“Are you sure?” Bradley asked.
“I’m sure. Hurry, before they see you.”
Kay and Bradley hurried down to the stairwell, making their way down and out the back doors they had come in. Outside, they shifted into their bear forms, taking to the woods and returning home.CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN“Do you think they will be all right?” Kay asked back at the house.
“Who? Those girls? Women? I don’t know, but we’ve done what we could, for them and for the clan.”
“I just hope it’s enough,” Kay replied.
“I recognized the one girl from the photos the FBI showed me of the missing ones. They had them, all along, knowing that there were people out there looking for them. They kept innocent young girls against their will to work like slaves under who knows what kind of conditions. None of them looked well and they didn’t care. How could people like that be among us and go unnoticed?
“Because people like that are good at hiding their true self from others. Deceit is their calling card. They don’t care about other people, only themselves.”
“Do you think it was just the three of them? Do you think there are more?”
“I don’t know. Let’s give it a few days and see how things fall.”
“I just don’t see how only three men could have maintained their duties here and dealt with having a dozen women captive without additional help.”
“I know. I think the same, but we’ll find them. We’ll find every single one of them.”
“How?”
“I’m not sure. I’m still working that out in my head. For right now, I’m going to just talk to everyone. We’ll call them together for a meeting first thing in the morning. I’m just going to lay it out for them, and we’ll see if anyone panics.”
“I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”
“Me either, but I don’t know what else to do. We have to keep this investigation removed from our ranch. We have too many secrets here. They start digging around and things they wouldn’t understand are going to come to light. It’s why we’ve always kept our noses clean.”
“Cullen. I know I’ve never asked, but I assume he’s dead.”
“Yes.”
“Is he buried on this property?”
“Yes. He and the ones that came with him.”
“I still can’t believe that the agency we used has given up so much of our information after we paid them so much.”
“They didn’t.”
“What?”
“They didn’t. Cullen got wind of what they do and that you went to them. He had someone break into their offices looking for information. They don’t keep records, so he tortured a young man that worked there until he gave him your new name and location. Then, he killed him anyway. The agency had to relocate their offices and basically, go further underground.”
“My God,” Kay gasped.
“I should have told you, but I just recently learned about it. I’d been trying to reach them, you know, to complain, and couldn’t get to them, so I sent a friend to find them.”
“To find them and do what?”
“Honestly, to make my displeasure known. I’m a reasonable guy, but I thought they fucked us both over and I wasn’t happy. I know a guy out that way who is a private investigator and a former mob enforcer. He tracked them down and got to the bottom of things.
“You sent a mob enforcer after them?” Kay gasped.
“I never said I was a nice guy, Kay. I try to do what I can for people and I treat them according to how they treat me. They either have my back or they don’t. I can’t make people do the right thing and I can overlook a lot if it doesn’t concern me, but the service took my money, and yours, and didn’t uphold their end of the deal and then went into hiding. I handled things based on what I perceived to be true.”
“But it wasn’t correct. What you thought, I mean.”
“No, and once I found that out from my guy, I left them alone, mostly.”
“Mostly?”
“You and I will be getting our money back from them, minus a cut for services rendered.”
“I see. About that, I wanted to ask you about the money you gave me for our contract.”
“What about it?”
“I feel weird about keeping it, you know, now that things have changed between us. I know you aren’t a wealthy man, even with the added income to the ranch. I think I should give it back.”
“Nonsense. You upheld your end of the contract. I always pay people what I tell them I will. I won’t even consider taking it back.”
“But you could do so much good with it here,” Kay replied.
“I’ve done all the good I need to do with it. I found you. That’s good enough.”
“Look, if the money weighs heavy on you, then do something with it. Fund some of the house improvements, pay for some niceties for the clan, donate something to charity. It’s your money. This is your home too now, so you can contribute or not contribute as you see fit. You can even do none of that and keep it in the bank for yourself. Point is, it is yours, not mine, and not ours. It is yours.”