Bones
Patience had never been one of my strong suits, especially when my brothers’ lives were at stake.
I’d tried to hold out and wait for Big to come to me, but time was of the essence.
I had to tell him what I’d found, so I left the office and went to track them down.
When Rooster told me he was in Cotton’s office with Stitch, I headed straight there.
I knocked on the door, and without giving anyone a chance to answer, I charged inside.
Big, Stitch, and Cotton all turned and looked at me like I’d lost my mind, so I wasted no time saying, “I found a lead on who’s been fucking with the club. ”
“What?” Cotton’s back stiffened. “How’d you manage that?”
“I’ve been looking into the camera thing,” I answered. “I picked up where Big and I left off, and I...”
Before I could finish my thought, Stitch turned to Big and said, “You said the camera thing was a dead end.”
“I did, but maybe I was wrong.”
“David Bruton.”
“Yeah?” Cotton sounded intrigued. “What about him?”
“He’s our guy.”
“You talking about the history teacher?”
“Yeah, that’s him, but he’s not who you think he is.”
I told them about the movie Elsie and I had watched and how it had gotten me to think that the men we were after might be right here under our noses.
I told them how I’d started going through each of the names on Big’s list and how the first few background checks came up clear.
None of them said a word as I told them about Bruton’s work history and how it ended in ’98.
“The trail ran dry, so I used our facial recognition software. That’s when I found that his name is actually Carl Davenport, and he used to work for Interpol. ”
“Interpol?” Cotton leaned back in his chair with a scowl. “Seriously?”
“He was with them for twelve years. That would’ve given him plenty of time to make connections with some pretty shady folks.”
“I had no idea.”
“No one did. That’s the point.”
“Yeah, but this is Mr. Bruton we’re talking about.” Big sounded skeptical as he told him, “He’s like seventy-something, and he’s lived here for as long as I can remember. Hell, he’s on the town council. I find it hard to believe that he’s our guy.”
“Yeah, I thought the same until I got this.”
I took my phone out of my pocket and showed them the message I’d received. Cotton sounded pissed when he roared, “What the fuck?”
“How the hell did he know you found him?”
“I have no idea.”
“You didn’t say anything to anyone else?”
“No. I came straight here.” I looked at Big as I said, “We secured the server, so I know he wasn’t watching me there. Maybe he had his name flagged or something.”
“Possibly, but how did he know it was you?”
“Oh, shit. Wait... I forgot. I saw Maverick.” With everything that had happened, I’d totally forgotten that I’d spoken to him. “I told him that I’d found something on Bruton and for him to go find you.”
“Where was this?”
“Right outside my door.”
Stitch sounded distressed when he asked Big, “When was the last time you two did a sweep of the club?”
“Not since the New Year’s gathering, but nobody’s been here. Just us. There’s no way anyone could’ve planted something without us knowing it.”
We had all the necessary devices to check the clubhouse for bugs and hidden cameras, and even though we’d used them frequently, we’d never actually found anything.
I wasn’t surprised. There were always two or more brothers at the gate, guarding against any intruders, and we had cameras that we monitored on a daily basis, especially when we had outsiders on the grounds.
“Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
I could feel the tension radiating off of Stitch as I offered, “We could do a sweep now and see if we can find anything.”
“No. We’ll take care of it.” Cotton replied. “Right now, I need you and Big to find everything you can on Davenport. I want to know what kind of business he’s in and who he has on the payroll.”
“We’ll see what we can find out,” Big answered.
Cotton turned back to me as he said, “And if he reaches out to you again, I want to be the first to know about it.”
“You got it.”
Without saying anything more, Big and I turned and walked out of Cotton’s office. We’d just started down the hall when Big asked, “You got any idea how he got your number?”
“No clue.”
“Damn.” Big shook his head. “David Bruton. I never would’ve thought it.”
“I’d say that’s what he’s countin’ on.” My mind was still clouded with doubt, so I added, “I’m not positive that he’s the one behind all this, but the pieces seem to fit.”
