Page 15 of Lone Star Hostage

“It’s a report on Sandy and Charlie Belmont,” Billie relayed. “Ruby’s looking into it in case that’s the reason the kidnappers chose you and me.”

Part of him wanted to dismiss the angle, now that he knew about Victoria being his bio-mom. But dismissing it could be a really bad idea. Because Victoria’s kidnapping could indeed have been fueled by what had happened to Sandy and Charlie. This entire kidnapping could have been orchestrated to get back at Billie and him and make them pay.

“Helena Frankfort is still in prison for murdering Sandy and Charlie,” Billie continued to read. “And she’s had no visitors or correspondence to indicate that she’s made any moves to try to get revenge for us arresting her.”

That was good to have Helena ruled out. The woman was a vicious snake with the heart of a killer. But there was someone else out there who might be playing the revenge card. And that person wouldn’t have to do that from behind bars in a maximum security prison.

“What about Sandy’s sister, Hattie Sinclair?” Presley asked when he spotted her name in the report.

Billie took a moment, reading the entry. “Two weeks ago, Hattie took a leave of absence from her job as a surgical nurse. She told her boss she was going to volunteer at Doctors Without Borders and that she’d be in touch with him when she was ready to come back.”

Shit.That sounded like a red flag to him. “Was Ruby able to verify where Hattie is?” he asked.

“No. But Ruby’s trying to track her down.” Billie kept reading. “Ruby also says that the lab indicates that Victoria’s finger wasn’t removed with actual surgical precision, but that it wasn’t a sloppy job either. So, that doesn’t rule out Hattie one way or another.”

Presley couldn’t allow himself to think of the horrific pain Victoria had gone through during that ordeal. He couldn’t think of a lot of things when it came to her, not yet anyway, so he focused on the kidnapping.

“Hattie could have arranged for all of this,” he said, talking it through to hear if it made sense as a theory. “She could have hired the kidnappers and dragged us into this so she could try to mentally torture us and then kill us during the ransom drop.”

He paused because this is where the logic of the theory fell short.

Way short.

“Why didn’t Hattie go through with killing us when we got to the house?” he asked. “She could have stashed herself in the closet and come out with guns blazing when we entered?”

Billie made a sound to indicate she was giving that some thought. “Maybe because she wants to get away with the crime and the diamonds?” But she shook her head. “Or the diamonds might not even matter.”

True. If this was all about getting revenge for her sister’s murder, then money wasn’t going to appeal to Hattie.

“And there’s another thing about this that doesn’t make sense. How the heck would Hattie have even known that Victoria could possibly be your birth mom?” Billie pressed. “Because I can’t buy that you and I and the choice of hostage played no part in this.”

Neither could he. Victoria was a key player, just as Billie and he were. But what the hell were they a key for?

“Victoria’s DNA was in the bone marrow registry,” Presley reminded her. “As a nurse, Hattie might have access to that. Of course, that doesn’t explain how Hattie would have made the leap to compare Victoria’s DNA to mine.”

“Definitely a leap.” She paused. “Unless Hattie learned some other way. We need to find out who knows that Victoria might be your mother.”

Yeah, they did, and finally Presley had a focus. Because that could be the critical piece of info to unraveling this and finding Victoria.

His phone rang, the sound shooting through the SUV, and he answered it when he saw Ruby’s name on the screen.

“I just found out something about Jesep’s will that you both should know,” Ruby explained. “A month ago, he had it completely rewritten.”

Presley groaned. “Did he cut Victoria out of the will?”

“No. Just the opposite,” Ruby corrected. “He’s cut out his kids, and he’s leaving his entire estate to Victoria.”

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Chapter Six

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Billie sat in her kitchen, reading through some reports and steeling herself up to face Presley once he came down from his shower. Some steeling up was usually required whenever she was around him.

Blasted attraction.

But she figured she needed an extra boost in her resolve since he’d spent the night in her house. A necessity since they’d needed to work on the investigation. But that necessity came with a high price tag attached.

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