Roped In (Armed & Dangerous #2)(51)

Mason blew out a sigh. “I’ll give my people a call and search for this MacCabe. Good work, Evans.”

We hung up and I concentrated on the screen. Nick sat on the bed, sneaking side glances at me. “Something you need to say?” I inquired.

“Not really. I’m just sitting here like it’s normal to be around a dead body.”

“He’s not dead yet, but I’m sure he wishes he was. You get used to seeing shit like this in my line of work. Sometimes it’s much worse.” There were things I’d seen that still gave me nightmares.

Looking at Connor’s file, I found his address in Canada and wrote it down. He’d been in North America for only two years. What made him come here from Ireland? There were several profiles attached to his and it was all people he was connected to, including the ass f*ck on the floor—Flynn Dillon. He moved his head and groaned.

“I hope it was worth it, cocksucker. All you had to do was tell me your name. Looks like I had it all along,” I spat.

“Who is he?” Nick asked.

“Flynn Dillon. Apparently, he lives in Canada too. I’m seeing a trend here. I guess we know where we need to go.”

Nick pulled out his phone. “My best friend lives just across the border. I can call him and see if we can crash there while we figure everything out.”

I held up my hand. “Give me a second to figure out where this Connor lives before doing that. Canada’s a pretty huge place.” Once I had his address typed in, I waited for the map to come up; his house was five hours away. “All right, it takes a few hours to get there. He lives in Kingston. If we leave now we can get there late morning.”

“Really? That’s where my friend lives too.”

“He your best friend?”

Nodding, he scrolled through his phone until he found some pictures of Hadley with both of them. “He and Hadley were good friends. He wouldn’t tell anyone what we were doing,” Nick said, showing me the pictures.

“What’s his last name?” I asked.

His brows furrowed. “Doherty, why?”

“How long have you known him?”

He closed his eyes, pursing his lips. “About two years.”

I skimmed through Connor’s file again and clicked on the others associated with him. There were about twenty men. MacCarthy, no. Carroll, no. Shit, where did I see it? Then I found it.

“Give me your phone,” I ordered. I held the picture up beside the photo on file. They looked exactly alike, only one was much older than the other.

Stunned, Nick gasped. “Holy shit.”





Hadley

My head pounded. At least there wasn’t any light coming through the window to make it worse. I cracked an eye open and groaned; it was dark outside. For a moment, I almost forgot where I was, but then one name was all it took to drag me back.

“Blake,” I whispered frantically. Jumping out of my bed, I scrambled into the closet and pulled a handful of clothes down. I took off my shirt and shorts and pulled new ones on. Adrenaline coursed through my veins. Rushing to the window, I lifted it up and felt the cool breeze brush across my skin. I half expected an alarm to go off, but luckily, it didn’t.

Taking a deep breath? I lifted one leg over and straddled the sill. The drop down could easily break bones if I landed wrong. “Here I go.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” a voice called. Hands grabbed me and pulled me in. I fell to the floor and Connor towered over me, shutting the window. “Now what exactly do you think you’re doing?”

I jumped to my feet and pushed against his chest. “Where’s Blake? If you so much as touched him, I’ll kill you myself.” I pushed him again. “Where is he?”

Grabbing me around the waist, he pulled me into his body and slammed a hand over my mouth. I tried to fight him off, but we fell onto the bed, him pinning me with his weight. “Stop fighting me, Hadley. Blake is fine. I called and warned him about the attack hours ago.”

Eyes burning, I sagged in his arms. He was alive. “Why are you doing this?” I said into his hand.

“I’m not the one doing anything. I want to help you, but you have to work with me. I’ll let you go now, if you promise not to fight me. Deal?” I nodded and he slowly uncovered my mouth. “Good. I’m getting off you now.” Once he moved away, I scrambled to the other side of the bed and onto the floor.

“Why am I here?” It was still dark, but I could see him move across the room to the sitting chair.

He sat down and sighed. “You’re not going to like my answer.”

“I don’t care. Anything is better than not knowing.”

He ran his hands over his face and then clasped them in his lap. “You’re here because everyone back home thinks you’re dead.”

“Excuse me? Wait, you’re kidding, right?” It had to be a joke. Maybe I was a victim of one of those prank TV shows that like to mess with celebrities.

From across the darkened room, I could see his serious gaze. There would be no TV crews busting in to say it was a joke. In that moment, all of my hopes and dreams shattered. “Oh my God, you’re not.”

He shook his head. “We orchestrated your death to make it look like an accident. For the past couple of years, your father had been getting threats on your life. I guess you can say he got tired of it and wanted to take matters into his own hands. That’s why he asked us to do this for him.”