***
Trent stopped his truck in an underground garage. Beth looked around. He’d had to swipe a card to get into the garage. It hadn’t just been a gate. It had been two gates. A high security place like she’d never seen.
“This is where you live?”
“One of the places that I own, yes.”
He didn’t seem to think that odd.
“Most people have a house down the Shore.”
He chuckled. “I prefer a second place in the city to my suburban residence. I’m not much of a beach person so no house in Jersey.”
“Are you from this area originally?”
“Born and bred.”
“And your family is still here?” she asked.
They hadn’t left the car. Trent turned to her and nodded. “My sisters are still here. My parents went to Florida.”
“That sounds familiar. My parents have been talking about that.” Then she remembered that her parents were missing. Her heart hurt a little bit.
As if sensing her distress, Trent squeezed her hand. “We’ll find them. Let’s get out of the car before it gets hot.”
She climbed out and followed him to an elevator. He put the card into a slot and the elevator motor started up. The doors opened a moment later. Trent motioned for her to enter before him. He punched the button for the top floor. The doors closed and Trent stood in the middle of the elevator, taking up a lot of room. She hadn’t realized how big a guy he was. He just about sucked all the air out of the car.
Finally the doors opened. Not onto a hallway, but right into a living room. With floor to ceiling windows and a view of the Center City. She gasped as she stepped off of the elevator. “This is gorgeous.”
“Thanks.”
He dropped his keys into a tray on a table by the door. She knew nice furniture when she saw it and Trent had picked some expensive stuff. Her mother would be impressed. Beth was not. She hadn’t expected Trent to be so rich and that diminished his attractiveness in her eyes. Her mother often lined up suitor after suitor among her friends’ children. They’d been tiresome and boring.
Not that she thought Trent was boring. He had that military bearing to him. Not like the country club men her mother had wanted her to date. He was no doctor or lawyer and she’d bet he’d never back down from a fight.
Of course who would pick a fight with such a big guy?
“You hungry?” Trent asked.
Beth had been staring out the window at the view. She glanced over her shoulder. “I could eat.”
“I should have thought of it sooner. I’m sorry.”
She spun around to him. “You don’t have to babysit me. If I’d been starving I would have said something. I don’t need you to anticipate my needs.”
He nodded. “So food?”
She laughed. “Yes. Food. Hopefully you’ll cook since I almost made a mess of breakfast.”
“At least you didn’t burn yourself like I did.”
She crossed the room to stand in front of him. “So how is it feeling?”
“It’s fine, Beth. You don’t need to take care of me either.”
She looked up into his eyes. “Aren’t we a pair of independents?”
He didn’t say anything, just left her in the living room. When she reached the kitchen, Trent was rummaging in the refrigerator.
“A sandwich would be fine,” Beth said.
He pulled out the makings for a feast. Beth chose a few things and slapped them between bread. She settled at the table in the dining area. Trent joined her. They ate in silence. When she finished, Beth leaned back in her chair. Might as well make the best of this. “So what did you do before the nightclub? I mean, I realize you were in the military.”
Trent put down his sandwich then wiped his mouth. “Yes I was in the military.”
He didn’t say anything else. She snorted. “I’m guessing some kind of intelligence based on your close-mouthedness about it.”
He shrugged and went back to his sandwich.
“That’s all I’m getting?”
“Yep. Are you tired? I can show you where you can nap.”
So the subject was closed. He wasn’t going to say any more. “You want me to redress your wound?”
“No, it’s fine. I’ve had worse.”
She would bet he had. She put her plate in the sink. “Finish your lunch.”
“If you don’t mind me saying, you look dead on your feet. You should catch some sleep while we can.”
“Why wouldn’t we be able to?”
He stood in the kitchen doorway, his plate in his hand. “We don’t know what the future brings. Best to get sleep when you can.”
“What’s the plan?”
“Don’t know yet. The Foleys and some friends of mine are coming over to talk.”
A yawn threatened her, but she didn’t want him to know she was tired. Like a toddler who didn’t want to nap. “I should stay awake.”
“I’ll let you know what we decide.”
She took the plate from his hand. “I don’t like others deciding for me.”
“In this case you have no choice.”
She did yawn this time. The lack of sleep was catching up with her. Maybe a few minutes of shutting her eyes would be fine. She could handle anything with enough sleep. Even a Code Blue, but this was out of her wheelhouse.
Trent studied her. “You should get some rest.”
“Okay. Fine. Show me where I can sleep.”
***
Trent’s phone rang. “Trent.”
“We’re here,” Donal said.
They’d agreed to meet one more time to come up with a solution for Beth’s dilemma. They had their computer whiz, Tex, on the job of finding them. Or at least figuring out what might have happened to make them disappear. They chose to meet at Trent’s place because his apartment had a SCIF and no one would hear them.
He didn’t think this warranted that, but he trusted Donal’s judgment. He pushed the button on his phone that would open the gates and the one that would send the elevator down to meet them.
