remembered him. Said he was a friend of Skinner’s who her brother didn’t like. He didn’t trust him and told her his work was sloppy.”
“If he’s responsible for the arsenic, this is one time I agree with Sullivan,” Brody declared.
“I found him. Took a chance and contacted the bookstore owner, who had given me her number to text if I had more questions. I sent her the pic of him, and she confirmed he used to come into her store.”
That was interesting because early on in the case, Kyle found a lead that sent Striker to North Dakota looking for a man who had been researching Beth online. Kyle was able to trace the IP address to a coffee shop. Striker went there, dug around on the computers, and talked to the bookstore owner but didn’t get much. We thought it was just another dead end, but it seemed that that information would finally help us.
Jax leaned his elbows on the table. “When?”
“She remembered it had been frequent over the past few years, but it’s stopped, and she hasn’t seen him in a while. She wasn’t sure of the exact amount of time.”
“Since Skinner got out?” Mila guessed.
“That’s the way it looks,” Striker agreed.
“Where is he now?” Brody asked.
Striker frowned. “He’s not in North Dakota anymore, considering I found him right here in North Carolina about two hours west. The address Kyle gave me is where he’s living or at least where he’s staying, but he’s not using the same name Beth gave me.”
“What’s the name?”
“Andrew Smith.” Kyle spoke up from beside me. “I found three aliases last night alone and texted them to Striker after he followed him home.” Kyle leaned back in his seat. “Have a feelin’ I’m not done findin’ them.”
“Dammit.” Brody ran his hand around the back of his neck.
“We know anything else?” Jax asked.
“He has experience with computers,” Kyle added. “He hides his shit well. I have to dig for just about everything.”
“That’s not what I wanted to hear.” Jax groaned and shifted his attention back to Striker. “Anything else?”
“Nope. I followed him for a while but got nothing else,” Striker stated.
“Can Beth offer any more information?” Mila asked.
“Don’t think she knows much.”
“Shit.” Jax sat back and ran his hand around the back of his neck. “So we’re right back where we started.”
“Cam have any luck tracing the arsenic back to any one person?” Ethan asked.
“Not yet.” Jax frowned. “That’s what Kyle was looking for when he got the lead, and we sent Striker out yesterday.”
“I thought you were taking on other assignments while I worked this one?” Mila teased Kyle, knowing full well he’d never stopped working this case.
He might have handed the biggest portion over to her while taking on more assignments, but as long as this case was open, he was working on it. We all were. Every one of us on this team had an investment in putting this case to bed, whether it was personal or professional. It was one of the few cases that affected all of us in some way.
“And I thought you were into the ladies.”
She tilted her head to the side. “What makes you think I’m not?”
“Christ,” Jax swore. He hated when Kyle pulled the team’s attention from the meeting with what he considered frivolous shit.
They both ignored Jax, and Kyle smirked. “Just a hunch.”
“Does this have anything to do with jobs we’re working?” Jax asked, frustration clear in his tone.
Mila laughed. “Are you ever not annoying?”
Kyle leaned back and grinned. “Can’t seem to help myself.”
“I feel like I somehow inherited an obnoxious little brother when I took this job.”
“If you want me to be obnoxious—” He started but was cut off.
“Enough,” Jax stated. “Moving on.” But he didn’t even take a breath before diving right back into work, probably assuming he just needed to shut Kyle down.
He wasn’t wrong.
“Ethan.” I looked at Jax and waited, knowing he was about to start handing out assignments. “I need you to work with Brody installing systems this week while Pike is out of town unless Mila needs you.”
When I nodded, he moved on to Mila. “Any plans?”
She opened her mouth to answer but stopped when Leah’s voice came through the speaker. “Striker. Bridget Hollis is here to see you.”
Kyle leaned forward. “Who the hell is Bridget Hollis?”
With a shrug, he stood. “No idea.”
“We’ll finish up,” Brody announced. “Get us if it’s important.”
Striker grunted as an answer before leaving the room and closing the door behind him.