Chapter Four
Aiden had to tighten his grip on Hudson when he tried to go after Brady again. This night had already been a pisser, but apparently, it was about to get worse. Well, worse if Brady had truly murdered Chloe.
Right now, Aiden didn’t intend to take the word of Chloe’s cursing, spoiling for a fight brother.
“Lock him up,” Owen snarled when Hudson tried to kick him.
Shaw took hold of Hudson’s right arm. Aiden, his left. And while the man continued to spew accusations and generally make himself a pain in the ass, Shaw and he perp walked Hudson to the middle hall that contained the cells. Thanks to the upgrades Owen had made, the cells no longer had bars but thick safety glass with a metal flap door for delivering meals and such.
It took some doing to get the man inside the enclosure because Hudson was as strong as an ox. A really pissed-off one. But Shaw and Aiden finally got his butt locked up.
The battle wasn’t over yet though since they had to search Hudson for potential weapons. He’d made it through the metal detector at the front of the station without setting it off so he likely didn’t have a gun or a knife.
And he didn’t, Aiden discovered during the pat down.
No shoelaces or other objects either that could be used for self-harm. However, Aiden took his cell phone and keys before Shaw and he stepped out, shut the door, and then Aiden gave Hudson the Miranda warning.
“Put your hands through the opening so I can take off the cuffs,” Shaw instructed. Hudson did after the man spewed out more profanity, and Shaw used his pocketknife to snip the plastic.
“Lawyer,” Hudson shouted as they walked away. “And then I can sue you for being fucking idiots. You should be locking up Brady, not me.”
“And you shouldn’t be assaulting the cops,” Aiden shot right back at him. Though even after four months, it still didn’t feel right to call himself a cop since it was a temporary position. Nevertheless, he had the badge for now, and he wanted to help.
Correction: he needed to help.
If a woman had truly been murdered and his old friend was responsible, then some hard justice needed to be served. Aiden would help Owen do that in any way he could. In more ways than one, Owen had saved him, and he wouldn’t forget that.
“You okay?” Shaw asked as they made their way back to the bullpen.
“Been better,” Aiden admitted.
Shaw made a sound of agreement. “If you need me to switch off partners and work with Lexa, just let me know.”
His brother was well aware of the shitstorm ordeal that’d happened when Lexa and he had failed to save a hostage. To save Mandie. And, yeah, sometimes being around Lexa triggered godawful flashbacks. But being around her stirred other things, too. A reminder that there’d been instant heat between them. A lust at first sight kind of deal. And despite the trigger junk, that heat apparently wasn’t going away.
“I’ll work with her,” Aiden told his brother.
In fact, he wanted to work with her. Hell, wanted to be with her. So, that meant the flashbacks and other crap were just going to have to deal with that.
When they returned to the bullpen, Aiden saw that Brady and Callie were no longer there. Callie had likely ushered him back to the interview room. But Lexa and Owen were still around, and they were studying something on the laptop screen on her desk.
“Hudson’s clamoring about a lawyer,” Shaw relayed to Owen.
“Let him make a call,” Owen said, keeping his attention on the computer.
Lexa looked up, her gaze connecting with Aiden’s. Yeah, that heat wasn’t going anywhere. But there was plenty of concern in her dark blue eyes.
“We just got Chloe’s phone records,” she let him know.
That got Aiden moving closer while Shaw headed back in the direction of the cell, no doubt to help Hudson contact a lawyer.
“The last call that Chloe got was from Brady four hours ago,” Owen pointed out.
Yep, Aiden saw that. Also saw that the call had only lasted nine seconds. Likely too long for it to have been a butt dial or such, but that wasn’t a lot of time for an actual conversation.
He thought of the argument Brady and Chloe had had at the bar. Thought about her throwing the drink in his face and then storming out. Brady had insisted they’d kissed and made up, but he wasn’t seeing anything in her phone records to indicate that.
“This was the only time Brady had called her since the incident at Outlaw’s Rest,” Aiden commented. “But I count eleven calls and multiple texts during that time to her brother.”
Both Lexa and Owen made sounds of agreement. “We should be getting transcripts of the texts soon,” Owen said.
Good. Because he very much wanted to know what the siblings had discussed. They could maybe get that from Hudson’s phone but for any actual conversations, they’d have to rely on Hudson himself for that info.
