Chapter Three

Luke’s gaze was stuck to his rearview mirror as he drove away from the motel. Leaving Claire alone went against everything in his gut, but he had to do it.

He needed answers, and at that moment, they weren’t coming from her.

At the first stoplight, he put in a call to his friend over at the San Antonio PD, Rick Gavett.

“Gavett.” The background sounds of a busy police department undercut Rick’s voice.

“Rick, it’s Luke Patterson.”

“Luke! I usually get a call from Weston, not you. Who do you need found today?”

They’d all known Rick for years, although Weston was closest with him. He’d been on the force with Rick before a bullet during an undercover assignment gone wrong had ended Weston’s law enforcement career and almost his life. Rick had always been willing to help out San Antonio Security whenever he could.

“Not trying to find anyone today, believe it or not.” Luke looked in the rearview again, even though he couldn’t see the motor lodge any longer.

“No one? What, are you guys shutting down San Antonio Security or something?”

“Not while I’m alive and kicking.” The light turned green. “I need a different kind of favor from you today.”

“Do tell.”

“I have an old friend I need to check up on. Name’s Claire Wallace.” The name tasted achingly sweet on Luke’s tongue, like he’d gotten one bite of the best dessert in the world and now wanted more.

“A lady friend?”

“A childhood friend. She’s in some kind of trouble and needs my help, but the details are slow coming.”

“Claire Wallace. Got it. I’ll see what I can dig up later this afternoon when things aren’t so crazy. I’ll call you soon.”

“Thanks. And hey, Rick?”

“Yeah.”

“I’d appreciate if you keep this on the down-low.” Luke cleared his throat. “Claire isn’t the kind to get involved in trouble. Whatever’s going on, I don’t think it’s her fault.”

At least, he hoped it wasn’t.

He ended the call with Rick and drove the rest of the way back to the office, waiting a second in his truck before getting out.

Everything outside looked normal. No cars with tinted windows cruising by slowly. No one watching from the bus stop bench across the street. But that was because the people waiting to pounce on Luke were already inside.

His brothers were going to have questions, a lot of them. He got out with a sigh and walked to the door.

Sure enough, Luke wasn’t inside two seconds before his brothers were all over him.

“Who was that?” Weston, serious as always, frowned in concern. “Why have we never heard you mention Claire Wallace before?”

Chance fired out his question before Weston was even done. “You didn’t buy that whole ‘stole my cards but not my cash’ story. No mugger in the history of the world has ever done that.”

Brax held out his hands to calm everyone down. “Guys. Let’s start with the most important question... Can I be the flower girl at your and Claire’s wedding? Because seriously, I’ve never seen you be so sweet and soft-spoken with anyone, even Mom.”

Chance and Weston chuckled, and Luke rolled his eyes, brushing past them and walking toward his office. “She’s a potential client. Can a guy get some space?”

They followed. He knew they would. Ignoring them, Luke sat at his desk and powered on his computer.

“We’re concerned.” Chance took the seat across from him, the same one Claire had sat in.

“She’s an old friend. I knew her when we were at the group home together in Skyline Park before it was shut down.”

“Right.” Brax leaned against the doorjamb. “The group home. You were there much longer than me, but never talk much about it.”

Luke shrugged. He didn’t talk about his past because none of it was worth repeating. He’d never known his biological father, and his mother had lost custody of him when he was seven because of the drug problem that eventually led to her death. He’d bounced around foster homes until he ended up at the hellhole Skyline Park at thirteen, and tried to get out of there as often as possible. Living on the streets had been preferable. He’d probably be dead or in prison if the Pattersons hadn’t taken him in.

What was there to talk about?

“Why did Claire come here?” Chance asked after it became obvious Luke wasn’t going to say anything else. “Have you been in touch with her since the group home?”

“No. I haven’t seen her since she was placed with a family when she was eleven. Obviously, she’s in some kind of trouble,” Luke said. “She won’t tell me what. We’re supposed to talk more tomorrow.”

Chance nodded. “But she specifically sought you out after all these years. You must’ve made some kind of impression on her.”

Luke looked up at his most quiet and thoughtful brother and nodded. Had he impacted Claire that deeply? It would certainly be nice to think so. “We sort of looked out for each other at the group home.”

“You mean, you looked out for her,” Brax inserted. “It looks like a door slamming too loudly could scare that girl.”

