Page 8 of Tracking Payton
Alex knew Colin was taunting him into a response, but the logical part of his brain didn’t care. His vision turned red at the thought of Colin and Payton together. Before he knew it, his fist was swinging. Colin knew it was coming though and easily dodged it.
“Just admit it,” Colin chuckled, not caring Alex had just taken a swing at him.
“There’s nothing to admit. Now drop it.” Alex wasn’t going to get into the tangled web of emotions he had for Payton. As far as he was concerned, there were none. He’d help find Nick’s attacker and go back to his life. There was no reason to see Payton again.
“Fine, so what are we looking for?”
“The colonel is a paranoid man. He always has a contingency plan. I don’t think this was a random attack. Someone would have to know his schedule and was waiting for him. He would have kept a log of it. Car and person description. Maybe a license plate. Knowing Nick, he probably followed them more than they did him. My guess is it’s somewhere in the house.” Nick would keep something like that personal and not at his base office. If nothing panned out here, he’d check his base office, but Alex’s money was on the Intel being here.
“Sounds good. But where to look? The logical place to start would be his office. He was always meticulous no one enter it.”
Exactly. Nick didn’t believe in the expected. He would have hidden any notes in the least likely place.
“But Nick’s not conventional. Which more likely leaves the upstairs.”
It was a two-story house with separate rooms. There was a bathroom, office, living room, dining room, and kitchen on the main floor. Upstairs were three bedrooms with three bathrooms and a laundry room.
Alex agreed. “We’ll start from the top and work our way down.” He stopped in front of the front door. “You wouldn’t happen to have a key, would you?” He didn’t want to try and break into Nick’s house.
Colin smiled smugly as he pulled out a key from his pocket and unlocked the door. “Of course I do. I’m his favorite son.”
Alex rolled his eyes following him inside. Yeah right. “We all know I’m his favorite.”
“Not since I came back to town. I took on that role.”
Alex scoffed heading upstairs for his old room. “You wish. You’re just jealous I’m cooler than you.”
“More like boring. Special Forces have a better sense of humor than you Deltas. You’re all so serious.” Colin dropped his voice in a mocking tone.
It was an age old tradition for them to rib on each other. It got worse when they chose their profession. They always teased the other for their job being better. Even though Colin wasn’t part of Special Forces anymore, once a Special Forces always a Special Forces.
Alex stopped in front of his room and turned to Colin. “Just go check Nick’s room.”
“Aye aye, captain.” Colin gave him a mock salute and headed further down the hall to the colonel’s room.
It felt odd to be back in his old house. Alex hadn’t been back since he’d left and joined basic training. His room looked exactly how he’d left it. Grunge band posters on the wall. His neat and orderly desk and perfectly made bed. It was as if this room had been stuck in a time warp and nothing had disturbed it.
“Alright, Nick, where did you hide it?” Nick would have hidden where only he could find it. He knew Alex would never go in his office or bedroom. That left the only logical place as Alex’s bedroom. “Think like Nick. Think like Nick.”
He started with the obvious place, his desk. Looking through all the drawers. Nothing there but dust and a stray pencil that had grown an afro of dust bunnies. Next, he felt behind the posters and looked behind pictures. Empty. He gaze roamed around the room. There were only so many places he could think of for the colonel to hide something. He looked at his dresser but dismissed it. Then his gaze landed on the closet.
He crossed the room and slid the door open. A few shirts hung on hangers. There was nothing on the top shelf, but he ran his hand over it just to be sure. There were a few pairs of shoes and a duffle bag on the floor. But his shoes were haphazardly tossed in there. Not at all how he’d left them. The colonel would have had his ass if he’d left his shoes like that. There was only one reason Alex could think that they were like that.
Could it be? Had Nick found his secret stash spot?
Squatting down, he pulled his shoes and bag out of the way. There was a loose floorboard he used to pull out and he’d hide food and other provisions back in the day. When he’d first started living with Nick, he’d hide food and money in here in case he was starved or needed to make a quick getaway. When Alex got comfortable living here, it switched to dirty magazines and other harmless teenager stuff.
“Please let me be right about this.” He lifted the floorboard and peered inside. At first, he didn’t see anything, and his shoulders drooped in defeat, but then he saw something. He pulled out his phone and used the flashlight app to look inside. There was a manila envelope with his name on it. Jackpot.
“I didn’t find anything useful,” Colin called from the doorway. “Is that what we’re looking for?” He came fully into the room and looked down at the envelope in Alex’s hands.
“I don’t know,” Alex lied. Well, it wasn’t a complete lie. He didn’t know what was inside, but he suspected what information would be found there. It felt odd-shaped and hard, so it wasn’t paper. He’d look inside later. He trusted Colin with his life, but what was in this envelope was a matter of national security and almost got Nick killed. “But if it is, I guess that means I’m still the favorite.” Alex smiled smugly.
“Dick,” Colin muttered. “Well, open it and find out.”
“I will.” But he didn’t make a move to open it. Not yet. He should wait to do this when Colin wasn’t there.
Colin looked at him, serious. “Alex, what the fuck is going on?”
