Stoking the Embers (New Adult Romantic Suspense): The Complete Series (36 page)

“That bad, huh?” Steph asks with a grin.

“Girlfriend, you don’t wanna know.”

“Morning sunshine,” I say to her and lift up a cup a coffee.

She lifts a finger. “I’ll be right back.” She heads into the bathroom and closes the door. I hear an ‘eek’ then ‘holy sh…’ Then the shower turns on. A second later, I hear the shower door slam.

“Anyway,” Gage continues. “Flores doesn’t think Jerome is running this. He may be involved, but this has international fingerprints. He says Russians.”

I stare at him, trying to make the puzzle pieces fall into place. They don’t. “What the fuck would the Russians want with us?”

“Ding. Ding. Ding. Twenty million dollar question.”

I grab the bag of donuts and pull out another glazed. “Why do they want us dead?”

Gage interjects. “They didn’t want you dead, remember? It was like a gag.”

That made even less sense. “So these Russians get together to punk us? Like Ashton Kutcher of the Soviet Union?” I shake my head. It has to be something more.

Gage looks at his watch. “Flores and some fed dudes are meeting with the captain at ten this morning.”

I stand up. He doesn’t need to say anything more. I take my coffee into the bedroom and pull on some clean clothes. By the time I’m finished, I hear the shower turn off. I walk into the bathroom and am nearly chased out by the steam.

“I’m heading to the fire station with Gage in a few minutes,” I say and throw water on my own hair which was standing up in spikes. I pull out the toothpaste to brush my teeth and have to wipe more steam from the mirror first. Behind me, Steph is drying off.

“Should I go?” she asks, but sounds so weary.

“No, baby,” I say through a mouthful of toothpaste. “Stay here with Beth. I’ll fill you in when I get back.”

Looking relieved, she comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my waist. “Thank you. I promise to be less zoned-out when you get back.”

Gage and I kiss our girls before hopping into my truck. “What the fuck happened last night? I only heard a synopsis. ”

I proceed to tell Gage the gory details. The eeny meenie shit, Steph distracting him and the blows she took. Finally, the part that still doesn’t seem real. I can visualize it in my head, but only in slow motion. The struggle for the gun, my having control of it, the smile on his face as he forced my hand to pull the trigger. The mask, that fucking mask.

“That’s some fucked up shit.” Gage pats to the gun in his waistband. “You really should get a carry permit. I’ll help you buy a gun.”

“I don’t know, man. You know how I feel about them. I’m not scared of them, but I just think sometimes they cause more trouble than they stop.”

“I used to think that, but that changed when I felt so helpless in a bar when this guy was beating the shit out of his wife. When I went over to help, he pulled a gun on me. I literally took a crap in my pants. I vowed to never be defenseless again.”

“Yeah, maybe you’re right. When this shit settles down I’ll go to the range with you. I haven’t shot a gun since I went that time with Bill Martinez to the desert and we shot a bunch of cans. He’d just got out of the academy and was all gung-ho to show off.”

Gage looks out the side window. “How’s Bill doing? I never really heard much after he got to the hospital.”

I took a deep breath and gripped the steering wheel tighter. “I spoke to his wife yesterday and she said he’s doing better than expected. They first thought the compound fracture had done a bunch of nerve damage and they’d need to take off his leg. It’s not as bad as they first thought. He’s going to be out of work for a while, lots of therapy. The squad is going to do a benefit for him sometime, try to raise some money. Hell, with a wife and two babies, I’m really worried about how they’re going to survive.”

“That sucks so bad,” Gage says. “You never know when it’s time for your ticket to be punched. Or how life can change on a dime.”

“Speaking of life changers. How’s things going with Beth? She got you by the balls yet?”

Gage laughs. “Nah, man. We’re just having fun, enjoying each other. We had a long talk. Neither of us is looking for anything long-term.”

It was my turn to laugh. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too. Be careful, these girls have a way of worming themselves under your skin.”

“You really like her, don’t you?” I could feel Gage looking at me from the corner of his eye.

“Yeah,” I say. “I really do.”

Pulling into the fire station, I notice two cops—detectives, I guess—talking with Captain Frank. It isn’t Flores; I don’t recognize them and the car has US Government plates. Gage also notices the plates. “Feds are here. Let’s see what they have to say.”

The captain turns and waves us over. “Ken, you and Gage, over here for a minute.”

Jeff, the rookie, is wiping down the truck, pretending to not be interested. He lifts a hand as I walk back. I give him a little salute.

“This is my friend and FBI agent, Bill Ramsen, and his partner, Ellen Grimes. This is Ken Davidson and Gage Larson. I’m glad you all got here. Flores said he’d told you about the meeting.”

The captain looks me up and down. “Son, you look worse every time I see you.” He claps a hand on my back and I reach out to shake the agents’ hands.

“Captain, can we go inside to your office?” Grimes asks and the captain leads the way. “Gage, you need to be there as well. Part of this involves you.”

The cold vinyl is like the chill in the office, both physically and mentally. Ellen chimes in first. “Ken, I know you told the police last night what happened, but something seems strange.”

