Securing Zoey

by Susan Stoker

  “And if she was desperate, she’d probably do whatever it took to get her kids back,” Ace added.

  “Like get money to pay off her ex, or to hire a lawyer to fight back and get custody of her kids,” Phantom added.

  “That’s what I figured,” Tex agreed.

  “Well, shit. Am I supposed to feel sorry for her?” Bubba asked a little indignantly. “She fucking left me and Zoey in the middle of nowhere to die. Her bad life choices don’t mean she’s off the hook for what she did.”

  “I never said they did,” Tex said evenly.

  “Then why did you tell us her fucking sob story?” Bubba asked.

  “I’m merely updating you as to what I’ve found out. You want to discover who’s behind trying to kill you, right?”

  “You know I do.”

  “And that’s what I’m doing. I’m guessing Eva Dawkins isn’t the one out to get you. She’s got no connections to Juneau that I’ve been able to find yet, and I don’t think she even knew Colin. Someone else was calling the shots. But here’s my real question…why fly you and Zoey out into the middle of nowhere and leave you to die? It makes no sense. I mean, if someone wanted the money you got from Colin, making you a simple missing person wouldn’t make that possible. So nothing Eva did makes the least bit of sense. Unless someone hates you or Zoey so much that they just wanted you to suffer.”

  Bubba had known stranding them didn’t make sense. Regardless of the method, while he wasn’t exactly Prince Charming, he didn’t think he’d ever made someone so angry at him that they’d go to great lengths just to see him suffer. And he couldn’t imagine Zoey having someone who hated her that much.

  “So here’s my question for you,” Tex went on. “When I find Eva Dawkins, do you want me to call in the authorities, have her arrested, let her lawyer up then sit in jail for a few months while her case goes through the court system? Or are you gonna give me the go-ahead to do what needs to be done to find out the information you want, so you can move on with your life?”

  Bubba sighed. He had no idea what Tex had planned, but the last thing he wanted was to constantly be looking over his shoulder. Someone had tried to kill both him and Zoey. And the fact that they hadn’t died and had managed to be present for the reading of his dad’s will probably wasn’t going to sit well with whoever was behind the entire scheme.

  “I want this shit done,” Bubba said after a moment.

  “Right. And for the record, that’s the smart choice,” Tex told his friend. “The last thing I want is whoever’s behind this to get a second chance to finish what they fucked up the first time. And I’m guessing you want to move on with your life with Zoey, as well.”

  “I do,” Bubba said.

  “I tracked Eva to Seattle,” Tex said. “It’s only a matter of time before I find out where she went next. I’m assuming she won’t want to get too far away from her kids.”

  “Tex?” Ace asked.

  “Yeah?”

  “Are the children all right with the ex? I mean, with his less-than-safe occupation and the fact that he obviously has no problem separating them from their mother, are they safe?”

  Bubba wasn’t surprised his friend had thought about that. He loved kids. He was born to be a father. And with the addition of the three girls he and Piper had adopted from Timor-Leste, and the fact that his wife was currently pregnant, he was more conscious about children than the rest of them.

  Tex hesitated before saying, “If things happen the way I’m thinking they will, the kids are going to be fine.”

  “What does that mean?” Ace asked.

  “It means I’m gonna make sure they’re going to be fine,” Tex repeated. “Look, you guys know I work with all sorts of teams. Military, private security, and even some that work on the edge of the law. I know a guy who works out of Colorado Springs…he knows a team of men who won’t hesitate to do what needs to be done when it comes to taking out the worst of humanity. I’m saying too much already, especially considering where y’all are sitting, but sometimes the evil in the world gets a little too much control and the good side needs a bit of help.”

  “What are you saying?” Rocco asked, leaning forward and lowering his voice. “That you know some vigilante group out there going around killing people outside the law? And you’re supporting and helping them?”

  “You know me, Rocco,” Tex said tightly. “You know when it comes to protecting those I know and love, and my country, I’ll do whatever’s necessary. These guys have been burned by the very country and the laws that were supposed to protect them. They’ve taken it upon themselves to do what they need to do in order to sleep at night.

