Slade Bear drove up the long driveway and was relieved to see both his parents' vehicles in their open garage. His mother had been insisting for days that he stop by, and when he'd called this morning to see if he could bring lunch, she hadn't been sure if his father would be around, but insisted Slade come anyway. He normally wouldn't visit them in the middle of a work day, but something had been nagging at him. It was as good a time as any to casually approach them, and get a feel for their thoughts on Christian’s trip to Jacksonville. He knew there was the distinct possibility that Christian was up to no good, and could bring unwanted attention to him, his family, and the motorcycle club he’d joined as a teenager.

Letting himself in the front door, he called out, “Who’s hungry for lunch?”

Christy came out of the hallway wiping her hands, and Slade immediately detected a hint of the lotion she applied to them a couple times a day.

“Your call this morning was a nice surprise!” Christy exclaimed as she approached her son and pulled his face down to kiss him on the cheek.

Slade gave his mother a knowing grin. "Not like I had much choice. You can be very persuasive."

“Are you on your lunch hour?” Ignoring his comment, she looked at her watch and mentally gauged how much time they would have for their visit since the courthouse was a good distance from their home in the suburbs.

“Yes, but I have more time than usual. I don’t have to be in court because my case has a forty-eight hour continuance.” He held up the bag he was carrying. “Brought your favorite Italian subs. Where’s Dad?”

“He came home from work when I told him you called. He’s in his shop now. I’ll call him. My phone is charging in the kitchen.”

Slade followed his mother and could see his father walking toward the house through the glass doors that opened onto their deck.

Christy saw him too and commented as she pulled out plates and napkins, “I guess he saw you drive up.”

After Anthony met them inside, and Slade explained once again that he had some free time away from the trial, they sat at the table and dug into their sandwiches.

“Tell me about the girl you mentioned you saw in the law library,” Christy said before taking a sip of her drink.

Slade had been getting ready to take a bite of his sub and stopped. “There’s nothing to tell. I talked to her a little bit. She’s a librarian at a local school and works in the law library during her school’s spring break.”

“You talked to her enough to find all of that out?” Christy looked at her son, her eyes wide and hopeful.

“Don’t, Mom,” Slade said and took a bite of his sandwich. He slowly chewed his food, and watched Anthony signal his wife to let it go. As much as Slade appreciated his mother’s concern for his non-existent social life, the last thing he wanted was to have her hovering around it. He could’ve kicked himself for mentioning Bevin. A little over a week ago, his mother had asked if he’d met anyone at the courthouse who he found interesting, and like an idiot, he gave up that he’d spotted someone in the law library that he might like to meet. He should’ve known Christy would follow up. Time to steer the conversation toward his real reason for caving into her insistence he make time to see his family this week.

“Have you talked to Christian since he left for Jacksonville?” Slade casually asked.

“Yes.” Christy reached for a bag of chips and tore them open. “Twice.” Pouring chips onto her plate, she remarked, “Once when he first left and again, yesterday.”

“He called you from his phone?” Slade paused. “Or answered his?”

Both Anthony and Christy stopped what they were doing and gave Slade a suspicious look.

“What is this really about, Slade?” Anthony asked, his eyes narrowed.

Slade shrugged his shoulders. “I’m just worried about him,” Slade confessed. Without giving his parents time to comment, he quickly added, “He answers my texts, but doesn’t take my calls. I can’t figure out what’s in Jacksonville that he would even consider moving there. Especially with—”

“No,” Christy interrupted. “He didn’t call me from his phone. Both times he told me that his was charging, and he had to use his friend’s phone. He sounded upbeat. Actually, a little too happy now that I think about it.” She cast her husband a worried glance.

“It doesn’t mean anything,” Anthony reassured her at the same time the doorbell rang.

After trying to disguise their shock at seeing Carter's husband, Bill Petty, standing at their front door with his laptop under his arm, Anthony and Christy invited him in and asked him to make himself comfortable in their great room.

