Page 73 of Merciless Protector

When I hung up, I wondered if Shawn would show up at my door.

31

MATT

My immediate reaction to the news that Tayla had left New York was to find a way to intercept the plane. Then I considered confronting her at the airport. I did neither.

The safest option for Tayla was me not being around.

Not a day later, I reconsidered my options. Someone had tried to kill her. The likely suspect was Ruin. But how would he know she was back in town? I thought back to my call with Cortez. He could have passed on that information that I’d cut Tayla loose to Ruin. Then Ruin could have used his resources to find out where she lived. It wasn’t as though he didn’t know her name.

I ground my teeth.

“Matt, are you still there?”

For a second, I’d forgotten I was on the phone. “Yeah, I’m here.”

“Did you hear me when I said I think I’ve pinned down the shell company he’s using?”

I hadn’t. Connor had been looking for years for a company tied to Ruin or his cronies. “What did you find?”

Connor was a genius hacker, and I wouldn’t doubt anything he said. “When I heard that Ruin called the women he’d kidnapped chattel, it reminded me of when you said at the auction he’d called the girls fillies. I began searching for horse farms, cattle farms, or livestock auction houses that weren’t attached to legitimate farms or ranch addresses in this area, and I found one.”

“What’s the name?” I asked.

“Check it. Niur Auction House.”

“Okay,” I said, not immediately getting it.

“Niur is Ruin backward.”

“Damn. Not original, but yeah, he’s full of himself.”

“Not original because he isn’t the first to invert a name, but clearly, it worked. I’ve been searching for him for years.”

“Are you sure it’s him?” I asked.

“Not a hundred percent, but enough to follow the trail. The company lists an auction. Time is nine at night. Suspicious for an animal auction.”

“But not for what he considers livestock,” I added.

“Exactly.”

“I think we can use this,” I said and laid out for him what I was thinking.

When I finished, he said, “And what about Tayla?”

Tayla had been in my every waking thought. “What about her?”

“Matt, Kalen and I have been in your position before. Don’t fuck this up.”

“I’d rather her be alive and hate me than dead.” Because I had no plans of talking to or seeing her until this was over.

“You haven’t called? So she doesn’t know?”

“I know the bureau. They have her place bugged and not because of anything she’s done. They are hoping to catch Ruin, hell, maybe even me. My handler thinks I’ve gone so deep undercover I can’t see daylight. I can’t risk anything we talk about being overheard.”

“Do you want me to get her a message?” he asked.

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