Chapter 9
CHAPTER NINE
ELVIS FOLLOWED HAWK INTO the hotel suite the Silvers had set up as their secondary command post when not working with the others from the casino, his mind turning over the abrupt reason for his friend to wake him up. Hawk didn’t have answers, which only raised more questions.
When they finally walked into the room, the place buzzed with quiet, efficient energy as everyone went about their tasks.
Fold-out tables were arranged into a makeshift command center with multiple monitors showing security feeds and badge scans.
All normal for the job, except for one thing out of place—the presence of Corey Masterson—Blaze.
He stood next to Colin near the largest screen, his short-cropped blond hair tousled as he pointed to something on the screen, his jaw working like he chewed on bad news.
He turned at the sound of the door, standing, his hands going to his hips as he cocked a brow at Elvis.
Colin, usually the jovial sort, stared at him like he had wandered into his grandmother’s tea party and messed it all up.
“Boy, you never ask for simple favors,” Blaze said as he blew out a breath, running a hand through his hair.
Colin spun in his chair, but before he could say anything, Levi stepped to the center of the room. “Corey here says you asked for some background on a woman from Obsidian Analytics. Is that true?”
Elvis gave the other man a curt nod as he moved toward Blaze. “I did.” He never looked at Levi, keeping his focus on Blaze, the youngest in the room. “And you wouldn’t be here if you found anything good.”
“What the hell were you doing running a background check on someone from another security team without telling me?” Levi pressed, moving to stand in front of Elvis before he could reach Blaze, hands on his hips.
“I thought I knew her,” Elvis said, running a hand through his hair. “Someone from my past.”
“Is this about the woman I saw you talking to at the end of the meeting yesterday?” Barret asked from where he leaned back against the wall, the morning sun rising through the window outside.
Elvis gave a curt nod. “Yeah. But she told me she wasn’t who I thought she was.”
“What does that mean?” Levi asked. “She’s not who she says she is? You were wrong, but pursued it anyway?”
Elvis glanced over at Hawk, letting out a slow breath. “I thought she was someone I knew in high school.” He paused, his stomach churning. “Someone I was supposed to marry.”
The room grew quiet as everyone stared at him. Blaze’s eyes went wide as Hawk slipped his hands into his pockets, lips pressed into a thin line. Levi simply shook his head, a snarl twisting his lips.
“And you didn’t think to tell the rest of us about this?” he asked. “Dammit, Bobby, I get that for you this was personal, but for us, it’s a job. What if this woman finds out that you’ve asked Corey to run a search on her? That could call all kinds of trouble down on us.”
“Well, that’s the funny thing,” Blaze said, moving over to where several plates sat atop a small circular table. “How come you all get room service?”
Elvis stared at the table for a moment, confused. Apparently, someone had thought to order breakfast for everyone in the midst of the chaos.
“Anyway.” Blaze snatched up a sausage link before turning back around. “For anyone to know that I ran a search on Delaney Rhodes or Julia Moretti—”
“Wait,” Levi cut in. “Who’s Julia Moretti? And what does she have to do with this?” He bounced his gaze back and forth between the two of them.
Blaze just waited for Elvis to answer the man.
“She’s the woman I thought Delaney was. I just didn’t know why she would have changed her name.” He pointed to Blaze. “Yesterday morning, when I first saw her in the casino, I asked Blaze to do a web search on her.”
“But I came up empty,” Blaze said, shrugging. “Like nonexistent shortly after her sixteenth birthday.”
“Then last night,” Elvis continued, “I asked him to do another search for me, this one on Delaney Rhodes, because I was still sure they were the same person. I can’t forget her face. Or her voice.”
Levi glanced at them both once more. “So you’re thinking what? WIT-SEC? Her family simply decided to move on somewhere else? Wasn’t there anything in the news to explain what happened or point you in the right direction?”
“Wouldn’t explain the lack of a footprint after she left.” Blaze said. “The entire family just… POOFED.”
“If it’s WIT-SEC, she has a pretty high-profile career,” Taylor said. He sat in a chair at the table, scooping scrambled eggs into his mouth as the others talked, apparently not as troubled as Levi. “She would’ve wanted to keep a lower profile, I would think.”
Blaze turned toward the man. “She did as much as she could. Fake profile photos. Never in front of a camera or interview.”
Elvis scoffed. “Julia was always an obstinate, stubborn woman, even back then. She would have found a way to get what she wanted.”
“So,” Blaze said, drawing their attention back to him. “Turns out there were some alarms placed on those searches.”
Elvis felt his stomach sink. “I’m sorry? What?”
Blaze snatched up another sausage link and moved to the monitor. Taking Colin’s seat, he pulled up a screen and pointed. “When I searched Delaney’s current ID, it tripped a passive alarm. Nothing loud. Just a ping. Like someone was monitoring for her name to be queried.”
“Feds?” Elvis asked.
“Would make the most sense if our theory of WIT-SEC is correct,” Blaze told him. “But it made me curious, so I ran a second pass under the name Julia Moretti to see if the same thing happened. It did, but this time I noticed two pings.”
“Two?” Colin echoed, arms folded over his chest.
Blaze nodded. “First one matches the one on Delaney, so we can surmise those were the marshals. Standard for Witness Protection. But the second?” He shook his head. “It’s not federal. It’s not any known agency actually. And the encryption? Looks military grade, but from the private sector.”
Elvis’s gut twisted. “Someone else is watching for Julia Moretti to resurface, which can’t be anyone good.”
“My guess would be it’s the person her family is hiding from.
And I’m sure our search made them curious.
