Page 96 of Out of the Shadows

Gavin lifted his chin at Wilson, eternally thankful for his friend.

“Both Constance and Branson are in federal custody,” Esme said from the Smartboard. “Branson had a pit stop at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle to get his shoulders stitched up, but I’m told they’re both now at the federaldetention center in SeaTac. I believe they’re currently getting processed.”

“That’s correct,” Tiny said. His eyes narrowed as he glanced at something off-screen. “Looks like with Branson it’s kidnapping, extortion, and murder for hire. Charges for both Bean’s case and Anson’s. For Constance, all the same ones plus embezzlement and an attempted murder charge.”

“Attempted murder?” Bean asked.

She glanced at him with shock in her beautiful blue eyes, and Gavin could only shrug. This was news to him as well.

“While you guys were out on Bean’s rescue mission, there were some developments,” Tiny said. “Abbot?”

“Marcus Driskel,” she said, adding photos of the man to the Smartboard. “As we all know, Constance just hired him as a bodyguard. He was formerly with McClintocks’ security and was part of the group that was fired after Anson’s kidnapping. Tiny looked through his financials, and let’s just say there were some red flags.”

“According to my contacts,” Esme said, “Driskel and Constance were dining at Pacific View this afternoon and she poisoned him. He has an anaphylactic allergy to tree nuts, and she snuck a mixture of pulverized cashews, almonds, and walnuts into his food. The only reason Driskel didn’t die right then and there was because there was another diner at the restaurant who had two EpiPens on them. That and the EMTs were just down the road. He got lucky.”

Gavin frowned. “Why did Constance poison him?”

“Because Driskel was also the driver she hired to take you out after the gala,” Esme said. “Otton is dead, and Driskel is the last loose end tying that incident back to her and Branson. I was told that Driskel made a deal with the feds. He said she legitimately hired him for security protection this week. Said he was skeptical but needed the money since she didn’tpay him for the car-chase situation. Apparently, when he arrived at the resort and met with her, it turned into a fuck fest. Obviously, he didn’t realize she was planning to off him.”

“Esme also got some intel on the warehouse property where you found Anson,” Tiny said.

“Of course she did,” Gavin said with a smirk.

Bean chuckled. “I swear, woman, you’re magic.”

“What can I say?” Esme shrugged. “Tiny passed along the companies affiliated with the site and a couple of the names sounded familiar, so I did some digging. Long story short, the property belongs to a Triad group operating out of San Francisco. I checked with my various contacts and they confirmed that Branson had some gambling debts, and the Triad bailed him out. He promised a payoff plus extra interest for use of the property.” She winced. “Obviously, the guy’s going to run into some problems when he hits federal prison, because he didn’t hold up his end of the bargain.”

Gavin didn’t give a shit about what would happen to Branson. As far as he was concerned, the fucker deserved everything that came his way. He just hoped that if the Triad went after him, they’d make him suffer. Heartless? Absolutely. Did he care? Not at all.

“Then there’s Elena Nabers,” Abbot added. “She was also taken into federal custody today. According to her social media, messages, and texts, she was in some kind of relationship with Branson. She basically did whatever he wanted in exchange for lavish vacations, expensive gifts, that sort of thing. He never gave her cash, so we didn’t see anything hit her financials, but there are numerous photos posted online of the two of them vacationing together. While looking through some of her photos on social media, something interesting popped out.” Abbot added another photo to the Smartboard. This one was of Nabers in a black cocktail dresswith an older, dark-haired man in a suit. “Tiny, care to take this one?”

“That guy,” Tiny said, “is DJ Madison, a currenttrustedmember of Polanski’s team.”

“Motherfucking hell.He’sthe fucking inside guy.” Gavin scowled but took no satisfaction in being right about there being a traitor among Polanski’s team.

Tiny nodded. “Looks like it. We found multiple large deposits into his personal account from Sherman Photography, one of the bogus companies Nabers created. He was taken into federal custody today as well.”

“Holy moly,” Bean said, leaning back in her chair. “I knew you guys were awesome, butdamn. You all took it next-level.”

Abbot grinned and waved at the rest of the cyber team. “What can we say, B, we learned from the best. Over the last few hours, I think all of us asked ourselves, ‘What would Bean do? What would she look into next?’ Besides, there was no way in hell you weren’t coming back to us. We had to make sure we had all our ducks in a row for you.”

Bean’s eyes misted, and Gavin squeezed her hand. “You have to admit, honey, youarepretty amazing.”

She glanced his way and a tear slipped free. She hastily swept it away and gave a watery chuckle. “You guys... Thank you so much for everything. Thank you for finding me.”

It took everything Gavin had not to haul her into his lap. Instead, he yanked her chair closer to his and wrapped an arm around her shoulders.

“Everyone here loves you, B,” he whispered, pressing a kiss to the side of her head.

“Not to add to the waterworks or anything,” Alvarez said. “But I’d just like to say that I’m really proud of you, B. You handled yourself well out there.”

“But will you please sign up for our outdoor survival class?” Buchanan cut in with a grin.

“Yes,” Wilson chimed in. “Pretty please?”

Bean laughed, wiping away another renegade tear. “Believe it or not, when I was hiding in that hollowed-out tree, I told myself that was one of the things I’d do if I got out of that mess.”

Gavin squeezed her shoulders. The thought of her not getting out of that mess turned his stomach.

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