“So we’ll do it,” Grady said, getting to his feet. “I think we’ve left the hens alone long enough. I don’t trust them to their own devices.”
“I need to get Emma home so I can rub her feet,” Finn said ruefully.
“I need to tell Sophie we’re going on a mission together tomorrow,” Grady said.
“I need to fight with my wife,” James said. “Then I’m going to make up with her a few times.”
Four sets of eyes shifted to Jake.
“What are you going to do, Whipped Jake?” Grady was far too gleeful.
Jake narrowed his eyes. “I’m going to have sex with your sister five times and then tell you all about it tomorrow.”
The Hardy brothers made duplicate faces, all expressing horror.
“Such a delightful family,” Peter chuckled. “You guys should be filmed for a reality show.”
Nineteen
“I’m a little nervous,” Sophie admitted, running her hands down the front of her tunic to smooth it before hopping out of Grady’s truck the next morning. “Sheriff Morgan and I are still … weird … around each other.”
Grady shot her a reassuring look over the top of the vehicle. “I know,” he said. “He’s not a bad man, though. He made some bad choices. He knows that. He’s trying to put what happened with John Madison behind him. This might be good for all of us.”
A year prior, Sophie found herself caught up in political intrigue of the deadly kind when Sheriff Aaron Morgan’s longtime confidante, John Madison, was caught embezzling funds. Grady stopped Madison from killing Sophie and Morgan was still recovering from the political fallout. The sheriff’s department was under constant scrutiny, but Morgan claimed he didn’t blame Sophie or the Hardys for what happened. So far he’d proven to be a man of his word.
Grady locked his truck and moved to the front, linking his fingers with Sophie’s so they could present a united front. “We’re doing this together, sugar. It’s going to be okay.”
“I know,” Sophie said. “It still makes me nervous.”
“I’ll be with you.”
“Thank you for bringing me with you,” Sophie said. “I … you didn’t have to. I’m grateful you’re not trying to shut me out, though.”
“I would never try to shut you out,” Grady said. “On the flip side, I don’t want you in danger. Peter made a good point. If I don’t want you going off the rails I need to let you be part of the team. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t you dare go off the rails, though,” Grady warned. “I will spank your bottom if you do – and not in a fun way.”
“Duly noted.”
“Come on, sugar. Let’s have a sit-down with the sheriff.”
“HOW do you want to do this?” James asked, shifting in the back of the limousine so he could meet Peter’s studied gaze. “By the way, I’ve never gone to a business meeting in a limo. This is just … surreal.”
Peter snorted. “We’re not dealing with high-level business people here,” Peter said, grimacing at the ramshackle house in front of him. “This is undignified. It really is.”
James fought to contain his smile … and lost. “I’m taking it your usual meeting places are nicer.”
“They have intact windows.”
“What should I expect?” James asked.
“Attitude,” Peter replied succinctly. “These are low-level players who want to be a part of the big game. They will posture and boast, but very little of it will be based in reality. I need you to let me do the talking.”
“I’m only here to see if I can find the guy from the mall,” James said.
“If you do, don’t move on him immediately unless he runs,” Peter warned. “Sven is going in with us. He can serve as backup. I also have two other cars that are mobile. They are watching every direction of this house. If someone runs, they have orders to collect them.
“I know you want to make someone pay for going after Mandy,” he continued. “I want that, too. I also want to be cool under pressure. So, you may not be able to stop yourself from chasing this man if he’s inside. I’m going to ask you to try, though.”
“Are you sure your men can snag him?”
“Nothing is sure in this world,” Peter cautioned. “I’m relatively sure my men can catch these … people … if they try to run, though.”
“Okay,” James said. “I can’t promise you that I won’t beat him to death, but I can promise I’ll try to contain myself.”
“That’s the most I can ask for,” Peter said. “Okay, let’s see what kind of filth we’re dealing with.”
