Chapter Eighteen
Chapter
Eighteen
“Yo, Garrett.” Gabe’s voice drifted up into Jack’s
office where Garrett was currently studying the contract he was supposed to
negotiate this afternoon. The language was tight, but he wanted to take another
look at it before running it by his boss.
He glanced over at the stack of files Olivia kept bugging
him about. The Gladen files. They felt like a powder keg waiting to explode. He
had to make his argument to Lucas soon. It came down to the bottom line. Was
this worth the legal fees that dropping the contract would likely bring about?
Was it worth the damage to the company’s reputation if what Olivia believed
turned out to be true?
He probably should talk it over with either Lucas or Finn.
The last thing he wanted to do was get this asshole coming after Olivia
personally. He had to make sure whatever plan they came up with to deal with
Gladen would protect Olivia.
Damn. He was not capable of concentrating this morning. He
wished he was at the stupid feed store with Keane and Olivia. Not that he liked
feed stores, but he did like them. He liked them quite a bit.
When he woke up this morning, he’d been filled with an
energy he hadn’t had before. The energy of a guy who knew where he belonged.
With them.
But stupid work came between them again. He was too used to
spending these hours during the day mostly with Olivia. Keane would come in for
lunch, but it was him and Livie sitting in this office going over spreadsheets
and arguing about business plans and financial projections. And yes, sometimes
he would lock the door and they would go at it, but he wouldn’t be surprised if
she’d been conceived in this room, so it felt natural.
He glanced at the clock. They should be back in half an hour
or so. He walked out to the overlook. Gabe stood on the ground floor wearing
what Garrett had decided was Gabe Lodge’s uniform. Tank top, worn blue jeans,
and work boots. Garrett was bi enough to know Gabe was pretty much as hot as
they came, but he was happily in love so that masculine figure was all artwork.
“Yeah? Everything okay?”
It had been a hell of a twenty-four hours. He was still
waiting for the call from Deputy Morgan, who was going to update them all on
what was happening with the case.
“We have a visitor, and I doubt she’s here to see me,” Gabe
announced.
“Oh, you know I always love seeing you, Gabe,” a feminine
voice said, and he heard footsteps on the hardwoods as a tall, gracefully made
woman appeared.
Gabe snorted. “I think you like using me to make Jack
jealous.”
The woman frowned. “Jack who?” She waved him off. “I’m here
on serious business, Gabe. And there’s nothing between Jack and me but endless
irritation.” She looked up. “You Garrett? You look like a Garrett.”
He wasn’t sure what a Garrett was supposed to look like, but
he’d picked up on one important thing that had been said. He practically backed
away. But it didn’t make any sense. Jack Barnes wasn’t a cheater. He looked at
his subs like they were the sun in the sky. There was no way he was having an
affair with a woman young enough to be his daughter. “Uhm, if you are here to
try to get in good with Mr. Barnes, I’m afraid to tell you I don’t think he’ll
ever be seduced. He loves his wife and his partner.”
Gabe guffawed.
The young woman’s nose wrinkled in obvious distaste. “Ewww.
Jack Barnes is like my uncle. What is wrong with you?”
There was only one other Jack he knew. The black sheep of
the O’Malley family, though he was the only one who thought that was true. Jack
O’Malley was an FBI agent who thought he had let his family down by not working
the ranch like his siblings. And now Garrett knew who he was dealing with.
There was one person Jack pretended to not want to talk about but somehow
managed to work into every conversation.
“Hello, Ruby.”
She walked up the stairs with confidence, a laptop bag over
her shoulder. Within minutes she was set up.
Garrett looked at the woman sitting across from him. Ruby
Lockwood was roughly thirty years old, with naturally curly hair and a stern
expression that did nothing to lessen her beauty. She was lovely and exuded an
air of competence that put him at ease. He’d worked with private investigators
before, and he knew the look of a good one.
“What has you driving out here so early in the morning?”
Garrett asked. “And can it wait until Olivia and Keane get back? They had to
make a run into town for some errands.”
“After what happened last night, I thought this was best
done in person. I think it’s time to consider moving Olivia to a secure
location until we can catch this guy.”
“Guy? Are you talking about Scott?” He’d thought a lot about
the man who’d been following Olivia around. He turned up wherever they happened
to be. He’d tried to make himself cozy in this very office. Actually, it was
surprising he wasn’t already here. They were supposed to meet again today to
finish up all the details on the new deal, which had been surprisingly fair.
