Page 105 of Slow Burn (The Boston Beauties)

‘Then why the fuck are you even here?’ I spit out. ‘My wife is missing and you are wasting everyone’s fucking time to tell us you have no updates?’

‘Drew,’ I felt Steve’s hand heavy on my shoulder, pulling me back.

‘No,’ I shrugged him off. ‘I’m done being Mr. Nice Guy. I’ve played nice all along, while she has been a pain in our ass for a week now checking in on us as the most inconvenient times. We’ve been more than cooperative, and now that she has an actual real job to do, finding my missing wife, she’s taking the piss…’

I threw my hands up in frustration and stormed out of the room, not able to look at her any longer.

‘I think its best that you leave,’ I heard Nyall say in his authoritative tone. ‘We will call you when we have more information.’

‘Excuse me?’ the detective bellowed, sounding appalled. ‘Who the hell are you tell me to leave an active crime scene? I am the detective here, not you.’

‘Then go do your fucking job and find my cousin and her kidnappers,’ Breton quipped.

I could hear everything from the kitchen, where I stood next to Colleen, who was scrolling through news sites to ensure Jessa’s kidnapping hadn’t leaked. I could see the detective move to look over Tom’s shoulder to his screen. He didn't make a move to stop what he was doing or to shield the screen; it was all code, and unless she was a hacker, she’d have no clue what they were actually up to. They had explained it to me earlier and it was still foreign.

They have hacked into Lisa’s phone, bank accounts, personal and business, and her social networks where they found a few leads. Breton was the one who was trying to ensure this was entirely Lisa and rule out the Taggarts or their associates completely.

‘What is this?’ she asked, looking at the screen.

‘None of your business,’ Tom sneered, clearly sick of this bitch’s shit also. She could try and power trip all she wanted, but she had nothing on Nyall, and I think she knew it, as he was still standing, staring her down with his arms crossed in front of him.

‘Like I said, you go do your thing, we’ll do ours. If we need you, we will let you know,’ Nyall reminded her.

‘If you need me,’ she looked at him. ‘I’m the detective, you need me.’

‘Just like the Cahills needed you to prove Josh’s death wasn’t a suicide and you ignored them, just like that. College girl needed you to investigate her rape and you shamed her. Stellar track record there. Like I said, if we need you, we’ll be in touch. But if you don’t mind, we have a job to do.’

‘Who do you work for?’

‘That’s classified.’

The detective had the audacity to laugh at Nyall, ‘Classified my ass, you are clearly not American and all you are doing is playing on a computer.’

Now it was the guys turn to laugh at her. ‘Playing on a computer, ok then…’

‘I will only ask you one more time to tell me what you are doing and who you work for before I arrest you for interfering with an active investigation.’

‘You have no grounds or evidence to arrest us, and we never said we had anything to do with the investigation. We work for a UK securities firm, and I can assure you, the office of Homeland Security knows we are here and likely what we are doing. I suggest if you want to keep your job that you leave right now. Otherwise, I have no problem emailing the DA some Easter eggs you think you did a good job in hiding.’

I saw the blood leave her face, and she looked around before she composed herself. She looked back to me. ‘I’ll be in touch, Mr. Cameron.’

‘You do that,’ I stared at her as she walked out the front door.

Nyall sat down and started working on his computer again. None of the guys talked for a while. ‘What do you have on her?’ Steve was the first to speak up.

Nyall shook his head, ‘Nothing, but someone like her, it’s clear she has more than one skeleton in her closet.’

‘And Homeland Security?’

‘I used my passport and entered legally, of course they know I’m here. They also know every other person who lands. Maybe I was flagged because I was Special Forces and have been contracted by them in the past, but who knows, I personally didn’t care. I could have told her everything, this isn’t classified, Jessa is a civilian. But she is a power-hungry bitch, and I don’t play games with people like her. We are here to get Jessa back as soon as possible, and all she was doing is wasting our time.’

It was just before lunchtime. I was upstairs trying to keep my hands occupied by painting trim for the master bedroom when I heard Tom yell, ‘I got it!’

I dropped the brush in the small container, not even bothering to cover it, and rushed downstairs to find everyone, including the Cahills, gathered around Tom’s computer. There were just lines and lines of code, but apparently Breton and Nyall knew what it was they were reading.

‘What does it mean?’

‘It means her new boyfriend is out of town and she’s watching over his business, and I’d bet my left nut Lisa has her there.’

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