Page 14 of Mine to Protect

“I’ll figure something out.” Five years ago, she’d kept a lot of information from Rhett while in close quarters.

She suspected she could do it again.

“How can I get ahold of you? There was no number attached to this call.”

“You can’t. I’ll be in touch. Please be careful.” The phone went dead. The music seemed louder. A boat engine hummed in the background. Her heart hammered between her ears. She swallowed slowly. It hurt. It was as if her throat could no longer perform the simple task.

She became aware of the dampness on her thighs and the dryness of her mouth.

Time to change her clothes, get some more wine, and work on a way to bring up the topic of her brother’s belongings. She had a right to them, especially if they weren’t evidence. But she couldn’t sound defensive. And if she came off as desperate, Rhett would know that she was looking for something.

She should have stayed at a hotel and not taken Rhett up on his random act of kindness. Only that was a double-edged sword because if she hadn’t accepted, she wouldn’t be so close to him, giving her the opportunity to ask him questions and request Jackie’s and Chris’s stuff.

She needed to learn to walk this fine line and use it to her advantage so she could help her brother and his girlfriend out of whatever trouble they’d gotten themselves into without tipping off Rhett and his cop family.

* * *

Rhett stepped outsideand inhaled sharply. The thick stench of his lie filled his lungs. Pangs of guilt soured his belly. He should have told Shelby that he was going back to the hotel. But what was done was done.

“What are you thinking, big brother?” Emmerson asked.

Rhett laughed. They were barely a year apart. Sometimes, he wondered if his parents had kept having babies so they wouldn’t get divorced given their marriage hadn’t been very good. It wasn’t until Jamison, the seventh child, came around that they’d stopped having more kids. And he wasn’t even their father’s child biologically. Of course, they’d also given up on having a girl.

Thank God.

Rhett didn’t think they’d know what to do with one, and she’d get teased to no end and not just by the brothers.

“We know someone left the window open,” Rhett said. “The clerk mentioned that the couple checked in at three in the afternoon and said they never saw them after that.”

“They don’t have security cameras here, but so far, no one that I questioned remembers seeing the vehicle Chris drives except for that first day. And it was parked right outside of his room.” Emmerson rubbed the back of his neck—a tell that every single one of his brothers had when something bothered them. It was as if they were trying to rub the answers to the surface.

But it never worked.

“What about Chris and Jackie? Anyone remember them?”

“Only the clerk. And no remembers anyone else coming or going from this room,” Emmerson said.

“I find it strange that the window in the bathroom was open. If whoever was chasing them ransacked this place after they chased them off, I would think they would have closed the window to make it look more like they went missing. Along with taking the wallet. That was a big mistake.”

“Unless they had company and had to climb through the window themselves.” Emmerson pointed to the big picture window by the door. “That one doesn’t open. But clearly the one in the bathroom does. If the curtain was drawn, and they saw someone coming from the office right before we got here, maybe like the manager, who might have had Chris’s sister tagging along? They might have hauled ass.”

Rhett furrowed his brow. “There are fifteen rooms, six cabins, and limited parking. Where was their car?”

“My best guess is that they parked on the back side of Route 1. Or maybe in the parking lot of the drugstore. They could have hopped the fence easily and acted as if they were going for a stroll like everyone else.”

Rhett had to admit that’s what he would have done. “If Chris was smart, he would have moved his car in the middle of the night, especially if he believed that someone was coming for him.”

Emmerson strolled to his patrol vehicle and leaned against the hood. “Why Lighthouse Cove of all places?”

Rhett had already been rolling that question around in his brain. He stood a few feet from his brother and scanned the area. The hotel was on the outskirts of town, closer to Rottana Beach, which wasn’t the nicest area but still within Lighthouse Cove’s jurisdiction. However, one street over, and it became someone else’s problem. That would have made this a whole different ball game.

At least this put it in his mother’s wheelhouse.

“Shelby said her brother didn’t know about me, and while Lighthouse Cove is a nice little beach town that most people wouldn’t think about and could be a good hiding place, it’s too much of a coincidence.”

“You feel like he brought all this to our doorstep,” Emmerson said.

Rhett nodded. “He also checked in using a credit card. That’s traceable. It’s like he wanted us to know he was here. And not just any law enforcement. The Kirby family.”

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