Lauren turned the key in the ignition while Jason shut the passenger door and buckled his seat belt. After talking to the police and explaining everything that had happened, they’d been allowed to leave the crime scene at Matt’s apartment building. She was still a little shaky from the surge in adrenaline after nearly being killed, but she was steady enough to drive. She just wasn’t certain where she wanted to drive to.
She’d been shot at more than once today. Well, technically, Jason was the one who’d been shot at. But she’d been close enough to him to practically feel the ripple in the air as the bullets and shotgun pellets blew by.
Prior to today, she’d only been fired at once before. The fugitives she tracked might hide, lie and get other people to cover for them, but when she finally caught up with them, they typically gave up without trying to kill her.
Today had been a whole new ball game. And now that she finally had a quiet moment, the seesawing emotions of fear and relief were getting to her. Her hands were trembling. And her mouth felt dry. She’d gotten up very early this morning, and now it was well into the evening hours. She was tired.
Not that she would let Jason Cortez know that. Not a chance. A certain level of bravado was part of the necessary equipment for being a successful bounty hunter. She couldn’t appear fainthearted or hesitant and expect to get her job done.
Good thing she had lots of experience making certain she appeared stronger than she felt. And good thing she had experience taking her worry and uncertainty and turning them into prayer.
Thank You, Lord, for Your protection, she prayed silently. Please help me with this case. And I pray for the safest and most peaceful outcome.
“Drop me off at a hotel anywhere on your way home,” Jason said as she put the SUV in gear and pulled away from the curb.
Lauren chewed her bottom lip for a few seconds, thinking. “I’m not sure I’m going home.”
Jason turned toward her. “Does that mean you have an idea of how we can find Matt?”
She shook her head. “It’s not that. I’m concerned that it might not be safe for me to go home tonight. The people who are after your brother are still out there. For all we know, they might have had someone watching us the whole time we were at your brother’s apartment. They could be following us right now.”
Jason turned to look at his side mirror.
“Nobody pulled away from the curb behind us,” she said. “I’ve been watching. But since it’s dark, and all I can see are headlights, it’s hard to tell if we’re being followed. Plus it’s possible they could have put a tracker on my car.”
Her experience had involved trying to find people. She’d never before been in the position of having someone hunting her while she did her job. Well, the bad guys were actually hunting Jason, because they thought he was Matt. But the experiences they’d been through today had sort of turned them into a package deal. They needed to stay together until the mission was completed.
“I don’t want to risk leading the bad guys to my home,” she said. “I don’t want to put anybody else in danger.”
“Oh,” Jason said. “So you have a family? A husband?”
Was it her imagination, or did he sound disappointed?
“My mom and I share a house,” she said. “She has rheumatoid arthritis and doesn’t get around very easily. Spends a lot of time in a wheelchair.” Lauren could hear her own voice turning husky with emotion. The thought of the dangerous, violent thugs intent on murdering Matt Cortez showing up at the house, with her mother there, vulnerable, sometimes barely able to move at all, was too awful to consider. And she would not risk having it happen.
She cleared her throat. “I’m staying in a hotel tonight, too. Someplace downtown with top-notch security and video cameras in the parking garage and common areas. That would probably be the safest option. Tomorrow we’ll find your brother and get the case wrapped up.”
“Works for me.” Jason pulled his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll try to call Matt again.”
This had to be the fifth time he’d called since they’d hit the apartment and found out his brother wasn’t there. The first three times she’d heard him leave a message for Matt to call him back. After that, he didn’t bother. But he still kept calling.
It was on the tip of her tongue to tell him to give it up. That his brother was playing him. That the last shred of genuine connection that he believed still existed between the two of them was gone.
But she knew from her own experience that it could take a long time for reality to set in. Accepting the fact that someone you cared about did not care about you came in stages. How long had it taken for Lauren to realize her father didn’t really care that much about her and her mom? Her earliest memories were of him being around intermittently. For years she believed his excuses. He always had believable reasons for why he didn’t show up for school events or birthday parties or even on Christmas Day.
Then her mom started having health problems. The fever and pain in her joints interfered with her ability to work. And money, which was never abundant, became even scarcer. At that point, she and her mom had really needed him. But he didn’t step up. Finally, her mom filed for divorce. She asked for child support. The support payments never came, and Lauren’s dad disappeared altogether.
Finally, Lauren understood. She’d felt sorrow for her mom, for the sad reality that she’d fallen in love with a charming con man. For herself, she’d mostly felt bitter for wasting love and concern and loyalty on her dad for as long as she had.
Jason took his phone from his ear, hit the disconnect button and slid the phone back into his pocket without saying anything. Obviously his brother hadn’t answered the call, and Jason hadn’t left a message.
“Do you have a plan for tomorrow?” he asked, his voice sounding flat and grim.
They were in downtown Denver now, near the secure high-rise hotels she was looking for.
“I figure we’ll head for the bond office and look through Matt’s file. Speak with Al or Barb, whichever of them talked to him and wrote the bond for him. We can work up some ideas based on what they say.”
“Isn’t all of that information digitized? Can’t they send it to you?”
