Page 30 of Forged in Steele

Coglin had given her family access to the staff training room with two tables full of computers and monitors that they were using to review the hospital security video.

“I’ll go with you.” He rubbed a finger along his nose, a gesture she knew from experience meant he was uneasy about something.

Maybe he believed her family would try to hide or change video files if they came off looking bad. If so, his fear was unfounded. They had read-only access to the files and couldn’t make any changes.

She would ask him, but his unease could be due to their past too. She sure didn’t want to bring that up. She would keep an eye on him. See if she could pick up the reason for his behavior.

She trusted him. In theory. Or at least she once had. That was years ago. She didn’t know him now. He might not be the same man she once knew, and she best remember that.

Jared paused in the training room doorway. The large space was filled with people sitting at computers and a hint of burnt coffee snaked through the air. He didn’t mean people exactly but the family Bristol loved. He’d never met any of them until today when he’d met Teagan in the security office, but he felt like he knew them. Bristol had spent hours describing each one and talking about their personalities.

Still, when they looked up and locked eyes on him, he knew from the intensity that Bristol hadn’t exaggerated it. Had she told them about his past with her?

Could explain the piercing stare of an older man Jared put in his sixties. He still had a full head of deep brown hair and wrinkles near his eyes. Like maybe he liked to smile, but he wasn’t smiling now.

Had to be Bristol’s father, who was a former detective. The other occupants were women. Teagan and another brunette resembling Bristol, a blonde, and a redhead. Her sisters and cousins, he assumed, though he couldn’t tell which were which, nor did he remember all of their names.

“Come on in. They don’t bite.” Bristol wrinkled her nose.

He knew that expression. She’d once used it as a casual way to transmit her attraction to him in a cute flirting way. He’d taken several body language courses and knew wrinkling your nose could be used in a variety of ways. Distaste or revulsion common. It could also signal attraction. Something he’d rather she not be expressing in front of her very perceptive father.

The older man stood and came around the table, thrusting out his hand. “Gene Steele and you must be Jared.”

Jared nodded and shook hands, trying not to wilt under the punishing grip.

Gene let go and rested his hand on his sidearm concealed under a denim overshirt. “My niece Ryleigh has good things to say about you.”

“Ryleigh?” He looked over the women to see if he recognized anyone but Teagan.

“She’s not here,” Gene said.

“I don’t think I’ve ever met her,” Jared said.

“She’s an agent at your office,” Gene said. “Just transferred there recently. Said she’s heard about you. Guess you haven’t heard about her.”

“No.” Jared forced a smile. He would’ve recognized the name Steele and questioned it if he had. “Have you all located anything in the video to move us forward?”

Teagan stepped toward him and waved a hand over her family. “We’ve been reviewing the video files, but nothing yet. Dad and I’ve also been looking into our AWOL guard, Aaron King. My uncle Hugh went to Aaron’s house. Place is buttoned up tight. No lights. No sign of him at all.”

Interesting.Jared hadn’t thought the Steele Guardians had played a role in the kidnapping, but the guard going AWOL could mean Jared’s initial assessment was wrong. “Do you think King’s totally flaked or might he be inside and not answering?”

“Either one, I suppose.” Gene worried his bottom lip between his teeth. “I can’t personally vouch for the guy, but our supervisor Zeke keeps assuring me Aaron is one of our best, which is why he got the cherry assignment at the birthing center.”

Something really was off.“Maybe he’s in trouble and a welfare check’s in order.”

“My thoughts too.” Gene frowned. “Hugh would gladly do the check, but we can’t afford to mess anything up here. It needs to be done by someone in law enforcement.”

“We want everything to be above board,” Teagan added. “If our guy colluded with the kidnapper then we want to know about it as much as you do.”

Bristol stepped closer, fire in her eyes. “Text me Aaron’s address and phone number, and Jared and I will be all over it.”

6

Bristol led the way to Aaron King’s bright blue door and radioed in her location as Jared drew his sidearm. She might be on special assignment, but her department needed to know her location for her own protection. Her grandad, who’d been a police officer too, often reminded them of the old cop saying that said, “if dispatch didn’t know where you were, then only God could help you.” In theory, she knew God could help all the time even if He didn’t seem to be present in her life right now, so it was good to have her fellow deputies on her side too.

She knocked on the ground floor door to the condo in a nice suburban area with maple tree lined streets. Jared had decided she could take lead here, not because she was a good deputy, but because he thought if they approached it from a Steele family member asking to speak to Aaron, he would show his face.

Bristol wasn’t as sure. If he didn’t answer the door for Uncle Hugh, then he wouldn’t likely answer the door for her. Still, she pounded again, this time with the side of her fist, the thumps echoing into the air filled only with the sound of chirping birds in a nearby ruby-red Japanese Maple.

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