Bill and Carter Petty had been close friends with Grizz and Ginny. Bill willingly took on the responsibility for maintaining the façade that Grizz had died by lethal injection in 2000. He was a computer genius who could hack any system, create false information, and cause the real stuff to permanently disappear. Not to mention the myriad of other computer skills that would frighten the general public into tossing their electronics in the garbage. Bill had once written a program that allowed him to manage an airborne helicopter’s controls from the ground. He hadn’t created it because he intended to use it. He only did it to see if it could be done. And the results scared even him.

Prior to Grizz and Ginny’s move out of Florida, Bill had written several programs that routinely scanned the internet for any inquiries about Jason “Grizz” Talbot or his family members. The program he designed did one of two things. Depending on the query, it either rerouted the user to bogus sites, sending them down bottomless rabbit holes that led nowhere, never revealing any information about Grizz or his glory days as one of South Florida’s most feared motorcycle club leaders. Or, it zapped the user's computer with a virus that shut it down. The two years after Grizz’s supposed execution, followed by the tragic death of Ginny’s second husband Tommy “Grunt” Dillon, had been the busiest. But as time passed and the macabre fascination died down, Bill’s program had mostly been used to block queries from curious ex-classmates and friends of Ginny’s children, Mimi and Jason Dillon. However, with social media evolving at an alarming rate, Bill had to continuously update his program to detect these searches. And it was becoming more difficult.

After setting his laptop on the Bears’ coffee table, he sat down and clasped his hands together. Looking from Slade to Anthony, to Christy he said, “What I need to discuss with you is sensitive.” He shot a glance back at Slade.

“Time for you to leave, Slade,” came Anthony’s brisk response. There would only be one reason for Bill Petty showing up at his home. Anthony knew this had to do with Grizz.

“No,” Christy interjected, giving Anthony a challenging look. “He’s mature enough to be trusted with what we’ve kept secret for six years. Who knows how it might one day affect this family. And if by some chance it does, he should be prepared. One of our boys should know the truth, Anthony.”

Bill deferred to Anthony who nodded.

Christy could see on her husband’s face that Anthony knew she was right. She also knew Anthony had always considered Slade the less temperamental of their two sons. Slade was the responsible son. The ambitious son. The smart son who made his decisions based on facts, not feelings. Besides, Bill showing up in their living room with his computer would only pique Slade’s curiosity, and might even send him down a rabbit hole of his own.

Nodding his head, Bill opened his laptop. “Okay then. You both know I keep tabs on Grizz and his family.” It was a statement, not a question and all three of them cut their eyes to Slade’s to see if the comment registered. Slade’s expression didn’t reflect surprise or curiosity.

I wonder if he’s known or suspected all this time? Christy thought before returning her gaze to Bill.

“Normally, my programs monitor and deal with all internet searches on the family and shut them down before they go anywhere. I get a printed report every time this happens. It’s unsettling how fast technology is growing, and it's getting increasingly difficult to stay ahead of it even with my programs continuously being updated. Using recent pictures that Ginny provides, I keep a facial recognition program running at all times.” He swung his laptop around and showed them the picture of Mimi with her friends. “My program didn’t catch this picture of Mimi for a couple weeks, but when it did, it took it down.”

“Okay.” Christy tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“Yes.” Bill hesitated. “But there’s more and you’re not going to like it.”

Anthony, Christy, and Slade listened as Bill explained how it took some time, but his facial recognition program detected another similar program that linked to the picture he’d just shown them.

“So someone else was looking for Mimi,” Anthony interrupted.

Christy noticed Slade stiffen in his seat.

“I traced the software to a kid named Seth. I did a search on Seth and found a connection to your youngest, Christian.”

“And?” Christy prompted.

“After hacking every camera near Seth’s home, I found this.” His fingers clacking on the keyboard resounded in the quietness of the room. He once again swung the laptop around to face them and watched their expressions as they saw a grainy picture of Christian getting out of his truck.

“Christian isn’t in Jacksonville, is he?” Christy sighed. Purposely avoiding her husband's hard stare, she looked from Bill to Slade and back to Bill again.

“His phone is,” Slade chimed in. “I ran a trace on it and it’s been showing up in Jacksonville. Mom, you said he called you but not from his phone.”

“I traced his phone too and got the same result,” Bill added. “It’s in Jacksonville. What number did he call you from?” His gaze was focused on Christy.

