Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71110 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 356(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
They might have two very different definitions of safe. “When did she see him?”
“Last week. Her mom dropped her off at school and she noticed that guy was hanging out across the street. She took a picture of her mom and managed to get him in the background. She sent it to me, and I’ve been holding on to it in case we needed it.” Kala’s fingers moved across her phone. “There. Now I sent it to you. I’ve got a gut feeling that something’s about to go down. Lou’s been texting me, and her grandmother’s acting all sus. She says she’s been on the phone with people talking about her mom when she thinks Lou’s not listening. She said she’s gotten the proper people involved now.”
“The proper people?” He wasn’t sure what that meant. They were on a school trip. Was she talking to Lou’s teachers?
“I don’t know, but she’s planning something.” A brow rose over Kala’s eyes. “Lou thinks she knows about the break-in. She was asking all kinds of questions that played around it, like she was trying to catch Lou in a lie. She won’t. Lou’s a terrific liar. I mean she’s truly believable when she wants to be. And the grandmother had an argument with the grandfather over the phone about Lou’s room. Why would Lou need a room?”
His gut tightened, and he pulled up the picture Kala had sent. She’d obviously used her phone to edit it, cutting most of Daphne out, though he recognized her work uniform. Kala had done an excellent job isolating the man’s face without blurring it too much.
“I’ll take this down to Adam and see if we can figure out who he is,” Boomer said, though he thought he was starting to see a pattern. One he probably should have figured out before now, but he’d been too happy. He hadn’t wanted to think about the grandparents and the problems they could cause for his new family.
“I think he’s a PI.”
Yep. The fourteen-year-old had figured out what had taken him weeks. “I do, too, and I’m a little worried we might have fallen into a trap. I need a name on this guy and then I can probably tie him to the grandmother.”
“Do you think if she hired a PI, she might have hired someone to trash the condo?” Kala stood as though she was planning to follow him.
He would let her if it was okay with Big Tag. The kid was smart, and she cared about Lou. But he had another job for her. “Given the fact that Lou’s stuff was untouched, I would say it’s probable. Go to MaeBe and tell her to look into Amelia Carlton. I want everything she has, and if she can work some mojo to see if she’s moved money around in the last couple of weeks, I would appreciate it.”
Kala nodded and started to jog toward MaeBe’s cubicle.
Boomer started for Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch.
It was time for his friends to help him save his family.
Chapter Nine
Boomer knocked on Daphne’s door, completely freaked out because he’d looked everywhere for her. She wasn’t answering her phone. She wasn’t replying to texts.
He’d gone to the bakery and been told she’d rushed out and had asked her assistant manager to lock up because she wouldn’t be back that afternoon.
If she wasn’t home, he would call in the troops. He would get MaeBe and Hutch on the traffic cams and start tracking her credit cards. He would search all the cameras around the building and her bakery.
He might have to call in his police friends.
This was what pure panic felt like.
The door came open, and Daphne stood there, her face pale but eyes red.
Something terrible had happened. His heart twisted in his chest. “Is Lou okay?”
He wasn’t sure what he would do if her answer was no. In that moment he truly realized the horror of loving a child, of loving anyone, really. He’d known it in his heart, had lost friends before, but it wouldn’t be like this. He’d ached when he’d thought Theo was gone.
But this would break him. Losing Lou or Daphne would split him in a way he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to come back from. He might live, might move around in the world, but the largest part of him would simply be waiting for a time when he could be with them again.
“What is Sanctum?”
He stopped. He hadn’t mentioned Sanctum to Daphne because he wasn’t sure it was a place she would ever want to go to. Actually, he was surprised it hadn’t come up in conversation. “It’s a club Ian and Alex own. They all do, but Ian and Charlotte and Alex and Eve control most of the daily workings of it.”
“What kind of club, Boomer?” The tears had started to spill on her cheeks.