Within minutes the elevator doors opened to reveal not only the Foleys, but one of Trent’s partners, Deke. He’d been doing odd jobs for Foley Brothers Security so Trent had sent him a text to see if he was available.
They shook hands even though they’d been together just the night before. Of course to Trent that seemed like a lifetime since he was still awake from then. That thought made him more tired. He didn’t require much sleep anyway, only getting a full night’s every once in a while.
“Where’s Beth?” Donal said.
“She’s sleeping. We’ve been awake all night.”
Trent led them down a hall in the opposite direction of the bedrooms. He had one roof that was a place that couldn’t be listened in on. He used similar technology to what the government called an SCIF or a secure compartmentalized information facility. He probably didn’t need to discuss Beth’s situation in there, but he wasn’t sure how big this was.
He’d gone on a job with Donal and Deke and even now he didn’t know the full extent of what had been happening. It had involved goblins and here they were again dealing with them.
The room had a long table and the men gathered around it. Trent secured the door, but he doubted that Beth would be vertical any time soon. She’d been yawning too much to be awake for very long.
“Can I get anyone anything before we start?” Trent asked.
The men murmured, but no one asked for anything. Good. They could start. He looked around at the men who were gargoyles. Men he’d come to know well in the past few years. Men he knew he could trust with his own life. Could he trust Beth’s life with them?
He certainly hoped so or he’d have to do this one alone.
“What do you have for me? Any information?”
Donal cleared his throat. “We have confirmed that Beth’s parents are gargoyles.”
“How did you track that down?” Trent asked.
�
��We found them.”
“Are they alive?”
“Yes. Tex used facial recognition software to find them at the airport. They were booked on a flight to Haiti.”
“Haiti?”
Sean, the middle Foley brother, interjected. “It seems to be a goblin stronghold. They came as aid workers after a bad hurricane and have never left.”
“Wasn’t this like what we found in that warehouse?” Trent asked. “Kel’s wife and all that.”
“Yes.”
Trent had been part of a rescue mission to save some kids who were going to be trafficked out of the country.
“To Haiti, we found out later,” Declan, the youngest Foley, said.
Trent looked at each of the men. “I don’t know about you, but in my background there are no coincidences.”
The men all agreed. The Foleys had been involved in some cases that didn’t make it into the newspaper. Deke himself had save his wife from her goblin adoptive father. They’d all had their run-ins with bad guys and Deke wondered why now.
“Seems like things are ramping up,” Deke said. “Between what my wife and Kel’s wife have been through, I’m thinking it is all connected.”
“And probably means something big is coming down the pike,” Trent said.
He’d wanted to keep his life quiet. One of the reasons he wasn’t involved with a woman, but now he was protecting one. In his own home. Sigh.
“Shall we brainstorm what is going on?”
“Do you want to know our plan for Beth’s protection? Let’s take care of the smaller details first.”
Trent didn’t think that Beth’s safety was a small detail, but he let that go. “What do you have for me?”
Donal put his hands on the table. “Well, we want to get Beth into a safe house.”
“There is no place safer than here,” Trent said. “If I have to I can get her off the roof.”
“You’d switch in front of her?” Sean asked.
If he had to. Beth had become important to him in a short time. He couldn’t explain it, but she’d brought out some strong protective instincts. Maybe ones even stronger than he had for his sister. It made no sense. “If necessary to keep her safe, yes.”
“That’s ballsy,” Donal said.
Trent just shrugged. He’d always been the one who would do whatever he had to do to protect his family. When his father had been out of work, Trent had found odd jobs in the neighborhood to bring in money. When his father could no longer work, Trent had gone into the military. It was just what he did.
For some reason he wanted to do that for Beth.
“So since you want to keep her here, have you talked to Beth about it?”
“Not yet.”
“Do you really think she will agree to it?” Sean asked.
“She has no choice. If we think she’s in danger.”
“We think Beth is,” Donal said. “Even if there hasn’t been a direct threat yet, we are sure there will be. She saw something at that party. Something that the goblins didn’t want her to see.”
“What does Tex say about it?” Trent asked.
“He’s still looking into goblin rituals. You can imagine that he isn’t finding much. I have a feeling he is going to resort to the dark web soon.”
Trent shuddered. He’d heard stories about the dark web and had chosen never to venture there. “Can he keep himself and his computers safe?”
“It’s Tex. Of course he can.”
Tex was their tech guy. Much more than an IT man. He could keep their computers running and track down information about anything. A white hat hacker for sure. Trent had always been impressed by what he could find out.
“Well, I guess I am doing this alone then,” Trent said.
“We can be back up. We don’t want to leave you alone in this since we don’t even know what is going to happen,” Donal said.
“I just feel Beth is safer here. Now if you gentlemen will excuse me. I haven’t slept.”
The men filed out, each one shaking Trent’s hand as they went. As if they all knew something that they couldn’t tell him.
***
Beth woke right before her phone rang. She didn’t remember at first where she was. The thread count on the sheets reminded her of home, but this wasn’t the place where she grew up. Then she remembered the last twenty-four hours.
