Chapter Thirteen
What the hell was happening with her life? Grace tried not to think about how much she never wanted to speak to her father again. If she moved to the other side of the country, would it be far enough for him to stay out of her life? Maybe she’d immigrate to Canada. She liked it there, away from the man’s watchdogs. If it wasn’t friends on the force, it was the dry cleaning guy, the woman at her local grocery store, the damn kid who delivered her paper. She’d accepted his overprotective nature because he’d seen the worst of society dregs, but hiring a bodyguard without her knowledge was beyond insane.
Daniel, or whatever his name was, she refused to think about. All her faculties needed to be focused on finding Jessie. She hugged her knees up to her chest and wondered how long she could lock herself away in this hotel room. She wouldn’t mourn, not yet. Her only hope was that Jessie hadn’t been in the car when it went into the river. What had Jessie been doing on that road?
Earlier this week she’d never have believed Jessie capable of keeping Grace out of the loop. She’d have told her where she was going and why. Now, three people had kept secrets and two of them meant everything to her. Daniel, well, Daniel was a mistake. Went to show, you couldn’t trust anyone. He’d been helping because he’d been paid to babysit her. How much of what he’d fed her was bullshit?
It hurt to think she’d gobbled up his lies. Seething, she jumped off the bed and booted up her laptop. She searched her old contact files, found the one she wanted, and used the hotel phone.
It rang twice. “Hello.”
“Josh, it’s Grace.” She put him on speaker.
“Grace? Hey, how are you? Man, I haven’t heard from you in forever. Everything good? You still busting out those stories?”
It was good to hear his voice. They’d parted amiably, and if not for his career choice, she suspected they might still be together. He’d been offered a nice job with a mining company up north and she hadn’t been able to see herself that far removed from civilization. “I work for a Dallas paper. Things good with you?”
“Things are great. I get to do what I love.”
“Blow things up?”
He laughed and for the first time this morning, she smiled.
“Josh.” Grace heard a female voice whining in the background.
“I’m sorry. I’ve caught you at a bad time.” At one point that might have bothered her, but now, not so much.
“She can wait. Tell me why you called.”
“Do you know a man named…” Who did she ask about? Because what kind of name was Cowboy? “Do you know a man named Daniel Bailey?”
Josh was silent for so long she thought he hadn’t heard her. “Josh?”
“Do you know Daniel Bailey?” he said, his obvious wariness some concern.
“You do know him. How?”
“It’s complicated.”
“Unless the two of you dated, it’s not.” He was stalling, the asshole.
“First tell me if you know him.”
Did she know him? No, she didn’t and that was the problem. “No, I don’t know him.”
“Then why are you asking?”
“And why are avoiding the answer? He’s connected to my father, all right?”
“Well, in that case, you have nothing to worry about. Daniel is a good man. One of the best actually.”
“And you know this how? Is he a drinking a buddy, fishing buddy? How?”
“We work together from time to time.”
If she’d been holding the phone, she’d have dropped it. “Are you telling me you work for ICU?”
“Damn, I forgot how sneaky you could be. Why didn’t you just come out and ask?”
“That’s not an answer.” She was starting to remember the long fights they’d had over the dumbest things. Mostly his habit of answering her questions with a question. Seriously, he should’ve been a shrink instead of an explosives engineer.
“Look, Grace. Daniel—”
“Cowboy,” she corrected.
There was another short pause. “Cowboy’s a good guy. However he’s connected to your father, it’s nothing for you to worry about.”
“My dad hired him to act as my bodyguard… without telling me. I just found out. He name dropped you a few nights ago when we were having dinner.” Son of a bitch. Shit she was stupid. “It was a tactic to get me to trust him.” And it worked.
“Cowboy aside, why does your dad think you need a bodyguard?”
“I don’t. You know my dad.” He’d crossed over the line this time and she wasn’t going to let him off the hook that easily.
“I do. But ICU doesn’t come cheap. If he thought enough to hire the best—”
“I think he called in a favor. So it isn’t that big a deal.” Honestly it probably hadn’t cost him one red cent.
“No, I don’t think so. He might have called in that favor, but Ryan is not in the business of assigning bodyguards willy-nilly. He put Cowboy on you for a reason.”
“I don’t understand. Why would your boss care?”
Josh snorted. “I gave up trying to figure out that man a long time ago. Mind if I ask what’s going on?”
