Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(6)
“Not unless you find volunteering at a retirement village the height of entertainment.”
Knox frowned at the new page he’d opened, a technology feature he’d earned after helping the Feds nab a nasty blackhat in bed with a Columbian drug lord. He moved to the next file. “Say again?”
“I said she spent the morning doting on some old folks at a run-down retirement center. Now she’s in a dojang about three miles from her apartment changing clothes for a taekwondo lesson.”
The information was interesting, for sure, but nowhere near as eye-opening as the star in all the rest of the files stored on her computer. He slouched against the back of her desk chair. “Not exactly what I expected.”
“Nothing about this chick is what we expected,” Beckett said. “Have you looked at her?”
“Blonde. 5?6″. Skinny. Blue eyes. Doesn’t like makeup.”
Beckett huffed out a chuckle. “That description might hit the salient points, but it doesn’t do her justice. Whatever photos you’ve been looking at, they downplayed the reality big time.”
Knox ran his finger along the almost perfectly arranged desk items beneath her external monitor. Two women who knew each other at one point in time, now sharing the same identity, one of which was AWOL. Official photos close enough in appearance to match real life but not exact.
He straightened the Post-it notes so they lined up with the paper clip holder and stapler. “I’ve got a hunch she’s hiding. Probably using a stolen identity. If so, doctoring up her passport and driver’s license photos would help throw off facial recognition. It would also explain her working at a nursing home. Plenty of opportunities there for an industrious person needing a fresh identity once someone kicks it.”
“A problem for her, maybe, but not one that impacts us. Unless you found something else?”
Knox filtered through the contents of the file one last time, still floored at the number of stories and pictures amassed. “Oh, I found something else. Except it’s not the brotherhood she’s digging into. She’s digging into me.”
Chapter Three
“You want me to take Beck’s order back and keep it warm until he shows up?” Knox’s waitress asked. Like all the other girls who waited tables at Trident, she was dressed head to toe in black T-shirt and jeans, but her attitude fit the outfit. All emo and one hundred percent don’t-give-a-fuck like everyone else in the place. Then again, when Jace had set out to launch his first club, that had been his attitude, too. God only knew how many years later, the vibe still stuck.
They also had the best damned bar food in Dallas. Knox motioned for her to go ahead with the delivery. “Nah, he’s no more than a few minutes out. Once he bites into those wings he’s not gonna care about temperature so much as you keepin’ the beers coming.”
She shrugged, slid the basket of nuclear goodness to the counter and took off.
Too starved to wait for his brother, Knox tugged his own order closer and dug in. He’d just polished off the first wing and was halfway through draining his draft for relief when Beckett rounded behind him and pulled out the stool on Knox’s right. “You got the hot ones, right?”
Like he’d get anything else. The celebration party welcoming him and Beckett to the brotherhood had taken place at this bar and, whether it’d been intended or not, the scalding wings had ended up both a rite of passage and tradition born all in one shot. He nodded and dug in for another round. “Just came out a few minutes ago. Jessie’s working the grill, so you can bet your ass we’re gonna pay for this later.”
Beckett unrolled the napkin from around his silverware and shook it out like a man braced for combat. “Worth it.”
“Yep.”
Pausing only after he’d laid waste to this first wing, Beckett knocked back a giant slug of beer and asked, “So what’s this shit about JJ digging into you?”
Knox shrugged. “Hell, if I know. The articles weren’t anything important. Just random commentary that covers everything that’s common knowledge from the last eleven years.”
Beckett hesitated. “Eleven years?”
Throat on fire and eyes watering enough to make him wonder why the hell he kept torturing his stomach the way he did, Knox nodded and wiped off his fingers. “All the way back. You remember that piece that came out after I helped the Feds?”
“The one with the mugshot from your first bust?”
“Yeah, that one. She had it. Not entirely sure, but it wouldn’t surprise me if she had every story that’s been published with my name on it.”
“But not the rest of us.”
Knox shook his head and went for another round. “Nope. Just one from last April’s rally that had a picture of all of us in it.”
“And you think she kept it because you’re in it.”
“Don’t know what to think. On one hand, I wanna give her cred for bein’ so thorough. On another, I want to unravel what’s got her so focused so I can tie it off and redirect.”
“Could just be she’s got a crush.”
“No way. She’s never met me. Doesn’t add up.”
Beckett frowned and tossed the decimated remains of one wing to his basket. “Not like you live under a rock. You could’ve run into her anywhere. As much as you and some of your girls hit the bars, it’s not a stretch she saw you, and you never saw her.”