“Whoever it was knew you would be thorough.”
“They also know how to contact me by email,” she said reluctantly.
Dane shifted in his seat by the window. “You’ve tracked the message?”
“I’ve tried.”
This statement had Thorne and Dane exchange a look of surprise.
“You’ve not been able to come up with an identity? Or an IP address, at least?”
“No. Nothing. Whoever it is has some powerful tools. They’re using a nucleus and a sentry. Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem, but this Redgamer3 has a pretty cool setup. It’s just swinging back around into itself. I’m literally chasing my own tail. I’d be impressed…if he wasn’t such a diabolical monster.”
“Hmm.” Thorne frowned, and his hands folded in his lap.
“Do you have a guess who it is?” she asked him, leaning closer with excitement in her eyes.
Again Colton was reminded of his own father by their exchange. The way Detective Jack Williamson used to sit around the table with his five boys and his wife and share selected details of a case he was working.
He would give them enough clues he’d already uncovered so they could come up with the answers on their own. If there were answers. Unfortunately, some of those cases were never solved. And some nights, his father didn’t want to talk about his cases.
Those nights when his cases hit too close to home. Kids and families.
Every one of Jack’s sons had followed him into the force in one form or the other. Colton knew his father expected them to serve in some way. It had been engrained in them all since birth. During those dinners, he’d set their course.
When he died, each of the Williamson sons had vowed to pick up where their father left off. Helping others.
Colton looked over at Angel, and knew he’d let her into his home because she needed help. But the reason he was so desperate for her to stay was something else entirely.
Each day they spent together would make it harder when she left, but he would take what he could get and remember it always.
Angel’s posture shifted, moving closer to Thorne. She resembled a child waiting for someone to get to the exciting part of the story. “You must have an idea, or you wouldn’t have shown up here with that smug-ass grin on your face.”
Thorne nodded. “I have a lead. I’ll remind you, my face is not the one all over the news, so I’m not sure why I should be the one exerting myself to find the killer. Maybe you should put in a little more effort instead of lazing about.”
Angel laughed, and Dane let out a huff of disinterest. Even Colton knew the man was bluffing. He cared about Angel, and was probably missing sleep himself to get her out of this mess. Josiah Thorne might want his deputies to think he was a tough old bastard, but it wasn’t working.
Angel rubbed her palms together. “All right, then. Spill it.”
Chapter Forty-Three
Like Angel, Colton also moved to the edge of his seat in anticipation as Thorne paused, then let out a dramatic sigh before finally answering.
“Fine. Heath has a younger brother who has his own struggling tech company,” he said.
Angel shook her head. “I know that. But I checked him out. Noah was no threat. He doesn’t have two nickels to rub together. What kind of hitman would take a job from a guy who can barely pay the electric bill?” she said with a look of irritation.
“The kind of hitman who knew he wouldn’t get paid, and who’d planned to keep the prototype for himself from the beginning.”
Angel looked over at Colton, then back to Thorne. “Noah was double-crossed? You know this how?”
“People are saying the reaction to his brother’s grisly death wasn’t entirely shock and sadness. There’s apparently been some throwing of chairs and yelling behind his office door.”
“Could be he was cut out of the will or life insurance,” Colton offered.
But Thorne was already shaking his head. “He knew he was never in. It’s no secret the Zeller boys were not brotherly.”
Angel looked thoughtful. “Heath told me his brother stole one of his ideas when they were in college. He said it was an important lesson to learn. It was why he always kept his latest creations with him at all times, and didn’t talk about them until they were ready to launch.”
“It’s pretty bad his own brother would want him dead.” Colton thought about how close he was with his own brothers, and how devastated they must have been when he’d been killed. Or so they thought.
Then he looked up to see Angel staring at the floor, and realized his mistake. Shit. Her brother hadn’t just wanted her dead. He’d actually tried to kill her himself.
“I didn’t mean—”
“It’s nothing.” She held up her hand to stop his apology. A muscle worked in her jaw. “I think we need to look closer at the brother. I, of all people, know what brothers are capable of. And being in tech himself, he would have access to the best blocking capabilities. If I know where the email originated, it will help me make the link.”
She looked so small sitting on the loveseat all by herself.
Maybe it wasn’t the right time. Maybe she wouldn’t appreciate the gesture in front of her boss and co-worker, but he couldn’t help himself. He sat beside her and pulled her close, holding her tight.
To his surprise, she let him.
Chapter Forty-Four
“I’m so stupid,” Angel complained as she scrolled through Noah Zeller’s business emails. “Why didn’t I think to look closer?”
She’d checked him out in the first days after she acquired a computer, but saw nothing but the normal emails of a business operation. However, since last Friday, he’d been sending quite a lot of them regarding a missing shipment.
He wasn’t Redgamer3—at least not according to any account she had found—but he was involved somehow. And she was going to find out how.
Hacking into his phone proved more of a challenge, but soon she was seeing his texts in real time. Every few hours, Noah was writing to someone named Jim, asking when he was going to deliver his product. Quite the indecipherable code.
