Hour of Need (Scarlet Falls #1)(70)

“Then why are you here?” Freddie crossed massive arms over his chest. “I’d like to think you just came for a visit, but you look like you’re on a mission.”

“You’re right.” Mac leaned forward and rested his forearms on his thighs. “We’re looking for a guy.”

Freddie nodded. “What’d he do?”

Mac pulled the folded computer paper out of his pocket and handed it to Freddie. “He killed our brother Lee, the one you met when he helped me and Rafe out of that . . . predicament years back.”

Freddie unfolded the paper and frowned. He stroked his beard.

“Do you know him?” Mac asked.

“He looks familiar.” Freddie’s gray eyes remained impassive. He passed the paper to Rafe, who scanned the paper without exhibiting any tells.

“Can I keep this?” Freddie asked as Rafe handed the picture back.

“Yes,” Mac said.

Freddie refolded the paper. “I’ll get word to you tomorrow. Where are you staying?”

“Lee’s house.” Mac placed his palms on his thighs. “I appreciate your help.”

Freddie rested a hand on Mac’s shoulder, the gesture filled with fatherly affection. “Man, I owe you. You know that.”

“Actually, I owe him,” Rafe corrected. “It was my life he saved.”

Freddie’s eyes misted as he glanced at his son. He swallowed and turned back to Mac. “I will have something for you tomorrow. But we have one other piece of business to discuss.”

Grant tensed.

“Your dead brother owes me twenty grand,” Freddie said. “Money lending isn’t normally a business I engage in, but I did it as a favor because of how he helped Rafe out that time.”

“I assume the debt is transferrable,” Grant said. On the bright side, if Lee had borrowed the money from Freddie, he hadn’t stolen it. Lee must have been desperate to go to Freddie for money. Why hadn’t he called Grant or Hannah? Had he been too embarrassed? Or didn’t he feel comfortable asking his family for money? Either way, they’d failed him.

“This is business.” Freddie shrugged. “But since you’re practically family, I’ll waive the interest if you can pay the debt by the end of the week.”

“If we can’t?” Grant asked.

Freddie’s eyes darkened. “Penalties for nonpayment are steep.”

“Don’t worry. We’re good for it.” Mac slapped Freddie on the shoulder. “Thanks for your help.”

Rafe escorted them back through the freight car gauntlet. When they reached the fence, he offered Grant a hand.

Grant shook it. Yes, he’d been appalled at the drugs in the train. Freddie and Son Inc. were probably dealing guns, too. Drugs and arms went together like macaroni and cheese. And now they had to come up with twenty thousand dollars in the next week. But if it meant finding Donnie Ehrlich, Grant would willingly make a pact with Satan.





Chapter Twenty-Seven


“I hate waiting.” Ellie paced the tiny office.

Grant closed the laptop. “You need to do something.”

But mostly what they were doing was waiting. Waiting for the Hamiltons to return Ellie’s call. Waiting for tomorrow morning, when Mac’s friend promised them information. And waiting for her thirty-six-hour agreement with Grant to run out. “I would have gone with you this morning if I’d known where you were headed.”

“I know. That’s why I didn’t tell you. Mac’s friend doesn’t trust strangers. It could have been dangerous.”

Ellie stopped and faced him. “Please don’t lie to me again.”

“I won’t.”

But her trust was as thin and delicate as an eggshell. It wouldn’t take much to crack it. A betrayal from Grant would hurt. He was the first man to inspire faith from her since Julia’s father left.

“I can’t even run the vacuum.” Hands clasped behind her back, she pivoted and strode in the other direction. “We can’t make any noise.”

Faith snoozed in her baby seat in the family room. As they’d all learned the hard way, as backward as it seemed, being overtired or overstimulated aggravated the baby’s colic.

“I’m used to a full hour of PT every morning. Being cooped up is driving me nuts, too. The only exercise I’ve gotten lately is baby-walking.” Grant stood and stretched. “What do you normally do for exercise?”

Ellie watched his muscles ripple and flex under his snug T-shirt, her bundled nerves imagining a highly inappropriate outlet for her excess energy. “Renovations.”

“Construction as exercise?” Grant laughed.

“It would be great to accomplish something.” The case infused her with a sense of futility and helplessness. “I’m used to being busy. I can’t handle downtime.”

He smiled. “I doubt there are many things you can’t handle.”

At the moment, there was only one thing she wanted to handle.

Where did that come from?

Ellie coughed. She should get out of this small space, where his big, hard body was never more than a few feet away. He clearly hadn’t meant his compliment to be dirty, but her undersexed and overactive mind was on a roll. But sex was never simple, and with Grant, she knew intimacy would be even more complicated. She simply felt too much for him.