Page 81 of Royal Pain

I glanced at Braxton. “Which is why he helped aid them in taking his own grandson.”

“Then I suggest one of the first things we do when we get there is hunt down Mr. Weathers. She did mention a couple haunts a few of them use, including a golf club outside of the community. We need to get him alone.”

Valerio made sense. “Yeah, we do. Do we have a picture?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’ll email you a group shot of a few of them. Plus, remember he still has a smaller office about twenty miles out from the community.”

“That’s where to try and talk to him.” I would double check on details about the man with Evangeline.

“As far as the email, I’d say it was a good idea. Why don’t we send it now to good ole Joseph. If he is a bit deranged, he’ll be furious, coming out of the woodwork to some degree.”

Valerio nodded, already typing on his keyboard. “The other thing Evangeline managed to provide was a good two dozen email addresses. She was very clever. The only thing I worry about is that pulling the information could have been tracked.”

“Which means they’ll just kill her,” I snarled.

Valerio nodded. “Here we go. This is supposedly Joseph’s private email address for use only by the cult. Do you want to do the honors?” he asked me.

“Yeah, why not. I’ll read it out loud to see what you guys think.” I had thought about so many things I’d say to the prick. However, in truth, I didn’t dare put them in print anywhere. What I said to him when I had my hand wrapped around his throat was entirely up to me.

I thought about what might bring him out in the open and laughed, already typing.

I was able to chuckle, but the bad feeling remained. This was going to get dangerously ugly. When I was finished, I allowed them to read it, Braxton laughing first.

You are a man of many words. I have your former wife. She’s right where she belongs. However, stealing a child the court awarded into its mothers custody means you’re a very bad boy. But don’t worry, you’ll be absolved of your sins soon enough.

Valerio almost choked. “Really? You sound like some minister.”

“If I said what I wanted, I might be shoved in jail.” I was sick to death of wearing a tie, already ripping at it.

“Good point and I know what I’d say. Hit send. If he really is deranged, that will set him off. How? We don’t know.” Valerio sounded exhausted.

I did. It was a necessary part of luring the rat from his nest. Just a few crumbs here and there. “He won’t want another man touching her. We can only hope he has the child and will need to hand him off for a little while.”

Braxton nodded. “We leave tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow,” Valerio confirmed.

“God help us all,” I said and I wasn’t certain why. This wasn’t the kind of trip where God should be involved. We weren’t going to be the best of men under any circumstances.

But so be it.

That’s what you did for love. Right?

CHAPTER 21

Evangeline

Loneliness had been a part of my life since I could remember.

Sure, at times it had seemed as if I’d lived a normal life, with girls I could trust. Meanwhile, there hadn’t been one of them who hadn’t badmouthed every boy I’d talked about. I really hadn’t thought much about it at the time, but they’d been indoctrinated into the culture since they were very small.

I’d been lucky enough to avoid that until later in life.

I was angry, confused to a point, and ready to get on with my life.

My father had betrayed me. There had to be a reason and I knew it was on that jump drive. All I’d done after snatching the material had been to glance at everything I’d gotten. The private file on my father had seemed too painful even then.

Now I truly wondered what was on it. I’d looked. Wherever Gage had put it was a perfect hiding place. My guess was hehadn’t wanted me to decipher the content, or he’d taken it to his brothers. That made more sense because the man had been the first in my life not to lie to me.

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