  “I don’t talk to them directly, but I do discuss injustices that I’ve run across with their acquaintance. What he chooses to tell them or not tell them is out of my hands. I know without a doubt that he’ll either personally take care of making sure those kids are safe, or he’ll get in touch with this team, and they’ll take care of business.

  “But I’ll tell you this—I sleep just fine at night. Anyone who would not only sell drugs, but get his girlfriend involved, and then leave her hanging out to dry when she’s caught, then manipulate the court system in order to steal her kids, isn’t someone I’ll cry over when I read his obituary in the paper. Understand?”

  Bubba was seeing a side to Tex that he hadn’t ever seen before. He wanted to say he was shocked, but he honestly wasn’t. Tex had been around a lot longer than he or his team had. He’d seen and done things none of them knew about. If he was assisting a team of vigilantes who did their best to rid the earth of the worst of the worst, he didn’t give one little shit.

  What he did give a shit about was Zoey. And his friends. And making sure no one hurt what he considered his. And maybe it was too much, maybe he’d lost his mind, but Zoey was sure as fuck his. Something had happened out there in the Alaskan wilderness. They’d connected on a level he’d never connected with anyone before. He’d be damned if someone hurt her. And if it took Tex doing whatever the fuck he had to do in order to make sure she was safe, Bubba would condone it a thousand times over.

  “I don’t care what you do or how you get the information, Tex. Just get it.”

  “I will,” Tex reassured him. “I’ll be in touch.”

  Bubba clicked off the phone and put it back in his pocket. The urge to text Zoey, to hear her voice, to make sure she was all right, was strong, but he resisted.

  “Is anyone else concerned that Tex has finally crossed a line he can’t ever come back from?” Gumby asked, his voice hushed.

  Bubba opened his mouth to respond, but Phantom beat him to it.

  “No. Fuck no. Tex is the most loyal and straight arrow I’ve ever met. Yeah, he does some illegal shit to get information, but he does it to save lives. We all know we’ve wished more than once that we could simply take out those who deserve to die, but our hands are tied. Imagine if they weren’t. Imagine if we could simply end those who abuse women. Kill animals for the fun of it. Rape defenseless children.”

  Bubba heard the pain in his friend’s words, but didn’t know how to help him. But Phantom being Phantom, he rallied and his voice became stronger, more determined as he spoke.

  “The goal here is to figure out who tried to kill Bubba. And if we need to enlist the help of a group of men we don’t know and have never heard of, fine. All it means is that if we’re questioned about them, we can’t say shit. I’d jump through fire for any of you, and Tex. If he’s okay with whatever he’s doing to get information, I’ll support him one hundred percent.”

  “Me too,” Rex said.

  “Same here,” Ace said.

  Everyone agreed, and Bubba sighed. “I can’t believe this is happening, really. I mean, yeah, Pop left me some money, but most of it’s tied up in his business.”

  “So who do we think did it?” Rocco asked.

  “As far as I’m concerned, there’s really only two people who could be that upset about Pop’s will,” Bubba sai
d. “Sean and Malcom.”

  “You really think your brother would try to kill you over this?” Gumby asked.

  “If you’d asked me a week ago, I would’ve said no way. But he wasn’t exactly thrilled about the results of the will.”

  “What about other people your dad worked with?” Rex asked.

  “It’s possible,” Bubba conceded. “Malcom brought up an interesting scenario that surprised me at the time…but the more I think about it, the more it worries me.”

  “What’s that?” Rocco asked.

  “Poison. Both Zoey and Mal said that Pop had been sick for a while, but he wouldn’t go see a doctor. And after Zoey left to go to Anchorage to visit her mom, Dad took a turn for the worse and died. Malcom actually suggested that Zoey was working with Ashley, the nurse who helped Pop when Zoey wasn’t around.”

  “It’s not a bad theory,” Phantom mused.

  Bubba was about to lose his shit when his friend continued.

  “The poison scenario, not Zoey being involved. There was an autopsy, right?”

