Page 42 of Desire

Chapter 33

As I drove homeafter speaking with Donovan about what our options were regarding Alex, I couldn’t stop my mind from returning to last night. I had never before felt as much myself as I did with Bridget. Embracing my true self had been freeing and cathartic. A weight had been lifted from my shoulders.

I looked down at my phone, which had begun ringing. I wondered what Marcus wanted.

“Hey, man, what’s up?”

“We have a problem. Bridget just called Penny and said she’d received a call from the same man who broke into her apartment. Connor, he has Alex. And Bridget is going after them.”

“God damn it! Please tell me she didn’t go alone? Did she, I don’t know, happen to mention where the hell she was going?”

“She mentioned a cabin, but that was it. Nothing about where it was. I’m sorry.”

“Of course she didn’t. She couldn’t have made this easy for me. Typical Bridget. Thanks, Marcus. Please let me know if she calls Penny again.” I disconnected the call and immediately called Webber, who answered on the first ring.

“I need your help.”

Webber must have sensed the urgency in my voice, because he didn’t give me any shit about having to come to him for something.

“What’s wrong?”

I explained to him what Marcus had told me. I knew it was a long shot, but I needed him to try and track her phone. I told him to call me back if he could find anything out. In the meantime, I made a detour and headed straight to Malcolm’s house. Just as I reached the house, Webber called me back with exactly what I knew he’d say. Bridget’s phone had been turned off. We were in the dark. I swore to God this woman would be the death of me.

“Webber, you might want to get over here. It looks like Shipman’s had company before me. The door is partially open. I’m heading in.”

“Stay put, Black. I don’t need you contaminating a possible crime scene. I’ll be there shortly.”

“I don’t give a fuck about your crime scene. These are Bridget and Alex’s lives we’re talking about. I need to see if I can find anything in here that will help me locate them quickly. They’re in danger, and I’m not waiting on you.” I hung up without waiting for a response.

Everything inside me told me that Malcolm was behind this. I mentally reviewed everything I had discovered about him. Nothing came to mind about a remote cabin. I needed to find it and soon. I pushed the door until it opened fully. I needed to see if I could find any clues.

Cautiously, I made my way inside. The first room I came to was the living area, where total destruction lay before me. Papers were strewn everywhere, tables turned over, couch cushions slit. Someone had obviously been looking for something. What I didn’t know was whether it had been before or after Bridget went after Alex.

I stepped carefully over the debris on the floor and made my way to other areas of the house, hoping to find something I could use to locate my family. And Bridget and Alex were my family. When nothing in the bedrooms offered any clues, I returned to living room where the majority of ruin was located. I picked up random pieces of paper and examined each of them. When I couldn’t find anything that even looked like it would remotely help, I made a phone call.

Immediately, she picked up.

“Josephine speaking.”

“Josie, I need you to work your magic. And I need you to do it, like, yesterday.”

“No problem, boss, whatcha need?”

“Malcolm Shipman. I know you looked into his bank records for me already, but there must be something you missed. I need to see if he owns some type of cabin. I don’t know where, and I can’t give you any more information than that.”

I actually cringed when I inferred she might have overlooked something. Josie didn’t miss anything.

“I didn’t find anything, sir, but let me take another look. Give me a sec.”

The rat-a-tat sound of fingers on a keyboard echoed loudly in the background. I could see her sitting at her desk, her dual computer screens in front of her, her glasses almost falling off the tip of her nose.

I met Josephine Bishop when she was a fresh-faced teen. She had just started her first year at MIT. She was a computer genius and the daughter of a former client. I hired her immediately after graduation, and it was one of the best career decisions I’d ever made. I never asked where she learned to hack into organizations whose firewalls and security were state of the art. I’d utilized her hacking skills more than once, and she was one of the best.

“I think I found something, sir. It wasn’t something I would have found if I hadn’t been specifically looking for it. Malcolm Shipman’s paternal grandfather purchased some land about sixty years ago. It’s a small strip, about five acres, approximately forty miles outside of town, halfway up the mountain. The reason why it didn’t show up during my initial review of Malcolm Shipman’s assets is because the property actually belongs to Christopher and Malcolm Shipman’s aunt, Mabel Shipman. It was passed down to her by her father. She never married and had no children. There is a small cabin on the property. No one actually lives there, but it looks like it garners some income as a rental property. It’s situated right on the river and is used as a weekend retreat for fly fisherman. It might be the place you’re looking for. I’ve dug as deep as I can possibly dig, sir.”

“Thank you for your hard work, Josie. I need you to text me the location of the cabin. Also, I need you to get Miles on the phone. Let him know I need him there. I’m on my way to the cabin now.”

I hung up the phone and raced out to my car. If any harm had come to Bridget or Alex, I was going to kill Malcolm.

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