“He sounds desperate,” Colton said as he read over her shoulder.
After their little moment on the sofa, Thorne and Dane had left. Not before giving her an encrypted phone so they could keep in touch.
Angel should have been embarrassed that she’d let Colton comfort her. But she’d liked having his arms around her. She felt safe. For years she’d been taking care of herself, but with Colton she felt like she didn’t have to do everything alone. She was still a bit raw, having told him her gruesome tale. All those feelings had been churned up, and she couldn’t help but feel vulnerable.
Her talk with Dane still echoed in her head though. She knew from personal experience what happened when she allowed her emotions to make the decisions. She’d once thought she was in love with her first partner. But it turned out to be a huge mistake.
Not only had she missed the important clues that he was unstable, but she’d realized too late she couldn’t have loved him. Because she didn’t know him at all. Not only did he have a dark secret, but he’d even created another identity.
In the days after she’d killed him, she realized he had tricked her but she had not been paying attention. She’d been too naive and star-struck because the sexy marshal had taken her under his wing to show her the ropes.
When she’d pulled the trigger she’d known there was no other way to stop him. Lucas Stone had never truly existed. He was nothing but a reminder of what happened when she let her heart get involved.
As Colton set down a cup of tea next to her laptop, she knew it was far too late to stop her feelings for him. Her heart had brought her to his doorstep, and it was the reason she was still sitting in his living room.
She needed to find this Jim person, or better yet, Redgamer3, so she could move on. If she could just solve this case quickly so she could go back to work, she might have a chance of saving both Colton and hersel
f from the pain that awaited them.
Turning back to her screen, she laughed wryly. “Noah actually thought Jim was going to deliver a billion-dollar piece of hardware after he’d done all the dirty work. Apparently, Noah didn’t get any of the smart genes.” She shook her head.
It was better to joke than to think too hard about how similar the situation was to her own. While she knew Noah wasn’t the actual killer, it seemed likely he had hired the person who was responsible for Heath’s death. He’d essentially killed his own brother, even if he hadn’t been in the room with the knife.
“Can you find this Jim, or find out if he’s Redgamer3?” Colton asked, hope and excitement in his voice. He’d mentioned how being a math teacher wasn’t all that exciting. She hadn’t realized how bored he must be.
“Not yet. Jim never emailed him back. Not once. I only see the message exit from Noah’s system. I don’t see it hitting a mailbox on the other end.”
“So no one ever read them?”
“I can’t be sure.” She rubbed her temples. She was trying too hard. When she got in too deep, she couldn’t see anything. She needed a distraction.
She looked at the man sitting next to her. His hazel eyes moved as he scanned the screen looking for some way to help her. His lips… God, she remembered those lips. Soft, yet firm and filled with naughty promises.
He’d kept all those promises.
It would be easy to lean into him, and let him take her away for a few minutes—no, hours. But she knew her story had only two possible endings—jail or back to her old life—and neither one of them would be fair to Colton.
She shoved down her lusty thoughts and brought up a different browser to finish something else she’d been working on when she couldn’t sleep.
“I have a surprise for you,” she said a few minutes later when she was finished. She turned the screen toward Colton, and heard his gasp of surprise.
“Is that—?”
“Yep. Your nephew.” She watched the smile spread across his face as he sat down next to her to stare at the photo. “Looks like he’s grown a lot in the last year.”
“I’ll say. He’s walking.” Colton pointed at the video as if she wasn’t looking. She was. “Where did you get this?”
“I hacked into your sister-in-law’s Facebook page. Here, you can scroll through the photos.” She moved the screen closer to him as she stood to go. She wanted to give him some privacy while he looked at the photos of the family life he was no longer a part of.
She hadn’t been sure whether or not it would be cruel to share the pictures, but she’d thought it over from his perspective, and decided he would want to see them.
She pointed at Pudge on the way out of the kitchen. “No more barking at strangers. If anyone else shows up, just eat them.”
Pudge barked in approval, and followed her outside where she threw a ball for him for fifteen minutes.
When she came back in, Colton was standing by a window with his back to her. She heard a sniff and saw him wipe his face with his arm. He didn’t turn toward her, though she knew he’d heard her come in with her jingling companion.
For a tough guy, Colton Williamson had a soft, gooey center.
She sat down at the computer to get back to work, and noticed something on the page. “What the hell?”
“What’s wrong?” Colton asked, his voice hoarse.
“Your sister-in-law, Robin, is friends with you on Facebook. Did you have an account before the shooting?” It didn’t seem likely, what with the dial-up and all.
He gave her a doubtful look. He wouldn’t have spent any time on a computer unless it was absolutely necessary.
“Right.” She clicked to go to the profile, and there was a photo of Colton with his brother, John. They looked like twins, but John was two years older than Colton. The cover photo was a muscle car.
“Any idea what the password would be?” she asked. “I can hack it, but that will take time.”
Colton studied the page and shrugged. “Try seventy-three Mach One. That’s what the car is. We bought it together and fixed it up.”
