Page 23 of Leo

“They did,” whispered Tillie. “I’d forgotten about it. They didn’t want me to do anything stupid because they were afraid of what the men might do. In fact, it was the only time either one of them yelled. They didn’t want me to drive the truck away.”

“We need all the information we can get on Gemma and Jewel,” said Mav, turning to AJ and Hiro.

“What do you think we’ve been trying to do?” frowned Hiro. “The Earl was kind enough to send us their applications. Their ID was good but not good enough. It was all fake. Both of them.”

“Are you kidding me?” asked Fred. “Why?”

“I think they wanted to get to you, Fred,” said Tillie.

“Maybe they wanted to get to you,” he said, looking at her. Eyebrows shot up, and Tillie stared at him in disbelief. “Listen, I don’t doubt that someone might want to come after me. I’m not doubting that possibility. But considering what I’ve heard in the last few hours, it seems far more likely that someone would be after you.”

“I didn’t see anything that someone would want to kidnap me for,” said Tillie. “We think that you did. You might not know what it is or what it was, but you saw something in Laos. We’re certain of it.”

“I just don’t…” Fred’s voice trailed off as he looked around the room, then stared out the window. “I took photos. Damn. I took photos when I was there.”

“Where are they?” asked Leo.

“They were on my phone, which was destroyed. I mean, I destroyed it because I was worried someone was following me. They’re gone.”

“Oh, no, they’re not, my friend,” grinned AJ. “Give me all the details for the phone.”

Fred sat down with AJ and recited his phone number, the provider for service, style of phone, all of it.

“What do you think, Tillie? Were either of these women odd during your limited time with them?” asked Saint.

“Yes. I don’t mean that to be cruel. It just seemed as though they shouldn’t have been there. I’ve been doing this for a while now. You can tell when there’s a rookie in the group. Their hands definitely gave it away. Soft hands mean they’ve done little to no manual labor. But it’s also suntans.”

“Suntans?” frowned Leo.

“Yes,” she smiled. “Men will invariably get the proverbial farmer’s tan. You can see the line of where their t-shirt sleeve was, the white and the dark. Women, it depends, but you almost always see sun damage on their face, neck, chest, and back of their hands.”

“And neither of these women had that?” asked Pax.

“No. I noticed it but didn’t think much of it. But no. Neither had any of that. Their hands were soft, much softer than Fred’s. Their skin tone was relatively even, and neither had any freckles or other sun damage.”

“They’re in on this together,” said Brax. “We might not know how or why just yet. But I’d stake my reputation on it.”

“Then our priority is finding them,” said Mav. “We’re going to let the comm boys do what they do best. In themeantime, let’s grab some dinner and get Fred into a cottage. Maybe by then, we’ll have some of those photos.”

“Sounds good,” said Leo. “Hey, Fred? How do you feel about crawfish étouffée?”

“I don’t believe I’ve ever had it,” he said, smiling at the men. Leo gripped his shoulder, turning him toward the door.

“Prepare to be wowed, my friend. Prepared to be wowed.”

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

“We’ve got several problems,” frowned AJ, Hiro beside him. They looked at Cam, Luke, Eric, and Hex. He could tell by their expressions that they were not in the mood to prolong anything. If he tried to tell them how hard their job was, they’d roll their eyes.

“Listen, we know this shit is hard,” started Luke. AJ and Hiro both raised their brows, staring at them. “But for the love of God, just tell us what you’ve found.”

“Well, first. Thank you,” said Hiro. “We appreciate that. Second, it’s part of the problem. We can’t find anything on Gemma Daniels. There is nothing. Her application to work with the agency was falsified completely. The passport was fake, her government documents are all fake, even her license and vaccines. We’re running her face through the facial recognition software now.”

“Shit. This is all we need,” said Hex. “What about the other one? Jewel?”

“Also fake,” said AJ. “The difference is we think we know why. Clearly, Jewel isn’t her real name, nor is Bankston her last name. Her real name is Echo Hardy. She’s a con artist.”

“What the fuck? Who did she think she was going to con? Fred?” asked Eric.

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