Don’t Keep Silent

by Don't Keep Silent (epub)

  He shoved open his door and hopped from his truck, glad Pete or Leroy had shoveled the area so Rae could easily get out on her side. He said nothing. He needed to let it go. It’s why he’d stayed here for months. And now he found himself with her. A cruel joke.

  Just move on, Liam. He’d made the decision to help her, and he couldn’t be much help if he carried resentment around on his shoulders. Even if she’d used him, he needed to forgive her. What he didn’t know was if she’d ever truly felt anything for him.

  He hiked around the truck to help her. “Please keep your voice down. We don’t want to wake my brothers and their wives if they’ve already gone to bed.” Even though it was only around ten o’clock, he hoped they’d made an early night of it.

  He’d missed dinner, though he’d assured Heath he would be there. So he’d missed saying goodbye. But they wouldn’t be disappointed in him for staying true to character. Regret kicked him in the gut. When he’d come back, he’d wanted to be different.

  Liam led Rae to the porch, and they treaded lightly up the steps. He unlocked the door. Years ago, they never locked it. Out here in middle-of-nowhere Wyoming, the only creatures in this edge of the forest that edged the Gros Ventre Wilderness were the wildlife. But recent dangerous incidents that encroached on their quiet ranch had changed their definition of security.

  Inside the spacious log home, Liam flipped on a small lamp near the door. The faded aroma of elk burgers still lingered in the air. The dogs, Timber and Rufus, were probably sleeping with their respective owners. The dogs were on the old side and good about not barking unless they sensed danger.

  He glanced at Rae. “I can show you to a guest room. But honestly, I’m famished. If you’re exhausted, you can go to sleep, or you’re welcome to join me in the kitchen for leftovers.”

  “I’m hungry too.” She dropped the bag holding a few belongings on the floor next to the door.

  Liam led her into the kitchen and flipped on the lights.

  “I’m exhausted, but I don’t think I can sleep.” She kept her voice low as she climbed onto a stool and ran her hand over the butcher-block countertop. “This place is beautiful. So what’s your story, Liam? How do you go from ranch life in Jackson Hole to working undercover for the DEA?”

  Liam retrieved plastic containers of leftovers from the fridge. He’d hoped to avoid that particular conversation and would make it as succinct as possible.

  “My parents fought a lot. Mom died in a fire when I was a kid. Dad drank and wasn’t fun to be around. The ranch was run-down and falling apart. Nothing like what you see now. So when I turned eighteen, I joined the marines. I figured nobody would ever push me around again if I was a marine. I joined law enforcement after that, and the next thing you know I was working undercover to take down drug-trafficking rings. They said I had a knack for it.” His only failure, his last operation. But . . . Let it go, Liam. No need to rehash their past. He cleared his throat. “After I got out of the hospital and still wasn’t approved to go back to work, I ended up coming back here. I was impressed to see what Heath had done. He’d expanded the home and the ranch. Built cabins for guests. Created a glowing reputation. Added horses and a guided offsite tour. I’ve been working with him since I got here.” At least he was trying to work, though oddly enough he found it uninspiring. He tried to find peace. Tried to make Heath happy too.

  He dished up plates and stuck one in the microwave to heat. “While that’s warming, I’m going to get my laptop.”

  His room was on the first floor, just down from Evelyn’s attached cabin. Heath had added that because she’d wanted her own separate entrance to the home after Heath and Harper were married. Back in the kitchen he found Rae warming up the next plate. She’d set utensils on the counter. A memory startled him.

  Rae had been arranging plates on a table for a quiet meal for them. A romantic meal. She had smiled up at him, bashful, when he’d walked into the room and noticed what she was doing. His heart had pinged around inside then.

  It pinged around inside now at the memory.

  He’d been foolish to work with a reporter, but she was a different breed. Plus, she’d wanted to make the world a better place, though they had gone about that task from different angles. She’d already discovered information he could use in his own investigation, so their liaison had formed naturally and out of a desperate need to find a missing trafficked woman, to find the hidden person behind the drug and human-trafficking ring. Their partnership had been unofficial and off the record. But he’d grown attached to her.