After a few variations, Angel hit on the one that worked, and opened the page.
“I’m in.”
“What is it?” Colton leaned over her to see his page.
“It looks like a memorial, of sorts. It’s a bunch of people sharing stories about you. And…” She tilted her head, taking in a younger, leaner Colton. He was probably about twenty. “Photos. Wow.” She flipped through proof that Colton had never suffered with adolescent awkwardness.
He squeezed in next to her. The side of his body pressed up against hers.
She’d already slept beside him, and allowed him to hold her. Sitting this close wasn’t going to change the path they were heading down.
He laughed and shared some of the stories as she continued to scroll through the comments.
“I miss these people,” he said quietly.
“It’s obvious they miss you. I’m sorry it worked out like this. Viktor Kulakov is still out there. Until they come up with a charge sticky enough to put him away for life, you are in danger. There is no statute of limitations on murder.” And without hard proof, the prosecutor was afraid the case would be dismissed. Viktor had lots of associates to pin things on if he came under suspicion. They only had Colton’s testimony, and the prosecutor wasn’t willing to show his cards.
“Weird, John never posted anything. He must not have an account,” Colton said.
“He does. He was also in Robin’s friends list.” Angel bit her lip, deciding whether or not she should share the story about meeting John at Colton’s funeral.
Rather than let the man think his brother had abandoned him, she let out a breath and faced the truth.
“He probably didn’t post anything because he knows you’re alive.”
Chapter Forty-Five
“What?” Colton choked, eyes wide. This had already been a crazy day. Now to find out his brother knew he was alive?
Angel winced before she went on. “I wasn’t sure if you would want to know. It doesn’t change anything, but I probably should have told you before.”
“You told him I was alive?”
“Of course not,” she said defensively. “He saw me hanging out at the cemetery during your funeral.”
“You went to the cemetery? What are you, a walking cliché?” To a detective as sharp as John, a strange government official lurking around would be nearly the same as straight out telling him something was up.
“At the time, I didn’t know you yet. You were still in the hospital and pretty messed up. But, yeah. I went to your funeral, because it seemed like the right thing to do. I wanted to make sure I knew you a little bit, because if you didn’t make it, I would be the only person at your second funeral.”
He swallowed, slightly irritated that she’d been able to see his family when he couldn’t.
“I was also watching to see if Viktor or his people showed up. He sent someone to your other funeral. The one for your cover—Robbie Vanderhook. I wanted to make sure he wasn’t on to the real you. I was also gauging the crowd to see if your friends and family seemed to be buying the story.”
“The story of my death, you mean? Did you check to make sure the tears were real?” he snapped. He didn’t mean to be rude, but it hurt that his family had been put through this.
“No. But I can tell when someone’s acting and when it’s real. Blotchy skin, red eyes, runny nose.”
If he needed a list of what it looked like to deal with gut-wrenching heartache, he could have easily looked in the mirror. Seeing photos of his family moving on while he was here alone had just about killed him.
“And did you see anyone who didn’t look the proper level of devastated?” He hated to think of the pain he’d caused his family. Even if he’d had no choice. He knew every one of them would have understood, but it still pained him that he’d hurt them.
“No. They were all plenty devastated,”
she said sadly. “But after the service was over, John came up and smiled at me. He said he was glad to see me.”
“Let me guess. You were wearing black pants and white shirt, the official uniform for a U.S. deputy marshal at a funeral.”
“You know, most people are too distraught to notice what other people are wearing at a funeral.”
“Did you confirm I was alive?” He didn’t know which answer he was hoping for. To give John hope wouldn’t be fair, but to confirm Colton was still alive but they would be unable to share their lives with one another wouldn’t have been easy for John, either.
“No. I couldn’t. Besides, at that time I wasn’t sure how much longer you’d be alive. I definitely didn’t want to get his hopes up just to let them down again if you’d really died. But it didn’t matter. He didn’t need confirmation from me. It was as if he just knew.”
Colton understood what she meant. Though John was two years older than him, the two of them had been like twins. Colton had been the best man when John married Robin. They’d asked Colton to be Tyler’s godfather when the kid was only a few days old. He’d mumbled his answer with his best Brando impersonation.
Colton missed a lot of things about his old life. Taking down drug dealers, carrying a gun, and shoes without tassels, to name a few. But the thing he missed most was hanging out on a Saturday afternoon in his brother’s backyard. They’d sit in the shade with a beer and reminisce about how much trouble they’d gotten into when they were younger. And plan adventures for the future.
“Oh, no,” Angel whispered, yanking him from his memories.
“What is it?” He looked at the screen, scouring it for bad news. He didn’t know how much more he could take.
“You have a private message.”
Chapter Forty-Six
Angel wasn’t surprised to see John’s photo pop up on the message app. After explaining to Colton what a message app was. She’d met John briefly and knew how much he and Colton looked alike.
The message wasn’t very long, and she read it before realizing it wasn’t her business.
Wanted for Life Page 11