Chapter 22
Your twin brother is dead.
What kind of screwed-up prank was this? No number? Archer Owen Googled how it was possible to send a text without an identifying phone number. The search result said it was possible to send an anonymous text using a web-based service. Shit.
Was this real?
The text would haunt Archer Sturgess for the rest of his life if he didn’t investigate and his twin brother Owen turned up missing. Considering everything that had been going on lately, he wouldn’t risk ignoring the message. Plus, there was an easy way to find out if this was legit.
Archer fired off a text to his brother as he stood in the back of the small gathering being held for the late Harrison Guidry. He glanced around the room. Conrad sat next to his future bride, Nikki. Kade and Bree were there with their baby. Three-year-old Grayson sat between Travis and Chloe, who held hands behind the little boy. Conrad had found the love of his life in Nikki. The circumstances of their courtship were unusual, to say the least. But their love was the one good thing that came out of the tragedy of her father’s murder.
Dropping his gaze to the phone, he waited for those tell-tall dots that said Owen was responding. His brain refused to believe his twin was dead. Wouldn’t Archer know? Wouldn’t he feel something? Some kind of twin telepathy?
Hudson wasn’t present, either. Were the two of them together? Safe?
There was another brother in the room… correction half-brother. Beau sat with his hands folded and his head down. He’d saved Conrad’s life. Nikki’s, too. The family owed him. But trouble had shown up alongside their half-sibling. Archer still couldn’t bring himself to trust the person who looked so much like their father.
Something was off. Or maybe he couldn’t accept the reality of anything bad happening to his twin. Could he ask around to see if anyone had heard from Owen or Hudson? This couldn’t be real, could it?
A woman caught his attention as he scanned the room. Dressed in black, she sat in the back of the room, closest to the exit. The rim of her hat covered her face as she kept her head bowed.
The woman shifted in her seat, clearly uncomfortable. Something about her seemed oddly familiar.
Did Archer know her from somewhere? Was she somehow connected to Harrison?
Archer glanced over at Beau. As much as Archer didn’t trust their half-sibling, the man had saved Conrad’s life. Archer needed to thank Beau and shake his hand. He put the thought on hold as the tiny hairs on the back of his neck pricked. Was someone watching him?
He turned to get another look at Black Hat to see if it was her.
Couldn’t be.
Black Hat had disappeared.
What the hell? And what was up with the nagging feeling he should follow her?
Archer made a move to slip out the exit near the spot where Black Hat had been sitting. A folded up piece of paper caught his eye as he passed her seat.