“Chloe made and got a handful of calls to the owner of the manor,” Lexa muttered, going down the list as well. “Several to the florist…” She stopped when she came to a name that she obviously recognized.
So did Aiden.
Wylie Kern, Brady’s father.
Aiden supposed it wasn’t a huge surprise that Wylie might want to talk to his soon-to-be daughter-in-law, but this is where rumors played into things. There was plenty of gossip about Wylie not approving of the marriage because Brady and Chloe had only been involved for about six months. And Brady had said that his dad believed Chloe was essentially a gold digger.
“Keep checking the list,” Owen instructed, taking out his phone and stepping to the side. “I’ll give Wylie a call.” The man must have answered because it wasn’t long before Owen said, “Hello, Wylie.”
“I figured as close as Brady and his father are that he would have already been here,” Aiden muttered.
“Yes,” Lexa was quick to agree. “Maybe he’s out of town or already in bed.”
True. Because if he’d been home and awake, he likely would have heard about the fire and Brady’s detainment despite living on his palatial ranch that was several miles outside of town.
“Wylie’s already on his way and will be here in a couple of minutes,” Owen relayed when he finished the call. He was about to say something else, but his phone rang. “Clay Sanchez,” he let them know.
The owner of Outlaw’s Rest. Maybe he could shed some light on the argument that Chloe and Brady had had. Again, Owen stepped to the side to take the call, and Lexa and Aiden continued with the phone records.
“What seems to be missing are calls to friends back in San Antonio where Chloe was born and raised,” Aiden pointed out.
She scanned through the list again. “You’re right. With the exception of her brother, these are all local calls.”
They were, and excluding those to Hudson, Wylie, and Brady, most were connected to wedding planning. A few other names he recognized as likely clients for the CPA work that Chloe did.
“Maybe Chloe didn’t have a lot of friends,” Lexa remarked, but he could tell from her tone that her interest had been piqued. “Did Brady ever say why she’d moved to Outlaw Ridge?”
He had to thumb back through the handful of conversations he’d had with Brady over the past six months since Chloe had moved to town.
“Yeah. Apparently, Brady and she met at a party in San Antonio and hit it off. They started dating, and she moved here to be closer to him. He asked her to marry him shortly afterward.”
Aiden was still giving that some thought when Owen finished his call. “Argument confirmed between Chloe and Brady,” he announced. “Clay said it got loud and intense, but the only part of it he heard for sure was that Chloe thought Brady had cheated on her at the bachelor’s party. Were you at the party?” he asked Aiden.
Aiden nodded. “Briefly. I was wiped after a long shift and only stayed about an hour. And, yes, there were strippers. I didn’t see Brady kiss one of them, but it’s possible.”
He glanced at Lexa who seemed to be doing her damnest not to look at him. Was she wondering if he’d done any stripper kissing? Or maybe that was wishful thinking on his part that she might be a smidge jealous that something like that could have happened.
The front door opened, causing the three of them to shift in that direction, and even though Aiden had expected it to be Wylie, it wasn’t. However, it was someone he knew, Gillian Petty, the office assistant who worked for Wylie and Brady at their law firm.
“I just heard,” Gillian blurted as she raced in. She was pale, trembling, and her eyes were red, maybe from crying. “Is Brady all right? Was he hurt in the fire?”
“Brady wasn’t hurt,” Owen assured her.
The woman let out a long breath and pressed her hand to the front of her workout tank. “Thank God. I was so worried about him when I heard there’d been a fire at the manor.”
Aiden frowned. She’d been worried about Brady but not Chloe? Interesting, but it meshed with what he knew about Gillian. According to Brady and the gossip he’d heard, Gillian had had a thing for Brady that had been going on since elementary school. As far as Aiden was aware, Brady hadn’t returned those feelings one bit.
“Can I see Brady?” Gillian asked. “Where is he?” There was more than an edge of desperation to her tone and expression.
Owen shook his head. “Sorry, but we need to talk with Brady first. Why don’t you give him a call in the morning?”
Obviously, that wasn’t what Gillian wanted to hear. Her shoulders dropped. Tears filled her eyes. But she nodded. “All right. Uh, please tell him I was here and that I’d been worried about him. If he needs anything, all he has to do is let me know.”
