Page 46 of Legends: Easton
She stepped closer and softly brushed his lips with hers. She stepped back before he could deepen the kiss. The contact was brief, but it was enough to light a fire within him. Patting his chest with her palm, she smiled.
“Thanks for having my six, Easton. Now, we can go.”
Chapter Seventeen
Bailee felt as if she’d stepped into a time machine and traveled back to the early days as a detective with the Louisville PD. Surrounded by Easton and his brothers, the intensity in their demeanors mimicked her team when they worked a case. The back-and-forth of ideas, the piecing together of the evidence, the consideration of everyone’s input…this is what she yearned for when she became a detective.
The icing on the cake was seeing Easton’s dynamic with Luke, Jackson and Ben. She could see why they worked. Different personalities, different talents, but one mind. Their disagreements seemed to resolve themselves with the brothers in one accord, and she was swept up in their process, making her glad she decided to trust Easton and his brothers to have her back.
Luke started the meeting with the reason they came were together — the new lead. “Alex found where Clive Melvin was staying.”
“Alex is your friend at the security company?” she asked.
“Right. I asked Alex to help out because he has more resources than we do. According to his intel, Melvin was smart enough not to rent a hotel here in Fire Creek.”
“Too many people would peg him as a newcomer,” Easton pointed out, and Bailee nodded. Everyone knowing everyone else was a perk and a drawback of being in a small town.
“My search of hotels and motels within thirty miles of Fire Creek came up empty. Alex checked alternatives, and his people found a camper registered to Melvin Clive at an RV park in Waverly. It’s on the edge of town.”
“Smart,” Jackson said. “He could come and go without drawing a lot of attention, and with this being peak season, he could get lost among the summer tourists without a problem. Interchanging his first and last name seems amateurish, but I guess he didn’t figure anyone would be looking for him too closely.”
“We should have the police pick him up for questioning,” Bailee said.
“I thought the same thing,” Jackson agreed. “But Melvin had already packed up and left the RV park by the time the local PD could check it out. Tater issued a BOLO on the truck and camper he was driving. He said he’d reach out if they got any hits.”
Bailee pursed her lips. “Do you think he could have left the area? Since his attempt to kidnap me failed, he has to know the police are looking for him. The smart thing would be to get the hell out of here.”
Jackson shrugged. “It’s possible, but I don’t think so. Coming after you at the bar was a brazen move. Makes me think he’s getting desperate. I don’t think he would leave until he’s gotten whatever he’s after.”
“Desperate for what, though?” she asked more to herself than to the group.
Jackson drew his mouth into a thin line. “That’s the key. If we can figure that out, then we could probably end this.”
Bailee’s brow furrowed. “Well if that’s the case, we should canvas other campgrounds and RV parks where he could set up his camper. If I were him, I would also consider an Airbnb listing in the area. He could easily hide in a neighborhood close to here and wait until our guard is down to make a move.”
“Alex volunteered his folks to take care of that for us,” Jackson said.
“Then why are we here? It sounds like we’re right back where we started.”
Bailee couldn’t hide the frustration in her tone. Her fingers tangled in her hair, pulling it back, only to have it fall forward with a bounce against her face.
“N-not quite,” Ben spoke up. “I got to thinking about Melvin’s motivation for coming after you.”. We know he’s not out to kill you, at least not right away, so why bother kidnapping you at all?
“You have a theory?” Bailee asked Ben.
“Sort of. It was a long shot, but I asked Alex if he could run down the list of players in this case. Not just the gang members, but your partner, your CI, your contacts with the ATF, and even personal connections—wives, friends, girlfriends, co-workers. Anyone with a remote connection to someone involved in the case.”
“That’s a lot of people,” Easton said. “What are you hoping to find?”
“Someone who called in a favor with Melvin.”
Bailee’s eyes narrowed. “You think he’s coming after me because he owes someone a favor? That seems a little far-fetched.”
Ben shrugged, and Luke’s eyes popped up from his laptop. “Not really. I’ve seen people do terrible things for worse reasons than that.”
She stared at Luke, blinking owlishly. Ideas rolled through her mind.
“You checked for connections with the Louisville PD, right?”
