by Dee, Cara
“I need to come up with a strategy for the Feds if Willow’s found all the intel we need.”
Gray side-eyed Darius as he drove onto the dirt road. “You’re not suggesting we wait for the agents, right? We have a chance to actually save Jackie. No way in hell I’m blowing that.”
For chrissakes, he had lost count of all the times Darius had said that the authorities couldn’t get shit done because of the bureaucracy. It was no wonder Gray didn’t have much faith in them. After all, his parents had sent Darius to find him not that long ago. The police hadn’t done it. Or the FBI.
It was scary, Gray couldn’t lie, but he couldn’t back down if it meant getting Jackie back alive.
“It’s not that simple,” Darius answered. “Doesn’t matter what vile piece of shit we save Jackie from. If we commit a crime, we could face jail time.”
“So, we don’t get caught.”
Darius smirked and rubbed a hand over his mouth, as if he were trying to hide it. “It’s possible I haven’t been the best influence on you.”
“You think?” Gray offered an incredulous expression. “Before I met you, I wouldn’t even jaywalk. Now I’m hunting down perverted rapists and firing guns.”
Darius chuckled. “Speaking of, when this blows over, we gotta get you your own permits.”
That was a perfect discussion for way down the road.
As they got closer to the bridge, Darius pulled out his phone and called his sister.
He had to be antsy, seeing as they’d be there in less than twenty minutes. Willow lived in Westslope too, only, in a more populated area across the river. She shared a small house with an aunt, where the second floor, a loft, was all Willow’s. It was one-part living quarters, one-part office. One big open space, with computer screens and gadgets everywhere.
“Hey. I’m on my way, but I wanted to call in advance,” Darius said. “Is Britt there?” That would be their aunt. “Okay, tell her to go see Grandma or something. I want privacy and no witnesses.” He paused, presumably listening to Willow’s response. Darius grinned faintly. “I forgot that was coming up. Can Elise fit ninety-nine candles on a cake?”
Yikes. That was one old grandmother.
“Why?” Darius became serious. “No—fuck no. Gray and I will handle this on our own. It won’t be a big op.”
Gray sped up as the road widened. Soon, they’d even reach a road that was paved.
“Well, don’t call him,” Darius told her. “A third person won’t help in that case—” He stopped, maybe interrupted, and sighed. “Squeezy. Listen to me. You say there will be limited options to hide. How would that change by bringing Ryan?”
Gray furrowed his brow.
“So, we’ll have binoculars,” Darius retorted. “I don’t need a marksman to see.” He grinned to himself. “You’re sweet, but this part of the game I’m pretty decent at, and—for fuck’s sake, quit interrupting me!” He blew out a breath. “You know what, I’ll see you in five minutes.”
It was more like nine minutes in the end, because Gray didn’t drive like a lunatic, but whatever.
He parked in the empty driveway and killed the engine.
It was a quiet street where all the houses were painted red, had white shutters and rosebushes leaning up against the picket fences. Only the house at the end of the street stood out. “Run-down” would be kind. Gray assumed no one lived there. There were no windows, the paint had peeled off, the roof was full of holes, and the yard consisted of mud and patches of dead grass.
Darius seemed to be thinking about the house too. “Someone actually bought it.”
“Huh?”
Darius pointed to it. “There’s a Sold sign stuck to the mailbox.”
“Oh.”
Opening the gate, Darius admitted, “I thought about buying it at one point. Fixing it up. Then I realized I was fucking stupid and wised up.”
Gray laughed. “Nah, you belong in the woods. I wouldn’t be able to call you mountain man otherwise.”
Darius threw an arm around Gray’s neck and kissed the side of his head. “You’re a mountain man now too, don’t forget that. You’re an idiot if you think we’re gonna revert to occasional dates and spending the night on weekends when this hell is done with.”
Gray smiled curiously as Darius opened the door. Did they just officially become live-in partners? Because that’s what it sounded like, and it felt…hmm. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but are you telling me not to get my own place eventually?”
