Three
Hale
The bastard was so busy watching the flight attendant’s ass every time she walked past that he wasn’t aware of anyone around him. When he wasn’t checking her out, he was on his phone, texting.
At first, I’d thought she was just a good distraction.
I’d known he was on this flight since I had been tracking him for seventy-two hours now, but I felt it was time for him to realize we were onto him.
When he finally noticed I was sitting one row behind him, across the aisle, things should get more interesting.
We’d just risen above ten thousand feet, and the hot piece-of-ass flight attendant had unbuckled and walked out from the galley.
He seemed to know her, but I couldn’t tell from her expressions just how well.
She wasn’t very expressive, making her thoughts hard to read.
That was one of my strengths, yet this female was making it difficult.
I had noticed that she knew his drink order.
That could mean he was on a lot of her flights or…
she knew him when she wasn’t working. He’d grabbed her wrist earlier, and she had stiffened, but that could be because she didn’t want others to notice.
Vilmer was a married man. If the other flight attendant who was working the back of the plane saw their familiarity, she could say something.
I realized I was watching the raven-haired beauty more than I was Vilmer and shifted my gaze back to the reason I was here.
Linc had been right; McKenzie was doing someone’s bidding.
I just wasn’t sure whose yet. For a dumb shit, he was doing a damn good job at not sharing the identity of who he was more scared of than us.
Because he was gambling with his life and he knew it.
The first-class flight attendant laughed at something McKenzie had said, and the sound grated on my nerves. But to be honest, I had little patience with women in general. I wanted to fuck them but preferred they didn’t talk. If they just looked pretty and were quiet, they’d be perfect.
Scowling down at my phone, I checked the time. We still had an hour left in this flight. Tracking Vilmer had meant I’d had to spend a day flying only to go fucking nowhere. I’d be back in DC soon, and I could spend some time with the one female who didn’t annoy me. My little girl.
I’d been busy since arriving in DC, but then so had she.
This was the life she’d grown up in, and she understood it well.
I wished she’d move back to Madison, but she had made a life in DC, and I had accepted it.
She hadn’t really given me a choice, but then the girl was as fucking stubborn as her mother had been.
A shadow fell over me, and I lifted my gaze back up to see the flight attendant.
Blue eyes stared at me warily and shifted to the man beside me before focusing back on me. “Would you like anything?” she asked.
It was then I realized she was holding a basket filled with snacks. I didn’t even give it a look. There was nothing in there I’d want to eat. Just like this fucking whiskey that tasted like ass. I hated flying commercial.
I shook my head and looked back down at my phone.
I waited until the man beside me took two packs of cookies and the woman left before lifting my gaze back up to see her walking away.
Again, Vilmer reached out and grabbed her wrist. She stopped, and he said something that caused her to lean down. He whispered in her ear.
There was something there. They knew each other.
That wasn’t typical behavior. This was a domestic flight, and it was late.
She wouldn’t be going on another one tonight.
DC was either her home base or she was going to a hotel.
Could be she was going somewhere with Vilmer.
I might just follow this one. Men were stupid when it came to cunts, and this one was out of Vilmer McKenzie’s league, which meant he’d be sloppy.
Maybe she was connected with the man he was working for.
Smirking into my glass of awful whiskey, I drank down the rest.
She disappeared into the galley again, and Vilmer unbuckled and stood.
I watched him while he opened the overhead bin and pulled out a briefcase.
Just before he turned to sit down, his gaze met mine, and he stilled.
His color slightly paled as I winked at him and took another drink.
He swallowed hard, making his Adam’s apple bob in his throat, then shoved his briefcase back in the bin before sitting down.
When he immediately started texting, I cleared my throat loudly, and he jerked, his head snapping up. Then, slowly, he slid his phone back into his pocket and sat there without much movement the rest of the flight. At least he stopped flirting with the attendant.
Typically, I was right with my hunches. However, after forty-eight hours of watching this female, Bay Fox, it looked like I might need to throw in the fucking towel.
She hadn’t gone home with Vilmer after work. She’d come here, to this decent apartment, but the security wasn’t the best. I’d never allow Opal to live here. Still, it wasn’t in a bad part of town.
Taking out another cigarette, I lit it up as I surveyed the area.
The sun was just about to rise, and if I was right, Bay would get up ten minutes later, have a cup of coffee, read a book, then head to the gym, come back and take a shower, change, then walk ten blocks to a place called After the Bell in a less desirable part of the city.
She would stay there for eight to ten hours, then come home, make herself dinner, and eat it in front of the television with a glass of red wine.
The past two days had been exact replicas.
And there had been no sign of Vilmer. Not one.
The woman hadn’t even talked on the fucking phone.
Last night, after she’d gone to bed, I’d done some research and looked up this After the Bell place online.
It was a nonprofit program for foster children.
They could come for free to get help with homework, eat a meal, and there were crafts and games and shit.
Explained the area it was located in. Seemed the sexy flight attendant, who lathered sunblock on her fair skin religiously every morning, was a volunteer.
That would be the only reason for her to spend so much time there.
She didn’t run it. I had looked into that too.
The place had been started ten years ago by a same-sex couple, Belinda and Reggie Finkle.
I could have been sleeping at Opal’s and spending some time with my daughter, but I’d been at this cheap-ass hotel across from Bay’s apartment, watching her.
For any sign that she was connected to Vilmer.
The only thing that had come of it was that I knew the woman was predictable and her home base was DC. That was it.
A shadow moving slowly to the left caught my attention, and I pulled the cigarette from my mouth, stepping back from the window, and watched.
The figure was dressed in a black sweatsuit with the hoodie pulled up over his head.
I watched as he walked across the street toward me, but kept glancing back at the apartment building.
What was this idiot up to? A fucking drug deal? Here? Amateur.
The light in Bay’s bedroom clicked on, and I swung my gaze back to watch her.
I wasn’t here for the other shit. Although it would have been amusing to watch.
But Bay was awake eight minutes before she had been the past two days.
I put my cigarette out and adjusted the Glock at my back as I watched her shadow move throughout her apartment.
Bathroom first. I waited, picking up the cup of coffee to my right, and took a drink.
Since this typically took about six to seven minutes, I dropped my eyes back to the dark figure to see if he was still hanging out.
He was beside a dumpster and appeared to be watching the same building I was.
From the tilt of his head, it looked like he was focused on Bay’s window.
I scanned the other windows around hers, but all their lights were still off.
He took a step back, as if he knew he was being watched, but didn’t break his focus.
I glanced back to Bay’s apartment to see her walking from the room she slept in to the one with the combined living and kitchen. Time for coffee.
Turning back to the hoodie by the garbage, I studied the figure a moment longer.
I was assuming it was a man due to the build.
Broad shoulders, on the thin side, but tall.
I was six-three, and he seemed to have me by two inches at least. His focus sure as hell looked as if it was on Bay’s apartment.
There wasn’t anything else going on to have him so damn locked in.
Was this some random man who looked for women who weren’t smart enough to keep their blinds and curtains closed in all their rooms, or was it more?
I checked back with the flight attendant to see she was already back in her bedroom, where only the shadow of her body could be seen.
She was earlier than normal today. Was she going back to work?
No, she’d have been there at least an hour ago if she had flights today.
I should have pulled her work schedule. Hell, I should have done a background check, but so far I hadn’t found any proof she was associated with Vilmer.
Grabbing my room key, I shoved the thin plastic card into the pocket of my jeans and headed for the door.
Seemed Little Miss Predictable had a different schedule today.
I needed to be outside and ready. And if the hooded man was here for her, then I just might have something.
This could be the connection I was looking for.