Page 87 of Billionaire Unreachable: Wyatt

Everyone was present when we arrived in the meeting room.

Chase, Hudson, Jax, Harlow, Cooper, and Tori were already seated at the large table.

No doubt Taylor and Savannah would be present, too, if they were already members of Last Hope. They were planning on coming on board as advisors, but they hadn’t made it official yet.

I took a seat next to Chase, and before anyone could start bombarding him with questions, Marshall held up a hand. “This isn’t an emergency because of a mission we need to run. I have some news on the break-in at Shelby’s apartment. Since I know you’re all concerned, I thought an update was in order as soon as possible. Since I didn’t want Wyatt to leave before I could get us all together, I decided it needed to happen right now.”

Every set of eyes in the room were glued to Marshall, including mine.

“What did you find out?” Chase asked abruptly.

“This is just a theory,” Marshall answered gruffly. “But it all makes sense when you put everything together. Because we had nothing, I started to investigate people Shelby might not suspect had a grudge against her, but who she made contact with fairly frequently, including anyone she interacted with at The Friendly Kitchen. There was one person who stood out.” He clicked the remote and a picture came up on the enormous screen in the meeting room. “This is a guy she speaks to fairly often according to the manager at the soup kitchen. His name is Theodore Lee Young.”

“Ted?” I said as I eyed the large photo. “She talks about him. Shelby said he lost his wife and children in a car accident.”

“That’s true, but there were suspicions of abuse. Some people swore that his wife was probably trying to escape with her children from his abuse when the accident happened and that Ted was most likely chasing her down. He’d done it before. But they never had enough proof to arrest him for it.”

“Fuck!” I cursed. “I guarantee that Shelby had no inkling of those suspicions. She felt sorry for him. Hell, she even told him about her own family and what happened. She also mentioned that he was ex-military.”

“That much is true,” Marshall confirmed. “But he was discharged for psychiatric issues.”

I wasn’t going to question exactly how Marshall had gotten that information. After years of working with him, I knew there was little to nothing that Marshall couldn’t dig up with his worldwide sources and technical skills.

The older man continued as he switched the image on the screen to two women. “I just dug up the information that he’s also a person of interest in the murder of two sex workers, but they don’t have enough to arrest him yet. But I suspect that will happen soon.”

I eyed the women’s pictures for a moment, every muscle in my body tight because I noticed one big similarity. “They’re both redheads,” I noted tersely.

Marshall nodded and changed the image again. “And this is his deceased wife.”

“Son of a bitch!” Chase spat out. “She’s a redhead with long hair, too.”

“I have a feeling it’s no coincidence that the victims were chosen for their similarities to his late wife,” Marshall concluded. “I can’t say that Shelby is a doppelganger for Young’s wife, but they both have the same curly, red hair and green eyes. Like I said, it’s just a theory—”

“It’s him,” I said roughly. “It all makes sense, and I can feel it in my gut.”

Everyone around the table was agreeing as my phone rang.

I pulled it from my jean pocket like a man possessed, hoping to God it was Shelby.

It wasn’t.

But it was the next best thing.

“Kaleb,” I answered sharply. “Where in the hell is Shelby?”

“That’s why I’m calling,” Kaleb replied. “I don’t want you to panic, but I lost sight of her and I can’t find her. She just went out to the barn a little bit ahead of me. We were planning on taking a ride. She was on my property, and I went to meet her out there minutes later, but she wasn’t there. We’re searching the property now, but I wanted you to know. We found her cell phone near the barn. I called the police already, but they aren’t particularly concerned. They want to wait to see if she comes back on her own before they file a missing person’s report since nobody saw anything. She’s an adult, and she’s only been missing for a short time. I’ve got every available person I’ve got out looking for her. We’ll find her, Wyatt.”

“Do the police know about the history of her break-in?” I asked angrily.

“Yeah. They don’t think it’s related since it happened in San Diego.”

“Fuck! What kind of police force do you have there?” I grilled him.

“One that only deals with an occasional speeder or drunk in town,” Kaleb said, his tone disgusted. “We’re trying to get someone else higher up to listen. Someone who believes that someone can go missing, even in a small town.”

“Good luck with that. She could be dead by then,” I growled. “I’m on my way to Montana now. Let me know the second you see her if she’s located.”

“Got it,” Kaleb agreed. “I’m on my way out the door to join the search.”

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