“Then, let’s see what else we can find on him and see where we stand.”
As soon as we got back to the office, I showed Big everything I’d found, and he agreed that Bruton’s past definitely looked suspicious.
“We need to find everything we can on his time at Interpol. From what cases he was working on to who he was working with. We also need to know if he made any arrests or if he’d made any contacts. ”
“Their security is going to be intense. Hacking into their database isn’t going to be easy.”
“We can do it.” Big started up his laptop. “It’s just going to take some time and a little fancy footwork.”
I nodded, then we both got to work on breaking into Interpol.
As I feared, it was heavily secured, but thankfully, it wasn’t anything that Big and I couldn’t handle.
After a couple of hours, we’d made our way in and were searching for everything we could find on Carl Davenport.
I was just as eager as Big to find out what was going on with the guy, but I’d been at this thing for days.
I was struggling to keep my focus, and I couldn’t stop thinking about Elsie and our last kiss. Thinking a quick visit with her would ease my mind and get me back on track, I stood and said, “I’ve got something I need to take care of. I’ll be right back.”
Without giving him a chance to respond, I walked out of the room and headed down to Elsie’s room.
When I walked up, she was looking out into the hall, more than likely checking to see if things had finally settled down, and when she spotted me, a smile swept over her beautiful face.
Damn. Just one look at her, and I was itching to touch her. Hold her. Kiss her.
Unable to resist, I stepped into her room, pulled her close, and pressed my lips against hers. I could feel the beating of her heart against my chest as she inched closer. She moaned against my lips as I delved deeper into her mouth, relishing in her taste, her warmth.
Absolute perfection.
There was no denying it. I was lost in her touch, like a man under a spell, and for a brief moment, everything around us stilled.
The moment didn’t last long, but it gave me a much-needed reprieve.
When I got back to the workroom, I sat down at my desk, and I was about to get to work when Big asked, “She okay?”
“Yeah, she’s good.”
Big knew me well, so I wasn’t surprised that he knew I’d gone to see Elsie.
But Big being Big, he didn’t give me hell about it.
He understood how I felt and left it alone.
We both got back to work, and it wasn’t long before we started to compile an intriguing file of information—like the fact that he’d worked on a hundred or more cases but only made a handful of arrests.
I felt like we were on the right track when the workroom door flew open, and Stitch and Cotton stormed into the room. “Sorry, guys, but you’re gonna have to stop what you’re doing and pull up the camera feed.”
“Why?” Big asked. “What’s going on?”
“This is what’s going on.”
Stitch opened his hand, and the second Big saw the small camera resting in the center of his palm, he growled, “What the hell? Did you find that here?”
“Afraid so.”
“Where the hell was it?”
“At the front entrance,” Cotton answered. “We need to check the cameras and see if we can figure out who planted it.”
“That’s gonna take some time.” Big turned back to his computer and pulled up the security. “Any idea where we should start?”
“I figure we need to go back to New Year’s.” Stitch stepped closer as he said, “Need to see anyone and everyone who’s come in or out of that door.”
“That’s a high-traffic area, brother.”
“I’m aware, but it’s gotta be done.”
Big nodded, then started going through the feed.
It was a slow process. There were hours on end of the footage, and it didn’t help matters that there was so much movement in that particular area.
There was no missing the frustration in Stitch’s voice when he growled, “This is taking too fucking long.”
“Maybe there’s a faster way.”
“Whatcha got in mind?”
I stood and walked over to them as I said, “We don’t need to look through every second of footage. We just need to focus on times when outsiders are around, especially when they hit that front door.”
“Yeah, but we’ve already talked about this. We haven’t had any outsiders since New Year’s.”
“Do we know that for certain? Cause I have my doubts about it.” He shook his head as he grumbled, “Hell, we all know Rooster and the boys bring chicks over here all the time.”
“We won’t know until we know.”