She proceeded to tell him about Jessie, their apartment being ransacked, and the possible connection to Senator Stanton. She told him how she and Cowboy “met” but left out last night. She wasn’t ready to think about what happened…or how he’d made her feel. Plus, it was weird, thinking about another man while talking to the man who used to be the love of your life.
When she was finished, Josh gave her his take. “If the Stantons are connected to your friend’s disappearance, that’s a problem. Senator Stanton might or might not be clean, but his old man is connected up to the wazoo. Tread carefully, Grace. I don’t want to read about you in the paper. Stick with Cowboy. He’s good at his job.”
Considering how he’d conned her, she’d have to agree. “What do you do for ICU?”
“What I love to do,” he said in such a way she could almost see him smiling.
“Still playing with matches?”
“Big ones. And you should know, my boss, who is many things except stupid, handpicks who he wants to work for him. He has plenty of people vying for a spot on his team. There are a few of us who aren’t ex-military or ex-law, but we’re experts in our fields. Cowboy is neither and yet he was chosen, one of the youngest from what I hear. You have a good guy on your side.”
Did she? She didn’t need a babysitter, but she might be able to use his help. She and Josh said they’re goodbyes and promised to stay in touch. After she hung up, she considered her options.
Regardless of her father, she’d be returning to Stanton’s ranch. And if ICU was as connected as rumored, she was going there with Cowboy. Now that he didn’t have to hide the real reason he’d been helping, she could use him for ICU’s resources. She was nothing if not practical.
He had a friend, her ass. Why hadn’t she seen it earlier? Had she been so stupid as to allow his good looks and charm to get the better of her? She refused to believe it. He was just really good at his job. It had been a con, she reminded herself. A broker, pfft. Hook, line, and sinker she’d been caught… and admittedly gutted. She’d liked him. And for that she’d never forgive him.
If Jessie was dead, and that was an if she refused to accept without concrete proof, she was going to track down those responsible.
* * *
Hours after Irvine left, Cowboy debated knocking on Grace’s door. The GPS unit he’d dropped in her purse and Deroy told him she was still in the hotel. He’d gone to the bar to see if she’d wandered out but came up empty. He was about to call Monty to track her phone when a knock sounded at his door. He hoped Irvine hadn’t decided to go another round. It had taken great patience on his part not to vent every frustration he’d had with his own father. When he opened the door he was surprised to see Grace.
“Hello,” she said with far too much cordial politeness.
This couldn’t be good. Had she come to tell him off? If so, he was going to sit there and take it. He knew her well enough to know her trust was a rare commodity. He’d not only withheld the truth, but probably fed her ridiculous ideas about humanity.
“Hi,” he said, stepping aside to let her in.
She glanced around the room like she’d never been in it before, like they hadn’t spent the previous night together. She took a seat on the couch. She’d changed into a pair of tan cotton capris and a white peasant top. With her auburn hair braided to one side and cascading over her shoulder, besides breathtaking, she looked calm, serene almost. The calm before the storm? He took a seat in the armchair and waited for his cue.
She crossed her legs. “You have nothing to say for yourself?” She held up a hand. “Wait, let me. You were doing your job?” She quirked an eyebrow and continued. “Sleeping with me wasn’t part of your job, that I know. So I was a perk? A bonus?”
A gift, but he remained silent. She wouldn’t believe him and she needed to say her piece.
“What I don’t get is why you were helping me find Jessie. I mean, I understand some of it. I’m Peter Pan and you’re my shadow. But you searched the senator’s house. My father wouldn’t pay you to do his job.”
Cowboy wisely said nothing.
Grace continued, “Was it a tactic just to get me to trust you? Like telling me you know Josh?”
“I do know Josh.”
She met his gaze dead on. “Yeah, so he told me.”
As Josh would never say anything negative about a team member, that was a good thing.
“He also said you were good at your job. Can’t say I can argue. You got me to trust you and that’s not easy.”
Did she know he could see the pain he’d caused her? She tried to hide behind a cool stare, but he saw past it. And felt ever the more shit for it. He should say something. “Grace—”
“No bullshit, Cowboy. I know the truth now, and sleeping with you was a momentary lapse in judgment brought on by fear and deep concern for my friend. It won’t happen again. So you don’t have to lie to me.”
He couldn’t exactly tell her the whole truth. Even if he trusted her enough to keep his secret, it wasn’t only his to tell. Because Jessie’s body hadn’t been found, he’d go on the assumption she was still alive. Even though it wasn’t likely. He settled for the most he could give her. “I wasn’t hired to find Jessie. I was hired to keep you safe and away from the senator. But here’s the truth. When I read the file I knew I wanted to help find her.” That was the truth. “When you pushed yourself onto Stanton, a part of me...the part that’s going to get my ass chewed by my boss, was happy to go with you. Your father wants you as far away from the Stantons as possible. I told him that wasn’t going to happen unless he wanted to lock you up.”
