Page 15 of Justice for the SEAL
The man’s voice was a harsh whisper in her ear. “You listen to me, Judge Faraday. If you ever want to see Anthony Royce alive again, you will do exactly what Itellyou.”
9
Logan walkedinto the HERO Force conference room, the sun shining brightly outside the wide windows. He’d already searched the Internet for information on Gemma while he had his morning coffee, coming up with one vital piece she’d left outherself.
She wasn’t just a lawyer. She was a judge, just like Royce, though she worked in civil court, notcriminal.
Noah and Austin were sitting with Cowboy and Hawk. “How was Dubai?” askedLogan.
“Kicked some ass. Took some names. The usual,” said Austin. “Noah took a bullet intheass.”
“Grazed my ass, dickhead. A bullet grazedmyass.”
“That’s gonna leave a scar,” saidAustin.
Jax walked in, slamming the door behind him. Logan couldn’t help but notice he looked like shit. “As you know, Justice Royce was kidnapped yesterday. I am making it our mission to personally locate him and assure his safety. The FBI is working the case, but I don’t trust them to get the job done as well as myownmen.”
Logan tapped his pen. “Maybe we can get them to cooperate with us, shareinformation—”
Jax nodded curtly. “That would be nice. It would also be nice if I would sprout wings and shoot rainbows out of my ass, but that isn’t going to happen, either. Treat this like any other assignment. We bust our asses through any means necessary to find these motherfuckers and takethemdown.”
“Hawk,” said Cowboy. “You and Austin go to Royce’s house and do a complete search. Any documents, anything. Interview his children. See what you can find out aboutmotive.”
Hawk’s arms were crossed against his chest like a bouncer. “The FBI won’t appreciate thecompany.”
“Royce’s daughters are expecting you and will allow you into the house. If the feds don’t like it, amuse them with stories about your famousgirlfriend.”
“Done.”
Cowboy turned to Noah. “You’re going with Jax and me to check on Stewart Cole, the plaintiff in the civil suitagainstus.”
“Civil suit?”askedNoah.
“Try to keep your ass out of the line of fire this time,” said Jax, ignoring Noah. He withdrew a computer from a leather bag and pushed it toward Logan. “This is Royce’s laptop. I want to know everything he knew. Find out who’s sending the threatening emails and anything else that might have been going on. It’s a knee-jerk reaction to think this is related to the HERO Force case and it might be, but it might be something elseentirely.”
“What HERO Force case?”askedNoah.
“The one where Cowboy and I are being accused of murdering a member of HEROForce.”
Noah’s eyesgotwide.
“Good. Glad we cleared that up,”saidJax.
Austin chuckled. “See that? Your ass was in the wayagain.”
Logan opened the computer. “Do you have a passwordforme?”
Jax handed him a sticky note. Logan typed it in and went to the email application. He whistled. “There are more than thirty thousandemailshere.”
“All read,Ihope.”
“Yeah, but not by me.” He closed the computer. “It’s going to take some time. Can I bringthishome?”
Jax nodded. “We’re counting on you, Doc. We can’t get access to his court documents. We can’t get into his office. We’ve got nothing to go on but that laptop and whatever we find at hishouse.”
Seven hours later, Logan had organized the emails into folders using keywords, which eliminated a lot of the detritus. He was left with six thousand two hundred messages that needed to be read when he finally packed up his things and headed home for thenight.
Home.
