Chapter 13 #2
He paused for a second, letting his thoughts align as much as possible.
“Right from the beginning, we’ve been running from pillar to post. The alley, this house, the castle, that location with his phone, this house again, and so on.
Now the media is involved, which has brought the police in.
The allegations will mostly likely bring others to look into it.
We all know that when different departments are involved, one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing until too late.
It’s almost like whoever is doing this is trying to bring in so many people that it gets confusing. ”
“They’re trying to wind everyone up so they aren’t thinking clearly,” Owen said.
“So the bad guys can get away easier,” Colt added.
Brett stared at Brady. “I don’t know how you’ll manage it, but you need to make sure there is only one person who is overseeing all of this. If this gets too convoluted, things will get missed, and we won’t find him.”
Brady nodded. “I’ll do my best. I only have so much pull, but I’ll do what I can.”
Brett spoke to the detectives, giving as much information as possible without compromising their own investigation, including that Felix kept all but the gun he kept on him at the castle, as did the other guards.
Brett could prove it was there from the records Maddox had done, and then he took one last look at Felix’s house and climbed back in his car, calling to Owen and Colt that he was heading back to Sec HQ.
“Brett! Thank god you’re back. We’ve just received something through Felix’s email address,” Sam said. “It came in like two minutes ago. It has an attachment.”
“Put it up on the big screen,” Brett said, stepping towards it. He crossed his arms and waited.
The sound crackled for a second and then a dark room came on. There were two men standing on either side of a knelt one. The two standing men wore dark clothing, almost military like, but he couldn’t see well enough. Then he moved his gaze to the man kneeling between them.
Felix.
His hair was messed up, and he looked like he had some scrapes on his face, along with the bruise that had been in the previous photo, but the video quality was poor—on purpose or not didn’t matter—and there were lines regularly running across the screen, distorting the images and making it difficult to get a decent look.
But he was alive, and Brett breathed clearer for the moment.
The man on Felix’s right started talking.
“We have one of your men, and you need to understand that he’s not coming back to you. You have been warned over the last few months, but you have not listened. You have continued to make the wrong decisions, and because of this, you will pay the price.
“Number four is no more,
Are you scared to your core?
Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock,
No more time on the clock.”
The man covered Felix’s head with the bag, stood straight again and shot him, blood exploding from the opposite temple.
Brett stared at the screen, even as the picture disappeared.
His pulse pounded throughout his body, becoming a loud rapport in his head.
His head swam as he blinked to keep the screen in his field of vision, hoping the pictures would reverse.
Someone stood in front of him, and he moved his head to see the screen again, but the person moved with him.
Hands touched his cheeks, and the person said something, but Brett couldn’t hear him.
The pounding in his head and chest increased, and the person said something else, then frowned.
One second later, a sharp pain lanced across his left cheek, and he sucked in a breath.
Rapidly, the noise filtered back into his ears and shouted conversations reached him.
“Fucking finally,” Dominic said. “Don’t ever fucking hold your breath like that again. I don’t care what happened to make it so.” He cradled Brett’s cheeks again, meeting his gaze. “Felix still needs you, Brett. He needs you to find his…to find him. So let’s find him together.”
Brett inhaled deeply, blowing it out as quickly as he could, and pushed down anything personal he needed to.
This was just another case. Just another person they had to locate.
He needed to look at the evidence and follow the train.
That’s all. Don’t think about what you saw, Brett. It’s not true. It can’t be.
He yanked his face away from Dominic. “Get me everything we have so far!” he shouted, stepping behind his desk and clearing it all to the side. “EVERYTHING!”
The entire room exploded into motion, and Brett settled in his seat, the creak a comfort more than a pain at that moment.
Throughout the night, they worked, and by early the next morning, eyes gritty and dry, he dragged his laptop towards him and brought up the latest reports he could find.
His gaze scanned the many online newspapers, the blogs, the independent so-called experts until his eyes caught on a photo of Felix outside of a club Brett knew was a gay club.
As the words from the article registered, his blood ran cold.
ROYAL BODYGUARD FOUND TO BE SUSPECT IN SHOOTING
A high-standing royal bodyguard has been made a person of interest in several shootings in recent years.
Forensic evidence is being tested, but it seems the guard is actually a professional sniper and has been used on several occasions to dispose of people who threaten the crown.
Should the royals also be investigated? Click to read more.
He stared at the words. How the hell did they find out Felix was a sniper?
Was it supposition from the rifle being found at his home?
No one knew that except for him and Felix, and of course, the king.
He supposed it wasn’t beyond guess work that maybe Kean and Kendal knew as well, but he doubted anyone else.
Except, they had told a couple of the guards, but surely they wouldn’t say anything.
Which circled back to his question. If they hadn’t said anything, then who knew?
No one in Felix’s family knew… He cursed a storm.
“Sam! I’m sending you a link to a report. I need you to track this as far as possible, and also find out who else has reported on this.”
“Okay!” Sam shouted back.
Brett sent the link and started his own investigation, too. He hoped his wish came true. That this was the only media outlet with the report, because if it wasn’t, and it was becoming common news, he needed to speak with Felix’s family as soon as possible.
It took around an hour—far too long as far as he was concerned—but the news wasn’t good.
That outlet might have been the first one Brett found, but it certainly wasn’t the only one that had mentioned the sniper comparison.
The photo, however unconnected to the accusations, only added weight to the words.
As everyone knew, being part of the LGBT+ community made some people look down on them.
Not that it was true but having that photo next to it appeared intentional.
Adelaide Thompson had a lot to answer for.
“I need to go out!” he called to the room. “Keep working on finding any correlations between what is happening here and what happened with Dominic, Owen and Nick. There has to be something.” He sighed. “There has to be,” he murmured, more to himself.
He strode for his car, his stomach advertising exactly how much he was looking forward to this next visit. Not. When he parked and climbed out again, he paused with his fist upright, ready to knock. He knew exactly how much this was going to hurt everyone involved.
He knocked and waited.
A man opened the door, eyes like stone, jaw clenched. “I’m surprised it’s not Felix here. Although he’s probably hiding.”
Brett swallowed hard because, shit, they hadn’t even been told that Felix had been kidnapped. “I have several pieces of news for you. May we take it inside?”
The man stared at him for a moment, and Brett expected him to slam the door in his face, but he opened it wider and gestured towards the inside. He crossed the threshold, readying for an extremely uncomfortable conversation.
****