Chapter 18
Emily
“Luke! Luke! Wake up!” I’m practically bouncing with excitement over what I just discovered. I’ve been awake for hours now, having barely slept last night.
“I found something!” he groans and throws an arm over his eyes. For a split second I consider slipping into bed next to him, feeling his arms around me as I kiss him awake.
“What did you find? What time is it?” Thankfully he pulls me from my thoughts before I can act on them.
“A little after four—”
“In the morning? UGH.”
“Mrs. Thompson was having an affair with Matthew Davidson—”
“You’re certain?”
“Oh yeah.” I laugh at the memory. “The text messages I found leave no doubt about what they were doing.”
“I thought you had gone through her phone before? What changed?”
He quickly gets out of bed and follows me over to the table where I’ve spent the last three hour working.
“I did, but get this,” I click around on the laptop screen bringing up several different windows at once, “Mr. Davidson has a family plan, with four phones included.”
“So?”
“He has one, his wife has one, and their only son has one. Guess who has the fourth one?”
“You’re kidding? Are you certain?”
“The phone isn’t registered to anyone specifically, unlike the other three phones on their plan. But it got me digging further into their cloud account. Well, let’s just say from the photos I found there is no doubt that Mrs. Thompson has the other phone.”
“Holy shit, this could be huge.”
“I know.” I beam.
“Is there any mention of the money?”
“Not with Mrs. Thompson, but he does chat with someone else about the money. I just haven’t figured out who that is yet. The number is a burner phone, so it’s going to take some more digging.”
“No first names are mentioned I assume?”
“No.”
“This could definitely give Jack motivation to kidnap the kids if he just found out about the affair. This is payback for that, not for the divorce.”
“That’s what I’m thinking.”
“Let’s pack up and get out of here. We can call Alec from the airport and let him know what you found. We don’t know if the kids are here, but I feel like we’re just wasting time staying here.”
“Works for me.”
We both take fast showers and throw all of our stuff back into the carry-on bags we brought. Technically, we don’t need to leave for a couple more hours yet, but with this new information, Luke seems eager to get back to Virginia. On the way to the airport, he’s busy looking for an earlier flight while I’m trying to see what else I can find that I might have missed earlier. Even though our attention is on our phones, I don’t miss how close we’re sitting to each other or how our legs are touching.
“Here you go, we look forward to seeing you again,” our driver says as he parks the van in front of the loading area for the airport. We quickly put away our phones, grab the bags and head inside. We’re standing in line, waiting to get speak with a ticket agent about changing our flights when out of the corner of my eye I catch a movement. I don’t know why I look that way, but when I do I can’t believe what I see. Without drawing attention to us, I hiss at Luke.
“What’s wrong?” His attention immediately turns to me.
“He’s here.” I lean closer to him and stand on my toes.
“What?”
“Don’t look, but he’s at the self-serve kiosk over there.”
Of course, he looks, ignoring my warning not to. Sure enough, Jack and two young kids are standing next to the kiosk. I can tell by his sigh of relief that he confirms what I already knew—they are who we’ve spent the last few days searching the resort for.
“I’m going to see if I can find out where they’re headed,” his warm breath is soft against my cheek. “Call Alec, let him know what’s going on.”
“Okay,” I pause. “Luke?”
“Yeah?”
“Be careful.”
“Always.”
The confidence in his voice is reassuring as is the gentle squeeze to my hand before he steps away. Our eyes meet for a split second and I swear I nearly stop breathing wondering what’s going through his head. Is he thinking of our kiss the other night like I am? Or is he just looking forward to getting back to Virginia and putting this all behind us? Something flashes through his eyes and before I can say anything he turns and walks away.
Meanwhile, I head to a small bench against the windows to call Alec. Thankfully, I can keep an eye on Luke while I’m briefing Alec on everything that’s happened and what I found on the cloud drive. Luke pretends to the kiosk next to Jack but I can see him glancing over to figure out Jack’s destination. If I knew the names they were traveling under I could easily hack into the system and find out their destination but without knowing names it complicates things.
When Luke starts walking towards me, I meet him halfway and hand him the phone.
“They’re heading to Texas,” he announces. “Flying into Dallas.”
My heart stops and I don’t hear anything else that he says. My head spins and my chest feels like someone is sitting on it. I don’t know when he finished the call with Alec, but at some point Luke must have noticed something was wrong because he took my hand and led me over to the bench I was sitting on earlier.
“You okay?” he asks.
“Yeah…fine,” I lie.
“We’ll get something to eat as soon as we get through security; we should have stopped before we got here. I’m sorry, I was just in such a hurry—”
“It’s fine, I’m fine. I…just got a little lightheaded for a minute. You’re right—food will help.”
“You sure? If you’d rather go back to Virginia, you can. I can fly to Texas by myself while you head home—”
“No, I’ll go with you. I’m fine…nothing a little food won’t fix.” I’m convinced he knows I’m lying, but I need to see this job through. I’ve never felt so strongly about finishing a case until this one, maybe because Luke wasn’t involved in the other cases?
“Yeah?” he answers the phone on the first ring. I end up listening to just his side of the conversation but it’s enough that I can piece together what’s being planned.
“You found them?”
“Got it.”
“You do?”
“We’ll need a rental when we land. Chances are Jack has one or has someone meeting him there. I don’t want to take the chance and lose him.”
“Have you been in touch with the FBI? This goes beyond the local PD.”
“Have you told Mrs. Thompson yet?”
“Good idea.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to go back to Virginia?” he asks while slipping the phone into his jean pocket.
“No, I’ll go to…I’ll go with you.”
“If you’re sure.” Once again he offers me his hand, which I try not to look too much into. Chances are he’s only doing so because he thought I was going to pass out a few moments ago and not for any other reason.
Getting through security is quick despite the last minute ticket purchase. We find the gate before grabbing breakfast from a nearby cart. Jack and the kids aren’t here yet, but we’re confident they’ll show. He would have to go back through security to purchase tickets to another destination or even just to check in for another flight.
While we’re waiting to the board the plane, I watch the nervousness hit Luke. His leg starts bouncing up and down while he keeps a closer eye on the surrounding area waiting for Jack and the kids to show up. I gently squeeze the hand still wrapped in his, hoping to somehow comfort him the way he did to me earlier.
“You okay?” I keep my voice low as to not alert anyone near us.
“Yeah, I’m good,” he lies.
“No, you’re not.”
“Neither are you.”