Bodyguard by Melanie Shawn

42

Gage

Shit.

Pieces started falling into place at lightning speed. I met Bear’s eyes and I could see that the same pieces were coming together for him, as well.

He nodded and I turned and opened the door to the interrogation room. Savannah and Bear filed out ahead of me. I slammed the heavy door, the sound of Woodward’s whines echoing in the corridor even after that thick barrier had been engaged.

I led the way down the hall. None of us spoke until we’d settled into chairs in the living space.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Bear asked.

“Yeah,” I replied, confident it was true. “I first suspected it back at the WITSEC house.”

“No one had been there.”

“Right.”

“Anyone care to fill me in on what we’re all thinking?” Savannah asked.

I looked at her, long and hard. Then at Bear. He nodded. “She should know. Even if it’s only a possibility. She’s tough. She can handle it.”

I knew he was right. But it still yanked at my gut to think about putting her onto the emotional roller coaster that this theory could set off. Especially since it was only a theory.

But, I thought it was a pretty damn plausible one. And so did Bear, which confirmed it even further.

I took a deep breath. “You need to brace yourself, Savannah. And remember that what I’m about to tell you isn’t a fact. It’s a theory. It might not be true.”

The vulnerable puzzlement on her face made me want to take her in my arms, hold her, comfort her. But I pressed ahead. “I don’t think your father was killed that night. I think he was taken.”

Savannah’s face drained of color. “Wha…what?”

She looked at Bear. He nodded.

“I…I don’t understand. What makes you think that?”

She was looking at me intently as she asked that question, so I gave her the complete answer, rather than engaging with Bear in our usual tag team. “First off, you only heard gunshots. You didn’t see him get hit. Second, the way they showed up at the cabin so quickly. The fact that they already had people on my parents. That’s a really wide net to cast, and really fast. That doesn’t make sense for revenge, once removed. That’s only if there’s an upside—which, in this case, was keeping you from going to the authorities.

“Next, no one had been at your WITSEC house to search it. Not Barlowe’s people, and not the law. If your father had been a murder victim, killed right there on the street, they would have been through that place with a fine tooth comb. There would have been ample evidence of their presence. There was none.

“As far as why Barlowe’s men hadn’t been there to search, and hadn’t been to your childhood home, either—that makes sense now, too. There was no mysterious removable drive. There was no notebook. The information they were trying to retrieve was in your father’s head. If they had him, his brain, back in their possession, there would be no reason to keep searching.

“And the last thing that makes me think that—the most convincing fact of all, actually—is finding out that killing him was never the operational objective. Snatching him was. So, those gunshots were likely just a scare tactic. They probably just shoved him in the car and drove off.”

“Oh…God. Do you…do you think he’s still alive?” she whispered, her palm pressed flat to her belly. Most likely to keep herself from throwing up.

I shrugged. “We have no way of knowing that. But we do know one thing—our operational clock just sped up. Any chance we have of bringing him in alive diminishes with every day that passes.”

She nodded, but I didn’t know how much she was really absorbing. She looked pretty shell-shocked.

“We know one more thing,” Bear interjected. “That our situation actually got easier, in some ways.”

I considered that for a moment. “That’s true,” I agreed. “Yeah. True.”

“Easier how?” Savannah asked.

“Negotiating, trading—that’s something that men like Barlowe understand. Just convincing him to stop coming after you would assault his ego, no matter how it was presented. But a trade? That’s something he could wrap his mind around.”

“But…but…what do we have to trade?” Savannah’s voice had taken on an almost manic quality. Now that she knew her father’s life was likely on the line, her emotions were even more involved than when she had thought it was just hers.

I grinned, but it was grim and ruthless. “That information is exactly what I’m about to have the distinct pleasure of extracting from Marshal Woodward.”