“Facts in a digital file are important. But there’s nothing like talking to someone who’s actually met the person you’re looking for. Sometimes a small detail leads to the capture.”
She pulled into the garage attached to a hotel, drove up a couple of levels and parked.
“How’d you become a bounty hunter?” Jason asked.
They exited the SUV cautiously, each of them looking around to see if they’d been followed.
“My mom’s friends Barb and Al own the bail bond company I work for most of the time. I do occasional work for other companies, as well. When I graduated from high school, they hired me to help with skip tracing. I’d do some research online, make a few phone calls and track down people who’d skipped out on bills, given fraudulent information when applying for loans, intentionally destroyed rental property before they’d moved out, that kind of thing.”
She’d also tracked down her dad, intending to get the child support money he’d never paid. Not for herself, but for her mom. Only that had not led to the moment of triumphant resolution she’d hoped for. He’d passed away three years before she’d found him.
Satisfied that no one had followed them, she walked around her SUV, paying particular attention to the front and rear bumpers.
“Looking for a tracking device?” Jason asked.
“Yes.”
Jason dropped down and scooched himself under the car. Lauren squatted beside him and watched as he used the flashlight app on his phone to check the undercarriage. “I don’t see anything out of the ordinary under here,” he said before climbing back out.
She grabbed a canvas bag from the SUV that she kept packed with a change of clothes and some basic toiletries just in case. Anything could happen when she was chasing a bail jumper, and she liked to be prepared.
They walked through the garage, following the directions to a covered walkway that would eventually lead to the main entrance and the hotel lobby.
“So, the skip tracing led to bounty hunting?” Jason asked as they walked, picking up their earlier conversational thread.
“Yeah. Sometimes the bounty hunters that worked out of the office needed a little extra help. A fresh face to walk into a restaurant and make sure their target was still in there. Someone to knock on the door of a house and pretend to be delivering flowers while getting a quick look inside. That sort of thing. Eventually, I got hooked. It was exciting, it paid well, I was good at it and it felt like meaningful work to me.”
“How does your mom feel about you being a bounty hunter?” he asked as they approached the registration desk.
Lauren sighed. She knew her mom worried about her and would be thrilled if she switched to a more mundane career. “She tells me it’s my right to live my life as I see fit.” Her mom was aware that some of the people Lauren tracked were dangerous and she liked to remind her that it was just a job and that it was not worth dying for, so she shouldn’t take any unnecessary risks.
They reached the registration desk and were able to get rooms across from each other on the same floor.
“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving,” Jason said after they’d gotten their key cards and walked away from the desk. “Do you want to get something to eat in one of the hotel restaurants?”
“I think I’ll just relax in my room and order room service,” Lauren said. Right now she wanted sleep more than anything.
Jason nodded. “I understand. I’ll see you to your room. And then I think I’ll get something to eat.”
A tired laugh slipped out of her. “I think I can find my room on my own.”
“I have no doubt of that,” he said, following her into an elevator car. “But I’d like to do it, anyway.”
He had nice manners. She liked that in a man. Not that it mattered whether she liked him or not. Because it didn’t matter. Not at all.
The elevator stopped at their floor, and he walked with her to her room. She unlocked the door, pushed it open, stepped inside, then turned to him. “We can sleep in. No one’s going to be at the bond office tomorrow morning before ten.”
“I’ll be here at your door at nine thirty.”
“Okay. Good night.” She shut the door, threw all the latches and then walked over to the bed. She only had enough time to drop her bag and kick off her shoes before falling face-first onto it. The last thought on her mind as she fell asleep was about Jason and his brother. For Jason’s sake, she really hoped they’d find Matt before it was too late.
The Gold Standard Bail Bonds office was located in a strip mall along with a barbershop, a thrift store and a coffee shop.
“I’ve never been in a bail bond office before,” Jason said as they got out of Lauren’s SUV. He paused and looked around to see if anyone had followed them on the drive from the hotel. It didn’t seem likely, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
“It’s like any other kind of office,” Lauren said, also looking around. “It’s not a steady parade of creepy thugs coming through the door. Some clients, like your brother, are choosing the life of a career criminal, and to them the whole process is a normal part of doing business. Some clients are decent people who have made a bad choice, and they regret it. Some are actually innocent of the charges against them. People who work in this business aren’t judges. We work with the justice system, carrying out decisions that have already been put into place. If an actual judge says somebody has the right to get out of jail if they put up a bond, then they have that right.”
Nobody pulled into the parking lot behind them. None of the cars rolling by on the street slowed down so the driver could take a closer look at them. Having a legitimate reason to be paranoid triggered a few of the old feelings Jason had experienced when he first returned home after spending what felt like a lifetime in combat. A little bit of that old edginess was there. And wariness. The compulsion to assess everything ahead of him as a potential trap had kicked in, too. Considering the situation, that might be a good thing.
“I think we’re safe,” he said.
“I think so, too. Come on inside and meet everybody.”
He followed her into the office, noticing the loud beep of a security system as they walked through the door. The people working here might strive not to be judgmental, but they were vigilant. He could appreciate that.
