Page 23 of Night Moves
And these looks directed her way.Wow.The intensity was almost frightening, and her steps faltered.
No.She wouldn’t let them intimidate her. She’d just sworn to take care of these children and find them the life they deserved. Plus, she’d vowed years ago to find her sister’s killer. She wouldn’t let a few intense guys stand in her way, no matter what they’d found. No matter what they thought of her.
She ran her gaze over the men, making sure they knew that she wasn’t daunted. They all wore what must be their work uniform of a black polo shirt with the team’s logo on their chest and the cargo kind of pants that she’d seen police officers wear.
Drake knelt by the dog and patted his head. “Erik’s dog, Pong. He’s an electronics sniffer dog.”
“A what?” she asked.
“He sniffs out hidden electronics like flash drives and memory cards that can otherwise be missed in a search.”
“Interesting.”
“Plus, he’s just a fun guy to have around. The kids might like him.” Drake smiled lovingly at the dog and ruffled his fur, leaving it sticking up at odd angles. “And he’s great at alerting us to unwanted visitors.” Drake looked up at her. “These are my other brothers, in case you haven’t figured that out. Erik’s standing watch out at the road.”
She stepped to the closest guy and shoved out her hand. “Natalie Dunn.”
“Brendan Byrd.” He smiled, looking very much like an older version of Drake. He clasped her hand tightly and gave it a vigorous shake.
She tried not to wince and looked at the other guy, Aiden, and mentally put the brothers in alphabetical order.
“C is missing,” she said.
“That would be Clay,” Aiden said. “He’s keeping tabs on Gentry.”
“So she knows, huh?” Drake looked at her. “Erik tell you?”
“About your order? Yeah. It’s cute.” She smiled at them.
They groaned.
“From a naming point of view,” she added. “It would make my job so much easier to keep children’s names straight if all parents did that.”
“But not from a living with it point of view.” Drake focused on Aiden. “Are Mom and Dad on the way?”
“Should be pulling up any minute.”
“Mom has agreed to keep an eye on the kids, so we can head to an interview with Malone and Londyn Steele.”
“You worried about legal blowback?” Brendan asked. “I mean, inviting Malone to the meeting and all.”
“I was just going to ask the same thing,” Natalie said, as this was the first she was hearing of it.
Drake returned his focus to her. “You may not care what happens to you right now, but you could later on. So I thought it would be good to have Malone sit in on the meeting.”
“Thank you,” she said, touched that he was thinking of her. She interacted with a lot of people in her job, and it was rare to find selfless people. Several of her fellow social workers and Malone were an exception to that, and now it appeared as if Drake and maybe his family were too.
“And us?” Aiden asked. “What do you want us to do?”
“Protection detail for the kids, of course,” Drake said. “And get started brainstorming a plan of action so when we get back, we can hit the ground running. Not only do we need to protect Natalie and the kids, but it appears as if Gentry somehow escaped the police, and we’re going to need to find him.”
“He what?” Natalie swallowed to control her fear.
“Didn’t Clay have eyes on the guy?” Aiden asked.
Drake nodded. “He says Gentry was moving around in the house until the police arrived, so Clay doesn’t know how the guy disappeared, but he did.”
Brendan drew in a deep breath. “Out the back, I suppose.”