We started going back through all the footage, only slowing down when we noticed anything unusual, but it was slow and aggravating.
The tension in the room was growing by the second, and we were all about to reach our limits when I spotted Elsie in that damn mini-skirt and a long, cable-knit sweater.
It was the outfit she’d worn on the night of her date.
I could still remember how pissed I was about the thing.
I didn’t want her to go out with him. Hell, just the thought of it had me spiraling, but I couldn’t say shit about it.
I hadn’t claimed her, and like it or not, she was free to see whomever she wanted.
I watched as she made her way down the hall, and not long after, Rooster and I gave her and her date a hard time.
Rooster was reaming the guy pretty hard, and Elsie, too. They both looked pretty rattled. I almost felt bad for them, and then I noticed that he had his hand behind his back. I stepped closer as I told Big, “Go back a bit.”
“Why? Did you see something?”
“Yeah.” I pointed to the screen as I said, “Check out the guy’s hands. Is it just me, or is he up to something?”
“It definitely looks suspicious.” Big zoomed in, giving us all a better view of his hands, and there was no doubt that he’d stuck something on the wall. “I think we found our guy.”
“So, who is he?”
“Pretty sure he goes to school with her.”
“We’re gonna need more than that.” Cotton walked over and opened the door, then called out, “Yo, Torch. Go get Elsie. We need a word with her.”
As soon as he closed the door, Stitch turned to me and asked, “You gonna be good with staying for this or ...”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
“Understood.”
We all knew Elsie had done nothing wrong. She’d just gone out on a date with the wrong fucking guy. But there were questions that had to be asked. Thankfully, I trusted my brothers to ask them in a way that wouldn’t scare Elsie or make her feel like she had wronged us in some way.
We hadn’t been waiting long when Torch opened the door and guided Elsie inside.
She’d changed into a pair of sweats with the t-shirt I’d given her, and it got me right in the gut.
Her eyes were wide with worry as she looked around the room and listened anxiously as Torch asked, “Need anything else?”
“No, we’re good.”
Torch nodded, then made his way out of the room. As soon as he was gone, Elsie turned to me and said, “Hey, guys. What’s going on?”
“We need to talk to you about something.”
“Okay. What about?”
Stitch kept his voice low and steady as he told her, “The guy you went out with... The one who came here to pick you up.”
“Ben? Why do you need to know about him?”
“It’s important, Else.” I stepped over to her. “We wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. Um... His name is Ben Bruton.”
“Bruton?”
“Yeah, I believe David Bruton is his grandfather.” Cotton turned to Stitch and cocked his brow. When Elsie saw his reaction, she added, “But I might be wrong about that. He never really mentioned him.”
“How’d the two of you meet?”
“At school.” Her eyes remained locked on mine as she said, “We have a few classes together. He seemed like a nice guy, so when he asked me out, I said yes.”
“You don’t know where he’s from or anything about his family?”
“I assumed he lives close, and he never really said much about his family, just that he had a sister. It sounded like they were pretty close.” Her face was marked with worry as she said, “We only went out twice, so there’s not much more to tell.”
“Did he ever ask about us?”
“Hmm, he was pretty curious about how I ended up living here. He also asked what you were into.” She glanced over at Stitch. “He wanted to know if you were running guns or selling drugs. That’s when I decided to end the date.”
I didn’t like this.
It was too much.
Every muscle in my body had grown tense, and my head had started to pound.
I was quickly approaching my brink, so I clenched my fists at my sides and dug my nails into my palms. I took several deep breaths and tried to focus on the sound of the ceiling fan above me, hoping it would be enough to settle me.
It didn’t.
Hell, I was so worked up that I almost didn’t hear my phone when it chimed with a new text message.
At first, I ignored it and kept my focus on Elsie, but when it chimed a second time, I grabbed it from my pocket and muted the ringer.
I was about to put it back in my pocket when I happened to notice that I’d received another message. My blood ran cold when I read:
Unknown Caller:
CHECK YOUR EMAIL