Colton 911--Family Defender

by Tara Taylor Quinn

  Griffin had always had a bit of an edge with Brody—maybe tinged by a bit of jealousy—in spite of their similar starts in life. His words also carried a lot of truth.

  Flicking a strand of her long dark hair behind her shoulder, Pippa said, “I personally want to see this Wes Matthews guy—banker, con artist, whatever he is—stopped before he can steal the life savings from other people. Besides, we can’t let Capital X break every bone in Brody’s body. He’s family.” Her glass of red wine had come from the bottle Riley bought just for her. Anytime it was empty, he replaced it with another just like it.

  Her twin, Kiely, sipping the cognac he also kept in stock, nodded beside her.

  “Pippa’s right, Brody’s family. I’ll work whatever overtime I have to work to help him,” Sadie added.

  Vikki took a sip of her sparkling wine. “I’m in on the overtime. Whatever it takes. I think we have to do this.”

  “Then I’m in,” Griffin said, having lost the edge to his tone.

  Riley nodded, proud of his siblings, pleased with them. Even Griffin. Every family needed a member that kept them in check.

  And he needed them gone so he could call Charlize. Find out if she was planning to keep the baby.

  “Since Brody’s a no-show, let’s all regroup individually tonight...” He handed them each one of the brochures Brody had left. “See what you come up with and meet back here in the morning with a plan. Can you all get here early? I’ll make breakfast.”

  “French toast?” Sadie asked.

  “Breakfast wraps.” Pippa overrode the choice.

  “Just make sure there’s plenty of coffee,” Griffin said with only a hint of a grumble.

  Nodding at all of them as he shooed them out the door, Riley checked the refrigerator to see what he had enough of to make in the morning without having to run to the store.

  And then dialed Charlize Kent. He had her number from the call he’d made to himself—and immediately hung up upon—from her phone earlier that evening.

  * * *

  As soon as her phone rang, Charlize knew who it was. She’d programmed his name into her contacts. And had figured, as soon as she’d seen how he left his number on her phone via her call log, that he’d be contacting her.

  She might not have known Riley Colton for long, but she knew he was not a man who was going to be put off when it came to one of his own. What person who’d taken on five siblings as a young teen, and then given up his own career with the FBI to run the family professional investigative service, would turn his back on his own child?

  Funny how the things that had drawn her to him that night three months ago, were now the biggest problem she faced.

  And funny how she’d forgotten those things about him when she’d convinced herself that she didn’t have to contact him about the baby, before she’d known for sure there was one, telling herself that he was a leaver and she couldn’t risk him leaving her child.

  She let the call go to voice mail.

  He might be a man who wouldn’t be put off, but she was a woman who wouldn’t be bullied. Or coerced. They’d agreed to speak the following morning.

  Yeah, and what if he’d been calling about Aunt Blythe? Or had found out something new about the case from his client?

  She called him back. Funny, too, how she thought he was a bigger problem than the news she’d confirmed that afternoon. All those weeks dreading taking the test, all the anxiety she currently felt as she faced a completely changed life, and yet, she was happy, too.

  She was going to be a mother! Have a baby of her own!

  He answered on the fourth ring, though he’d just hung up from calling her, so he couldn’t have been that far from his phone.

  “You called?” she asked as soon as she heard his voice. He’d have seen her number come up.

  “Yes, I...”

  “Have more information for me regarding your client and RevitaYou?” The man brought out the snark in her. And her aunt’s connection to the vitamins was the only reason he’d initially contacted her.

  Another thing not to like about him.

  “No. I...just need to ask...”

  His hesitancy grabbed at her. “What?” she asked, her tone softening naturally. It was who she was.

  “Are you...? You’ve had a bit of time to think about choices...and...are you planning to have the baby?” The last came out quickly, and with authority. If such a question could carry such a tone.

  For the first time she wondered if maybe that tough-guy exterior hid a vulnerability Riley Colton didn’t want the world to see.

  Then she thought about some of the cases he’d told her about the night that they’d somehow crammed their lives into hours as though they couldn’t share enough fast enough. Couldn’t get to know each other fast enough.

  As though they’d been waiting all of their lives to finally have someone to share it all with.

  The train of thought came to an abrupt halt. No more fantasy world for her.

  She had a child to think about.

  And a man who wanted to know if he was going to be a father, apparently.

  “What would your choice be?” she asked as though it mattered. “You’re half of this. You have some say.”

  If he wanted her to not have the baby, could she take that information to court and make sure that he never got parental rights?

  Did she want that on record for her child to perhaps find someday?

  “I would choose for the child to be born.”

  Charlize almost dropped the phone as tears sprang to her eyes. She blinked them quickly away. Sat up straight at the table where she’d been sitting with her laptop, looking at nursery furniture.

  “It’s good to know we agree on something,” she said, feeling a smile coming on. And then, even though he couldn’t see her but not wanting him to get any false ideas about her being some kind of softie, asked, “Anything else?”

  “Have you heard any more from the police?”