  “No,” Gumby said. “Foul play wasn’t suspected, and Malcom had Colin cremated almost immediately. Official cause of death was a heart attack.”

  “Any tissue samples taken before he was cremated?” Rocco asked.

  “Not that I know of, but we can have Tex look into it,” Gumby said.

  “Shit,” Bubba muttered. He hated to even think about this. It didn’t seem real that he was discussing not only his father’s death, but the possibility that he’d been murdered. “This seems more like a plot in a bad crime show than my life,” he muttered.

  “It’s definitely looking premeditated,” Ace said. “But we don’t have proof that your dad was murdered. It could just be that someone took advantage of his death to try to get what they wanted.”

  “Right,” Bubba said with a shake of his head.

  “So who else could’ve planned this?” Gumby asked.

  “I don’t really know that much about Pop’s employees,” Bubba admitted. “I mean, the ones he dealt with on a regular basis. The suppliers or even the managers at the factory.”

  “It seems to me that Sean Kassamali is the prime suspect here,” Rex said. “He’s been in business with your dad since the beginning, right? What if he found out about the will, and that he wouldn’t be getting as much of the business as he felt he deserved? He could’ve been really pissed off about that. It wouldn’t make me happy to put in all that work, then get screwed out of what I might feel I deserved.”

  “Every single word you just said could apply to Malcom too,” Rocco said dryly.

  “Fuck, you’re right,” Rex said.

  “Wait, didn’t the lawyer arrange for the private plane?” Rocco asked. “Or have his assistant do it? Could he be in on it too? Maybe he was upset that Colin didn’t leave him anything? It’s not common for lawyers to get a portion of estates, but he’s been your dad’s lawyer for about the same amount of time that he’s worked with Sean.”

  Bubba knew this was what the team did when they were trying to figure something out, but the fact that it was his life they were dissecting was disconcerting. “I asked about the pilot and Kenneth’s wife said Eve had come highly recommended by one of her husband’s clients.”

  “Kenneth could’ve thought that everyone would just assume the plane had crashed, killing the pilot and everyone onboard, and he’d never be looked at twice,” Rocco said.

  Bubba’s head hurt. He didn’t like thinking about people he’d known for most of his life plotting to kill him.

  “Maybe Bubba wasn’t the prime target,” Phantom said. “Maybe Zoey was. What do we know about her? Any ex-boyfriends in the picture? Her mother isn’t exactly winning the award for mom of the year, maybe someone did this to get back at her?”

  “Enough,” Bubba said, standing, his chair making a screeching sound as it dragged along the floor. Which didn’t help his aching head. “We could sit here all day and dissect my life, Zoey’s life, and the life of every fucking person I’ve ever met, but it won’t do any good without hard evidence. We have to wait on Tex and the cops in Alaska to figure this out.”

  “You can’t put your head in the sand on this,” Phantom insisted. “Shit isn’t all sunshine and roses.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Bubba asked his teammate, resting his palms on the table in front of him and letting his head drop. “I’m perfectly aware that someone tried to kill me. That even if they weren’t after Zoey, she was caught up in this bullshit too. I’m pissed off, even more so because it’s likely someone I know. But I’m even more upset because I was robbed of the opportunity to pay my respects to my pop the way I should’ve. I’m angry at myself for not getting to Juneau to see my pop one more time before he died. And now I have to wonder if the same person who tried to kill me didn’t also succeed in killing my father. So yeah, I know about the sunshine and roses thing, but I’d appreciate you not throwing it in my face.”

  Bubba was panting by the time he was done with his tirade, but he was just so fucking tired. Tired of the regrets. Tired of trying to think about who hated him so much that they thought it was preferable to kill him than to confront him.

  “Sorry, man,” Phantom said. “I was out of line.”

  Bubba sighed and ran a hand over his face. “No, you weren’t. I was. I’m sorry.”

  “Tex’ll figure this out. He’ll use those connections of his to find the pilot and get the information he needs out of her. This’ll be over before you know it, and you and Zoey can stop worrying about looking over your shoulder and instead concentrate on getting on with your lives,” Phantom said.

