Chapter 12
“You think Cormac will go on the run with her? Start a new life with a new identity?” Micah asked Apollo as they sat in one of his work vans.
The parking lot of the family and dog park was empty this time of night and his van had a magnetic sticker on the outside advertising a fictional crafting company.
They were in the back of the van so if some random cop doing patrols saw the vehicle, they hopefully wouldn’t think much of it just sitting here.
The park didn’t have any towing signs or no overnight parking signs either, so he figured they were good.
They’d chosen this spot since it was close to Julian Hill’s neighborhood. The fenced dog park was mostly utilized by his exclusive neighborhood.
“Yeah,” Apollo said. “I don’t think he even realizes it yet, but yeah. If it comes down to it, I think he’ll leave with her, start over completely new.”
“Then we need to make sure faking her death isn’t the best option.” He didn’t want to lose his brother.
“Agreed.” Apollo leaned back in his chair and turned up the volume on his laptop. “God, this shit is so boring.”
Micah simply nodded as he peeled another clementine. They’d managed to plant a small listening device in Julian Hill’s massive backyard. Using a drone, he’d placed a tiny camera/mic in one of the potted palms right by an outdoor sitting area that appeared well used.
Appeared being the key word because so far there hadn’t been much action in the backyard.
Over the last sixteen hours they’d seen two men cleaning the pool, then a woman who looked like she was part of a cleaning crew vaping outside for a few minutes, and Julian himself for about ten minutes.
He’d been on his cell, but his conversation had been benign.
“If we don’t hear anything good in the next hour, I’m going to trade out the camera and we can leave,” Micah said. It wasn’t that late, but there was no sense in staying too long either.
This was a shot in the dark anyway, one of the many ways they were looking into the Hill organization.
Unfortunately the cameras he planted like this weren’t wired, and while they ran relatively long enough on lithium batteries, they still had a short shelf life.
And he wouldn’t have time tomorrow to trade the camera out.
Eventually he wanted to get some inside Julian’s house and his main office, but that kind of thing took time and finesse.
They hadn’t had enough time to do a real recon of the Hills’ business dealings.
But what they did know so far was that Julian’s home was rarely empty and was a fortress.
Eventually they might be able to get inside, but he wasn’t sure it was worth the risk right now.
“Cormac just texted, says he’s going to an engagement party tomorrow with Daniela. Was basically ordered to go. The father will be there too. Sounds like it’s a whole family affair.” Apollo glanced up from his phone. “Do you have anything we could send with him that’s undetectable?”
Meaning did he have any micro-cameras or listening devices that Cormac could plant.
“Maybe. Depends on what kind of security they have.” Micah would be using Cormac’s phone as a listening device anyway, but they were limited in what they could record.
“Ask him who else is going to be there.” He started getting his drone ready as he spoke.
Screw waiting an hour. He was going to trade the camera out now with a fresh one and get back to Clover.
In the past he would have stayed out a lot longer than this, but he wanted to get home to the woman he loved.
“Hey, check it out.”
He looked up, saw movement on the screen. A man stepped onto the back patio, phone up to his ear. Not Julian.
“Logan Brown.” There was distaste in Apollo’s voice as he zoomed in on the guy, turned up the volume a little more.
Micah understood his disgust. Brown had a record of domestic violence complaints. The charges were always dropped—he’d paid the women off, according to Micah’s records—and men like that didn’t change.
Micah stopped prepping the drone and listened as Logan spoke to someone. He’d pull up the guy’s phone records later, see who he was talking to.
Brown looked over his shoulder toward the house, then took a couple more steps toward the pool. Luckily it was closer to the camera/mic so Micah and Apollo could hear.
“I don’t trust the guy, that’s all. I want to dig deeper into him and I don’t care what it costs.” He was silent for a few beats. Then, “It’s not because of her. Fuck you. He’s shady and I don’t want him near our business.”
A few more beats of silence.
Brown gritted his teeth, clearly not liking what the person on the other end of the phone was saying. “I’m not going behind his back, I’m watching his back.”
After a few more minutes of basically the same conversation, he hung up on whoever was on the other end.
“Sounds like he might be talking about Cormac,” Apollo murmured.
“Yeah. Makes sense he’d want to look into him anyway, but this is personal for him.
” Apparently the asshole had a thing for Daniela.
Micah didn’t even want to think about what Cormac would do to the guy if he threatened Daniela.
Because he understood. If someone wanted to hurt his Clover, they’d have to go through Micah.
“That means he’s unpredictable.” Apollo’s voice was grim.
“I know a good place to dump a body.”
Apollo snorted softly. “Me too, but hopefully it doesn’t come to that.”
Micah didn’t particularly care one way or another whether the guy died or went to jail, but kept that to himself. He was more than fine living in shades of gray. After all the shit he’d seen helping women escape their abusers, he was of the opinion that a dead abuser was better than one in jail.
Instead of heading back inside, Brown called someone else. Micah had a clear enough view of the man’s phone screen to see who he was calling so he looked up the phone number.
A burner. Which didn’t mean much considering the line of work Brown was in.
After a few moments, Brown said, “What’s the status?”
“Wish we could hear who he was talking to,” Apollo muttered in frustration.
Micah didn’t respond. Unlike his brothers, he was more patient. Maybe it was because he was the youngest.
“It better be neat. Nothing that can come back on me.” Brown paused, then continued. “I’ll meet you at the river warehouse later.” After that, he grunted a few responses then hung up and headed back inside.
“I don’t remember seeing a warehouse on a body of water on any of the property records,” Apollo said as he leaned back in his chair.
“Because there aren’t any.” Micah shot off a text to Cormac asking if he could talk to Daniela. Maybe she knew something she’d be willing to share.
Then he checked the cameras on the outside of his van. When he didn’t see anyone in the parking lot, he slipped out the back, launched his drone and traded out the cameras. Took seven minutes overall, a new record he was pleased with.
When he got back into the van, Apollo held out his phone. “Cormac said he’ll ask her in the morning. She’s already asleep.”
Micah nodded and they both got into the front of the van and headed out. Once they were clear of the park, he turned off the jammer for the cameras.
They’d done all they could for the day. And for the first time in his life, he had someone he wanted to go home to.