“THANK you for seeing us on such short notice,” Grady said, sitting in one of the chairs across from the sheriff’s desk. “I really appreciate it.”
Morgan smiled congenially. “Thank you for coming in for a chat,” he said. “To be honest, I expected to see you sooner after hearing what happened to Mrs. Hardy. How is she?”
“She’s okay,” Grady said. “She’s braver than she probably should be. She’s still having nightmares, although she won’t talk about them.”
“My understanding is that the Twilight nightmares are severe,” Morgan said. “She’s lucky to be alive, though.”
“That’s what we keep telling ourselves,” Grady said. “We know we’re lucky we still have her. That’s what keeps us going right now. It’s also left us somewhat scattered. We didn’t approach this case in the manner we should have from the beginning … and now we’re trying to fix things.”
Morgan shifted his eyes to Sophie, his expression thoughtful. “I’m glad you’re here, too, Ms. Lane. We’ve never really had much of a chance to talk after John’s attack on you. I owe you an apology for that whole ordeal.”
“You didn’t do it,” Sophie said, nonplussed. “He hoodwinked you as much as anyone else.”
“And yet he only got in the position to do that because I let him lead me around when I was the one in the leadership position,” Morgan said. “I make no excuses for what happened. I can’t go back and change it. I can only move forward.”
“We can move forward together,” Sophie said, smiling slightly. “You’ve been doing a great job over the past year. You should be proud.”
“I’m doing the best I can,” Morgan said, returning the smile. “I have reporters like yourself to keep me on my toes.”
“I do the best I can.”
“So, what do you want to talk about?” Morgan asked, shifting his attention back to Grady. “I’m assuming you want to exchange information on the Twilight investigation.”
“Pretty much,” Grady said. “Our information is all over the place. We didn’t handle this one well and we let ourselves get distracted. We know that three women have gone missing from area haunted houses and we also know three women have gone missing from the MCC campus.”
Morgan stilled. “How did you stumble across that information? We’ve worked hard to keep it quiet.”
Grady exchanged a look with Sophie. “Well … um … .”
“My foster father has been gathering information for us,” Sophie interjected, seeing no reason to lie. “He’s not a fan of Twilight or the people dealing it.”
“I know about Mr. Marconi’s reputation,” Morgan said. “I believe that his involvement in this case is … something we’re going to have to talk around. I don’t want it coming back to bite anyone.”
“I agree,” Grady said. “Everyone on our end is worried about what is happening to these missing women. We know the mortality rate of Twilight is high. That doesn’t mean all of these women are dead, though.”
“We’ve been having the same discussions here,” Morgan said. “Even if you play the odds, two of these women might be alive. We have no idea where they’re being held, though. We have no way of knowing if they’re still in the area.”
“We’re moving forward on the assumption that they are still in the area,” Grady said, choosing his words carefully. “Right now we’re fo
cusing on how the women in the haunted houses were taken from the locations without anyone noticing. I’m assuming you don’t have any witnesses.”
“The problem with these places is that everyone is drunk and having a good time,” Morgan said, rubbing the back of his neck as he leaned back in his chair. “Those that do see anyone aren’t reliable witnesses. All we’ve gotten is a basic description that there might have been a blond man with blue eyes watching the women. No one saw him do anything, though. No one saw him leave with the women either.”
“How is he getting the women out? That seems … impossible,” Grady said.
“I agree.” Morgan looked conflicted. “One theory we have is that all of these haunted houses appear to have back areas where only the workers can go. To know about these areas, though, the man in question would need prior knowledge of the location to utilize them. Since the workers are intent on a show, they might not notice someone moving a dazed woman out through the back areas.”
“You think he might work at these houses?”
Morgan shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “I wish I had better answers for you. All of these houses were cagey when it came to employment records.”
“That’s because they were probably paying in cash,” Sophie mused.