  And it had been because of Rae that he’d known he’d wanted to escape his life working with the DEA. She represented goodness, or at least he’d thought so. Admittedly, he’d been blinded by his feelings for her, then blindsided when it all came crashing down.

  The microwave dinged and brought him back to the present. She glanced up at him, only then noticing he’d returned with his laptop, and she smiled. Yep. That same smile that had caught his attention to begin with and stolen his heart.

  He shook off the sudden melancholy and slid his laptop onto the counter. Booted it up.

  “What are you doing? Aren’t you going to eat?” She climbed onto a stool next to him as she slid a plate for each of them onto the counter.

  “I’m sure you’ve heard of multitasking.” He sent her a half grin. “I want to see what we can find out about the man you mentioned who had stalked Zoey. What was his name again?”

  “Simon Astor.”

  Liam typed in the name, and instantly the headlines regarding remains popped up. “When did you say that Zoey went missing the first time?”

  “Five years ago.”

  “It says here that Simon Astor has been missing for five years.”

  Rae stared at him, those big blue eyes blinking rapidly as her face paled. “You don’t think . . . You don’t think that Zoey killed him, do you?”

  “It might explain why she made you swear not to tell anyone that she’d turned up bruised and beaten after she’d been gone for a week.”

  Rae’s frown deepened. “Maybe she was afraid of being arrested, even though she would only have killed him in self-defense. Still, I can’t believe it. There has to be another explanation.”

  “Or maybe she was afraid of being linked to his murder for entirely different reasons. Depending on who this guy was connected to, she could have been afraid for her life.”

  Liam took a few bites of the juicy elk burger as he stared at the news story. That pasty face, along with the thinning, dirty-blond hair—the guy seemed familiar. Just like the name. Where do I know him from?

  Rae played with her food. The idea that Zoey could have killed this Astor guy disturbed her. He understood that. He also understood that neither of them would sleep tonight. “Tell me the rest. I want to know everything,” he said. “Like, what do the police in Denver know?”

  “We told them everything. My brother told them what happened to Zoey while she was in college—her disappearance and how she’d been violently assaulted. Alan wondered if her disappearance was connected to what happened back then. I did too. At the time, I didn’t have Simon’s name. My brother has done everything he can to find her, but he has Callie to think about. He wants to keep her in a stable environment for as long as possible.”

  “So, if the police know about all this, then why aren’t you letting them do their job?”

  She skewered him. “Really, Liam. You have to ask me that? You of all people should understand. Atrocities happen every day that police aren’t aware of. There simply aren’t enough law enforcement entities to cover all the evil in the world. If there were, then bad guys wouldn’t get away with murder. This is my brother’s wife. My friend. If the worst happened and I didn’t do anything at all, if I didn’t at least use some of my skills, then I would never forgive myself.”

  Liam understood that exact motivation—it was what motivated him now. />
  Rae took a bite of her burger. He was glad to see her eating.

  “Samara Davidson said the police had delivered the news and asked a few questions,” she said. “More than that, I’m not sure if they’re even looking for her here in the valley where she grew up.”

  “We’ll talk to the county sheriff, an almost-friend of mine. At least get the lines of communication going in addition to what we’ve already explained to Deputy Cook. He’s more of a patrol guy, and I don’t want anything to fall through the cracks of misinformation.”

  They finished up their meal in silence. Liam gathered their dishes.

  “I don’t want to approach the sheriff only to have him tell me to go away,” Rae said. “You don’t think he’ll try to stand in our way?”

  “We’re not going to do anything illegal, so why should he?”

  She nodded. “The more people on this, the better. We’ll talk to your sheriff tomorrow. But let’s get started early. In fact, I don’t know why we don’t just work through the night. Zoey could be suffering while we take our sweet time eating leftover elk burgers.”

