Page 1 of Night Moves

CHAPTER1

Diesel Granger

It’s two in the morning when the text tone on my phone pings. This is only my second week working for Hardcore Security, but knowing these guys, it’s not a drill.

I open the message without looking at the number.

Diesel, your sister’s dead. They killed her. I took Eizlee Jane to protect her. She’s safe and well. I didn’t know what else to do. I made an anonymous call to the cops, they’ll find Vicky’s body. Come as soon as you can.

Don’t tell anyone you were contacted. Or I’ll be in danger too. I’m destroying this phone. I’ll text you from a new number in twenty-four hours. A friend.

Frantic, I call the Las Vegas police. When they answer I remember the warning from the caller. “I need a wellness check. My sister was supposed to call me. She didn’t and I’ve been trying to reach her for over twenty-four hours. It’s not like her.” They take her name and address and four hours later I get the call that they found her body on her living room floor. The baby has not been located.

* * *

“Try to stay calm,” Silk advises.

“My sister is dead and my niece is missing. And I probably fucked up the best job I’ve ever had.”

I glance across the cockpit. I’ve been on the Hardcore Security team for barely two weeks and the first case I get is me. They must think I’m a total screw up.

To top it off, the CO is having Silk fly me to Vegas in the company jet on the company tab. Man, I feel like a loser.

Dragging my hand down my face, I meet his gaze. “A hell of a way to start a new job. I hadn’t even finished what you guys call orientation.”

He turns his cool blue eyes toward me. “It’s not a job, buddy, and you know it. You worked with us when we were all still in the service. It’s a team, a purpose. We’re family. We take care of our own first. Right now, you need us.

“I don’t know if you remember him, but Diego is our operative out of Vegas. He was on the police force for a while before he went private. His wife, Raven, is still on the force. They’ll both be there for you. He’s picking us up at the airport to take us to the precinct.”

I nod, then stare out the side window. The precinct and the morgue to identify my sister.

Has it really been two months since I saw her and the baby? God, it feels like yesterday when I hugged them both and said I’d be back soon for another visit. Eizlee Jane was just starting to take to me, and we talked about early spring so she wouldn’t forget me.

This isn’t the trip I’d planned for. Grief fists in my chest. I’m barely holding it together. I run a hand down my face and pinch the bridge of my nose to hold my emotions in check.

I gave Vicky shit when she insisted we spend a day at the lawyers to make sure I had sole custody of Eizlee Jane in case something happened to her. Did she have some kind of premonition? Or was there something she wasn’t telling me?

I knew she didn’t trust the father. His name wasn’t on the birth certificate, and she stipulated that he would never see or have any contact with Eizlee Jane. She wouldn’t even tell me his name, but said the info was in her lockbox. Is he the bastard I’m after? Or did someone see a baby they wanted? Shit like that happens all the time. “I don’t know where Eizlee Jane is. Who has her.”

“We’ll find her, man.”

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I continue. “I’m going to have to find childcare and baby doctors when we get back to Love Beach.”

“Don’t worry about that shit yet. Look, you’re not alone. A bunch of us live there now. Me, Stack and his wife. Patch’s wife Nyla has lived there her whole life, she knows everyone. We got your back, brother. Just concentrate on what you have to do to get this mess settled. I can stay a couple days, but then I have an assignment. But I’ll come back and get you both when you’re ready. Even picked up a car seat for the plane.” He shoots me one of his infectious grins.

I nod. As he circles for landing, I study the aerial view of Vegas. They say you love it or you hate it. My mom and sister loved it. I couldn’t wait to get the hell out.

‘Sin City’. That’s the only side my sister and I ever saw growing up. Mom was a stripper slash prostitute who snorted most of her earnings. Leaving her two kids to fend for ourselves.

Vicky couldn’t dance worth a shit so took up waitressing at thirteen and bartending when she was old enough.

Me, I had my mom’s moves and an adult body by the age of sixteen. She helped me get a fake ID and a job dancing. The minute I was of age I joined the army and got the hell out of town.

Vicky was in and out of drugs because of the dirtbags she dated. We fought about it a lot. I was gone in the army and didn’t know everything. She called when Mom died. I was deployed and missed the funeral. A couple months later she called to say she was in recovery and sober again. Next time we talked she was happy and excited. She told me she was pregnant and assured me she’d been abstinent for two years. The baby-daddy was no longer in the picture. I sent money to help out but was deployed when Eizlee Jane was born.

This last winter was the only time I’d seen my niece in person. Now the precious little girl is mine. If I can find her.

* * *

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