Page 21 of Lone Star Target

“There’s another set of stairs this way,” Angel explained, leading them in the opposite direction. “And there are enough cops and first responders here so the shooter probably isn’t going to make a return visit.”

Kit had to agree, especially since the person who likely hired the shooter was on scene as well. Either Ramsey or Trevor. But it still didn’t feel right that one of them would have hired someone to hurt Brandon.

She glanced over her shoulder at Brandon and mouthed, “Stay safe.”

“You do the same,” Brandon answered back.

Jace, Angel, and she hurried down the set of stairs and headed straight for their vehicles. The parking lot was indeed swarming with responders, but Angel had greased the way for their exit because the uniformed officer standing at the parking lot exit waved them through.

“Scumbag, piece of shit,” Jace murmured, repeating what she’d said to her father. He took the turn out of the parking lot and headed toward the interstate. “Ever called him that before?”

“Not aloud,” Kit admitted.

Then, she chuckled at recalling the look of shock on her father’s face. Of course, the anger had quickly followed. Both hers and Ramsey’s.

And that had spurred her to kiss Jace.

In hindsight, it had been stupid. Along with giving Ramsey an unnecessary jab, it had stirred up way too many memories for her. Memories of the heat between Jace and her.

Of the sex.

Yes, playing with that kind of fire had been stupid. And what was even worse than that was she wanted to do it again. Thankfully, there were so many other things to help get her mind off the intense attraction she felt for her ex.

Kit laid out one of her concerns. “Why would Trevor have included a ransom demand in his kidnapping plot? He doesn’t need money,” she added. “He inherited the bulk of our paternal grandparents’ estate.”

“Maybe it was to try to add some authenticity to the demand. If you believed you could save me by handing over money, you might do it.”

“I would do it,” she insisted, and then she immediately saw Jace’s point.

The kidnapper might have thought the ransom would give her hope that Jace would walk away from it. Hope that might have possibly prevented her from fighting back since Jace was the leverage.

“Roy,” Jace said, waking his app, “do a financial run on Trevor Barclay.”

“Will do,” Roy assured him.

Jace glanced at her. “Go ahead and send Ruby the photos of the texts you took. She can start having those analyzed as well.”

She certainly hadn’t forgotten about the text, but it brought on another slam of emotions for her to pull up the photos and look at them again.

Understood. When I have Malley, I’ll make the ransom demand for a million. As soon as your sister pays, I’ll silence both of them for good.

Holding area is complete. No one will hear her scream once she’s inside.

Understood. Your son isn’t to be harmed.

“Understood,” she repeated while she fired off the photos to Ruby. “That implies there were some other instructions from Trevor, but again, where are they? Are there more phones somewhere?”

“Maybe. Or maybe there were phone conversations or actual meetings. I can look into that once I’m at my place and start pouring through traffic cams and such. Ruby’s techs have created a program to thread all the camera feed together and apply facial recognition. With some luck, I might be able to trace Trevor’s movements over the past couple of days.”

At the mention of his place, Kit realized she had no idea where that was. She had kept tabs on Jace over the years, reading anything she could get her hands on about his decorated military career and his time as a cop.

She wouldn’t mention that to him.

So, she had the broad strokes of his life, but Kit had resisted digging into the more personal details.

And that brought her to a very unsettling possibility.

“Are you involved with anyone?” she blurted. “If so, I’ll apologize for that kiss.”

---