Page 14 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity
“It simplifies my life,” she agreed, staring at the floor.
“Do you need any help getting into bed?”
“No, I’m good,” she answered quickly. There wasn’t a chance on this side of the grave that she would let Reece Palmer help her into bed. “Thanks for everything today, Land.” She tipped her head up to meet his gaze. No longer was the man before her Reece Palmer, Secure Watch agent. He was Land, the boy who would have died for her on that field if he could have.
His eyes darkened when he leaned down and braced himself on her chair. “I should have stopped this guy before he became a problem. You can bet I’ll be the one to make sure he no longer is, Sky.”
Throat dry and her heart hammering in her chest, she forced words from her lips. “Land, we don’t know if it’s Miles.” She used the nickname without hesitation. That’s who she was talking to now.
“Maybe he isn’t, but when he gets a visit from myfriends at Secure One, he’ll quickly understand that from now on, he’s to cross the street when he sees you coming.” He pressed his lips to her forehead in a way that surprised them both. “Get some sleep,” he stuttered, pushing himself away from her chair. “Call me if you need anything.”
Rather than speak, she nodded, turned her chair and rolled down the hallway to the sound of his heavy sigh, which she felt all the way to her soul.
Chapter Nine
A ding sounded, indicating an email had arrived, and Reece clicked over to his inbox. He’d sent Secure Watch the info on Miles Bradshaw so they could do the initial dive while he worked on other things. He hadn’t expected them to return the information so quickly. His team was used to working under pressure and for high-stakes clients, so he shouldn’t have been surprised, even as the clock ticked toward 2:00 a.m. He had sent the information and tried to sleep, but his brain wouldn’t shut off. It just ran him around in circles over the woman sleeping in the other room.
Someone had been harassing her and she had just accepted it as normal. Nothing frustrated him more than her letting someone get away with that. The old Sky never would have. Then again, the old Sky could physically hold her own in a fight. This new Sky? The one who now depended on people more than she ever wanted to, he was sure, couldn’t. It would take very little to harm her physically, something she was likely cognizant of at all times. It was easier to sit and take it until someone intervened than push back against the aggressor.
He clicked on the bolded email and began reading the report from his friend Iris. Mina had hired her a year agowhen she met her at a doctor’s office. She’d been inquiring whether they had any coding positions open and was dejected when she’d been told no. Mina had struck up a conversation with her, as Mina did, and learned she had a degree in cybersecurity but struggled to keep a position because of her traumatic brain injury. Working at Secure Watch was easier because she could work alone and at night, two things she needed to focus. Over the last year, she’d been an integral team member as they grew after the Spiderweb case landed at their door.
By the time they’d shut down the website someone had created to take control of every video camera in the world, they couldn’t keep their name out of the news. Before they could take a breath, the phones were ringing off the hook and desperate people were hoping Secure Watch was the solution to their current nightmare. They’d hired several more techs and finally had a handle on things, but it was all hands on deck when big cases broke.
He scanned the body of the email. There was only one Miles Bradshaw who was an artist in Duluth. It hadn’t taken Iris long to narrow things down and forward him the information. Reece spent the next hour clicking the links, reading articles and searching his background report. When he leaned back in his chair, he could do nothing but shake his head. The dude was a bit unhinged. After checking out his artwork, Reece agreed with Skylar that his work was good but highly commercialized and not what the art crowd in Duluth seemed to be looking for. There was no doubt that he was talented, but apparently, he wasn’t a good listener or observer. If he had been, he might have changed his techniques and found a way to sell more art.
Clicking back to the other tab, he typed in the name ofthe person he was most interested in. Reece had planned to bring him up last night, but by the time they’d finished discussing Miles, Sky was done. He couldn’t blame her. She’d had the rug pulled out from under her yesterday and a lot of information thrown at her. He’d talk to her about her brother after she rested and could look at things more objectively.
There was little objectivity in the Sullivan family regarding Silas Sullivan, but Reece didn’t wear those blinders or rose-colored glasses. Working in law enforcement had taught him one thing: if an adult wanted to disappear, they’d either make it look like an accident or fall off the grid entirely to avoid being found. If their body wasn’t discovered within a year, it rarely was. If they were still alive and off the grid, the chances of finding them after a year were equally slim.
Reece firmly believed that Silas had left of his own free will. Where he’d gone was still the burning question on everyone’s minds. According to his mother, Sky’s parents finally gave up on the private investigators and internet searches. They’d realized that if Silas left on his own without providing forwarding information, then he didn’t want to be found. If he was dead, there was nothing they could do until his body was located. The police didn’t believe a crime had been committed and wouldn’t investigate, so there was little the family could do but wait to see if Silas contacted them. According to his parents, they’d given up looking for him years ago. Reece couldn’t blame them. Silas’s mental health was always unstable, and that only worsened after Sky’s accident. Their parents had gotten him help and wanted him to attend college, but Silas was only dedicated to sleeping and playing video games.
After a few clicks, he was into a background program where he started looking for all Silas Sullivans. Did he expect to find him? No, but he had to start somewhere, and at least he’d have this much done by the time Sky was up and ready to talk about the elephant in the room.
“Reece?”
He snapped his attention away from the computer when he heard Skylar call from the bedroom. “Sky, are you okay?”
A quick look at the computer clock told him it had been four hours since he’d started researching Silas. It was almost 6:00 a.m., which surprised him. He minimized the programs and stood.
“I have a big problem.”
Reece was in the room before she had finished speaking. “What’s the matter?”
“Look.” She pointed at her chair, which was listing to the left.
“Looks like you’ve sprung a leak, my lady.” He pulled a chair over and tipped her chair onto its back before he pulled the wheel off. “The tube is popped.”
“How?” she asked, stymied. “It’s just been sitting there.”
“If I had to guess,” he said, lowering himself to the end of the bed. “A piece of glass from your house yesterday is the culprit.”
“Land, I mean, Reece, I used the chair for hours after that.”
“You did,” he agreed, not commenting on her use of his nickname. He didn’t care what she called him as long as she was safe. “But it could have taken that long of you rolling the chair over the spot on the tire before it nickedthe tube.” The tire was so flat that he could easily pull it off the rim, and, sure enough, a shard of glass fell out.
“There’s a tube in my suitcase,” she said as he showed her the split-open inner tube. “I always carry spares, but the tire is a problem.”
“I don’t think so,” he said, running his thumb along the inside of the tire until he found a small slit. “It cut the tire slightly, but that’s easy enough to fix. There’s some epoxy in the garage that I can use. Once I’m done, I’ll return to help you get ready while the tire dries, but the chair will be out of commission for an hour.”