“I guess that’s not your concern anymore. He must have fired you.”
“He wanted to.” Though in truth, Cowboy believed getting him fired was the last thing on Irvine’s mind. Grace being only one of the reasons he’d been hired.
“Wanted to?”
“When I told him about the party and how we’d been invited, he changed his mind.” Not that it mattered. He’d called Ryan to tell him the bad news, that he wasn’t getting paid for this job because Cowboy was doing it for free. Ryan wasn’t around but Elaine told him the job was pro bono, a favor to the chief.
“Ah, I see. He knows he can’t stop me from going.”
“Are you going?” Had she changed her mind?
“Of course I am. And you”—she pointed a finger at him—“are coming with me.”
He’d planned to. What he hadn’t planned was her cooperation. “You’re okay with that?”
“You have access to resources I don’t have. Hell, you have access to resources my father doesn’t have. Let’s be honest, because that’s the only way we’re going to help Jessie. Odds are not in Jessie’s favor. Her car was found in a particularly bad part of the river. But if I stop to think about it, even for a second, I’ll be of no use to her. If she’s alive, I have to find her. If she’s…” She inhaled sharply. “If she’s gone,” she said, her eyes darkening, “then justice needs to be served. Either way, we have to keep looking. I can do this alone if I have to. But why not make you earn your paycheck?”
“Now you’re using me?” He wasn’t sure how to take that.
“At least I’m being honest.” She grinned, the smile not meeting her eyes.
He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “You realize I still have to do my job? I can’t let you do anything I think might get you hurt.”
“Fair enough. You can be the fall guy. But let’s get one thing clear. We stick to our original bargain. For real this time. I tell you what I find, and you tell me what you find.”
“I didn’t break our bargain. I may not have told exactly how I got my intel, but I did share what I found.” He was about to stand and realized he’d be towering over her. He remained seated. “Do we have a deal?”
She stared at him a good long time before she finally agreed. “Deal. Now about my father. He hired you to watch over me, correct? Not to report my every move?”
“Correct,” he said, wary of where she was headed. “And not exactly.” His suspicions were right; Irvine had had more than his daughter’s welfare on his mind.
Suddenly she uncrossed her legs and stood, pointing a finger at him. “You. That’s how he found out I had a meeting with Stanton.”
“Guilty, but in my defense it was before we’d met.” And slept together.
She sat back down. “Well that’s better than him having me followed,” she said absentmindedly before snapping her attention back to him. “What do you mean, before we met? Like it would have made a difference?” She blew out an incredulous breath. “Please. As if. My father would’ve been all over you if you didn’t report back to him. Know me or not, you were reporting back to him. Of course, you must’ve known sleeping with me might get you fired.”
His phone rang, stopping him from making a fool out of himself. Because he’d been about to tell her that he hadn’t even considered the possibility of being fired. He’d been so into her that nothing else had mattered. Now if that wasn’t cornball, nothing was. “I should answer that.”
She waved him off as she reached for her own phone. “I have messages to check.”
He retrieved his phone off the desk. Monty was calling. “Hello.”
“Hello to you too,” Monty said. “You should know Ryan is looking for you. Something about hands in the cookie jar.”
Shit, did the whole team know? “He did not say that.”
“No, I cleaned it up. I hope she was worth it. He’s pissed. Irvine is a friend of his father’s, ergo, so is his daughter.”
“Who happens to be a grown woman.”
At that Grace looked up from her own phone.
“And you’re supposed to be a professional.” Monty laughed. “What is it with you guys? First Christian then Blake and now you. Working the front line should come with a warning. Danger, can seriously fuck with a man’s brain. Since when did ICU become a dating service?”
“Did you call to discuss your virginity or something else?”
Grace frowned and went back to what she was doing.
“Dang, you boys on the street are too funny. Shame about the neutering.”
He wasn’t going to get in to it with Monty. “Monty, out with it.”
At the mention of Monty’s name, Grace set her phone on the couch and came to stand beside him.
“I sent you pictures and a file. I found the kid,” Monty said.
“Why didn’t you start off with that?” Sometimes Monty needed a good slap. “Grace, would you mind getting my laptop? It’s in the bedroom.”
“Grace?” Monty repeated, drawing out her name.
