Page 71 of Out of the Shadows

“What Bean’s saying,” Alvarez cut in as he leaned back inhis seat, “is that there’s a high chance thatyou, Frazier, were the target yesterday and not Edward McClintock.”

He took a moment to let Alvarez’s words sink in and then shook his head. “What about the earlier shooting at the McClintock house? I wasn’t there for that, so there’s no way I was the intended target.”

“True, you weren’t there for the earlier shooting,” Alvarez said. “But that first shooting got you out there, didn’t it?”

Gavin shook his head again, unsure if he truly didn’t believe it or if he was merely playing devil’s advocate. “Whoever was behind this wouldn’t have known that I would go out to the McClintocks’ after that first shooting.”

“This place is like Fort Knox, man,” Alvarez said, waving a hand at the room. “Every inch of this facility is monitored. You need to get through security to even get on the property. Then you need multiple steps of escalating clearance to get into the building. Shit, even your house is secure. The second anyone crosses your property line, notifications are sent out. If I’m a bad guy, I need you off-property to take a shot at you.”

“That’s fair.” There was no questioning the security of their facilities on the island, but the theory thathewas the target didn’t quite sit right. “That still doesn’t account for them knowing I’d go out to the McClintocks’ yesterday.”

“Sure it does,” Xander said. “Anyone who knows your reputation knows that you get shit done. Yeah, most people have no clue we led the McClintock kid’s rescue, but there’s a handful of people who do. It’s also no secret that Hudson Security is working in some capacity with Edward and Rita McClintock. Then someone shoots up the home of two fuckingbillionaires? Of course you’re going to do a house call to check out shit for yourself.”

Fine. That made sense. But... “That’s a lot of what-ifs.”

Xander shrugged. “What Alvarez said is true though. IfI’m trying to take you out, I need you off Hudson Security property.”

Christ. The more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Butwhy, though? He turned to Bean. “What do you think?”

“I think we can follow the money some more. We linked the shooter to Smith via his cousin, Nabers. Like I’d said, the woman’s a manager at an auto shop. If you know what you’re doing, it’s not difficult to form a company in the state and get everything set up. It’s very possible that kind of thing is within her wheelhouse. However, fifty grand is a lot. I did a brief check of Nabers’s personal banking accounts. The woman’s living paycheck to paycheck, and while she’s single and makes decent money, most of it goes to rent and her car payment. I’m guessing if we can figure out where the fifty grand came from—because it sure as hell didn’t come from any of Nabers’s personal accounts—we’ll find not only who’s looking to take you out, but also maybe who was behind Anson’s kidnapping in the first place.”

“You don’t think the kidnapping was just Smith and Penning? Just two disgruntled employees looking for money?” Alvarez asked.

Gavin knew his colleague didn’t buy that—hell, the more they looked at it, he didn’t either—but he was curious to hear Bean’s opinion.

She shook her head and took a swig of her energy drink. “From everything I found, the McClintocks paid Smith and the rest of their security staff well. That warehouse you all rescued Anson from looked like a rundown POS building, but it had elaborate security. That type of setup was well above Smith’s pay grade. I don’t think this is some disgruntled employee trying to stick it to his former boss to get a payday. No. I think Smith is just a cog in a bigger wheel.”

Alvarez nodded. “I agree. There’s someone much biggerpulling the strings. I think following the money is the best bet.”

Gavin continued to pace the length of the conference room, working all the pieces in his mind. “Esme, after Smith and Penning were arrested, was anyone else questioned?”

“Penning has very loose ties to the Vancouver bratva.”

Esme’s response had Gavin’s eyebrows nearly hitting his hairline.

“Nothing usable, though,” Esme said, shaking her head. “It was his mother’s college roommate’s brother, or some kind of shit like that. Regardless, the FBI made some soft inquiries in Vancouver and, of course, no one knows anything.”

Gavin frowned. “Usable or not, it’s too much of a coincidence with Otton’s ties to both Vancouver and the bratva.”

“I took a look again at the intel we initially pulled on Smith and Penning,” Bean chimed in. “The emails and ransom videos they sent to the McClintocks, the financial transactions... Everything points to them.”

“Which is also pretty convenient,” Alvarez said.

“Valid.” Bean shrugged. “Like I said, I think Smith was a cog in a much bigger wheel. Otton, too, because why else would a freaking seasoned mercenary put a bullet in his own head?”

Wilson’s words from last night echoed in Gavin’s head.“Maybe the shooter was more scared of who hired him?”

“My two cents?” Xander chimed in. “I think Frazier stepped in a whole bunch of shit when we rescued the kid. You messed up this person’s plan, and now they’re gunning for you.”

Gavin sank back into his chair. It made perfect sense on one level, but... “It seems excessive, don’t you think?”

Bean scoffed. “Seriously, boss man? I can give you twenty million reasons why it isn’t excessive.”

“Well, fuck, when you put it that way...” He rubbed ahand over his chin and smiled at the sparkle in her blue eyes. “Now we have more damn questions.”

“Yeah,” Xander said, “but we also have a pretty damn good link between the kidnapping, Frazier foiling it, and someone trying to off him.”

“Holy crap, can we please stop talking about Gavin getting killed?” Bean grumbled as she pointed at him. “The guy has a bullet hole in his arm.”

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