Page 42 of Hold Me Before You Go

My eyes snapped, meeting his, and I watched as he read me, taking in the pure, all-consuming agony I’d been in for days. She had only been gone four days, and it felt like a lifetime had passed. Now that he saw the truth, I needed to make sure nothing would change it. “Stop worrying about me,” I ordered. “Stop worrying about me and let me do what I need to do so I can get my fucking woman back.”

He nodded. “Understood.”

Gratitude hit me then. He wasn’t pushing it. That was good. He understood and was letting it go.

We needed to move on. “Jake have an update?” I asked.

“Yeah, and you’re not going to like it.”

“Why’s that?”

Hayes’ eyes shifted to focus on the mountains behind me. “Because we might have to get the FBI involved after all.”

Fucking hell.

Here’s what we knew, according to the information that Bradley Gelling had so graciously given us before I took histongue: Robert Hale was born Robert Hale thirty-three years ago, and when he turned twenty-one, he decided that wasn’t enough.

Robert Hale became Charles McLain at the age of twenty-one.

Robert Hale then became Edwin Griff at the age of twenty-nine, the year Gelling had introduced him to Carrie.

Both names had once belonged to very respectable men with good credit scores, a decent amount of money in their savings. Most importantly, though, they were unmarried and had no children.

They were also both dead.

Robert Hale took over their identities before their deaths could be reported, and hid all of his secrets within them.

“Right,” I muttered to Hayes, rounding my desk, leaving the sun rays and my colorless office behind.

“Also, Carrie’s cat won’t get out of my fucking office,” Hayes grumbled as we made our way down the hall, rounding the corner, heading straight for Jake’s office.

“If Tic-Tac is happy in your office, then he stays in your office,” I said, opening Jake’s door. “When we get Carrie back, he’ll be home with her.”

At that second, the fluffy orange cat dashed past us, his little bell jingling on his collar. Hayes looked from the cat and back to me. “Fine. Whatever.”

I stepped into the office, and Hayes went back down his to get an update from the Astoria police department.

“What’s this about getting the FBI involved?” I clipped. If the FBI got involved, then it was only a matter of time before it was flagged by Agent Garner, and then Jeremy Jones would be notified Carrie was in danger.

That couldn’t happen.

Jake lifted his arm, holding out a thin file to me. “Got the rest of the information on the second alias,” he said. I took the file,and then his typing resumed. “I’m pulling up the last known address right now.”

My jaw tightened as I read over the file on the second man, Edwin Griff, while standing in front of Jake’s desk. A second later, Ash made his way into the room, Jake giving him the same update.

“Why would he come up with a second alias?” Ash asked as he got settled in the corner of the room, away from all the computers.

“More credit cards, more money, more places to hide secrets,” Jake answered, leaning back in his chair.

“Robert Hale didn’t need money though,” I returned. “When the FBI froze his accounts, he had well over six figures in there, and that was just from his job at Gelling’s office, plus the small amount from his stock investments.”

Jake looked up from the computers, his eyes tired behind his glasses. As he began speaking, my eyes dropped down the file, taking in the amount of money in Edwin Griff’s accounts. “The reason why we might need to get the FBI involved is because I don’t know what we’re dealing with here, Gray. I’ve never seen anything like this. Usually, when someone steals a person’s identity, they apply for a shit ton of credit cards, rack em’ up, and move on. Robert didn’t do that.”

I lifted my eyes from the file, bracing for what was to come, as if it couldn’t get any worse.

Jake’s eyes bounced back and forth between both of us. “Robertworkedunder these aliases. He fuckingpaid taxesunder these aliases, guys. It’s like he was living a double—no, triple life.”

Ash leaned forward in his chair, rubbing the back of his neck. The sling he’d been wearing had disappeared after Carrie was kidnapped, and I doubt he’d be putting the damn thing back on again.

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