Page 51 of Maverick
Bear nodded. “I’ll ask Pixie. She’s always looking for someone to bounce menu ideas off of. Tracker can be her new taste tester.”
That could work. “And I’ll get with Stitch. I do want to move forward with the casino. We can get Tracker involved with the planning on that. He could even visit a few of the places Stitch found and get ideas. We can send the prospect with him, to learn and also to keep an eye on him.”
I took a deep breath, feeling better now that we had a plan in place for our brother. Tracker was a good man, and I hated what he was going through.
Bear’s phone rang, and he pulled it from his back pocket. His brow knitted in confusion. The back door opened and Larry returned with Noodle just as his house phone started ringing.
What the fuck was this? Grand Central Station? Bear hopped up, answering the phone while stepping away from the noise. Larry also answered on about the fifth ring.
“Yello!”
My phone remained silent. I’d checked it a dozen times today, hoping to get a text from Kat. I hadn’t sent her one either, but why would I? She made her feelings clear before she went back to her real life. But I figured she’d at least reach out about her dad. Unless that’s who he was talking to. I sat up straight and honed in on his side of the conversation.
“Look, lady, I don’t know what in the hell you’re talking about. I didn’t hire a nurse, so there’s no need to apologize for one not showing up. Is this some kind of scam?”
The doorbell rang and Noodle ran to the front door barking. Okay this was getting ridiculous. Larry groaned and handed me the receiver. “You can deal with this shit.” He stomped off toward the front door.
“Hello? What’s this about a nurse?” I asked.
“Oh, thank goodness. As I was trying to explain to Mr. Evans, the contract for the home health aide that was scheduled to arrive today was unfortunately canceled by his daughter’s employer. But I wanted to let Mr. Evans know about our continuation special, in the event he wanted to reinstate the contract under his name. The original agreement was twelve hours a day, but we can cut that back if need be.”
“Well, that was a shit thing for the company to do.” They used the promise of a nurse or whatever the fuck to bribe Kat back to her job, then yanked it away as soon as they got her back. How could she work for people like that?
The woman on the phone coughed uncomfortably. “Well, I don’t know. From my understanding, the contract was on the condition of her returning to work, so when she didn’t return…”
Didn’t return?
Bear returned to the living room carrying two suitcases. Kat’s suitcases. My heart stopped. Had she come back already? But my elation quickly turned to concern when Larry followed behind, white as a ghost.
I hung up the phone. “Bear, why do you have Kat’s luggage?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry, brother. Ray from the Shore ‘Nuff on forty just dropped these off. Said he found them by the dumpsters when he opened up this morning. Kat had this address on the luggage tags, so he figured he’d return them on his break.”
“This isn’t good.” Larry sat on the couch, clutching his chest. “My girl loves her clothes, especially her shoes. She never would have abandoned them at a gas station.”
“Fuck!” I shouted, feeling completely helpless. The gas station was only twenty minutes from the house. If someone had snatched her there, she’d been gone for, I checked my watch, sixteen hours. My body vibrated with rage as I tried not to think about what could have happened to her in that time.
“There’s more,” Bear said, taking a deep breath. “That call was from Rowan. After we spoke, he did some more digging. The Alliance is connected to the Bratva back in Russia. The Volkovs borrowed millions from the Alliance to set up their new enterprise. Ivan Volkov is the guy we’re looking for. He told the Alliance he could set up a new operation in North Carolina.”
“Ivan?” Larry asked. “You mean the guy who’s been buying my produce?”
I stared at Larry. “Is he Russian?”
He shrugged. “Could be. Never asked. But his money is as good as anyone else’s. And he’s got loads of it. Kat doesn’t think I know, but he made her an offer on this place. Bastard left her a card, but I know she didn’t pay it any mind. Let me see if I can find it.” He pushed up from the couch and started opening drawers in the kitchen.
I turned to Bear. “If he’s been coming here to visit Larry, posing has his friend, he could have easily swiped that spare key and set up trail cameras, too.”
Bear rubbed his hand through his beard. “It fits. According to Rowan, Ivan is out of cash and out of time. Production was supposed to be up and running months ago.”
“But we killed his crew and fucked his plans all to hell.”
Bear nodded. “And it looks like Larry killed his last soldier yesterday, leaving him out of options.”
Larry shouted from the kitchen. “Found it! It says right here, ‘The Alliance, LLC’ and it’s got Ivan’s name and number.”
Finally, the lead we’d be hunting. Now to convene church and get my woman back.
30
