Gray Wolf Security: Back Home

by Glenna Sinclair

  “What do you mean?”

  “Coming to you, pleading for you to let me help you because of McKelty? That was all part of the game.”

  “You weren’t turning on Elizabeth?”

  “No. She told me to do exactly what I did. To approach you while you were with Carrington, to break into your house. Even the story about not wanting the children to get in the way of whatever vendetta these people have against the Matthews. Particularly the girls because she knew that would be a sensitive subject for you.”

  “It was all a game.”

  “Yes.”

  I watched her closely, watched the impact of what I’d said come crashing down on her. I hated seeing the pain flash in her eyes, the hurt at my betrayal. But she didn’t get up, didn’t attempt to run off.

  “And the sex? Was that part of her instruction, too?”

  “In a way. She wanted me to seduce you so that you’d be easier to control.”

  She nodded, her fingers nervously crushing the bacon that remained on her plate. “Why are you telling me this now?”

  “Because I want you to know everything.”

  “What good is that going to do?”

  “She doesn’t know about my sister. She doesn’t know why I got involved with Tess Black, why I harassed those boys. She doesn’t know how it impacted me to see the pictures of you.”

  “So?”

  “She doesn’t know that I’m falling in love with you.”

  She shook her head, refusing to look up at me. “Don’t do that. Don’t play with my emotions.”

  “I’m not. I’m being honest.”

  She shook her head again. “I knew I couldn’t trust you. Nothing has really changed, has it?”

  “I won’t hurt you, Erin. And I won’t let Elizabeth hurt those Matthews girls.”

  “But you’re working with her.”

  “Feeding her false information. She doesn’t know about that.”

  “How do I know you didn’t meet with her after that and tell her the truth?”

  “I did meet with her after that phone call.” I tilted my head to the side, trying to see her face. “But it wasn’t to tell her the truth. It was to feed her even more misleading information.”

  “What?” she asked after a moment’s hesitation, her head finally coming up, her eyes meeting mine almost defiantly.

  “I told her that Carrington was having an affair and gave her a time and place to catch him. It’s happening in a couple of hours, not far from here.”

  “Why would you do that?” she asked, her voice a little shaky.

  “So we can see who else she’s working with.”

  “To help?”

  “Yes.”

  Her eyes dropped to her plate again. She was quiet for so long that I worried she was never going to speak to me again. But then she finally sighed, lifting a teeny piece of crushed bacon to her lips.

  “We should go over there, then.”

  I happened to glance out the window at that moment. A dark sedan slowed at the stop light just outside the diner, a familiar face behind the wheel.

  “Fuck,” I muttered.

  “What?”

  I gestured toward the window as discreetly as possible. “I know him. His name’s Mac Tritter. He’s a mercenary type Elizabeth has used before. He comes in and takes care of uncomfortable situations, if you know what I mean.”

  “He’s a finisher.”

  I nodded. “Exactly. The fact that she’s brought him in could mean she’s escalating her vendetta against the Matthews.”

  “Vendetta?”

  “I don’t know why, but it feels like Elizabeth’s interest in the Matthews is personal. Like they did something to her that she’s getting retribution for. Especially Joss.”

  She tilted her head slightly. “Joss’s assistant left a message on my phone, asking me to come in early this morning. She’s back in town. Maybe we should go see her.”

  “After the hotel.”

  She hesitated a moment, then nodded. “Okay.”

  She picked up her fork and shoveled a big mouthful of hash browns to her lips. She was making me hungry with this feast. I reached over to grab a handful of the crushed bacon, but she slapped my hand away.

  “Order your own, mister.”

  Chapter 26

  Joss

  The house was a literal disaster area. I had to watch my step, moving around overturned furniture and the contents of spilled drawers. I’d not known Erin long, but I knew she had a thing for order. It was clear in the way she returned the company cars, the way she kept her things when she spent the night at the house. I wondered how crazy this mess was going to make her when she finally returned home.

  “What happened here?”

  Jules shrugged. “We got the alarm at the office at about seven am. Someone came in through the living room window while someone else left through the bedroom window.”

  “She got out.”

  “We believe so. We can’t see faces on the video feed, but it looks like Erin and another person came out the bedroom and left in her car.”

  “Do we know what he was looking for?”

  Jules held up an iPad and showed me grainy video of a man dumping out a bag and picking up a handgun. He checked it against something on his phone, then left.

  “He wanted the gun? Why?”

  Jules shook her head.

  I walked over to the bag that he’d searched, surprised to see familiar pictures scattered across the floor. I picked one up, recognized my husband’s smashed pickup truck resting on the side of the road where the drunk driver had left him and our infant son to bleed out.

  What was Erin doing with these?

  I squatted close to the floor and picked them all up, discovering there were more, much more. Photos of Erin when she was fifteen, found bleeding to death in a cornfield. And papers, mostly about things I didn’t understand and wasn’t sure I wanted to understand.

  “I want Erin found,” I said as I stood, straightening the papers in my hands. “I want to talk to her the instant she’s found. Do you understand?”