Christy got up and ran to get her phone in the kitchen. Returning quickly, she handed it to Bill, and stood over him watching him type.

“How long will this take?” she asked.

“He’s in South Carolina,” Bill announced after getting an immediate response for his search.

“Why would he be in South Carolina?” Christy asked, a worried frown on her pretty face.

“It’s where Mimi goes to college,” Slade and Bill said at the same time.

All three of them glanced at Slade, and he shrugged. “It’s a palpable assumption.”

“You always were the smart one,” Anthony said under his breath, not intending for anyone to hear, but it was clear they had by the nasty look Christy shot at him.

Bill explained that after discovering someone had used a cutting-edge program to find Mimi, he’d tried to conduct a wellness check on her. He told the Bears that she attended a retreat in South Carolina every spring break and when he checked with the camp to verify her whereabouts, he was told the camp had been closed due to a medical quarantine.

“And she hasn’t returned home or to college,” Bill offered. “She’s still somewhere close to the camp. At least her car is. She doesn’t know Grizz put a tracker on it that I monitor. And I suspect she’s staying at a house that Seth rented.” Before anyone could comment, he continued, “Yeah, I hacked the hacker and found out he rented a house with a bogus credit card near her camp.”

“Christian would never hurt Mimi,” Christy practically shouted. “But we need to go get him, Anthony.”

Anthony closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose between his fingers. “You think he took her against her will?” He opened his eyes, but wasn’t addressing anyone in particular.

“Does it matter?” Slade barked. “He’s obviously violated his parole and somehow covered his tracks so that his phone is in a different state.”

“That’s exactly what he did,” Bill agreed. “He had to have given his phone to someone who lives in Jacksonville, and is driving it all over the place. Have you tried contacting him, and if so, does he respond to texts or phone calls right away?” he asked Christy.

“No,” she said, her voice wilting. “It always takes a while to get a text from him. And even longer to get a call.”

“Because he’s instructed whoever has his phone to notify him at the number he called you from. And he’s telling this person how to reply to your texts. The couple of times he’s called you, he’s probably given you an excuse as to why he’s not calling from his phone. He’s had you convinced that he’s calling you from Jacksonville while using his friend’s phone, when he’s really three states away using a phone he probably bought along the way.” Looking at Christy, Bill continued, “Am I right?”

She nodded.

“Christian was in prison for three years,” Anthony said, changing the subject. “Can you pull up the inmates who were there with him and cross reference who’s been released against any of them who might have a current Jacksonville address?”

The search took a few minutes, but Bill was able to tell them Christian had served time with a man named Reed Boyle who’d been released, and resided in Jacksonville.

“What’s Christian’s license plate number?” Bill asked. "I hadn’t thought to look for Christian’s truck, but if we can find it, it just might provide more concrete evidence of the lengths he's gone to pull this off."

When the three of them looked at him, he quickly added, “Never mind. I can find it faster.”

Christy was now pacing, shooting nervous looks at Anthony who sat in his recliner, remaining calmer than she'd expected. It seemed like an eternity before Bill finally spoke.

“Here,” Bill said, once again turning his computer around to face them. “This program scanned cameras near Boyle’s address and detected Christian’s vehicle by the type and license plate. And it’s obvious it’s not your son who’s driving it.”

“No, it’s not,” Anthony confirmed.

“Christian swapped trucks with Boyle,” Bill commented.

“How do you know Reed Boyle owns a truck?” Slade asked.

Without looking at Slade, Bill answered, “It’s all here.” He closed his laptop and stood up.

“I have a responsibility to notify Grizz and Ginny,” he informed them, giving them a compassionate look. “But to keep Grizz from coming out of hiding, I’ll give you a head start. Right now, I’m certain Grizz doesn’t know about the camp being quarantined, and that Mimi is missing. Otherwise, he would’ve contacted me to activate the tracker he has on her car.”

Anthony gave a curt nod. “We can get there faster from here than he can from Montana anyway. I don’t like to fly so it’ll take us two days by car. Less if we drive straight through.” He shot a look at Christy, and told her to line up a babysitter to come stay at their place. “We can leave as soon as Daisy gets home.”