  She always had a way of making irrefutable points. That, along with her determination, was probably part of what made her a brilliant journalist. He worried about her. Dark circles were beginning to emerge under her eyes. As if undeterred by exhaustion, she shoved her blonde hair behind her ears, revealing small topaz earrings, and leaned in to look at his laptop screen. She lifted her fingers toward the keyboard.

  He gently took her hands in his, ignoring her soft skin. “Sometimes you need to rest to think clearly. Tomorrow is almost here. A few hours of sleep will go a long way in helping us find Zoey.”

  “You’re right. In the meantime, I can let Reggie know what I’ve discovered.”

  “Reggie?”

  “I have my resources.” Rae explained about her father’s research editor. “I have my own skills with databases, but they’re limited in comparison. Reggie has his own business to help reporters and journalists with information. It’s called the Information Depot. It helps speed up the process. You must have the same kind of people in law enforcement. Your computer geeks and white hat hackers.”

  Rae texted a message on her cell. He assumed it was to this Reggie person.

  She swiped at her eyes. “So, I’d rather let’s stay on focus.”

  Her cell buzzed. She glanced at the screen. “Speaking of which, this is Reggie.” She answered the call. “Reggie, hi. I’m here with Liam McKade, who I’ve hired to protect me and help me investigate. I’m putting you on speakerphone. What do you have for me?”

  “Nice to meet you, Liam.”

  Liam noticed the distinctive British accent. “You as well.”

  “I’ll get right to it, then. It took me longer than I thought today. Had to put out a few fires, as it were.” Reggie tapped on a keyboard. “Here goes. Tawny Davidson, also known as Zoey Dumont Burke. Tawny Davidson was born to Samara and Mark Davidson and attended school in Jackson. She worked with the heli-skiing business founded by her parents, managing all the financials and billing.”

  “Wait,” Liam said. “How do you find this stuff out?”

  Reggie chuckled. “I have a lot of practice at searching efficiently. I know which archives to look into, and I feed that into a custom knowledge base. Why don’t we skip to the fun parts, shall we? I’ve fed into the knowledge base all the information from Tawny’s life in Jackson Hole and her life as Zoey Dumont and then Zoey Burke up until her disappearance. There’s been no credit card or phone activity since her disappearance, by the way. Cross-referenced that with news or anomalies to find any possible correlations.”

  Impressive. “And?”

  “You told me of her disappearance five years ago, Rae. Using an algorithm, I cross-referenced disappearances that occurred around that time to find any possible connections. One in particular was flagged. Simon Astor. He hails from Arizona, but his family owned second homes in the Jackson Hole region where Zoey grew up. I also noted that his remains were recovered this week, the very week that Zoey disappeared again. Could be coincidental. Or there could be a link.”

  “There is. He stalked her,” Rae said. “He’s the reason she moved. But he’s dead, so he couldn’t be responsible for her current disappearance. But the fact that he disappeared five years ago, too, and didn’t resurface until his remains were discovered recently raises a lot of questions.”

  “Indeed, it does. And there’s more. Simon Astor’s brother is Enzo Astor, the wealthy son of a real estate mogul, now the mogul himself. Enzo Astor owns multiple properties in Jackson Hole, Colorado, and Utah—mainly hotels and ski resorts. What do you think now?”

  “Wait,” Liam said. “What about the newly opened Saddleback Mountain Ski Resort?”

  “Yes. That’s one of his investments.”

  Interesting. Brad had mentioned there was more than one investor. Who else?

  Rae stared into space, probably lost in thought, then her eyes brightened. “Okay. What if Simon the stalker found Zoey in Denver while she was in college, and he took her. She killed him. Then five years later his remains are discovered, and Enzo believed Zoey was responsible, so he abducted her. There’s no hard evidence, but we have to start somewhere. I’m just trying to figure it all out.”