  I didn’t realize I’d raised my voice until Jules looked sharply at me.

  “Yes, ma’am, I understand.”

  I touched her shoulder as I passed her. “We need to know what’s she’s been up to and why this man broke into her house,” I explained in a softer tone. “We can’t have our operatives being targeted in this way. Not good for business.”

  “Of course.”

  I could feel her eyes on me as I left the house. I was grateful she couldn’t see me once I was out the door because I lost my dinner in the bushes.

  There was only so much even I could take in one day.

  Chapter 27

  Erin

  We sat side by side in the front seat of my car, sharing a bag of sunflower seeds. It seemed like the sort of thing to do at a stakeout—chew sunflower seeds and spit the shells out the window.

  “What room did you say he was going to be in?”

  “Twenty-four,” he said for the fourth time, patiently pointing to the room on the second floor of the small motel. “Twice a week at the same time. There’s no reason why she wouldn’t believe it.”

  “Do you think she’ll send that guy from my house?”

  The idea of facing that guy one on one excited me more than it should have. I was eager to get revenge for the mess he left back at my place.

  “I don’t know.”

  I spit another shell out the window, moving the salty seeds around in my mouth like it was a wad of tobacco. “This is disgusting.”

  He laughed. “Your idea.”

  “Yeah, well, you should have stopped me.” I leaned over and spit the whole wad on the ground. “I don’t think I’d make a very good cop.”

  “You’d be okay. Stakeouts are only part of the job.”

  “Maybe. But I get bored playing bodyguard. How would I pay attention to some criminal’s house or car?”

  “You’d fi
nd motivation.”

  I glanced at him. “You ever thought of getting a legitimate job?”

  “Like being a cop? I don’t think they’d have me despite the fact I’ve never been convicted of anything. Too much suspicion.”

  “No. A banker or a counselor? You’d be good at that.”

  “Banking?”

  “No. Counselor. You helped me.”

  He shook his head. “I’m not patient enough.”

  “You have the patience of Job.” I leaned over and kissed his cheek lightly. “You proved that last night.”

  “That’s a little different.”

  “How?”

  He shrugged. “Patience in sex can be mutually beneficial.”

  I remembered the expression on his face when he reached his climax. He’d sure seemed quite pleased with it then. I guess it made sense.

  “But that’s not the only time you’ve been patient with me. And you never really lied, you know. You just left a few things out.”

  “Omission of facts are still lies.”

  “Maybe.”

  I sat back, thinking the whole thing over. I desperately wanted to trust him and a part of me thought that I could. But there was still that ever-present fear that told me no man was worthy of trust. When he told me what he did over breakfast this morning, I’d been convinced that the worst had finally come to the surface, that he really was the liar and con artist I knew him to be. But now that I was calm, now that I had a chance to think it over, I realized what he’d told me really had no bearing on anything. In fact, it only proved how honest he really was.

  My instincts told me to trust him. And I did.

  “When this is over, what will you do?”

  He looked over at me. “What do you mean?”

  “Will you leave town, go search for your next target?”

  He studied my face for a moment, his eyes clouded with emotion. “Why?”

  “I’m just curious.”

  “I hadn’t really thought about it.”

  “You could stick around. Stay with me a while longer.”

  “Do you want me to stay?”

  “Do I really have to ask?”

  He reached over and took my hand, his fingers squeezing mine. “I’d love to stick around, get to know you better. Be with you.”

  “I’d like that.”

  He leaned over to kiss me, his lips warm and salty. I nibbled on his full bottom lip, loving the taste of him, the feel of him between my teeth. He sighed, his hand slipping up along my thigh. A trickle of fear crept in, but it was swallowed whole by the desire that rushed through me like a fire through dry brush. I loved it, loved the hope that it brought with it.

  I could be normal. I could know pleasure. And I so wanted to know it with him.

  “Shit!” Boone suddenly jerked away, his arm flailing toward the windshield. “He’s here!”

  Once I realized what he was talking about, I saw a man slipping up to room twenty-four. He was slinking along the side of the wall, trying to make himself as small as possible. But rather than a gun, he only had a camera in his hands.

  “He’s a photographer.”

  “Yeah. Todd Potter. She’s worked with him before, too.”

  Boone was out of the car before I could react, halfway across the parking lot as I rushed to keep up.

  “Hey, Todd!” he yelled as he went up the stairs, startling the man so completely that he nearly fell on his ass as he turned to run off. Boone rushed after him, snagging him by the collar before he got far.

  “What are you doing here, Boone?” the man asked with all the innocence of a child with cookie crumbs on his shirt.

  “Funny. I was about to ask the same thing. Why are you here, Todd?”

  He shrugged. “I got a solid tip, that’s all.”

  “Yeah? Have anything to do with Carrington Matthews?”

  I could see the truth on the man’s face even as he started to deny it. But Boone wasn’t buying it either. He pushed the guy forward, forcing him down the stairs.

  “I got someone who might want to meet you, Todd. Ever heard of Gray Wolf Security?”