Suspiciously fair. He had to wonder if Scott was doing it to get Olivia’s
attention. Which made him wonder what else the man was doing to get her
attention.
Ruby pulled open her laptop. “I managed to find some footage
on social media early this morning. It’s from an Amy Lincoln, who was having
her birthday party last night at The Barn. The security camera footage didn’t
give me much except proof that Olivia’s drink wasn’t ready when Keane was at
the bar. It exonerates him entirely. He doesn’t come anywhere close to that
drink. But watch this.”
She pressed a key and turned the laptop his way.
He recognized the room, and even thought he’d seen the young
woman in the video. She wore a tight T-shirt and jean shorts with boots. She
looked straight at the camera and smiled.
“Welcome to my twenty-first birthday!”
There was a bunch of whoops and yells and fist pumping as
Amy continued to talk about everything she planned on drinking that evening. It
appeared she had not, in fact, waited until she was legal since she had a vast
knowledge of mixed drinks.
Then the camera pulled back to show the whole table of her
smiling friends.
“There,” Ruby said, pointing to the top left of the screen.
Garrett stopped the footage. He stared at where she pointed.
“Is that Miranda?”
Ruby nodded. “She’s coming from the bar and walking toward
the table Olivia was at. Do you see the drink in her hand?”
Miranda carried two margarita glasses. There was no way to
miss the blue and green umbrella in one of the drinks.
“That’s Olivia’s drink.” She’d only had two that night, and
both had come with the umbrella to differentiate it from the regular
margaritas.
“Yes. I found the footage where Miranda returns to the bar.
The bartender hands it straight to her, so unless we believe Miranda suddenly
decided to drug one of her best friends and have her kidnapped, we have to
assume it happened between the bar and the table.”
“You think someone passing by managed to get those drugs in
the drink?” Miranda had carried it, and then it was close to Olivia. He thought
it would be hard to slip it in unless she was completely distracted.
“Watch.” Ruby started the video again.
Amy was partying with her friends, but a woman rushed in
front of Miranda and dropped her bag, spilling the items all over the floor. It
was precarious because there were a lot of people walking around. Miranda
immediately put down her drinks on the nearest table and helped the brunette
wearing jeans and a Western-style shirt, her hair in a high ponytail. They were
out of sight for a moment but then the brunette stood and while Miranda was
still picking up her things, the brunette’s hand moved over the margarita
glass. It was quick. It would have been easy to miss if Ruby hadn’t enhanced the
footage and managed to zoom in. He’d heard she was excellent with tech, but
this proved it. She’d found a video with hidden evidence and made it clear.
“She drugged the drink.” He didn’t recognize the woman. She
looked to be around Olivia’s age, maybe slightly younger. How did this woman
know Olivia? “I’ve never seen her before. Why would some random woman drug
Olivia’s drink? She wasn’t the one who was trying to take her out of the
building. I was there. It was one man. He was short and skinny and had a cowboy
hat on. I wish I’d gotten a better look at him.”
“I think they were working together.” Ruby’s hands moved
across the keys of the laptop. “Whoever he is, he made a point to avoid the
cameras. I pulled everything I could, and I can’t get a good view of his face.
I have him walking out, dragging Olivia along. They need to have a talk with
their bouncers because no one helped her. They thought she was drunk and
believed this guy when he said he was her boyfriend, trying to get her home.”
“Everyone knows Olivia.”
“And everyone knows she has a new boyfriend, but they don’t
know you two. From what I can tell there are rumors flying around town about
Livie and her new guys. I don’t think the bouncers meant to let her go into
danger, but they should have asked a few more questions,” Ruby pointed out.
“You two need to meet more people in this town so they know who you are.”
“So we have no idea who this person is?” Garrett stared at
the shot, trying to find anything about the man he could recognize, but he’d
done a great job of making himself a ghost. Everything he wore was nondescript,
from his cowboy hat to the boots on his feet. “We have to find someone who
talked to him. Or the woman who dropped her bag. Surely we can ID her. We have
a clear picture of her face.”
“Which is why I know she is Jessica Fellows,” Ruby
announced. “Apparently she knew Olivia a few years ago. I looked into her
background. She’s from Willow Fork, though I don’t think she and Olivia ran in
the same circles until she was hired on at Barnes-Fleetwood.”
He felt his stomach drop. “She was the one who claimed she
saw Keane drug the drink. I didn’t see her, but I read the files and talked to
one of the detectives. She was their eyewitness.”