  “There could be a possible connection there, but as you say, you have no hard evidence, just conjecture,” Reggie said. “In journalism, we know to follow the paper trails, the digital trails, as well as the facts. Our mantra is ‘follow the money.’ I’m working on that end of it. I’ll continue to funnel the information your way.”

  “You’ve done so much already, Reggie. I can’t begin to thank you,” she said. “Please keep working. We’re already past the forty-eight-hour mark.” Rae explained about the rest of her day and that, using her tablet, she’d already changed all her passwords.

  “In an effort to find your laptop,” Reggie said, “I’ll be monitoring all possible access to your social media or emails, anything that could give me an IP address or something to follow, in case they were accessed before you changed your passwords. In the meantime, I’ll email a copy of what we discussed tonight so you can refer to the data, and we’ll be in touch tomorrow. And Rae?”

  “Yes?”

  “I’m glad you’ve hired Liam. Liam, please keep her safe at any cost.”

  “I’ll protect her with my life.” He shrugged. He’d already proven that, hadn’t he?

  “That’s fair. Sayonara.” Reggie ended the call.

  Liam had to laugh. “That’s fair?”

  Rae chuckled too. “He’s a character.”

  “If your father had access to this guy, I can see why he won awards, though probably it had more to do with going into the field in the middle of conflicts.”

  Rae nodded, a distant and somber look in her eyes. Thinking about her dad and how he died? Liam wished he hadn’t brought it up.

  “So, Reggie will follow the money, and maybe tomorrow we’ll know something more about Simon’s brother,” she said.

  “It’s no different in the DEA.”

  “The love of money’s the root of all evil,” she said.

  “You got that right. If there’s one thing I learned working in the DEA, money has a close relationship with drugs. In the end, all crimes are usually related to drugs, including trafficking of arms or humans.” He and Rae had already found that out, up close and personal. If they didn’t find Zoey soon, they might need to work the drug angle and see where that led them.

  Footfalls drew his attention. Heath stood there with bed hair and frowned, then smiled at Rae. “Hi. I heard voices, so thought I’d check.”

  Timber had followed him downstairs. Heath scratched the dog’s head and studied them.

  Liam made the introductions quietly. He hadn’t thought about how much information he would share with Heath, who was also a Bridger County reserve deput
y. For a while, Liam had experienced that feeling that his past would follow him, and here Rae sat, but it was more than that. The uncanny awareness that the evil he’d escaped hadn’t let go of him or Rae. He couldn’t shake the sense it was all related—maybe it was some form of paranoia or PTSD. Regardless, he didn’t want his brothers to pay the price.

  “She’s going to need a room in the house tonight. I’m giving her Evelyn’s old room.”

  Heath raked his fingers through his hair as if just realizing it was askew. “I’d suggest getting some sleep before you wake up the whole house.”

  Heath—that look in his eyes—glanced at Rae again and then at Liam. He reminded Liam of Evelyn, who was determined to win at her matchmaking games. His brother approached him and gave him a bear hug. He whispered, “You be careful while I’m gone, you hear?”

  When his older brother released him, Liam nodded and held Heath’s gaze for a few seconds. Heath had always been protective, especially after their father failed them so miserably.

  “You have fun on your honeymoon, and don’t worry about me.” The words felt good to say.

  Appreciation swarmed in Heath’s gaze.

  He took Rae’s hand and held it between both of his larger ones. “It was good to meet you, Rae. I hope I get the chance to get to know you better in the future.”

  Then his brother left them.

  What in the world had he meant with those last words? Liam didn’t want to think about it. He couldn’t afford the time, so he focused back on the task before them. His mind went to his experience with the DEA and his conversation with Rae before Heath appeared.

  Money. Drugs. Trafficking.

  Liam got the distinct impression that darkness had indeed followed him here.

  Maybe it was time to shine a little light into the shadows.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  Thursday, 12:32 a.m.

  Denver, Colorado

  Alan sat in the chair in Callie’s room. His heart ached, and he moved in a constant state of nausea.