Page 83 of Family Bonds- Jarrett & Andi

“Sure,” Mac said. “Do you think we should stop and see Griffin?”

He knew where his brother was going with this. “It crossed my mind, but I’m not ready for it yet. He’ll be there if we need him, but why stir the waters? I already threw it out there that we had more resources than Jack would ever know. It might helpifit’s backed by you again. You said it in the hospital, but I’m sure he thought we were bluffing. You know he’s going to say nothing can top him.”

Mac laughed. “He hasn’t met Griffin, but we’ll let it go for now.”

He understood Mac’s need to want to know more and this was the balance of his head and heart. He didn’t want to alertanyone to any activity. Not that he thought Griffin would be careless, but why bother him for no cause right now?

They drove to Atlantic Rise where Jack was staying and then took the elevator up to the fourth floor. He knocked on the door and it was opened rather quickly.

“I figured you wouldn’t come alone,” Jack said.

“No secrets,” he said.

Jack nodded and held the door open wider. “Come in. Do you want coffee or anything?”

He looked around the room and saw the laptop open on the desk by the window.

“I’m good,” he said.

“The same,” Mac said.

“Where do you want me to start? I’ve got some files up and you can look at them, but I’m not transferring them anywhere. That’s too risky.”

“Risky for what?” Mac said. “If there is nothing to be concerned about?”

“There isn’t,” Jack said. “Though I don’t think there is an inside mole in Denver, I don’t know for sure. I can’t to this day figure out how anyone found out Luke was looking into the Dustin Family. He’s not stupid. He never slipped. He didn’t make mistakes.”

“But he did that night,” he said.

“His mistake was meeting someone alone at a place he’d never been. He was shot in the parking lot before he even got to meet the person,” Jack said.

“You didn’t say that,” he said. “So you don’t know if that was the person who Luke was meeting?”

“No,” Jack said. “It most likely wasn’t and he was just followed there. He was four steps from his vehicle when Jonah Kennedy walked up and shot him in the chest. That’s it. Thecamera caught the car as he sped away for us to make the arrest so easily. The rest is history.”

“So someone had to know he was going to be at that bar that night,” Mac said. “Or he was just followed and it was the perfect opportunity?”

“I haven’t been able to look much into it,” Jack said. “I told you why. I wanted revenge. Lots of us did. Many better than me have been looking through things and no one can come up with anything. What I know is that Winston Dustin, who is pretty much untouchable, has relocated to New Mexico. He flies under the radar, they’ve got a few deep covers andit’s best for me to movefurther away from any action.”

“You’re positive coming here won’t alert them to Andi?” he asked.

“To the best of my knowledge, no one knows Andi found that USB drive. We had Luke’s computer. When Andi realized there was a break-in, we went right over. The night she found the USB, she gave it to me since I brought a few of Luke’s things home with me to go through them from the house. I said it was me that found it.”

“So you did fabricate the pictures of Andi?” he asked.

“No,” Jack said. “In thebeginningthere were a few sent to us.” Jack moved to his briefcase. “I printed them back then and you can see.”

He looked at the pictures of his girlfriend taken from a distance. She had lighter blonde hair that waspin straight. Much different than the waves she had in it now. Since he’d seen it wet anddryingon its own in soft waves, he knew she had to have styled it that way back then.

He showed Mac. “It’s her, but that doesn’t prove anything.”

“This was the note sent,” Jack said. He showed a picture of that too.

He read the note.You wouldn’t want anything to happen to Luke’s daughter,wouldyou?

“Fuck,” he said.

“Yeah,” Jack said. “We didn’t want to scare her so we had her tailed at all times. She had no clue.”

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