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Although Rachel was resting in a guest bedroom under Eve’s watchful eye, and everyone else had resumed work, the atmosphere had changed drastically.
Jake glanced at Tara. She’d taken over for Rachel and was deep in research mode, following thread after thread, trying to locate Thomas Brady, her father, or rather, more like what his sisters referred to, the “sperm donor.”
Jake wanted to hate the man but, if not for him, Tara wouldn’t exist. If not for what had happened to her at Brady’s hands, Jake may have never met her. And what she called her equine senses had been born in response to Brady’s abusive hands. Exceptional senses that picked up on something going on with Rachel today.
“I have him.” Tara’s voice was low.
“What did you say?” asked Jake.
She cleared her throat. “I have him right here on my screen. Ballsy bastard’s at a yearling sale in California.”
“Hang on.” Quinn reached from behind her and clicked keys until the image from her monitor appeared on the big wall screen.
“Show us, Tara. Use the cursor.”
“Right here.” She circled the face of a blond man. “He’s at the holding ring where the next yearlings wait for their turn in the sales arena. The sale’s being broadcast live online. He’s got to know there are dozens of cameras in there but he just doesn’t care. Talk about thumbing your nose at the world.”
Jake stepped close to the screen and watched Brady pointing at a horse and talking to the man beside him. “Doesn’t look like he’s worried about being spotted, but the hair really does make him look different. I’m not sure I would have recognized him. But I’ve got him now.”
“I’d know that face anywhere,” Tara said under her breath. “But it’s his posture I picked up first. Then I zoomed in and knew it for sure.” She looked up at Quinn. “Now what?”
“Now we send in the troops.” He was dialing the landline. “Not sure which agency will go for him, but I’ll contact them all and let them decide.”
The calls were brief, and the link to the live feed was sent. Then they sat back and watched. All of them tense, hoping the man stayed put until the authorities got there.
“Look at that,” said Quinn. He glanced at the clock. “Only took them twenty-two minutes.” He used a laser pointer. “These two guys approaching from opposite sides, and this one coming from behind.”
It was a well-executed maneuver. Two men slipped in alongside Brady, each clamping one hand above his elbow and another on his wrist. The third agent stepped right up against Brady’s back. Their approach showed they were assuming he was carrying a concealed weapon, and they’d made sure he couldn’t get to it before they did.
“Subtle,” said Quinn. “Guy on the right’s already pocketed the weapon. And they’re moving him out with barely a half dozen people noticing. No disruption at all. Well done.”
“FBI, Jake?”
“I don’t know. Could be, but no one I recognize. Hell, there are enough agencies involved that it could have even been a private firm they called in. All depends on who was available in the area. Whoever it was, they’re good, Quinn. Might be worth finding out in case we ever need to add to the team.”
“You okay, Tara?” Quinn was studying her like a bug under glass.
“It was surreal, like something on TV. Like it’s not really over.” She pushed her chair away from the table. “I need a few minutes for it to sink in.” She hurried from the room.
Jake was shoving back his chair, intent on following her, when Quinn said, “Leave her alone for a bit. She needs to get this squared away in her head without any interference. There’s a grieving process, and in the beginning, she’ll need some time to herself. To adjust to the reality of putting her own father in jail.”
Brady had never been a father to her. Jake shook his head. He wanted to check on her, but he’d wait.
“We’ve all put in a day,” said Quinn. “We’ll shut things down for now and debrief tomorrow at eight hundred hours.”
Jake hung back and was standing by the window guzzling the last of his soda when Quinn and Rachel walked arm-in-arm toward their SUV. Jake wondered what it would feel like to have Tara at his side that way, carrying his baby. He choked and bubbles sailed upwards, burning a path to the back of his nose. Coughing, sputtering and eyes watering, he mopped his face with the napkin Angie passed him.
“Suppose to swallow that stuff, not inhale it.”
“Thanks.” He coughed. “Catch you later.”
He wasn’t going to wait any longer to go after Tara.
#
By noon the next day, they’d already received updates from all the agencies involved in Brady’s arrest. The list of charges was impressive and bail had been denied as he was considered a flight risk.
Quinn put a file up on the wall monitor and filled them in on some of the high points. “The horse that died on the plane was, as suspected, one of Brady’s switches, therefore needed to be eliminated before a DNA test could be performed on him, as was required for him to stand at stud in the US.”
Great, thought Tara, I just happened to be in the right place at the right time for Brady to kill two birds.
Would he have gone for her some other time, some other place? Or had that just been a happy coincidence? She’d never know for sure, so she’d have to find a way to let it go. At the sound of Quinn’s voice, she tuned back in to what was going on around her.