“Shut up, Monty.”
“Sure,” she said and went to retrieve it.
“You were saying?”
“New York. Yonkers, actually. His name is Isaiah Lewis. He’s fifteen. I figured the kid must go to school. So I tried to match his face to a high school picture. You know those companies hired to photograph the students? They’re all online. Shitty security, easy hack. He’s a normal kid. Good student, plays basketball, comes from a good family. His mother, thirty-six, is a Jamaican immigrant who works for International Rescue Committee. His father, a Florida native, is ten years her senior and a public defender. Like the kid, normal. At first appearance, no connection to the Stantons.”
Grace returned. She set his computer on the desk and opened it for him.
“Hang on.” Cowboy put his phone between his ear and shoulder and booted up his email. “Okay, there’s got to be a reason Stanton had his picture.”
Grace looked over his shoulder. “What kind of username is Wolfman? Is that some stupid guy thing?”
Having heard, Monty laughed.
“It’s a long story.” One he wasn’t going to get in to right now.
“Cowboy. Wolfman. What the hell? Were you born with no name?”
He opened Monty’s file, wisely ignoring her question. A picture of a couple and Isaiah sitting between them on a bench in what looked Central Park popped up. “Nice family.”
“Regina Lewis volunteers at a home for unwed teenagers in Harlem. Zoom in on their faces.”
He did. “What am I looking for?”
“They don’t look anything alike.”
“Yeah okay, daddy’s white, mama isn’t, but so what? Maybe the kid looks like a grandparent.”
“Maybe and maybe not. I checked it out. Isaiah is her kid. She had him young, oddly while working at a home for unwed mothers in Atlanta. Hugh Lewis adopted the kid right before they were married. I’m trying to find out who the father is, but he’s listed as unknown.”
“You think that’s the connection to Stanton?” He thought back to the fuss Lyle Stanton had kicked up about a black minister, the drama he’d caused, and then the trouble he’d stirred. If someone in his family had fathered a racially mixed child, no way would he want to know about it. If anything he’d do his damnedest to shut it up. Was that it? Was he trying to find the kid for nefarious reasons. Could he be that vile?
“Those blood results you found, they point to leukemia.”
It clicked, what Monty was about to say next. “And if this kid is related, he’s looking for a donor.” Of course, he’d put skin color aside if it meant his life. Was this the same kid Grace had overheard Lyle saying he wanted found? The signs were pointing in that direction.
“But here’s the kicker. The kid and his family have disappeared.”
“What do you mean?”
“What’s going on?” Grace asked.
Cowboy held up a finger. “Monty, I’m putting you on speaker.”
“Is that a good idea?” he said.
He glanced up at Grace, watching him expectantly. “I trust her.” And he did. With this anyway. He pushed the speaker button. “Okay, go ahead.”
Grace kept her emotions in check. He didn’t trust her. He just wanted her to trust him again, and what better way to achieve that than by allowing her to listen in on an ICU conversation?
“Vanished,” Monty said. “Neither parent has showed up to work this week, and Isaiah is in some kind of special summer school program. They told their employers they were going on a family vacation, but no one knows where. Odd to pull a kid out of school, don’t you think?”
“Okay, but why? If Lyle is looking for a match and this kid is related, why not simply ask the family?”
“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Grace said “but this is the kid Lyle is looking for?”
“That’s what we think,” Cowboy said.
“Normally I’d ask how this is related to Jessie.” Grace moved the lamp and sat on the desk. When her calf pressed against Cowboy’s thigh she forced herself not to move. “But did these people disappear?” she asked. “Or are they hiding? If they’re hiding, they must think Lyle is dangerous. Now Jessie stumbling onto something she shouldn’t have becomes more of a possibility.”
“Big question is why they think Lyle would hurt them.”
“Right,” Monty said. “Regina earned this big public service award. Not wanting to help a dying man, if it is Lyle, doesn’t make sense.”
“We need to find out for certain if it is leukemia and if so who has it. Monty, any luck breaking into hospital records?”
“Remind me never to get sick,” Grace muttered to herself.
“I got in, but the Stanton family records are sealed. It’s going to take me longer and quite possibly a little one on one. I have an afternoon flight if you want to meet me later tonight for drinks.”
“Sounds good. You staying here?”
“No, but close by. Dozier has a friend who has a place.”
“Is he meeting us too? I haven’t seen the man in months. I wouldn’t mind picking his brain.”
“Again no. He’s got a date,” Monty said, sounding disgusted.