The goosebumps aren’t from the cold air. “What are you saying?”

“I know you suspect your girlfriend... ” She looks down at her notepad. “Stephanie Vonnegut’s ex-boyfriend. We just can’t find any connection to him in this matter.”

Gage pipes in. “That’s what Flores said. But why would anyone want to kill Ken or Steph, or even me?”

Agent Ramsen takes a seat on the corner of Captain Frank’s desk. He looks at Frank then Grimes. They both nod. “Ken, how well do you know your sister?”

A chair squeaks and the noise cracks through the room, like a shotgun through a quiet forest. I stare back at the people staring at me. I feel like a three year-old getting asked a question my parents already know the answer to.

“Why do you ask? You certainly don’t think Hannah has anything to do with this, do you? ”

“Nothing concrete,” Ramsen says. “We’ve been checking out every lead and anything that smells like it could be a lead. That means checking out family members too.”

My jaw tightens at that and then releases. They’re just doing their jobs, I know.

“Stephanie has no family, so that was pretty easy to cross off the list. We crossed your parents off pretty quickly too. But, your sister, we needed to do a little digging on her. She wasn’t very welcoming when we went to question her.”

That surprised me. “You saw my sister?”

Grimes nods and steps into the conversation. “Yes. When was the last time you saw her?”

I swallow, remembering how shocked I was at how she’d changed. She’d grown so hard looking and appeared so strung out. “It’s been about five years now. When I first moved here.”

“Are you aware of her legal issues? Drugs? Prostitution?”

I nod. “Yeah, she was messed up way back.”

“Now she works in a dungeon. It’s technically legal.”

I look up. “Technically?”

“Yes. She works at the dungeon a couple nights a week, but she lives in a brothel up in Nye County. Prostitution is legal there.”

A fucking brothel. How didn’t I know that?

“I take it this comes as a surprise to you?”

“Yes. I thought she had an apartment somewhere.”

Grimes sighs. “Did you visit her apartment?”

I shake my head. “No, I waited outside her, uh, place of business and spoke to her on the street. We went to a little coffee shop. Essentially, she didn’t want me to be any part of her life. It was the last time I saw her. I check her Facebook page about once a month to make sure she’s alive.”

“Did she look healthy at the time?”

“No. Wait, what’s all this about. Just tell me.”

Grimes sighs again, causing her brown bangs to float up and then settle on her forehead. “We’re really just trying to get additional information at this point. It might not mean anything. This is a tough city, with layers of crime on top of layers of crime. The hustle and bustle along with the tourism makes Vegas the perfect place for all sorts of illegal activity. Vile stuff.”

“But what does that have to do with me and Stephanie?” I yell, glancing over to Gage who hasn’t said a word this entire time. “Even if my sister is the biggest prostitute in the city, how does that connect to amber alerts and videos and guns being waved in our faces? This doesn’t make sense.”

Grimes gives me a ‘settle down’ look and I want to stuff her badge up her ass. “A couple things the perp said to you last night was particularly disturbing. Miss Vonnegut mentioned that he looked directly at her and said ‘there are things worse than death’.” I nod and Grimes goes on. “He also said that she was a favorite.”

“Yeah. So? Wasn’t that just trash talk because he’d gotten caught?”

Grimes rocks her head side to side. “Could be, but maybe not. That’s why we need to travel down any trail of crumbs that comes our way.”

I nearly snarl. “Quit talking about leads and crumbs. Just tell me what the hell you’re getting at.”

Ramsen steps back in. “Over twenty-seven million people are abused each year in what we call human trafficking.”

The hairs raise on the back of my neck.

“About a million of those are children, leaving twenty-six million adults who are being used for sex and treated in unimaginable ways. The videos taken and distributed of you and Miss Vonnegut where the tip of a very large iceberg.”

“And you think…?”

“Ken, we don’t know what to think yet, but we’re going to find out. In the meantime, we are going to be keeping Miss Vonnegut under surveillance.” He takes a phone out of his briefcase and hands it to me. “This phone is for her to use only to connect with us. It’s encrypted. Secure. Safe. She needs to keep this on her person at all times. If she leaves, she needs to call us with her destination. We’ll be visiting her today with additional instructions and show her how to use this phone.”

I stare at him. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”

“Very.”

Gage pipes in. “What about her friend, Beth? Is she at risk?”

It’s Grimes this time. “We have no evidence that she is. The scene at the hotel was intended for Ken and Stephanie. You and Beth just happened to be there. We found no video cameras in Miss Richard’s apartment. Her life hasn’t been threatened.”

“But they’ve tapped her computer, took pictures of her,” Gage argues.

“Yes, but those pictures were used to further torment Stephanie. Besides, these types of people target those at risk. Stephanie has no family whereas Beth comes from a prominent family who would rip the world apart looking for her.”

Ramsen pipes in. “There’s also coloring. Stephanie is of the most sought after color combination. Blonde hair and green eyes. It’s unique. Other countries would kill to have a girl like her in their menu of services.”