“Vedigan Way was also a switch. But luckily, one of his grooms had saved not only the horse’s favorite toy—a stuffed bear they’d hung in his doorway—but also some of his mane and tail hair. Saliva from the toy, as well as roots from the hair were used to determine that the horse did not belong to his pedigree. We hope to solve the mystery of his disappearance one day, but so far, we have no new leads and Brady is denying any involvement.”
“Ah, but we can do better than hope.” Rachel had been slouched down in the chair beside Quinn’s, but now she pulled herself up. “We can be proactive and have ears in the right places once this news goes public. You can bet there will be lots of talk and buried in it there will be information.” She rubbed a hand over her enormous baby belly. “I just wish I could be out there to help stir the pot. I hate that a horse might be suffering somewhere.”
Quinn touched her arm. A simple movement that said so much. “If he’s out there, we’ll find him for you.”
She laid her hand over his and he continued, but Tara didn’t miss the way their fingers intertwined.
“Now, some of Brady’s switches were done prior to a foal’s samples being sent for registration and some were done after. It was the ones done after that put him at the most risk as they’d be easier to prove. Meyers Security has officially offered their services for any or all of these investigations.”
“Did they get him on any assaults?” asked Jake.
“They’re still working on those. However, thanks to your help, Tara, he has been charged with the murder of the woman who was his girlfriend during the time you were staying with him. Her body was found a hundred miles away about ten days after the date of her disappearance.”
“Whoa,” said Angie.
Tara tuned out as he went through the rest of the charges. They had him on murder, so he wouldn’t be able to get to her ever again. She was free.
But shouldn’t it feel better than this?
When the meeting adjourned, she needed to get outside. To breathe. First, she made a couple of phone calls, then she slipped out and headed for the loop trail. Liked being able to see the barns and horses, and was pretty certain Jake would follow her there.
It didn’t take long.
“Hey,” he said, when he joined her. “What’s up?”
She hated that her words were going to upset him, but they had to be said. She couldn’t stay here. There were things...
Make it fast, like a ripping off a bandage.
“I have to go.”
He took her hand and turned her to face him. “Go where? I thought we had something real happening here.”
“We do.”
“Then why are you leaving me?”
“I’m not leaving you. But I need some time to get my head back on. My life has been about him for so long that I need to know what it feels like without him. Just me. Not us. Because if I’m not a me first, how can I be half an us?”
“That shouldn’t make sense to me at all, but somehow, it does. I guess that means we’re meant for each other.”
“I think we are.” And wasn’t that the boldest thing she’d ever said? “That’s why I want to get it right. I want to bring my whole self to the game.” And she needed to find out who she really was.
“I’ll fly you and your entourage home.” He slung an arm around her shoulders.
“I’m going to Paradise first because I need to talk through some stuff with Grace.” His arm dropped away. “Angie’s taking us in the Steed tomorrow. Grace made the arrangements. She said Quinn was about to send you on an assignment.”
“First I’ve heard.”
“I’m sorry.”
He shook his head. “Don’t.”
She stepped in front of him and framed his face. “I am sorry this is hard for you, but it’s not going to be a walk in the park for me either. More than anything, I want to stay here with you and let the rest of the world slip away over the horizon. But I can’t have that. Reality would eventually come along and bite me in the butt. So I’m going to put on my big girl panties, or as you guys say, grow a pair, and I’m going to get on with getting on.”
He smiled. “When you get tough, I remember the first time we met. You were telling it like it was to that flight attendant about your last-minute seat change. Gotta tell you, that was the one and only time, as a passenger that I didn’t sit in an aisle seat. I was mightily impressed with your performance and it annoyed me to no end that you wouldn’t so much as give me the time of day.”
“You never asked me the time.” She grinned.
He laughed, then sobered and kissed her gently. “Will you come back to the house and spend the night with me?”
“Of course.”
His smile came back. “You’re really not trying to dump me?”
“I’m really not trying to dump you.
They stayed in Jake’s rooms that night. He’d wanted her in his own bed, even though it was just a temporary one in his uncle’s house.
Watching her sleep was clichéd, but he couldn’t help himself. He was storing up all the memories he could. An uneasiness that’d been lurking for days crawled into his belly and took up residence.
There was something going on with her. Something she wasn’t telling him, and that made him nervous. She needed Grace’s help. Yet said there was nothing he could help her with and that was hard to accept. What could Grace do for her that he couldn’t?
What was it that still troubled Tara?
“You’re thinking too hard,” murmured Tara.
He drew her back against him and put his mouth on the sensitive skin beneath her ear, loving the soft sound she made in her throat. He slid his hands over her stomach and lower, drawing a sigh of pleasure as he took her up slowly, and nudged her over.
“I was sleeping.” And her voice sounded like sleep, and sex.
He teased her ear with his teeth. “I wasn’t.”
She rolled over and smiled, reaching for him, guiding him home.