  Bubba knew his friend was doing his best to be supportive, and he appreciated it. “Thanks. I hope so. Are we done here?” he asked, looking at Rocco.

  His friend nodded. “Yeah. You look exhausted. Go home.”

  “Thanks,” Bubba said. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d bugged out of work early, but he was tired and stressed and hadn’t truly realized how hard it would be to be away from Zoey all day. After spending every minute of his time with her for a week straight, and being responsible for her safety and well-being, he was feeling their separation acutely. He wondered if she felt the same or if he was completely crazy.

  Deciding not to call her and let her know he was leaving work early, he did his best to not break all the speed limits on the way to his house. He pulled into his driveway and parked and checked inside his house for Zoey. When he didn’t find her, he immediately left and headed across the street.

  He knocked on the door and waited impatiently for Jess to come to the door. When it finally opened, he was relieved to see Zoey standing there.

  “Mark! It’s early, what are you doing home? Is everything all—mumph!”

  Bubba didn’t know what came over him. The discussion with Tex. The stress of someone wanting them dead. Missing her. Seeing her smiling and happy and safe. All of it coalesced into a physical need to touch her.

  His mouth came down on hers mid-sentence, and he sighed in relief when, instead of asking what the hell he thought he was doing, her arms immediately came up and gripped his biceps, pulling him into her rather than pushing him away.

  She felt amazing.

  The connection that he’d felt between them seemed to grow and solidify as they continued to kiss. Her head tilted to the side and he felt her go up on her tiptoes to try to get closer. Bubba wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into him so they were touching from their hips to their chests. Her hand moved to his back and he felt her fingernails digging in as she tried to fuse herself to him.

  She tasted like tea and peppermint, and he couldn’t get enough.

  He had no intention of pulling away from her, but Jess’s voice cut through the haze of lust and need that had overtaken him like a wet blanket.

  “Not that I’m opposed to you two going at it on my front steps, but I’m guessing the other neighbors around here who aren’t as open and eas
ygoing as I am might have a problem with it.”

  Bubba felt Zoey jerk in his arms and he reluctantly pulled back. He stared into her eyes and was overjoyed to see the same need that he felt deep in his soul. Tenderly smoothing a lock of hair behind her ear, he leaned down and kissed her gently this time. A short touch of his lips to hers that did nothing to mollify the need inside him.

  But somehow knowing that she felt the same desperation he did, that she wanted him as much as he wanted her, made him settle. She was here, safe, and he’d do whatever it took to keep her that way. If Zoey thought he was going to let her go back to Alaska after Tex figured out what the hell was going on, she was very wrong. Rex’s words came back to him, and he refused to let her go and have one more regret heaped on his soul.

  Turning his head but keeping his arms around Zoey, he said, “Hey, Jess. Thought I’d come home early today and make sure all was well.”

  The older woman cackled as if he’d said the funniest thing she’d ever heard. “Good God, man, it’s not as if we spent the day polishing our rifles and building bombs or anything. Zoey and I have simply been getting to know each other.”

  “And? Everything’s good?”

  Zoey hadn’t said anything, but Bubba’s attention was on Jess. He’d had a gut feeling that the two women would get along, but until he heard it from Jess’s mouth, he wouldn’t take that for granted.

  She rolled her eyes and it made him think of Zoey. He relaxed. Yeah, it was fairly obvious that Jess and Zoey had most likely hit it off.

  “Your Zoey cleaned my kitchen from top to bottom as I sat on my butt and watched. Then she made lunch, got me settled in my living room and tidied up as I napped. When I woke up and insisted she take a load off, we talked about what happened to her up in Alaska, about her mom, and you. We discussed politics and didn’t even kill each other over it. I told her how much I missed Frank, and she made up a list of the things I need from the grocery store. She promised to take me there tomorrow, which is super exciting, but I told her that I wouldn’t go anywhere without having my hair done first. It’s been too long since I’ve been cooped up in this house, and I’ll be darned if anyone will see my old lady hair.”