Page 40 of Bad For A Weekend

“Thank you.” I give Baylor one last glance before taking my coffee downstairs to Corey’s office. Hudson is still there and, true to his word, is awake and staring at the computer screen.

“Hey,” I say.

“Hey. Come here and look at this.” The tone in his voice puts me on alert.

“What is it?” I sit down next to him.

“Look at this guy.” He zooms in on a man dressed in all black. That’s not alarming since the wait staff was wearing a similar uniform. “I can’t find him in the logs.”

“You sure?” The venue supplied us with headshots of their entire staff to cross-reference. It’s been tedious to go back and forth through them all, but maybe it’s finally paid off.

“Notice anything about him?”

I study the image. He’s a white man with black hair, small eyes, thin lips, and ears that stick out from his head. From my police training, I know that only a small percentage of the population has this trait, making it a significant finding. It also happens to be a trait that the man sitting in jail right now for kidnapping Baylor the first time has.

“You think he’s related to Will Story?” I ask.

“I’d bet money on it.” He pulls up Will’s mug shot. The two men could be brothers. The guy from prom is clearly a few years older, judging by the more prominent wrinkles around his eyes.

“Who the hell are they? And what do they want with Bay?”

“Bay?” he asks.

“Baylor.”

“Listen, man. If you’re getting too close or if this is becoming too difficult, just let me know.”

This is where I should tell him I kissed Baylor. That I was so pissed at myself and wasn’t doing my job, and that’s how she got hurt. This could end right now. Itshouldend right now. If there’s anything I’ve learned since taking this job, it’s that I have no control when it comes to that girl, and I should back down before anything worse happens.

“No, I’m good.”

Fuck.

“All right. Let me know if that changes. I just got you back; I don’t want to lose you again.”

“What is this? Knitting hour?” I use the only language Hudson responds to—toxic masculinity. “Let’s get back to work.”

He chuckles. “I have feelings.”

“Yeah, well, the only feeling I have right now is anger at how and why these assholes are fucking with our client.”

“True. Let’s revisit William Story’s past.”

Hours later, armed with a few more details, I seek Corey out to fill him in.

“Hey. You got a minute?” I ask.

The man I’ve seen star in multiple action films and romantic comedies is sitting in front of his TV, watching SportsCenter. It’s such an average thing for a person to do, and for some reason, it strikes me as odd.

“Yeah.” He sets the remote down and gestures for me to take a seat.

“We did a deep dive into William Story. Hudson noticed a strong resemblance between him and the man from Vibiana.”

“Okay. What did you find out?”

“Not much more than we had before. Born in Ohio and has a brother and a sister. The brother’s name is Richard, which is who we think the man from prom is. They seemed to live normal lives. The brothers owned a car shop, the sister was a waitress. Then two years ago, their parents died, and for reasons unknown, the three siblings moved to L.A. They bounce around jobs, have no address we can find, and now, they’re coming after you.”

Corey drags a hand down his face. “Did you tell the detectives so they can try and find the brother?”

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