Page 84 of Petty's Crime

I cry out, my voice anguished. “They’ve taken her, Prez. There must have been someone else stalking her.” I hate to admit I was right when I thought it wasn’t Saul.

“Saul admitted it was him,” Red points out. “We had no reason to believe there was someone else. But there obviously was. Who the fuck’s taken her now?”

“And why?” Twister says grimly. “We don’t know what they’re going to be doing to her.”

She could already be dead.

Suddenly the thought that I might never see her again, never hear her sing, never talk to her, never have the chance to tell her how I feel or start something with her, slams into me, making it hard to breathe and causing an ache in my chest worse than that caused by the ribs that are broken.

“Well, that’s our personal security services thrown out with the trash,” Fox states.

Seeing red, I round on him. “Is money and business all you fuckin’ think about? What about RoseLyn who trusted us to keep her safe?”

“From Saul.” Fox reels back. His face reddens showing I’ve got to him.

“From whoever was after her, and we knew Saul was getting help.” My annoyance isn’t helping my throbbing head, and I’m trying to hear over the ringing in my ears. But that could just be the blood racing as I’m fucking terrified for RoseLyn. No woman deserves to be hurt, kidnapped and fuck knows what else, especially her.

“Petty?” The irate tone in which my name is called leads me to suspect Red’s been trying to get my attention for a while.

“Prez?” I focus my eyes on him.

“You spent time with her and her family. You and she shared some personal shit.” His narrowed eyes warn me to keep quiet. “She tell you anything about this Saul fucker which suggests who else could be around?”

I shake my head in answer to his question while grimacing, knowing if RoseLyn isn’t immediately found, there’s no way we’ll be able to keep this from Rufus and Martina. They’ll lose their shit. And I’ll have to fess up that I knew she was in danger the entire time and kept that from them, along with the deceit that I’m not boyfriend material at all.

But thinking of that visit brings something to mind. It seemed odd at the time. “That pastor.” I raise my head and look directly at Keys. “Did you find anything on him?”

Keys shrugs. “Didn’t look into him. By then we had Saul buttoned down and were focused on the operation to take him.”

Red’s fingers drum on the table. “What’s this?”

“Probably nothing.” I frown. “Just some pastor randomly showed up at RoseLyn’s parents’ home and seemed pretty interested in looking through old photos and learning everything about her.”

“They religious types?” Shadow asks.

“Not in particular,” I reply.

“Get onto it, Keys,” Red instructs sharply.

But Keys is already scrambling at his laptop and tapping away, presumably calling up the info I sent him. “Got a Walt Johnson registered at the United Church. They say anything much about him.” He queries me with a raise of his eyebrow.

Thinking back, I roll my eyes. “Only that her mom had the idea of setting him up with RoseLyn.”

Keys lifts his head. “You’re fuckin’ kidding me, Brother.” He turns his laptop to face me. The screen shows a picture of a grey-haired man, big jowls and by no stretch of the imagination attractive. He’s leaning heavily on a stick and looks to be at least a hundred years old.

“That’s not him.” I think back to their description of the pastor. “They either said or hinted he was about RoseLyn’s age.” And Rufus had accused Martina of flirting with him. Surely even a middle-aged woman wouldn’t try her hand at the old fucker in the picture?

“Her parents security—they got a camera at the front of the house?” Keys demands.

Ignoring the throbbing in my head, I try to think back. “Yes. I saw it.” I rub my temples, and raise my eyes apologetically. Damn, I wish trying to get my brain to work didn’t feel so much like sifting through mud. “You need me to contact them?”

“Seeing as RoseLyn was so concerned about keeping her parents out of what was going on, I think we need to hang back for a moment until we’ve got more info.” Red’s brows are drawn down. “Keys, you reckon you can hack into their security feed?”

“If I can’t, I know people who can.” Keys grins as he refers to our brothers from Utah.

Red slaps his hand on the table. “Go check it out, Brother. If the pastor’s a fake, he could have something to do with Saul and could have been checking background shit out. Maybe a long shot, but it’s the only fuckin’ lead we’ve got.”

Keys wastes no time following his prez’s instruction and immediately gets up and leaves.

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