Where were her parents? What had she really seen at that party? She rolled over to stare at the ceiling. Then realized her phone ringing was what woke her up. She snagged it off the night stand. Maggie. Was she on her honeymoon?
Beth called her back. “Maggie?”
“I’m sorry Beth.”
“For what?”
“I just heard about your evening and such. We’ve been out of touch and my phone wasn’t charged,” Maggie said.
She was on her honeymoon with her new husband, Kel. He was a partner in the same nightclub as Trent. “Someone called you?”
“Trent called Kel. Where are you?”
“I’m at Trent’s apartment. I mean his penthouse. Really.”
“Of course he’d keep you safe. It’s what these guys do.”
“Why are you so sure of that? Do you even know Trent that well?”
She shifted and put the pillow against the headboard and leaned against it. She snugged the covers around her feeling out of sorts. She and her parents had never been close, but she’d never wished them ill. For the first time she felt alone in the world. At least she had Maggie.
“I know him well enough, Beth. He’s a good friend of Kel’s and these guys stick together. I’ve been to dinners at Deke’s house. If you get a chance to go, he’s a great cook. But that’s not the point of my call.”
“What is? You didn’t have to call me while on your honeymoon.”
“You’re my best friend, Beth. I was worried when I heard.”
Maggie with the big heart would of course be worried. Beth often wasn’t sure if she deserved Maggie. “I can’t find my parents and when we went to the house they were gone. As if they’d never been there. It was only a few days ago when I talked to my mother.”
“What does Trent think?”
“He’s brought in the Foley brothers.”
“That serious?”
“They do security and things like that. Some stuff you probably don’t want to know, but they help a lot of people.”
“They are all these big guys.”
Maggie just chuckled. “Not one of them will hurt you.”
“Okay. So what do I do?”
“Trust Trent.”
“As if that is easy for me.”
“I know. Remember Brandon? I wasn’t going to trust anyone after him, but I found Kel.”
“I’m not here to find a husband. I’m here to stay safe even if I don’t know what I’m safe from.”
“It’s complicated, but they will tell you when you need to know.”
“You’re on their side?” Beth asked.
“No, I just have some idea what they are dealing with.”
“Is this like that night in the warehouse you won’t tell me about?” Beth asked.
“Something like that. Look, trust the Foleys. I wouldn’t have left Billy with them if I didn’t trust them completely.”
Billy was Maggie’s adopted son. He’d been her case when she worked for child services. Things happened that Beth still didn’t know about and Billy came to live with Maggie and then with Maggie and Kel when they married. Maggie would protect him with her life.
Beth didn’t know what to think. “So I need to trust Trent.”
“Yes. Even if it seems odd. He’s a good guy and he won’t let you get hurt.”
“Okay. Now get back to your honeymoon.”
Chapter Six
Trent sat in his living room having gotten a few hours of sleep. Only the light outside the windows told him that it was evening. Beth emerged from the hallway that led to the bedroom. She was sleep tousled, but awake and looking around.
“Coffee would be great.”
“There’s some in the kitchen.”
She returned to him, a mug in her hands. She settled on the couch diagonal to the chair he occupied. “I talked to Maggie.”
He nodded. “I called Kel. I figured they would want to know. I advised them not to cut short their honeymoon.”
“Especially since we don’t have a credible threat against me.”
Trent sighed. “Do you agree the situation at the party and the situation with your parents are odd?”
“Yes, but do they have anything to do with each other?”
“I don’t believe in coincidences, Beth. They just don’t happen.”
She shrugged then remained quiet. He wished he knew what was going on in her head. If he did, he could counter any arguments she was having with herself. Or any that could pop up later.
“I need to go into work,” she said.
“Now?”
“Tomorrow morning. I’m on the schedule and I haven’t even tried to get coverage.”
He hadn’t even taken into account that she might have to work. “You work in a hospital?”
“A small, private one. Vanderbilt General.”
“I know it. Caters to rich and famous,” he said. That didn’t make it easier to keep her secure.
“Yes. They like their privacy. Security is top-notch.”
“Are you convincing me or yourself?” he asked.
“Both of us. I like my job. It pays the bills.”
He nodded. He understood paying the bills. “What time?”
“Seven in the morning.”
He calculated how many hours of preparation he had. Not as much as he’d like. “Do you know who head of security is?”
“Yes. I actually have his number in my phone.”
“Oh?”
“It’s a small hospital, Trent. We’re friends.”
“Okay. Let him know I’ll be reaching out to him. I can’t let you work unless I know I can protect you. I can’t do that without security.”
“Are you sure this is all necessary?”
“Yes.”
He gave her a look that made most people back down. Even though Beth was not most people. He didn’t understand her reluctance to believe him. Nor did he comprehend his strong desire to protect her. He felt protective of his sisters, but this was something from deep inside of him. He didn’t want to examine it, but he had to in case it was going to get him in trouble.
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