Gillian turned to leave, but Owen stopped her with a question. “When’s the last time you saw Chloe?”
The woman blinked. “Chloe?” she repeated as if the question was a surprise. She shook her head. “I’m not sure. A couple of weeks ago maybe when she dropped by to see Brady. Why?”
“Just gathering info,” Owen replied. “What about earlier today? Did Chloe come by the law office?”
Gillian opened her mouth. Closed it. And seemed to rethink what she’d been about to say. “I’m not sure. I was in and out all day. Errands and such. Why? She repeated.
Owen did a repeat, too. “Just gathering info. You can go now, and if I have more questions for you, I’ll let you know.”
Gillian stared at him a moment later, seemingly trying to suss out if there was a hidden meaning in that, and she finally walked out.
Just as Wylie came rushing in.
He muttered something to Gillian that Aiden didn’t catch and left her in the doorway as he came closer to Owen, Lexa, and him. Gillian gave them all one last look before she finally left.
“Where’s Brady? Is he all right?” Wylie asked, echoing what Gillian had demanded when she’d come in.
Aiden knew that father and son were close, along with being a spitting image of each other. It was as if Wylie was a twenty-year older version of Brady himself.
“He’s fine,” Owen assured him. “He’s in the interview room.”
“Is he under arrest?” Wylie blurted.
“No.” But Owen’s tone seemed to add for now . “I need to finish taking his statement, and then you can see him.”
Wylie huffed out a breath that was a mix of relief and more of that worry. “Esther called me and said Chloe might be dead.”
Good grief. Esther could sure blab. Funny though that that bit about Chloe hadn’t made it to Gillian’s ears. But then, maybe it had, and Gillian hadn’t cared what had happened to Brady’s fiancée.
“We don’t know Chloe’s status right now,” Owen explained. “That’s what we’re trying to find out.” He paused. “Were you aware of any trouble between Brady and her?”
“You mean that argument at the bar,” Wylie was quick to say. “Yeah, I knew about that.” He shook his head and squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. “Brady should have never gotten involved with her. She’s bad news.”
Aiden looked at Owen and Lexa to see if that surprised them. It didn’t. Which meant they’d no doubt heard the gossip, too.
“Bad news how?” Owen pressed.
“Well, for one thing, I’ve caught her in a lie. I ran into her in San Antonio when I was there on business, and she’d told Brady she had to work all day here at her office in Outlaw Ridge. She was having lunch with her brother, and they seemed to be having a tense conversation until they spotted me.”
Owen shrugged. “Maybe the lunch wasn’t planned. So, not really a lie, just something that happened last minute.”
“Maybe, but I got the gut feeling she just hadn’t been truthful with Brady about that. And there’s more. She doesn’t look at Brady as if she’s in love with him. I’ve caught her practically glaring at him a time or two.”
“I’m in a relationship, and I can tell you that couples glare at each other every now and then,” Owen admitted.
Wylie huffed and tapped his stomach. “Gut feel. Something is way off with Chloe, and whatever happened tonight at the manor, she could have set it up to make Brady look guilty of something.”
That caused a silence to settle over the room, and it wasn’t as if they could totally dismiss what Wylie had just said. The bottom line was that none of them knew Chloe that well.
“Why did you call Chloe three days ago?” Aiden asked.
For just a second, a flash of panic sprinted across the man’s face, but it was gone as fast as it’d come. “I needed to find out what time I was supposed to be at the manor and if there was anything she needed me to do before then.”
Hell. The man was lying. And he wasn’t very good at it, either.
Owen would have no doubt pressed Wylie on that if Shaw had come walking in. He glanced at Wylie, then at the rest of them. “I need a word,” he said, tipping his head to Owen, Lexa, and Aiden.
The three left Wylie and went to the back of the bullpen, and Shaw immediately handed Owen a phone. “It’s Hudson’s, and he wants us to look at the last text his sister sent him. A text she sent about five hours ago.”
With plenty of concern on his face, Owen took the phone, holding the screen so that Lexa and Aiden could read it. Aiden did.
And he cursed when the words practically jumped right at him.
I’m so scared , Chloe had texted. I think I’ve made a bad mistake. I think he might try to kill me.