“Yeah, except that I should probably tell you that Grizz isn’t in Montana.” Bill looked from Anthony to Christy. “If that camp’s quarantine gets news coverage, or he somehow gets word of it and he can't reach Mimi, he will be calling me and I’ll have to tell him the truth. I’ll have to tell him what I know and give him the address where she is.”

“Where is Grizz?” Slade asked.

“He lives in North Carolina. Right over the South Carolina border, just hours away from where I suspect your brother and Mimi are.”

They all heard Christy suck in her breath. “If he gets to Christian and Mimi first…”

“He won’t ask questions,” Bill finished for her. “Grizz will act. And there’s no telling what that might entail.”

“And Christian won’t be expecting it…” Christy added in a shaky voice.

“Because he thinks Grizz died years ago,” Anthony growled. He gave his wife a glance that caused her to cringe.

“Wait!” Slade yelled as he jumped up from his seat. Motioning his hands as if to tamp down erroneous conclusions. “Why can’t you get ahead of this and call Grizz to tell him what’s happened? Maybe he already knows. How do you know that Mimi hasn’t been in contact with her parents and is spending time with Christian willingly?”

“Because I’ve looked at the texts she’s exchanged with her mother,” Bill piped in. “She doesn’t mention seeing your brother, the camp being closed, or that she’s staying somewhere near it in a rented house. As a matter of fact, she’s not sent any texts to her mother since the last one, and that was to confirm that she arrived at the camp, which we all know is a lie.”

"And Christian probably sent that text or convinced Mimi to send it." Christy's voice was fading as quickly as the color in her cheeks.

Slade returned to his seat as Anthony scrubbed his hand down his face and addressed his son. “And you think I should call to tell Grizz that Christian, who was just released from prison for a malicious act of violence, went to unbelievable extremes to find his daughter and is keeping her at a remote location in the middle of nowhere?”

“If there is any chance of Christian bringing harm to her, I have to contact Grizz,” Bill interjected.

“No!” Christy insisted. “As unreal as this may sound, Christian has loved Mimi since they shared a playpen. There is no way on this earth he would hurt her. I know he wouldn’t. Right, Anthony?” Christy wrung her hands as her eyes appealed to Anthony to confirm her statement. “And we still don’t know if it’s against her will.” Her voice was hopeful.

Nodding his head, and trying to keep the irritation out of his tone, Anthony replied, “I agree. But I think we need to fly up there. Driving will cost us hours we don’t have.”

Bill sat back down and opened his laptop. They watched as his brow creased in frustration. “I can’t get you a flight anywhere near where they are. They had an unexpected winter blast and even though it doesn’t look like the house where they’re staying got hit very hard at all, the two closest airports did. They’re closed and it doesn’t say when they’ll be reopening.”

“How about a private jet?” Christy inquired.

“It doesn’t matter what kind of air transportation you want to use. It can’t land at a closed airport. There are a few other airports, but the drive will be longer.”

“Not longer than if we drove from here,” Anthony interjected. “Get us on the best flight you can, and have a rental car waiting for us.”

“Please,” Christy added before giving Anthony a cross look for barking out orders to Bill.

A few minutes passed before Bill announced, “Done.” He closed his laptop and stood. “I’m sorry to bring this down on you. I’ll do what I can to hold off Grizz on my end should I hear from him.”

After thanking Bill for coming to them first and reassuring him that he and Christy were certain Mimi wouldn’t be in danger, Anthony walked him to the front door while Christy headed for the bedroom to throw essentials in a suitcase and call the sitter.

Before opening the front door to leave, Bill turned around and addressed Anthony. “Christian not only found Mimi Dillon, but managed to evade or trick his parole officer, and cover up his true whereabouts by leaving his phone and truck in Jacksonville. When you think about it, his plan is flawless with the exception of not knowing Grizz is close enough to hurt or even kill him. And that’s not his fault because he would have no way of knowing about Grizz.”

Anthony nodded. “You’re right.”

“And you think he’s the smart one?” Bill added while nodding toward Slade. “Seems like your youngest son has outsmarted us all.”

“That he has,” Anthony replied, unable to conceal the grin that was tugging at the corners of his mouth. “That he has.”