Chapter 15: Knox

 

Wednesday, May 13th

 

The weather in Portland was dreary when Jackson and I landed, not that I was surprised. How did people live in the Pacific Northwest? Most often cold and rainy, it was downright depressing. I had only been there an hour and was already struggling to imagine Haley living there. She needed sunshine and ocean views for her daily runs, not this gloomy city landscape.

With the hand not on the steering wheel of the rental SUV, I dug my thumb into my temple to temporarily relieve some of the pressure clustered there. The two-and-a-half weeks since Theo and I searched Haley’s room and discovered she was gone had been the most stressful of my life. Which, with my past, was saying something.

I knew I should have felt relieved that we located Haley, but I wouldn’t be able to relax until I saw her beautiful face with my own eyes. At this point, we had only managed to track her to an address in the outskirts of Portland. After she sent Jessica a short e-mail yesterday, Chase and Jax did their tracking and hacking magic and were able to identify the IP address and connect it to the service provider and then the account holder’s name and address. Thank god for her friendship with Jessica. If not for that connection, who knew how long it would have taken to find Haley.

The name on the account was a woman named Helen Campbell, which was confusing until we pulled the house up on Google Earth and realized there was a small guest house on the property. Smart girl. Haley didn’t go the obvious route and attempt to rent an apartment; she found an older woman, probably not an overly distrustful one, to rent to her without an in-depth background check.

I immediately stated—not asked—that I would fly up to check on Haley and set up security surveillance. And, that led to another fight, one of who-knew-how-many in the last few weeks. Theo and Liam insisted that we should just go pluck her away and bring her home. And, if we’d uncovered her location a week ago, I would have agreed. But, with the discovery of Douglas’s threats, we needed to be strategic. If we brought Haley back now, we’d be putting her right back in that bastard’s line of sight.

For now, we were concentrating on developing a more thorough plan to take him down. We bugged his office phone and hacked into his e-mail accounts, and Theo was spending every spare minute pouring over the data coming in.

We discussed approaching Haley and making her part of our plan, but we weren’t willing to risk her running again. At least this way—assuming she was still in the area—we could keep an eye on her, if only from afar. Knowing Haley, she’d be pissed when she found out we were spying on her, but I didn’t fucking care. Nothing was as important as keeping her safe, even if she never spoke to us again.

“You should let me stay up here full time,” I told Jax, arguing—not for the first time—that long distance surveillance wasn’t sufficient. “If something happens, we’re too far away.” A one-and-a-half-hour flight was not going to cut it.

“It’s not an option,” Jax said shortly. “The team is barely hanging on as it is. We can’t afford for one of us to be absent all the time.”

Anger overtook me, and I gripped the steering wheel, wishing I could hit him. “So, the team is more important to you than Haley,” I spat out.

“Don’t twist my words, Knox. There’s no reason to think that Haley is in any particular danger in Portland under her new assumed name. It would be more suspicious to Douglas if one of us disappeared as well. We need him to believe we don’t know where Haley is and have no idea that he even approached her.”

I grunted, annoyed that Jax was right. About that, at least.

“And, maybe it’s time to give her a little credit,” he continued with an air of superiority. “She knows how to take care of herself; tracking her here was mostly a lucky break.”

“I give Haley plenty of credit,” I grumbled. And, it was true even if Haley didn’t realize it. I’d always thought she was quick, intuitive, and remarkably capable. Still, I would continue to worry about the girl I loved every second she was away from me.

A few minutes later, we turned onto Helen’s street, and I couldn’t stop my cringe. The neighborhood wasn’t atrocious, but there were enough rundown houses and yards to make me uncomfortable on Haley’s behalf. As we approached the house, I slowed without coming to a stop. The bungalow looked well-cared for, which was a relief, and I could just make out the small, detached building out back. Spotting a place to park two houses down on the opposite side of the street, I rounded the block and parked.

“What’s our move?” I asked Jax. Scanning the nearby houses, I could easily determine that we would have to move our immediate surveillance off-site. We were both wearing ball caps and sunglasses and were driving a nondescript black SUV. But, if Haley was being as vigilant about her surroundings as I hoped she was, we couldn’t hang out there for long.

Jax pulled a backpack from the seat behind him. “I’m going to plant a camera on the back of the main house directed at the door of the guest house.”

“In daylight?” I asked, surprised that Jax was willing to chance it.

“I’ll be there and back in two minutes. Don’t worry,” he said with a smirk. “I have a kick-ass cover story ready to go if Helen sees me.”

“And if Haley sees you?”

His lips spread into a thin line. “It’s too risky to hang out here and wait to verify if she’s even home. I’ll have to be quick.”

He tucked the small camera in his pocket, then leisurely strolled toward the house. I watched while he disappeared behind a group of trees before re-appearing about a minute later.

“Too easy,” Jax said, climbing back into the passenger seat. “But, let’s get out of here, just in case.”

We drove around the area for a few minutes to get the lay of the land, then checked into a hotel that was far enough away we didn’t have to worry about accidentally running into Haley. Jax was already watching the camera feed on his laptop for confirmation that she was living in Helen’s guest house. I hated wasting time sitting around, but it was the simplest way to verify her location.

While we waited for room service, I ignored the third call from Theo in the last half-hour and texted him instead.

Me: No news yet. Chill.

Theo: You could have at least answered my calls to tell me that.

Me: I have a splitting headache. No I couldn’t.

