Page 62 of Knight's Desire

Brick leaned his frame against the wall in the hallway, one leg bending to prop his boot against it. His cell phone felt heavy in his hand as he tapped in the numbers written on a small slip of paper in his other hand. His dread grew with each keystroke. He stared at the screen for several minutes, the green phone icon mocking him. When the numbers started to blur, he blinked and released a tired sigh.

“I wouldn’t.”

Brick’s head snapped up to see Jay standing just a few feet away, his arms crossed over his chest. He didn’t have to ask Jay how he knew what Brick was up to. Jay had been there when he’d asked Sydney to look up the phone number for Hope’s brother, Henry. Brick waited for Jay to explain himself, resenting his friend for stopping him. As much as he didn’t want to make that phone call, waiting would only make it harder to do.

“Hope’s family can’t do anything for her now except worry. There will be time to call them once we’ve exhausted our leads. Hopefully by then, we’ll have good news to share.”

Jay walked a few steps closer, his keen eyes studying Brick. What Jay expected to see, Brick couldn’t be sure, but he also didn’t care. He’d long abandoned his instinct to keep his emotions in check and tucked away. More than twenty-four hours had passed since Hope was taken, and they were no closer to finding her than when they started. He barely held his panic in check, so he couldn’t be bothered with hiding his worry as well.

Jay’s eyes narrowed, and Brick braced himself for what was to come. “You can’t give up. On us or on her. We’ll find her, and we’ll take down the son of a bitch.”

Brick’s frustration built up and boiled over into anger. “What the hell? I’m not giving up on her or our team, but dammit, Jay, where is she? I have the best investigators and hackers at my disposal. Why can’t they find her?”

“I won’t tell you to calm down. This is your woman who’s missing, and any one of us would be losing our shit — and have, considering how our women attract trouble.”

Somehow, the truth of Jay’s words sparked a touch of humor in Brick. In the time KSI had opened its doors, they’d helped Kat escape a prison term, rescued Sydney and Chloe from Sydney’s dangerous ex and his foster brother, protected Payton from a drug cartel, and came to Bridget’s aid when she was attacked and her niece and nephew were taken along with Zane’s mom. Hell, they even rescued Egan’s brother when he was held prisoner after discovering the men he worked for were criminals. Brick witnessed his friends having a difficult time keeping themselves from spiraling when their loved ones were in danger. He didn’t bother denying that Hope was his because the truth was evident in his reaction.

“One thing we know from all of those times when the cases hit too close to home was we work better together. All of us, from the teams to the investigators. We have Sydney and Travis and the new guy in there working on the computers.”

Brick nodded. He had called Owen Bridges to start working. Even though Kat’s maternity leave hadn’t yet started, she was confined to bed rest. Tristin called in his twin, Travis. Travis owned his own business, but he had cyber skills and was more than happy to offer an assist when the case warranted extra help.

“We have Rock and the other Deltas running down leads in the field. BB and Wings are preparing our guns, ammo, and communication units so we’re prepared for a rescue. That leaves the rest of us to brainstorm and make sense of the evidence we’re collecting. You know Hope better than any of us, man. We need you in there to help us stay on track.”

“I’m not of much use. All I can think about is what that SOB is doing to Hope while we’re chasing our asses trying to find them.”

“The guy’s a coward. He chose to harass her from afar because he was too afraid to make himself known to her. The profile Isobel worked up says he won’t hurt her. He’ll take his time with her. He believes no one can find them, so he has all the time in the world to bait her and torment her. What he doesn’t know is that it gives us time to find them and take him down. We’ve done more with less to go on than we have now. But standing out here worrying is not bringing us any closer to finding her.”

Brick locked and pocketed his phone before standing to his full height. “Fine. Let’s get back to work then.”

The two friends stepped through the doors of the Command Center just as Travis spoke up from behind his monitor.

“I’ve got something.”

Brick’s heart quickened as he hurried further into the room. Travis didn’t even look up from his computer, his fingers flying over his keyboard as he spoke.

“The prints on the door to the bridal shop were smudged, but I was able to put together a partial from the samples taken. Nothing appeared in the criminal databases I checked, so I checked it with the list of suspects we had. Realtors are fingerprinted as part of their licensing process. One partial belongs to Parker Bexley, but that’s hardly conclusive since he dated Hope and had been to her shop on multiple occasions. But the other one belongs to his boss, David Leonard.”

Brick felt his hope deflate. “That’s not surprising. We found out he handled Hope’s account when she first arrived.”

“True, but that was several months ago. His print, even a partial, wouldn’t be clear enough to run if it wasn’t fresh.”

Brick’s eyes widened. “It is fresh if he was the ones at Hope’s Shoppe moments before she was taken.”

Jay shook his head. “He’s at a conference in Chicago. We checked his alibi to make sure.”

“He checked in at the conference, but I’m guessing he flew back without anyone knowing. I’d bet my life he was the guy who opened the door for Hope’s clients, the O’Learys. His company has been the realtors for that property for years, so he would have access to the original plans and know about the tunnel.”

“We found the plans. The tunnel was supposed to be sealed off a few years ago, but the property changed hands before that happened,” Sydney said. “I doubt he flew back from Chicago, though. There’s no record of a flight reservation for him.”

“But he has a chipped tooth like Mrs. O’Leary said. He’s familiar with the property. And no one has seen him since Hope has disappeared. He has her. I feel it.”

Cole sat in a rolling chair next to Sydney’s monitor and swiveled around to stare at Brick. “For what purpose, man? It doesn’t make sense.”

“I don’t know, but my gut is telling me he’s the guy. Can someone pull up the security footage of when the O’Learys arrived at the Shoppe? Can we get a headshot of Leonard to compare.”

“Pulling up the footage,” Sydney called.

“I have the headshot,” Owen added.

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