“If you left that hidey hole for more than on-site hacks, maybe a girl would pass you a note at recess too.”
“Why, when I have so much fun reading yours? Told you being illiterate would catch up with you. All right, I’m out of here. I’ll let you know if I have any luck with the hospital.”
After Cowboy hung up, Grace gave him the stink eye. “He’s planning to break into the hospital’s record room?” She was curious to know how he’d achieved that particular feat.
“He didn’t say.”
“And there goes our trust.” That didn’t last long.
“This isn’t about trust. This is about protecting you. The less you know the better.”
“Original.”
“Your father is a cop. If he asked how Monty got his intel, would you tell him? Or would you lie?”
He was right—better she not know. “You’re protecting ICU. I respect that.”
“I’m protecting you.” He reached across and around her, splaying his hand on her hip.
Remembering that hand and where else it had touched her, she brushed off the memory. It was only sex and she would do well to remember that.
“I don’t want you to have to lie to your dad.” He sighed. “Maybe we should rethink this working together.”
“No,” she said, panicked he might follow through on the threat. “We’ll let my dad worry about doing things by the book.”
He didn’t sound convinced and she knew she’d have to come up with something fast or she’d be out in the cold. “He knew when he hired you how ICU got its intel. He knew and still he hired you.”
“He wanted the best for his daughter. I’m the best.”
“Bullshit.” And the more she thought about the more it dawned on her… she was right. “There are plenty of security companies. Good ones. Many in Texas and yet he brings you in.”
“He called in a favor, Grace. He knows my boss’s father.”
“No.” She jumped off the desk, wanting to get away from his touch. Okay, not wanting but needing. “That break-in might have scared him but my life wasn’t in any danger. Whatever they were looking for had to do with Jessie. So hiring you was overkill. His hands are tied with the Stantons,” she said, all of it coming together in her mind. “They’re an extremely powerful political family in Texas and he has to go by the book. You don’t.”
“Are you saying your father planned all this?”
Why didn’t he look more surprised? Had he thought the same thing? “He didn’t plan on us sleeping together but the rest of it, yeah. I think he did. He’s complained about all the crap they’ve gotten away with for years. And he’s never come out and said it, but I think he believes they have a dirty cop working for them.” The more she thought about it, the more she believed she was right. Her father didn’t think she needed a watchdog.
“You wouldn’t happen to know who your father suspects is dirty, do you?”
“No.” She flopped herself down onto the couch. “I can’t very well ask him. Can I?”
“He wouldn’t tell you even if you did,” he said with certainty.
Yeah, he wasn’t surprised by any of this. “You know I’m right, don’t you?”
“Not a hundred percent, no. But let’s just say he didn’t deny it when I asked him.”
She sat up from the couch. “You confronted him?” Her father didn’t like having his back up a wall.
“Confronted is not the right word. I asked.”
“And he…?”
“The conversation was pretty much one-sided. Me asking, him grunting. He’s not going to accuse another cop of being on Stanton’s payroll without proof. It won’t do him any good to get fired. But if I understood our talk, you getting mixed up in all of this upped the ante, so he called an old friend for advice.”
“And you were the solution?”
“Pretty much.”
“So what now?”
“I’m not returning to the ranch until later next week, when the horse gets in. We have a few days. We’ll wait for Monty to get here to check into your dirty cop theory, but for now, we have to get something straight.” He stood and walked toward her, stopping just in front of her.
Grace had to strain her neck to look at him. He was like a towering god. Imposing, yet not scary. Because all she could think about was starting at the bottom and climbing her way up. She blinked and cleared her throat. “What?”
Thankfully, he folded that body beside her. “I know I didn’t tell you everything. And I was doing my job sounds like an excuse. I take what I do seriously, especially when it involves a human life. That meant keeping certain facts to myself. I never lied to you.”
“You told me you were a broker.” In her books that was a lie.
“I did and I am,” he agreed. “Every member of the team has…talents. I find things.”
“You…” She tried to think of the right word, his explanation making far too much sense for her liking. “You misrepresented yourself. Were you lying about the rodeo too?”
“No, but I will admit I let you believe what you wanted.”
“You told me your name was Daniel Bailey.” She had him there.
“On paper it is. You can’t open a bank account with Cowboy as your name.”
“Growing up on a ranch?” She scanned her memory for everything he’d said to her.
“True.” He grinned, a man confident he’d won this argument. “Nothing I said was a lie,” he repeated. He leaned forward until they were nose to nose. “Nothing. Not when we met and especially not last night.”