Morgan nodded. “That’s my guess, too. Everyone at these places becomes very forgetful when it comes to other workers. None of them wants to believe someone they know could be behind it so they all develop selective amnesia.”
“What about the deputies who chased the guy at the courthouse?” Sophie asked.
Grady glanced at her, surprised. He’d forgotten about that little tidbit. Leave it to his Sophie to remember the mundane details that might lead to something big. She was a marvel.
“They followed him to that gas station around the corner,” Morgan said. “There was a car waiting for him. It was an older model Oldsmobile, brown in color. Because of the roundabout, there was no way to tell pursuing units what direction the car was heading. It was out of sight in ten seconds. It didn’t have a license plate.”
“It probably disappeared in the neighborhood right on the other side of the roundabout,” Sophie said. “That whole area is bad. There are abandoned houses everywhere.”
Morgan nodded. “We looked for the car, but we didn’t manage to find it. All of our units have been made aware of the situation. I don’t know if it will turn out to be a dead end or not. We’ve also gotten the security feed from the attack, but the video isn’t great and we don’t have a clear photo of the assailant.”
“What about Jasper Gunderson?” Grady asked.
Morgan narrowed his eyes. “Do you think he’s involved in this? We’re aware of Mr. Gunderson and his associates. I was under the impression that he was mostly peddling pot, acid, and some random cocaine.”
“We got a tip that he was,” Grady said.
“Him and his girlfriend,” Sophie added, wrinkling her nose.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Morgan said. “We can raid the house and see what turns up.”
“Don’t do it today,” Grady warned.
“Do I want to know why?”
“No.”
Morgan seemed content with the answer. “We’ll raid it tomorrow and see what we find. I doubt the women are there.”
“I do, too,” Grady said. “We’ve got one of our workers out at the haunted houses today looking around. My brother Finn is at the college. My brother James is … dealing with another matter. Right now we’re gathering information.”
“I say we email each other what we know on a daily basis and go from there,” Morgan suggested.
Grady nodded. “I agree. Getting the Twilight off the street has to be our top priority.”
“I’M so happy to finally meet you.”
Jasper “Houdini” Gunderson was short and greasy. His brown hair was probably closer to dirty blond when clean – but if James had to guess, he didn’t think his hair had been clean in weeks. When the man tried to shake his hand, James ignored it. Peter did, too. Gunderson wasn’t thrilled with their reaction, but he tried to hide it.
“Mr. Gunderson, I’ll get straight to the point,” Peter said, not mincing words. “It has come to my attention that you’re running Twilight. I want you to stop.”
Gunderson balked, surprised at Peter’s bluntness. “Who told you I was running Twilight?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Peter replied, his tone level. He didn’t look menacing, and yet every person in the room – including James – was terrified of the man. He exuded power. “I want it to stop.”
“I’m not running Twilight.”
Gunderson was a bad liar. “I’m not here to play games,” Peter said. “Twilight is not a drug that I’m willing to tolerate. If you want to sell dime bags and the occasional eight ball I’m willing to look the other way. I will not look the other way on this.”
In an effort to buy time, Gunderson shifted his attention to James. “Who is this?”
James opened his mouth to answer, but Peter cut him off. “Don’t play games, Mr. Gunderson. You know very well who this is. You tried to drug his wife. I have no idea what you had planned for her after the fact, but whatever it was couldn’t have been good.”
“I don’t know what you’ve heard, but I’m not in the business of kidnapping women.”
“Are you as bad of a businessman as you are a liar?” Peter asked.
Gunderson scowled. “You can’t come into my home and talk to me that way.”
“I can do anything I want,” Peter replied, unruffled. “You have some hard decisions in front of you, Mr. Gunderson. You can keep selling Twilight and then I’ll be forced to wipe you and all of your associates off the map or you can opt to stop selling Twilight and go back to your other … merchandise … and destroy all the Twilight in your possession and I’ll leave you be.”