  “Just that they suspect it could have been an abuser on a case I’ve worked. It’s not the first time I’ve been threatened, though it’s the first time that anything as gutsy as this happened. They’re patrolling my place tonight, but all is calm and quiet. Is that all?”

  “For tonight.”

  The words could have been ominous. They sounded more like reassurance. Because she was tired, no doubt.

  There was no picture she could come up with where she and Riley Colton sharing a child brought any kind of happiness or peace. No picture where it even worked.

  But when she hung up and went back to baby-paraphernalia surfing as a way of distracting herself from the memory of the truck that had almost killed her that night—one of her clients’ abusers she felt sure—she had a bit of a smile on her face.

  * * *

  Riley woke Pal as he climbed out of bed before dawn the next morning. He’d been up late doing research on drug production, from creation to government sanctions and approval, to marketing and sales. One thing was clear to him that hadn’t been when he’d met with Brody or his siblings the day before. They were missing a vital piece to the puzzle.

  The scientist who’d created RevitaYou.

  He’d already had a full day of work ahead of him with the two CI cases they were currently working, and had an assignment list for both Ashanti and Bailey, covering aspects of both of those, plus Brody’s troubles. Ashanti, a better techie than anyone he’d seen with the FBI, would work from home in the evenings as necessary, and Bailey, who had aspirations of joining the FBI, spent his days wherever it took to track down whatever he might be seeking. If there were physical clues, he’d find them. People, documents, evidence...the same.

  What Riley hadn’t done was welcome thoughts about diapers. He’d changed a million of them but none in twenty-five years.

  Sadie had been t
hree when she’d finally been fully trained. Riley remembered because his mom had insisted that she would be fine in her big-girl panties at his party. She’d been doing okay, but he was just certain she’d have an accident and ruin things. She hadn’t. Not that night and never again.

  Showered, in black jeans, an off-white polo shirt and black leather shoes, he dropped the lists on his full-time employees’ desks and went in to make breakfast wraps and French toast, put out half and half and plenty of cut-up fruit in a bowl big enough to feed the six of them. Leaving paper plates stacked on the counter so no one got the idea to get real ones down from the cupboard and leave them for him to wash, he stuck a bag of plastic silverware beside them and went into his office to text Charlize. It was his private space—usually respected by all—and he wasn’t answering any questions from nosy know-it-alls who’d think they had the right to know who he was texting.

  At the moment he was sticking to the case he was about to discuss with his siblings.

  Did Blythe invest in RevitaYou? Please let me know ASAP.

  By the time he’d joined his siblings at the table, both French toast and breakfast wrap on his plate, and a big mug of coffee in front of him, he still hadn’t heard from Charlize.

  About anything.

  At the moment his focus had to be fully on Brody, whom he hoped to God was safely in hiding. Yeah, the kid was definitely street savvy, and probably still knew some people who could help him stay off the grid, but Capital X was bigger and smarter than Brody Higgins, and they’d made it clear they were after him and weren’t fooling around.

  Pal wasn’t fooling around, either, as she sat at attention, watching the floor around the table for any crumbs. Riley knew it was no mistake the dog always seemed to hang out on Sadie’s side of the table.

  He started the meeting while everyone was busy chewing, and therefore quiet.

  “I want to hear from each of you. Tell me anything you’ve found out since I first called you yesterday, and then give me a plan,” he started, as always. Each member of the CI team had equal say. And responsibility. As the one elected to run the business, he knew his job, in addition to his own investigative work, was to corral them all and keep order. Each sibling would speak when called upon and listen when not, until the reports were done.

  “First, here’s what I’ve got, most of which Ashanti emailed to me last night. She found twenty-two investors. There may be more. Three of them appear to have been lured in by Wes Matthews, based on some emails she was able to hack through from an address Brody had for Matthews that has since been deleted. Just as he had with Brody, Matthews passed along promises of financial reward in those emails. And with the first three, there was talk about the dividends they’d received, too. Though we don’t yet have bank records to back this up, the first three were paid back double their investment within the two weeks Matthews had promised...”

  Kiely, the toughest of her sisters, and not prone to watching what she said, was frowning at him.

  “What?”

  “Eat,” she said, glancing at his untouched plate.

  Kind of hard to stomach food when you were busy pushing back against a maelstrom of reaction to the personal news he’d received the night before. He took a sip of coffee.

  “There were also three, an apparent second tier, who got back their investment, plus ten grand, paid for, I assume, by the third group. That consisted of the other eighteen, including Brody, who were conned out of fifty grand a piece.”

  Kiely frowned. He sipped. Popped a piece of banana into his mouth. Picked up the phone he’d purposely left facedown on the table, glanced at the screen for notifications and, finding none, put it back down. “Still nothing from Brody,” he announced.

  And nothing from Charlize.

