Deadly Silence (Blood Brothers #1)(27)

“We won’t be here long,” Heath muttered, his upper lip twisted. “Sorry.”

She shoved a piece of hair out of her face, a little intrigued by this more-than-honest brother. “I figured.”

Ryker cut her a look then, and it sure as hell wasn’t full of patience. “I need a moment with Zara.”

Her chest grew heavy.

Heath made a quick exit, and Denver followed, pausing at the door. “The car?”

The guy really didn’t use many words. Zara opened her mouth to answer, but Ryker beat her to it.

“Scrap it,” Ryker said.

“No.” Zara moved toward Denver, only to have Ryker block her path. “That’s my car. Do not scrap it.”

Ryker’s nostrils flared, and he kept his gaze on her. “Take the car off the blocks, and I’ll let you know our plan tomorrow morning.”

Denver shut the door quietly behind him.

She looked at the closed door. “What’s up with him and monosyllables?”

“He doesn’t talk much,” Ryker said, “doesn’t like to talk, but he makes an effort for us.”

There was a well full of information being left out, but Denver wasn’t really her business. “All right.” She turned back toward Ryker.

“What’s it to be? Are we staying at your place or mine tonight?” Ryker asked.

She worried her bottom lip, her mind turning events over. Never, not once, had she been a coward, and she wasn’t going to start now. “I haven’t decided. Now you start explaining who you guys are and why you’re suddenly renting offices in Cisco.”

He leaned back against the door. “Oh, you’re going to explain where you were today first, after you have a shower and get rid of the mud. Do you need help getting into the shower, or would you like to handle that yourself?”





CHAPTER


9


Ryker waited until Zara had fled into the master bathroom, insanely grateful he’d purchased bath towels the previous week, and then he went out into the hallway.

Heath leaned against the door to his own apartment, ankles crossed. Exhaustion had turned his eyes bloodshot. After Zara’s accident, he’d stayed in town and been on the phone or computer, still obsessed with the serial killer case. “She’s pretty.”

“Yeah, she is,” Ryker said.

“You can’t be seen publicly with her, Ryker. I know she’s not a redhead, but she could still be in danger by being close to us.”

Ryker breathed out heavily. “She might be in her own set of danger, so I can’t leave her alone. I’ll stay under the radar with her, so when our good old serial killer comes knocking, he won’t know anything about her. Any luck with her medical or financial records?” Ryker kept his voice low in case she finished showering.

“Not yet, but Denver is working on it.” Heath drew in air. “Why don’t you just ask her?”

Ryker nodded. “I’m planning on it, but considering she’s been keeping secrets, I’d rather know the truth before asking.”

Heath snorted. “That is not how trust works, brother.”

Yeah. Good point. Ryker reached into his back pocket. “The guy who hacked our system came into the office earlier and wants to hire us for a job.”

Heath shoved off the wall. “Really?”

Denver pushed open the door to the stairwell and stepped inside, his gaze going from one to the other. “We’re meeting here?”

“Yeah. I was just telling Heath that I met the person who hacked into our system. We need to scout the security cameras and see where he went next.” Ryker slowly unfolded the paper Greg had given him.

Denver sighed. “An external source wiped the security cameras. The hacker is good.”

That fuckin’ kid seriously knew his electronics. “The hacker is about twelve years old, named Greg.”

Denver’s eyebrows drew down. “Twelve?”

“You could’ve done it as a teenager,” Heath said slowly.

Denver nodded. “Yeah, but we’re not normal.”

“Amen to that,” Ryker said. “I’m thinkin’ maybe this kid isn’t normal, either.” He handed over the picture of Sylvia Daniels.

Denver took it silently and handed it to Heath.

“Greg wants to hire us to find her. Says her name is Dr. Isobel Madison and that she’s part of some covert governmental agency,” Ryker said.

Heath shook his head, his eyes firing. “No way.”

Ryker kept a wince off his face. The woman had shown up at the boys home periodically through the years to test their scholastic and physical abilities. For a while, she’d claimed she was leading a governmental study about kids raised as orphans, but once Ryker had learned to discern a lie, he knew that was untrue. Why she’d studied them, he still didn’t know. “It’s not a coincidence this kid wants to find her.”

Heath’s chest lifted with a huge breath, and he blew it out through his nose. “I thought we were done with that witch.”

“Me too,” Denver said, staring down at the picture.

Heath growled. “Is the kid messing with us? I mean, he did hack our files. Maybe this is just another ‘Fuck you.’”