” Blaze pointed back to the screen. “I traced the second alert as far as I could, and it led back to some kind of shell corp based out of Nassau County in Florida, but the servers rerouted through six countries. Whoever set it up didn’t want to be found. ”
“And?” Elvis pressed.
“And I didn’t want to keep digging until I cleared it with you. If our guess is right and she is in WIT-SEC, then our search could have just exposed her.” He shrugged. “I thought you’d want to talk to her first before we did that. I don’t want to put her in danger.”
A knock at the door silenced everyone, making Elvis jump slightly. Every man in the room reached for a weapon, instantly on alert.
“Did someone call for more bacon?” Taylor asked as he glanced at the door.
Elvis lifted his hand, cautioning them, then stepped to the door as he looked at the monitor Colin had rigged up when they first set up shop. The monitor showed the hallway—Delaney stood there, shoulders tight, jaw set. And beside her?
He could only assume one of the three-letter agencies by the way the man stood.
“Well, this is fucking great,” he breathed. He opened the door, braced for whatever was about to happen.
Delaney’s eyes locked with his—cool, unreadable, but beneath that chill was a storm he hadn’t earned the right to name.
She glanced over his shoulder at the others in the room. “I wouldn’t be the topic of conversation, would I?” Her voice was calm but tight, like she was holding back a tidal wave of emotions with sheer force of will.
Elvis’s gaze slid to the man beside her. Tall. Broad-shoulders. early-fifties. Salt-and-pepper buzz-cut. And at his waist, a holster and a badge that all but barked its credentials.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Blaze minimize the monitor screen.
Smart move, he thought as he glanced back at Delaney, stepping aside so they could enter. His heart thudded behind his ribs. “You wouldn’t be far off.” He glanced at the marshal. “Seems you’ve got a new partner.”
The older man stretched out his hand. “Marshal Donovan Ashland. I’m—” He glanced at Delaney, his lips twisted in a grimace. “Well, we’ll get to that in a bit.”
Delaney looked completely uncomfortable as she glanced around at the others. “I’m guessing you know why we’re here.” She looked back at him, annoyance mixed with something he didn’t recognize all over her face.
He slid his hands into his pockets to hide their trembling. “To admit that you lied?” A whirlpool of emotions swirled inside him, each filling him in a nauseous twist, making him want to scream or throw up, before another took its place with a whole new set of reactions.
“It’s not that simple,” she told him, an imploring look in her eyes. “Bobby, there are things—”
“So you do remember me,” he said, cutting her off.
She shook her head, her eyes glistening. “You don’t understand.”
“Just stop,” he snapped, yanking his hands out of his pockets and digging his nails into his palms to stem the flood of emotions threatening to break him. “Just… stop.”
She stared at him, a war raging behind her eyes. “Can we talk somewhere? Just us?”
Colin pointed to the room off to the side. “You can use my bedroom.”
Elvis looked at her and shrugged, still not sure what the hell was happening.
Delaney ignored the looks that followed her as she left the marshal standing there and moved to the indicated room. She kept her arms over her chest and her back ramrod straight as she walked.
“Want some breakfast, Marshal?” Taylor asked.
Elvis stood there for a moment, hands on his hips, as he watched her slip inside the room, flipping on the light as she did. He wasn’t sure if she would finally tell him the truth or if this was merely another dodge, but he knew there was only one way to find out.
“I’ll be right back,” he told the others and followed her into the bedroom portion of the suite.
“Scream if you need help,” Blaze quipped as Elvis shut the door.
When he entered the room, Delaney stood by the window, arms wrapped tight around herself as if bracing for a storm no one else could see.
Outside the window, the city sparkled with distraction—neon signs promising escape, which often led to empty wallets and foggy memories.
However, in that room, nothing glittered and tempers were strung tight.
Up there, the silence between them, thick and razor-sharp, pushed down on his shoulders.
He stood near the door, hands on his hips, and simply waited for her to speak, hopefully giving him the answers he had wanted for fifteen years.
She scoffed, shaking her head. “Fifteen years. I’ve played it safe for fifteen years, never venturing far into the world, staying close, staying hidden.
I’ve turned down promotions and better positions to stay safe.
I even let someone else be the public face of my own company.
It figures the first time I venture away from the office, I would run right into the one person who could ruin everything. ”
He stared at her reflection in the glass. “I’m not trying to ruin anything. Hell, I don’t even know what there is to ruin. Julia, where the hell did you go? And why are you here now? I think I deserve some fucking answers after everything we promised each other.”
She turned, staring at him, arms still tight over her chest as if she was afraid if she dropped them her heart would fall right out.
“That was high school. An entire lifetime ago. We were both different people then, and a lot has changed. Had to change, to be honest. I didn’t have a choice. I still don’t.”
He took a couple of steps further into the room, but still kept his distance, hands loose at his sides. “You vanishing on me changed me. You know, in case you were wondering. And I want to know why you did it. Why I didn’t deserve so much as a note telling me you were leaving.”
“I couldn’t,” she told him, her voice rising, sounding more like desperation now.
“I had to leave everything—everyone—behind. I don’t even possess a yearbook from back then because they were worried someone would leaf through it and notice I had a different name.
No love notes. No pictures of friends or family.
You don’t know what it’s been like since I had to leave. ”
“No, I don’t, because you never trusted me enough to tell me what the hell was going on.”
“It had nothing to do with trust,” she said, her tone going even louder. “It had to do with survival. My family’s lives depended on what we did that night.”
“And what exactly did you have to do?”
She stared at him. “We had to run.”