Chapter Ten #3
Langley muttered a yes before he continued. “He found out and used it against me. If my current patients found out what had gone on at Sanderson Clinic, it could destroy my practice and open me up to lawsuits. Tarrant’s been blackmailing me for months, making me pay him to keep quiet.”
“How much?” Remi demanded.
Langley’s face reddened. “Ten thousand dollars a month.”
A low whistle escaped Remi before she could stop it. “That’s a heck of a lot of money. Enough for Tarrant to be able to live well while he was on the run.”
But no way did Langley have that kind of extra income. Not on the books, anyway. Remi had gone through his financials, and the man was drowning in debt.
“Where did you get the money and how have you been paying Tarrant?” Remi asked.
Langley’s shoulders slumped. “I, uh, have some private clients. And they have nothing to do with Tarrant or any of this,” he snapped out.
The low growl that came from Brody’s throat told Remi that he believed otherwise.
“You’re here to find out about Tarrant, and I can’t help you with that,” Langley went on.
“I’ve been depositing it into an offshore account, as instructed.
” He shook his head. “I swear to you, I don’t know where Tarrant is.
I’ve never met with him in person for payments.
It’s all been through messages or phone calls, and every time it’s a different burner number. ”
Remi studied him, trying to gauge whether he was lying. It was possible things had played out as Langley had said, but she wasn’t ruling out the idea there was more to it.
Brody sat forward, elbows resting on his knees, his gaze locked on Langley. “And if you did know where Tarrant was—” his voice was quiet, dangerous “—would you be willing to give him up?”
Langley swallowed again, his throat bobbing. “In a heartbeat.”
Eloise gave a quick, humorless smile. “Good. Because we’re going to find him. And you, Dr. Langley, are going to help.”
Remi agreed, and so did Brody. “Give us the details on that offshore account,” Brody demanded. “And I want every text or message Tarrant has ever sent you.”
Langley sighed, his fingers trembling as he picked up his phone. “Fine,” he muttered, scrolling through his messages. “I’ll send you everything I have.”
Brody pulled out his own phone, ready to examine the data. Langley hesitated a moment longer, then started forwarding the messages.
Remi barely had time to process that small win before Eloise’s phone vibrated on the table beside her. The buzzing sounded through the room like a gunshot.
Eloise grabbed the phone, her gaze scanning the screen. The moment she read the message, her entire expression shifted. Her fingers tightened around the phone, knuckles whitening, and she cursed under her breath.
“What?” Brody asked, immediately on alert.
Eloise lifted her gaze to Remi and Brody. “Someone leaked it.”
“Leaked what?” Brody and Remi asked at the same time.
Eloise’s jaw clenched. “What’s happening with your sons. The fact that there’s a missing twin and that you’re after Tarrant. It’s all over the news.”
Oh, mercy. A tense silence fell over the room. Langley paled, Brody’s grip on his phone tightened, and Remi’s mind went into overdrive.
“This wasn’t Tarrant,” Brody insisted. “He wouldn’t want this kind of attention. The more eyes looking for him, the harder it’d be for him to stay hidden.”
Remi nodded, already considering the alternatives. “So that means someone wanted this information to get out.”
She glanced at Eloise, watching her reaction carefully. Had she leaked it? She had the money, the connections. And she certainly had enough reason to want Tarrant found as soon as possible.
But there was another possibility.
“Christina,” Remi murmured. “She has the resources. She has PI teams. And if she’s desperate to find Tarrant, what better way than to make the whole country look for him?”
Eloise let out a humorless laugh. “That woman would sell her own soul if it meant getting what she wanted.”
Remi could say the same thing about Eloise. Tarrant had murdered her son, and that loss had surely cut her to the bone. And perhaps the same could be said about Christina when she’d lost her sister.
Well, maybe.
There was still that unanswered question about Christina’s possible fertility treatments.
Remi turned back to Langley. “Was Christina Turner a patient of yours?” she came out and asked.
Langley shifted uncomfortably. “I—”
Brody’s phone buzzed with an incoming text, cutting Langley off. Brody still had his phone in his hand, and for a moment Remi thought he was getting something that Langley had sent him. But his face hardened as he read it. Before he even spoke, Remi knew that it wasn’t good.
“What is it?” she asked.
Brody’s voice was low, edged with something dark and dangerous. “It’s from an unknown number.”
Remi moved closer, peering over his shoulder as he opened the message. A photo was on the screen. A baby. Small. Vulnerable. Lying in an unfamiliar crib.
Brody’s missing son.
And below it was a message. Words that shot an icy chill down her spine.
Work faster if you want to see your son. You have 24 hours, or he disappears for good.