  Chapter 28

  Joss

  They were sitting in the conference room, holding hands under the table even though I’d instructed Jules to seat them across from one another. I’d already spoken to Todd Potter and sent him on his own—as far as the sidewalk where Emily Warren was waiting for him. There wasn’t much she could hold him on, but attempted breaking and entering was good enough to keep him safe until all this was sorted out.

  “Tell me about Elizabeth Tanner.”

  Boone looked up, his eyes a haunting sort of color that nearly took my breath away for a second. He was intensely handsome, explaining in part how it was so easy for him to ply his trade with his victims. Emily had given me his rap sheet, all arrests but no convictions. He must have had charm to spare to go along with those looks.

  “She’s a con artist. She likes to target elderly men, mostly the kind over sixty who are more interested in arm candy than sexual partners. I met her in Florida a few years ago where she tried to steal a million dollars out from under me while we were unwittingly attempting a con on a married couple.” He shrugged. “She called me up a few months later, asked me to help her out with a con in Texas. Then again here in California. We’ve worked together a total of five times, I think.”

  “And this time?”

  “She came to me with what she called an easy scam. She wanted me to get close to one of your operatives and seduce her so that I could get information on you and your family.”

  “Did she say why?”

  “No. But she gave me little choice. She had information on me that I preferred not to have released.”

  “Blackmail.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  I sat down heavily, wishing they’d all stop calling me ma’am. I felt old enough as it was.

  Erin was watching me with an eager look on her face. “What?” I asked wearily.

  “I checked this woman out, curious why she was targeting you. I didn’t find more than an extensive arrest record and her birth name. No connection to you.”

  I tilted my head slightly. I already knew what the connection was. She somehow knew about Isaac and Esteban. But why she had that information was something I deeply desired to know.

  “What’s her birth name?”

  “Janet Elizabeth Runion.”

  A cold wave washed over me. “Runion? Are you sure?”

  “Positive.”

  I jumped up quick enough to knock over my chair. “Don’t go anywhere.”

  I ran down the hall to my office and locked myself behind the door, ignoring the concerned look on Jules’ face. My heart was pounding, my flesh crawling.

  What the fuck?

  When I could control my breaths, I rushed to my desk and woke my computer, quickly typing the name into the search bar. Almost immediately an article on the accident came up. And there was her name, beside that man’s.

  “Mr. Runion’s sister, Janet, is asking the public to please remember her brother is innocent until proven guilty…”

  Bullshit!

  I’d forgotten that man had a sister. I’d forgotten a lot about that time in my life because of the shock and grief that followed the accident and Isaac’s slow, painful death. He was only a baby, for Christ’s sake! Her brother killed my family and now she wanted to do it again? For what? For that man who chose to drink and drive that night, who chose to get behind the wheel when he knew he was impaired? Who left my family to die on the side of the road?

  Esteban and Isaac didn’t have a choice that night. Why should that man?

  Anger rushed through me, ratcheting up the nausea that had been plaguing me all day. I grabbed my phone and called the only person who could help me now, the only person who was in this as deep as I was now.

  “Ash, I need you.”

  Chapter 29

  Erin

  I thought for sure I’d lost
my job when I saw Ash Grayson walk into the room. He smiled, but that did little to put me at ease. I reached for Boone’s hand under the table and he immediately wrapped his fingers around mine, clearly unaware of the hellfire that was about to rain down on us.

  “I’m Ashford Grayson,” he said, holding out his hand to Boone. “And you are Francis Boone?”

  “I just go by Boone.”

  He inclined his head. “And you can call me Ash.”

  He took a seat beside Boone rather than sitting at the head of the table the way Joss had done. “I’m not sure how much you know about me, but I’m the CEO and founder of Gray Wolf Security. I run the office outside of town and Joss runs this office under my purview.”

  Boone nodded.

  “Joss believes you might have information on the attacks that have been taking place against her family.”

  Boone tilted his head. “All I can tell you is what I’ve already told her.”

  Ash inclined his head. “Well, we’ve used what you told us to contact law enforcement. A warrant has been issued for Ms. Tanner’s arrest and the police are headed over there as we speak. I just need to know if there’s anything you left out in your story.”

  “Nothing.”

  “You don’t know who Ms. Tanner is when she’s not acting as a con artist?”

  Boone frowned. “I’m not sure I know what you mean.”

  “Have you heard of Jack Mahoney?” Ash asked, pushing a photograph across the table toward me and Boone. I stared over his shoulder at the face, vaguely recalling some report about him on the news. I tried not to watch too much news. Too frightening.

  But Boone knew him immediately. “He’s a mobster who was arrested last year.”

  Ash inclined his head. “We believe he’s the person behind Elizabeth’s current scam.”

  My heart sank. He had to be kidding!

  Boone’s hand tightened against mine. “Is that right?”

  “It turns out that Elizabeth Tanner is actually his niece by way of Jack’s sister, Amanda.”

  Now I knew for sure I’d lost my job. How could I expose Joss’s family to that woman? How could I have contributed to whatever pain they were trying to bring down on her?