“You have a place,” he stated. “It’s with me, and we have a home. End of discussion.” Except, then he hesitated, and it seemed it wasn’t the end at all. “Do you mind living there? I know you’re a big-city kid.”
Big-city kid…? For crying out loud! Their town didn’t even have 100,000 residents, and Gray had grown up hiking and camping. “That’s a bit of a stretch,” he replied wryly. “But no, I don’t mind. I actually like it. Besides, once I make something out of myself—and I have an income—I can pull my weight by making sure we move the cabin into this century.” He much preferred the lighter tension. Something was niggling at the back of his mind, and he didn’t wanna go there.
“The cabin’s plenty modern,” Darius said, entering the house. “In fact, I just installed a twenty-one-year-old power machine who can grow tomatoes when I get arthritis.”
Gray hid his laugh behind a cough into his fist.
Darius scratched his eyebrow. “That’s still unbelievable to me, you know. Sure, you act like a kid sometimes, but seriously. I’m older than your mother.”
“Oh my God, stop it.” Gray fisted Darius’s hoodie and pulled him in for a kiss. “The reason we get along so well has to be because you’re being so childish all the time. Me? I’m an old, very wise soul.”
“You’re funny, at least.” Darius grinned and kissed him once more.
“Darius!” That yell came from upstairs, and it had to be Willow. “Is that you?”
It was actually the first time Gray had heard her voice. She’d relied on sign language and notes last time.
“Aye, comin’ up.” Darius nodded toward the stairs.
Willow started talking as if they were already in the same room. “Okay, so I’ve been looking at satellite images of the area, and there’s nothing around for miles. Four point six, to be exact. The closest neighbor, in that sense, is Joshua Tree National Park.”
They were going to California, then.
“There’s no place to hide your car,” she went on. “I suggest driving to Twentynine Palms, renting ATVs there, and driving as close as you can once it gets dark. Let me know if you want me to make a reservation at a hotel.”
At that point, they reached the landing of the stairs and entered Willow’s domain.
Gray stayed in the doorway while Darius headed over to his sister. He ruffled her hair and eyed the two computer screens she was using. One of them showed a map.
“Twentynine Palms is out,” he replied.
“Why? Do you even know it?” Willow asked.
Darius inclined his head. “Ry was stationed there for a while before he transferred to Pendleton.” He pointed to the town on the map. “Biggest Marine base in the US right there. Which means we don’t wanna get too close. We can bank on them having intelligence in the area.”
Willow giggled. “Marines… Intelligence…”
Darius barked out a laugh, then bent down to kiss the top of her head. “Remind me to pass that one on to Ryan.”
“Okay, when?” Willow picked up her phone from her desk, having clearly taken Darius’s words literally.
Darius humored her. “Two weeks from now.” Then he refocused on the map and asked her to zoom out. “What else have we got? Can you put the map on one screen and the fucker’s house on the other?”
“Duh.” She did as asked, and Gray took a couple steps toward them to see clearer. “I don’t know. I guess Palm Springs if you wanna go with a bigger town…?”
Darius hummed and folded hi
s arms over his chest, one hand coming up to rub his jaw. “They allow camping at Joshua Tree, don’t they?”
“In the park? I think so.” Willow turned on a third screen and wheeled her chair closer to its keyboard. The other two screens shared a keyboard. “Yeah, there are a lot of raving lunatics going camping in the park. You make reservations beforehand.” She switched from a page with information to another map. “This one’s closest to your destination.”
“But then we gotta cross the Pinto Mountains.” Darius leaned over and tapped the screen. “That one. Can you go to satellite? I wanna see the basin.” The satellite view appeared, revealing big patches of yellow and brownish-green. It was the very definition of desert. Flat deadlands met grassy hills, rock formations, and shrubs. “What’s that, a few klicks between the campsite and his location?”
“Lemme check—” Willow rose from her chair and froze with her green eyes going wide when she spotted Gray.
Fuck. He instantly felt like an intruder.