“So, kid, you’re getting a little excitement on this Cortez case, huh?” A man who looked about sixty, with the deep tan of an outdoorsman, got up from an office chair and wrapped an arm around Lauren’s shoulder, giving her a side hug. “You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Al, this is the man I told you about on the phone. Matthew Cortez’s identical twin brother, Jason.”
Al removed his arm from her shoulder and shook hands with Jason as she completed the introductions. The guy had a pleasant smile on his face, but the expression in his eyes was sharp and assessing. Jason could see Al’s gaze linger above his left eye, checking for the scar his brother had, and seeing it wasn’t there.
“Al and his wife, Barb, own Gold Standard Bail Bonds,” Lauren said.
A blonde woman seated at a desk got up and walked over to them. “Hi, I’m Barb Lathrop,” she said. “This is a first for us. Working with identical twins.”
Jason didn’t know what to say in response to that, so he just smiled and said, “Nice to meet you.” He realized identical twins weren’t common, but he’d been one his whole life, so sometimes the big reaction got tiresome.
“Come on back and have a seat.” Barb gestured toward an area beyond the front desks where a sofa was set up across from a couple of easy chairs. “Let me grab Matthew’s file.” As she headed toward a desk, she called over her shoulder to Lauren, “Kevin wanted me to tell you he’s sorry he can’t help you out with this case. His dad is stable, but he’s still in the hospital and they’re running a few more tests.”
The exact nature of the relationship between Lauren and her partner, Kevin, was none of Jason’s business. Still, he couldn’t help wondering about it. Just how close were they? She’d let him know she wasn’t married. She hadn’t said anything about a boyfriend.
Barb came back carrying a manila file and handed it to Lauren. Lauren started flipping through it. “Matt Cortez has gotten bonds before, but not through us,” Barb said. She pointed to a sheet of paper from a yellow legal pad that was tucked inside the folder. “I jotted down a few notes just in case we needed them later.” She glanced at Jason. “After we get somebody out of lockup, we like for them to come by so we can meet them. That’s when we take a picture and try to gather a few personal details outside the scope of their formal application in case we need to track them down later. I started doing this job way before everything went digital. Sometimes it’s faster and easier for me to handwrite notes.”
She turned her attention back to Lauren. “I’ve got a description of the clothes he was wearing and the vehicle he arrived in. I tried to chat with him a little, get an idea of where he was going after he left here, but Matt didn’t say much. Neither did the guy who was with him. The cosigner on his bond.”
“Who was the cosigner?” Jason asked. It was likely one of the criminals Matt hung around with. Maybe it was one of the men trying to kill him. It was possible that that was the motivation for bailing Matt out. They’d wanted him set free so they could kill him.
“Tony Santiago,” Lauren said. She looked up at Jason. “Does that name ring any bells?”
Jason shook his head. “No.” He turned to Barb. “This is the man who put up the cash to keep my brother out of jail?”
“No, not cash. Collateral. A restaurant.”
“Santiago’s Restaurant and Cantina,” Lauren read from the screen of an electronic tablet Al had handed to her.
“Yep,” Al said. “I sent you the specifics on this yesterday.” He raised an eyebrow. “Maybe you could check your email a little more often.”
“You’re right. I will,” Lauren muttered.
“If Matthew isn’t recovered and turned in to the police, we get to take possession of the restaurant and sell it to get our bond money back,” Al said to Jason.
“This is clearly the best place to start looking for you brother again.” Lauren reached out and rested her hand on Jason’s forearm. It was a small gesture, but her touch helped. It grounded him. And reminded him that he was not alone in trying to untangle the dangerous mess his brother had gotten himself into.
He lifted his gaze to look into Lauren’s brown eyes. It felt like something passed between them, an understanding. Like this was no longer just a business arrangement for her, which was what it had been after the shooting in the diner parking lot. Maybe she was starting to genuinely care about Matt’s welfare and not just about earning her bounty recovery fee.
He broke off his gaze and looked away, not quite certain what the emotion was that he felt. Gratitude, maybe.
“Nobody wants to be forced to give up their business because somebody they vouched for on a bond skipped a court date,” Lauren said. “I don’t care how close of a friend he is. So we’ll head to the restaurant. See if this Tony guy is there, or if somebody can give us his home address. Because I’m certain Tony will want to help us.” She smiled at Jason, and his heart did a stupid little flip in his chest. “Let’s go,” she added.
They headed out to her SUV. Once he was buckled in his seat and Lauren pulled out into traffic, he glanced at the screen of his phone. He’d called his brother again earlier this morning and gotten no answer. And Matt had not called him back.
The deeper he got into the search for his brother, the less any of the information he was gaining made sense. And the more Jason worried that the search might be putting him into even worse danger. Fear for Matt’s safety rippled through his gut, and the thought crossed his mind that maybe he didn’t really want to help get Matt arrested, after all. Maybe the way to keep his brother alive was to let Matt disappear like he obviously wanted to.
But he knew as soon as the thought crossed his mind that he couldn’t do that. Matt had to be brought to justice.