“Maybe I don’t like either of those options,” Gunderson said, crossing his arms over his chest. “Maybe I will wipe you off the map.”
Peter didn’t move a muscle and the wisps of laughter that escaped his mouth were eerie. “I think that’s a great idea. If you come after me I’m not going to have to find a place to dispose of bodies. That’s not easy when the weather starts turning cold. I usually have to put them in a warehouse until the spring thaw – and that’s always an iffy proposition.”
Gunderson’s mouth dropped open as James fought the mad urge to laugh.
“If I find out that Twilight is still on these streets in twenty-four hours I’m going to come back,” Peter warned. “I won’t be nearly as charming then as I am now.”
“How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not moving Twilight?” Gunderson asked, shifting uncomfortably.
Peter ignored the question. “In addition to the Twilight cessation, I also want the missing girls turned over to my care. I have no idea what you’re doing to them, but I want them. I also want the location of the bodies. I know all of the women you’ve taken aren’t still alive. I want the bodies returned to their families so they can get proper final resting places.”
“Aren’t you just a regular … humanitarian,” Gunderson sneered.
“In addition to my other requirements, I want you to deliver the man who drugged Mr. Hardy’s wife,” Peter said. “He has a debt to pay.”
“Gunderson’s placid façade slipped. “You want me to turn over a man to you so you can kill him?”
“I didn’t say I was going to kill him,” Peter replied. “I said I wanted him. What I’m going to do with him is really none of your concern.”
“I’m not doing any of this,” Gunderson spat.
“That is certainly your decision,” Peter said, refusing to let Gunderson get under his skin. “You have twenty-four hours to make your final decision. Then I will be making my final decision.” Peter turned to James. “Are you ready to go?”
James nodded mutely, impressed. Peter was cold and calculating. He was also a force to be recko
ned with.
“Oh, and one more thing,” Peter said, shifting so he was looking back at Gunderson. “Your little girlfriend, I believe her name is Winona, is also a problem. I want her friends – the ones slipping drugs in drinks at bars – turned over to me as well. If Winona ever contacts my daughter again, I will be requiring her … presence … as well.”
Gunderson’s face drained of color. “I … .”
“Don’t speak,” Peter said, wagging his finger. “Think about your options. A smart man would take what I’ve offered and run with it. I don’t think you’re a smart man, though. Either way, I’ll be seeing you soon.”
Peter turned on his heel and walked out of the room, leaving a speechless Gunderson to marvel at his magical abilities. Gunderson may have fancied himself a regular Houdini, but Peter was the real magician.
James had to swallow his smile as he followed Peter out of the house. He was officially in awe.
Twenty
“I’m telling you, it was a sight to behold,” James said a few hours later, handing Grady a pizza box. “It was as if I was in a movie and Peter was Clint Eastwood.”
“Did he tell him to get out of town before sundown?” Grady asked, enjoying James’ enthusiasm despite the surreal nature of the conversation.
“Pretty much. It was amazing.”
“It sounds like James has a man crush,” Mandy teased, sidling up to her husband and poking him in the side. “Am I going to lose you to Peter? Is this my lot in life?”
James wrinkled his nose as he gazed down at his wife’s adorable face. “You’re joking, but I wouldn’t rule it out,” he said. “I’m not into dudes, but if I didn’t have you, I might make an exception.”
Mandy giggled. “I guess it’s good you have me then.”
“I guess so,” James said, lowering his mouth to hers so they could share a sweet kiss. “I’m betting Peter doesn’t have your talented tongue. You’ve got that going for you.”
“Ugh, I’m going to puke,” Grady complained.
“Me, too,” Sophie said, making a face. “Stop talking about my foster father’s tongue. You’re making my skin crawl.”
“I think it sounds cool,” Emma said. “I wish I could’ve seen it. When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about Clint Eastwood coming to my house and … well … I kind of hoped he would kill my father.”
Deadly Dealings (Hardy Brothers Security Book 13) Page 15