“Hey.” Darius blocked the view and grasped her shoulders. “Keep going, baby girl. You got this. You were gonna check the distance for me, yeah? Keep going. Repeat after me—keep going.” His voice was calm and collected despite the nonstop flow of words.
“Keep,” she gasped.
He nodded her along and rubbed her arms. “Keep going, keep going. You’ve met Gray before. This is work. Focus on your job. Keep going.”
“K-Keep going,” she stammered. She took a few deep breaths. “Keep—keep going.”
“See?” There was a smile in Darius’s voice, and the interaction between the two warmed Gray’s heart. “You got this. Just keep going, Squeezy. Push through. Check the distance for me.”
She gulped and nodded, and she sort of bolted into action. “I’m gonna keep going.” She grabbed a calculator off the end of her desk before returning to her seat. “Distance, distance, distance, keep going. All the fucking words. I can speak. Talk, talk, talk.”
“Fuck yeah, you can.” Darius joined her again, planting his palms on the desk, and he gave her an abundance of tasks, probably to distract her. “If we go through the basin over here, I gotta know how long it takes to get there on an ATV. Then I need to know how busy the sites are at this time of year. I’m guessing it’s the perfect season before it gets too hot.”
She nodded quickly and jotted something on a notepad.
“Can you pull up the buyer’s profile?” Darius asked. “Gray and I are gonna talk for a bit. You ignore us and focus, and you keep mumbling incoherently to yourself.”
Her gaze shot up and sharpened. “I don’t fucking mumble, and I definitely don’t speak incoherently.”
He smirked. “I made you argue, though.”
The man was slick.
“Ugh.” She shoved at him, earning herself a laugh, and basically shooed him off. “Here’s your damn profile.” She pressed a couple keys, maybe a little too hard, and the screen in front of Darius lit up with information and a picture that nearly bowled Gray over. The nausea hit him like a wrecking ball.
He turned his back on the others and pressed a fist to his mouth.
The memories of everything that had transpired on the yacht assaulted him. Jackie’s buyer was a short, stacked man who reminded Gray of an English bulldog. Maybe not as heavyset; it was his face. His cheeks sagged, forcing the corners of his mouth downward. He had the creepiest fucking smile, Gray remembered. It would light up his pale blue eyes and push up his brows, wrinkling his forehead, yet his plump lips wouldn’t move. Gray swallowed uneasily and closed his eyes. He saw the man touching Jackie’s cheek lovingly, as if he hadn’t just given the kid a black eye.
He’d only seen Jackie’s buyer get violent a single time, and Darius had assured Gray that the fucker wasn’t much for physical abuse. He was a lonely pedophile craving affection.
It still made Gray sick. If anything, physical abuse could be easier to recover from.
He didn’t want to imagine what kind of twisted shit Jackie had been forced to endure.
Gray jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder. Darius guided him to the screen, to the profile, and nodded firmly. He knew what was running through Gray’s mind but silently told him you got this.
Exhaling shakily, willing his heart to calm the fuck down, Gray lifted his gaze to the picture and balled his hands into fists along his sides.
Darius positioned himself behind Gray and rubbed his shoulders. “His days are numbered, knucklehead. I promise you.”
Deep breaths. Gray nodded. It was good to hear, good to have it confirmed; they weren’t setting this asshole up for a prison sentence. He was gonna die.
Chester Warren. That was the scumbag’s name.
“Oh my God.” Gray’s stomach twisted painfully as he continued reading. “He’s a pediatrician?”
“Yes,” Willow confirmed automatically, never looking up from her notes. “He should not be near children. I’m talking, Darius. Keep going. I may have fucked with Chester a little lately. I’m hoping it’s distracted him from being a waste of space who preys on kids.”
“What have you done?” Darius asked, some amusement seeping through.
Willow cleared her throat and started tapping her fingers together. “All the things that annoy humans. He’s always getting takeout through UberEats, so I messed with his orders. I had some wrong stuff delivered to his penthouse. I called in a favor to a friend who keyed his car. I reported a water leak that forced him to come home from the hospital. I canceled his cleaning service twice. And I installed viruses on his laptop and home computer.”
