Chapter 13
“You’ve been here all week,” Everett Gilliam said, jaws clenched as he glared at Bobby.
Lachlan crossed into the room, unable to ignore the tension that radiated like a physical being between the two men. Kane Ambrose sat with legs propped on a desk in the corner, watching the fallout like a movie unfolding before his eyes.
“So what?” Bobby snapped. He continued to type on the keyboard, fingers moving quickly as coding filled the three massive screens on the wall of the command center.
“You know this could be done remotely. You can make these updates from anywhere,” Everett said, not backing down.
And when Everett said “anywhere,” they all knew he meant St. Basil, where Bobby lived with his wife, Remi Spade. The woman who also happened to be the love of Everett’s life.
“I’m where I need to be,” Bobby said, pausing to give Everett a look that screamed back off. “If you’d stop interrupting me, I could finish up and return home to my beautiful wife and show her exactly how much I missed her while I’ve been gone.”
The words were like a gut punch, flushing Everett’s face red with anger. His gray eyes turned to ice as he took a step toward Bobby.
Kane might be content to watch their friends come to blows, but Lachlan was not.
Ike would never go for this open animosity between the two men.
They all knew it. Lachlan hadn’t known the men as long as they’d been friends with Ike, but he’d forged his own friendship with each of them over the years.
Bobby had become a close friend as the man worked tirelessly in setting up his and Britt’s new identities to have a safe life with their new baby.
After Britt was murdered in the car bomb, Bobby had been Lachlan’s first call to help him, and Paloma get back to St. Felipe safely.
His friendship with Everett was newer, growing as they worked together to help Sebastian protect Ike’s sister Gabrielle from a stalker.
Lachlan crossed into the room and blocked Everett’s path.
“So, not sure if Sebastian told y’all, but Paloma and the Goat Scout Camp Kids got caught up in that crazy chase in Conrad the other day. Fucking scared the shit out of me,” Lachlan said.
Everett’s attention jerked to him, breaking the man’s plans to bash Bobby’s face. “You serious? Is she okay?”
“Yeah, she hid in a slide while the guy chased that woman through the park. She waited until she heard her teacher and a cop before coming out,” Lachlan explained.
He decided the guys didn’t need to know that his little girl had been directed to take that action by a vision of her dead mother.
That would also mean he’d have to explain why that occurrence made perfect sense to him.
His own vision of Britt had torpedoed his relationship with Stacy.
If the guys knew, they’d drag him to that psychiatrist they were always pushing, hoping he’d finally deal with his grief.
But no amount of therapy would make him stop missing Britt.
He’d just have to learn to live without letting the grief ruin any future relationships.
“Smart girl,” Everett said. “Where is she now?”
Lachlan took a deep breath. “My first instinct was to lock her in the house and never let her see the light of day.”
Kane dropped his feet from the desk with a loud thud. “But you thought better of that, right?”
“Yeah, I did.” Lachlan nodded. “A couple of the parents with kids in the camp organized an extra donation to pay for plain-clothed armed guards to watch over the camp activities for the rest of the summer. Needless to say, I made a large donation for that effort and vetted the hired guards.”
“Good thing we’re ramping up our security services to take on clients soon. Looks like the islands need it more than ever,” Everett said.
“For damn sure,” Bobby said, then added, “I reviewed CCTV of the goon chasing the woman and did facial recognition. He’s with Quattro—known for not giving a fuck about his assignments as long as the price is right.”
“Why’d you do that? Don’t tell me you’re helping out the SFPD,” Lachlan said, unable to mask his surprise.
“Fuck no,” Bobby scoffed. “Rocco shot the bastard, and I needed to erase evidence of his heroics.”
“Rocco was involved in this?” Everett glared at Bobby.
“Oh, you didn’t know?” Bobby taunted.
Rocco and Everett were close friends going back to their days in the DEA. It was normal to presume that Rocco would tell Everett before any of them, but from Everett’s response, he hadn’t.
Kane jumped from his seat and walked over to them. “Fill us in on the details, Bobby.”
“Rocco was working and heard all the commotion and rumors about a knife-wielding guy chasing a woman. He checked their exterior camera feed and realized the chase was headed straight for the alley behind the clinic. So, he stepped out, shot the dude, and pulled the woman inside to safety,” Bobby explained.
“Where’s the woman now?” Everett asked.
Bobby shrugged. “He don’t know. She didn’t open up to Rocco, and you know his ass didn’t push. But he did give her our card and a burner to use if she found herself in trouble again, which she likely will.”
“My money is on her needing us in the future. A random mugger wouldn’t chase her through the streets with tons of witnesses. Quattro mercenaries are relentless. The guy is after her for a reason, and he won’t stop looking for her until he finds her,” Kane said.
Lachlan nodded, feeling bad for the woman. “Let’s just hope she uses the card to become our first client before that happens. This is precisely why Ike created Stingray Security. We can help people in trouble who can’t escape.”
“You’re making a big assumption that she’s innocent in all this, which she might not be,” Bobby warned.
“We’ll back anyone over Quattro any day,” Everett said. “I don’t give a fuck what she did or didn’t do.”
The others nodded in agreement.
“Glad to hear it,” Rocco’s voice floated into the room. “Because she absolutely needs our help.”
Lachlan looked past Rocco to the woman standing at his side, and his heart fucking stopped.
The room shifted sideways as recognition slammed into him like a physical blow.
That slight tilt of her head, her fingers worried the hem of her sleeve—gestures burned into his memory from thousands of shared moments.
The face that haunted his dreams and phone screen stared back at him, thinner now but undeniably, impossibly real.
His ears rang as blood rushed through his head.
Three years of grief crystallized into this single moment as his legs threatened to give out.
He grabbed for the table, his trembling fingers finding purchase as memories crashed over him—her laugh as she kissed their toddler, the last brush of her lips before she got into that car.
Kane and Everett appeared at his side, their grips on his shoulders both steadying and restraining. They saw it too. This wasn't another grief-induced vision or desperate fantasy.
She was … here.
It was Britt.