  “Ashanti found some of the deleted RevitaYou website, which she was able to track down to the app where it was made and stored. Based on that video, the first three investors were paid out of money from the second group, as well as getting their own money back, with the express purpose of unknowingly, we’ll assume for now, becoming Matthews’s dog-and-pony show. These are the testimonials that Brody talked to me about. The people who spoke at the seminars, assuring everyone that the payback Matthews promised was real.”

  Kiely’s third frown was his warning.

  Taking a moment to face his French toast, he put the food into his mouth, chewed, forced the swallow—all to keep his siblings from jumping into his shorts. The downside to having five top-rate investigators sitting at your table.

  “I pulled up profiles on social media, and it looks like the testimonials of the RevitaYou users shown in the video, and at the live seminars, exist, as well. They’re regular people with long-standing accounts posting family vacations, holiday memories and pictures of the food they’re eating.”

  And that, unfortunately, was about all he had to give them.

  Unless he unloaded his diaper woes, which he absolutely was not going to do.

  Except...

  “I’ve made contact with one RevitaYou user.” Blythe was maybe more than just a user, but her possible involvement didn’t go into the report until he knew what he had to report. “I’ll be following up with her as soon as we’re done here. And I’ve left a list of the others who are local for Bailey to track down when he gets in.”

  Everyone nodded at him, most with empty paper plates in front of them. Vikki got up for more coffee. Filled her siblings’ cups, as well. All ceramic—off the mug tree his mother had always kept on the kitchen counter. Hopefully, they’d all be in the dishwasher, too, before everyone left.

  “I checked the paper used for the brochures,” Sadie said, out of turn, but she had everyone’s attention. “It’s the most common brand, used by pretty much every printer in the city. So far, there’s nothing there that I can use to trace it to anything in particular. It’s digitally printed, which leaves fewer clues than, say, if it had been typeset, where we might get a particular smudge or chip, something that could lead us to one particular plate. I also tried to dust for prints on the one you gave me, ran the clear ones I could get through my databases, and got nothing.”

  “So we can assume this Matthews hell monger is relatively new to the game?” Kiely asked. “Which would explain why I came up with nothing on him.” As a PI freelancing with local and national agencies, Kiely had some unique sources.

  “Eighteen people are out fifty grand each?” Griffin shook his head, the blond hair combed just right even that early in the morning, a grim look in his green eyes. “I know someone who got mixed up in Capital X, tried to contact him last night, but haven’t heard back yet. I’ll make it my top priority today.”

  Riley looked at Pippa, who was next in line around the table. “I know an attorney who has a boutique firm in the building where Brody works. I’ve asked her to get me the surveillance footage from yesterday. I should have it later today and hopefully we’ll at least have a description for the Capital X goons.”

  “I can run them through facial recognition once you’ve got them,” Sadie piped in again, and then looked at Riley. “You should try to connect with Detective Emmanuel Iglesias to see if anyone else has complained or reported in about Matthews or RevitaYou. He’d be the one who’d most likely know.”

  “And I’ll see what I can find on Wes Matthews, if there’s anything in the banking world about him. That should give us a starting point, if nothing else,” Kiely added.

  “I’m going to scour military justice records for any mention of Capital X, and ask around to see if anyone from JAG knows anything about them or has any leads,” Vikki said, her expression as straight as her long blond hair. “I have to believe, since they were on FBI radar, that we’ve come up against them, too.”

  “Okay, that’s it—everyone off to work and keep in touch,” Riley said, scooping food into his mouth as he stood with his plate. And then, as the sun com
ing in the window hit a sharp glint off from the diamond on Sadie’s left hand, he had to ask, “How are the wedding plans coming?” The other four stopped, all in various stages of gathering their stuff and leaving the table, and looked over at their sister, her shoulder-length blond hair framing the smile on her face.

  “Good!” she said. “Tate’s been gone a lot, so I’m doing most of the work, but that way I get to make all the choices!” She grinned, seemingly unaware that not a single one of her siblings liked the businessman she’d fallen head over heels in love with.

  Riley’s gut clenched. He wanted Sadie happy. Wished all of the Coltons would find partners to cook for them and give them families so he could live in peace. There was just something about Tate Greer that didn’t sit right with him. He’d checked the guy out himself, though, and found nothing on him, so said, “If you need any help, let one of your sisters know.”

  Which brought up a chorus of halfhearted offers from the other three Colton women in the room.

  And it dawned on him—all four of them were going to have another big event in their lives, probably before Sadie became a wife. They were going to be aunts, and Griffin an uncle.

  And he dreaded the moment he was going to have to tell them.

  Dreaded the shocked looks he knew he’d see, followed by the doubt in his abilities to suddenly become a father at forty-three. Dreaded disappointing them.

  He was, after all, the head of the family.

  For whatever that was worth.

  Chapter 5

  She wasn’t texting him until she’d had a chance to speak with her aunt about the vitamins herself. Charlize had made the decision sometime in the night, during one of the several times she’d woken and lain there in the dark with her mind careening from place to place. Problem to problem. Situation to situation. Counting the hours that passed safely. And always coming back to the baby growing inside her. And the man who’d fathered it.