She was a fucking genius. “You’re like one of those gray-hat hackers who breaks the law to do good things,” Gray said, in awe of her.
Willow frowned. “I’m not like a grayhat. I am one. And you keep that to yourself.”
“Of course.” Gray hid his smile and his admiration—for now. When all this was over, he wanted to get to know her better.
Darius made them refocus on their task, and he asked Willow if she knew anything about Warren’s day-to-day routine.
“Obviously,” she replied, and a new document appeared on the middle screen. “This is my analysis based on takeout orders, his schedule at the hospital, every location his car has been—which was how I eventually found his place at Joshua Tree—and his messages and phone records.”
“You managed to track his car remotely?” Darius was impressed.
“It’s not difficult. If any device in your possession is labeled smart, you’re not alone,” she said. “Smartphones, smart TV, smart cars, and so on. I hacked in to his software.”
Darius nudged Gray. “Hear that? I ain’t bringing anything smart into our home.”
“Including you, if you don’t realize what an epic self-burn that was,” Gray muttered.
“Oh!” Willow started laughing. Hard. “Oh my God—gah!”
Darius glared.
Gray smirked in satisfaction. It felt good to throw Darius a verbal punch every now and then, mainly because Gray succeeded so rarely. The bastard was always at the top of his game.
“Do you want me to pass that one on to Ryan too?” Willow asked with an innocent smile.
Gray chuckled and folded his arms over his chest.
“That’s enough outta both of you,” Darius said. “Tell me how often Warren heads out to Joshua Tree.”
“Every weekend,” Willow replied. “Like clockwork. He leaves the hospital at three and goes straight from there. He stops only to get groceries. Then he drives back to LA on Sunday, times vary. Sometimes he goes out there on Wednesdays too, and it seems to depend on his schedule at work.” She pulled up another page, a list of dates and amounts. “Let’s see… I got into his car four days ago… I went through his credit card statements, and as you can see here—” she pointed at one column “—he stops at the same grocery store outside the city every Friday. He’s a man of habit. Same gas station, same donut shop in the morning, same everything. And check this out.” A
similar page popped up. “No charges whatsoever on this card from December fourteenth to January ninth. He was on vacation from work during the exact same period.”
“He was smart enough to use cash or another card,” Darius murmured. “What about family?”
“A brother who lives in Chicago,” Willow answered, “and an elderly mother in Malibu, whom Warren rarely visits. Or calls, for that matter. He texts with his brother once or twice a week. Nothing interesting. More of a sense of duty than wanting to actually check in, and they keep things brief.”
“No one will miss him,” Gray said quietly.
“Probably not, no,” Willow confirmed frankly. “He leads a lonely life.”
“That settles the strategy,” Darius decided. “He’ll commit suicide this weekend.”
Gray and Darius left Willow’s place determined to end Jackie’s suffering before next weekend, which meant they had very little time to pull this off, especially if they didn’t want a single witness or for any loved one to suspect they’d been gone.
Before heading back to the cabin, they drove over to the shelter in Ponderosa, where Gray started pretending he wasn’t feeling awesome.
They sat in the common room downstairs with Jayden and Justin and the girls when Adeline came out from her office and gave them cookies. Gray coughed and tried to look tired, something a mother always picked up on hella quick.
“Are you feeling all right, hon?” She felt his forehead.
“I’m sure it’s nothing,” he said, feigning a yawn. “Do you guys have anything planned, or can I kidnap Jayden for a couple hours?”
At that, Justin rushed over and tapped Gray’s knee, and he showed off those irresistible puppy-dog eyes.
“We’ll bring him back,” Gray chuckled and touched his cheek. “I’m just gonna take him over to my mom’s house for a little while.”
Justin signed something and looked pleadingly at Darius.
And Darius’s eyes flashed with mirth. “He’s asking to come with you.”
“Oh.” Gray felt dumb. “Of course, sweetheart. I mean—” He glanced at Adeline, who was smirking. “Is it okay?”