Chapter 3 #2
Grayson finally arrived at home with Ivy.
Marcus and Dad hurried out of the house and hugged her.
Grayson realized he probably should have hugged Ivy when he initially reunited with her.
He was so concerned about her injuries and locating her kidnapper that he hadn't thought about much of anything else.
He guessed it was too late to give her a hug now.
"Did you learn your lesson?" Marcus asked.
Their dad was giving her a stern look, appearing just as annoyed with Ivy.
"Yes, for sure. I'm not seeing anyone unless it's in person and..."
"He's around your age, local, and we do a background check on him," their dad said.
"I agree," Marcus said.
Ivy rolled her eyes and folded her arms. Then she sighed and said, "All right."
It didn't hurt to look into someone's background. If he were clean, no worries. But if he wasn't? That would be important for Ivy to know.
Grayson said, "There was a situation where a fifteen-year-old had killed his parents, and then was tried as a juvenile.
When he turned eighteen, he was set free.
No justice at all for the rest of the family, his two brothers and a sister.
To look at him, he seemed like any normal teen, but when he killed again, we knew he wasn't going to stop.
It was his girlfriend this time. He was a psychopath, no emotion, no empathy.
She had gotten into an argument with him, and he lost his temper, just like what had happened when he killed his parents. "
"You never told me about that," Ivy said.
"I didn't think I needed to. But even young people can be sick individuals."
"All right."
"Do you want to eat?" Marcus asked.
"Yeah. A ham sandwich would be good," Ivy said.
"I'll skip it. I'm returning to Kalispell to see if I can track down the kidnapper."
"Grayson has a girlfriend named Kendra in Kalispell who is also a bounty hunter,” Ivy said, tattling on him.
“Right,” Grayson said, like that wasn’t truly the case. But of course, both Marcus and their dad were waiting to hear more.
“She is a bounty hunter, and we’re going to look for this guy. But it doesn’t mean anything is going to happen between us. I need to get going if we’re going to find him before he leaves the state.”
“Is he from Kalispell?” Dad asked.
“Yeah. But that’s why we figure he’ll be headed over the border.
He is one of our fugitive cases, so I want him for that reason also.
He used a different name though.” Grayson said goodbye to them, went to his home, and packed a bag.
He climbed into his SUV and drove back to Kalispell.
On the way there, he dropped by a fast-food chicken restaurant and grabbed a grilled chicken sandwich and fries.
He called Kendra’s phone on Bluetooth. “I’m on my way back to Kalispell. I just got started.”
“Have you eaten?”
“I just picked up a sandwich and fries on the way.”
“Okay, good. I ended up having a sandwich with Amy at a tea shop. Will I see you at the bail bond office? I’ve got a case I’m looking into.” She gave him the address.
“All right. I’ll see you there.” Once he ended the call, he got another from Ivy, which worried him. “Yeah, what’s up?”
“He texted me.”
“Big Bear?” Instantly, Grayson was enraged. He had thought that the kidnapper wouldn’t approach Ivy again, afraid he would get caught this time.
“Yeah. He said he didn’t know why I jumped out of his pickup.
He wanted to know if I was hurt or okay.
I didn’t tell him what had happened. I was just in shock that he would text me again.
He said he was getting his son’s car repaired and that Billy would pick me up, as we had first planned.
Dad said Younger is using a burner phone and there’s no way to track him. ”
“You know everything Younger says is all a lie, right?”
“Yeah, of course, Grayson. Do you think I’m that na?ve? Marcus said he would pretend to be me and say Big Bear could visit me here, but I wondered if I would be safer if you pretended to be me and tried to meet him out there?”
“I imagine he’ll figure it’s a setup. The police are looking for him. You were injured. He has got to know you don’t trust him.”
“Dad said Younger is a narcissist. Younger thinks he’s smarter than everyone else. Dad thinks Younger thought I could be charmed by his con again.”
“Did you tell him where you live?”
“No. He just told me he lived in Kalispell, and I said I live in Montana, that’s all. I don’t say where I live on any of my social media sites, and I didn’t tell him anything about the family. He doesn’t know I have two brothers and a father, just that my mom had died,” Ivy said.
But Grayson wondered if Younger knew more than that about his sister. She might think she was careful about what she shared, but maybe he had found her. “Did you ever mention the high school you go to?”
“No.”
“You don’t have any postings of the school on your social media.”
“No.” Ivy sounded adamant.
He still didn’t trust that she hadn’t revealed something about where she lived.
“Dad said that he and Marcus will watch over me, and they’ll take me with them if they have to be at work. They’re not leaving me alone.”
“Okay, good.” Grayson felt a little better about that. “You can help them with their cases.”
“If I get paid.”
Grayson smiled. “I’m glad you’re with them.”
She laughed. “Well, I’ll let you go so you can watch your driving.”
“I’ll let you know if I learn anything, or if we catch this guy.”
“Good luck!”
He needed more than luck. He hated that Ivy had gotten herself into this mess, but if he could help the police catch this predator before he struck again, then something good could come of this.