Theo sent an eye-rolling smiley face emoticon in response and I shook my head. As much as I loved him, there were times when my brother was seriously aggravating. But, I knew he’d been freaking out about Haley, so I didn’t blame him for his incessant calls and texts. When we actually knew something, he’d be my first call.

We were halfway through our burgers when Jax exclaimed, “Got her!”

Since the door was already closed by the time I got a glimpse of the screen, Jax backed the video up a few seconds and hit pause. Because of the angle, I could only make out the young woman’s side and back. She had long, straight, black hair pulled into a ponytail and thick bangs fell into her eyes. Her clothes were casual—light wash jeans, a long-sleeve T-shirt, and sneakers. She looked different, but Haley’s profile was unmistakable. The curve of her smooth cheek and fullness of her lips. Her long legs hugged by snug denim. Yeah, it was definitely her, all right.

My hands itched to reach out and stroke her face on the screen, but I resisted, knowing Jax would think I’d gone insane. Reining in my urge to grab the car keys and go after her, I picked up my phone instead and called Theo. After letting him know we’d confirmed that Haley was staying at that address and asking him to pass on the message to Liam and Chase, I turned to Jax.

He was focused on the laptop, having gone back to the live camera, and pointed to an object leaning against the guest house that hadn’t been there earlier. “She was riding a bike,” Jax said. “So, where do you think she’s been for the last few hours or more?”

“Work?” I asked. “It would have to be somewhere relatively nearby, because she didn’t look like she just finished a long ride. Somewhere casual, maybe retail or food-related?”

“Agreed. Hopefully, she’ll work again tomorrow and we can set up full-scale surveillance. We should go early in case she has a morning shift.”

“Okay. Once Haley leaves, you follow her, and I’ll pose as the cable guy and set up the cameras.” We’d already arranged believable uniforms and identification for the cable company. And, to keep the homeowner from being suspicious, we set up an open appointment for routine maintenance tomorrow.

“No,” Jax said harshly. “I’m taking care of installing the system.”

“Why?” I asked coolly.

“It’s my responsibility to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.”

I pushed my fingers through my hair, attempting to keep my exasperation at bay. “You know I’m more skilled with the equipment, so I’m not sure why you need to do it.”

He glared at me as if he could intimidate me. “I’ve made my decision. You can follow Haley.”

“Why are you being so difficult?” I didn’t make a habit of arguing with Jax for the sake of arguing. But, I was right about this—I was the more qualified person for the job.

“Why are you pushing it?” he replied, his volume rising with each word.

“Because you’re being irrational,” I responded in a bored tone. I knew if I continued to bait him, he’d eventually blurt his reasoning.

“Excuse me, Mr.-I’m-always-calm-and-in-control,” he practically yelled. “We can’t all be as perfect as you are.”

And there it is, I thought, recognizing the stress he’d been trying to hide. He put forth a valiant effort, but I wasn’t fooled. Jax had been like a rumbling volcano ever since finding out about Ethan leaving the team, and I’d been expecting him to erupt any day. Might as well get this over with.

“Stop being an ass and tell me what your real problem is, because I know it’s not me. You’ve run yourself ragged the last few weeks,” I said, taking note of the dark circles under his eyes and the unusual paleness to his skin. How long had he gone without surfing? Usually, he wouldn’t stand for missing more than a few days at a time. “We’re a team for a reason. Other than relying on Chase out of necessity, you’ve been cutting the rest of us out at every turn.”

“Yeah, well, if you want something done right . . .” He trailed off, clearly implying that he only trusted himself right now.

“. . . You assign the most experienced team member,” I answered for him. “Let me take over some of the responsibility, and not just while we’re in Portland.”

“Trying to steal my job?” Jax asked harshly, but I could tell that he was thawing.

“Yeah, right,” I said with a scoff. “You know I don’t want to be in charge. I value my free time too much.”

“Because why work when you can watch TV with Haley?” he asked, finally letting a grin spread across his face.

“How do you know about that?” I didn’t think even Theo knew about my Arrow time with Haley, unless he’d been paying attention the night he arrived home from UCLA . . . or she told him.

“I have my ways.”

 

*  *  *

 

Thursday, May 14th

 

Sitting in the back seat of our rental SUV the next morning, I regretted talking Jax into letting me set up the surveillance at the guest house. Assuming Haley left, he would get to follow and watch over her while I would be stuck playing cable guy. Just glimpsing her on camera had helped assuage my worry, but I needed to observe her more to make certain she was really okay.

Having no idea when Haley might leave, we had shown up before the crack of dawn to keep watch over the house. So, when Jax suddenly said that she was riding toward us on her bike at six-fifteen, we both ducked.

“Shit,” I said. “It’s too early for me to set up the cameras.”

“I know,” Jax replied. “Let’s go ahead and follow her, then go from there.”

I climbed into the front seat and watched her moving away from us in the passenger side mirror. Once she was about a block away, Jax turned around and started following Haley, frequently pulling over to keep from catching up with her. About ten minutes later, she rode into a shopping area and chained her bike outside of a coffee shop. Bingo, I thought. Since she didn’t drink coffee, she must have gotten a job there.

Haley disappeared inside, and I couldn’t stop myself from grabbing my binoculars and watching her through the window. She was busy behind the counter, clearly preparing for the shop to open. Her movements were focused and methodical, and although she didn’t look miserable, her face lacked its usual sparkle. My chest hurt at the thought of her being unhappy, and I was tempted to abandon our plan and run after her, to wrap my arms around her and never let go.

Damn Douglas to hell, I thought. He is going to pay for hurting her.