“Yeah, I guess.” Luke nodded thoughtfully, his eyes on the wall. “Claire was younger than me. I was thirteen when she showed up at the home at ten years old. I’d been about to run away again, actually. Had my bag packed and everything.”

It had been a plastic shopping bag. The backpack he’d shown up with long gone—stolen by another kid before he’d aged out of the group home.

Luke hadn’t had a plan; he just knew staying there wasn’t going to work.

A lot of foster homes weren’t great, but the group home was terrible. Kids were cruel to each other, stole and fought all the time, and the adults barely paid any attention to what was going on. You had to sleep with one eye open, if you got any sleep at all in the dormitory-style bedrooms.

“But you didn’t leave?” Brax went to the window and surveyed the parking lot.

A distant memory tugged on Luke’s heart. Little Claire. She’d been so delicate. Ten, but more the size of an eight-or nine-year-old. She’d pulled on every protective instinct Luke hadn’t even known he’d had.

“Kids there were the worst of the bunch—most of them unplaceable. Older ones were always looking for someone to pick on, and it didn’t take long for Claire to be cast in that role. Her head was always in a book or on a computer. So quiet and shy. A bully’s dream.”

Only a couple of days after she arrived at the group home, Claire showed up at the breakfast table with bruises and scratches.

Not unlike how she showed up at the office this morning.

A girl always known for starting trouble had been picking on little Claire—bullying her in ways just short of overt.

Luke wasn’t the oldest or biggest kid at Skyline Park, but he knew how to take care of himself and had long since proven no one should mess with him. And for a reason he still couldn’t identify, he’d stepped in and helped Claire.

“I helped her out.” He shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. But it had been a big deal for them. “She was scared all the time. Boys and girls slept on separate ends of the house, which meant I could only protect her during the day. So I stole some walkie-talkies from the dollar store so we could talk at night.”

He looked up from his computer to find all three of his brothers staring at him thoughtfully. He’d never talked about his past this much.

“We checked in every night until she was placed with a family when she was eleven.”

Luke’s throat constricted. He hadn’t realized just how important Claire was to him until she wasn’t there anymore. With her gone, the bag came out again. He was living on the streets not even a week later before he was caught and brought back.

Not long after, the Pattersons had found him and offered him a place in their home.

“She meant something to you,” Weston said in his quiet way.

Luke scrubbed a hand over his short brown hair. “Yeah, I guess. In a kid way. If she’s in trouble now, I’d like to help, too.”

Chance stood from his chair. “Then that’s what we’ll all do.”

Luke turned to Weston. “I’ve already got Rick Gavett running her to see if anything comes up. I’m going to dig into her, too, so I know what we’re up against when I see her tomorrow. I’ll keep you posted.”

He spent the rest of the morning and a big chunk of the afternoon alternating between the paperwork still overwhelming his desk and seeking info about Claire.

The basics were easy to get. Claire had stayed close to home for college, then she started developing software and apps for Passage Digital right out of school. She’d never been married—he refused to even acknowledge whatever feeling it was that zinged through his chest at that info—and had committed no crimes.

Nothing stuck out as particularly notable or questionable.

So, what then? How had Claire accidentally gotten involved in some bad news? Hopefully, Rick would be able to shine more light on that subject because Luke was having no luck, meaning he had no choice but to face the paperwork piles.

The doorbell ringing made Luke look up a couple of hours later, before glancing at his watch. Already nearly five o’clock.

“Can we help you?” he heard Brax ask.

“Are you Luke Patterson?”

“No, I’m his brother, Brax. We’re partners in San Antonio Security. Are you looking to hire us?”

“I’m Officer Arellano.” He pointed to the shorter man next to him, who was also in a suit, pulling out a badge and showing it was real. “And this is Officer Fisher. We have a few questions about Claire Wallace.”

At the sound of Claire’s name, Luke dropped the papers he was filing and zoomed into the waiting area, forcing himself to slow as he walked in. “Afternoon, officers. I’m Luke Patterson.”

Arellano’s eyes narrowed as Weston and Chance also entered the reception area. “I thought you guys were brothers.”

Luke didn’t have time for a cultural sensitivity lesson right now. “Did Rick send you over with info?”

Fisher crossed his arms over his chest, ignoring the question. “We’re looking for Claire Wallace. Is she here?”

Luke shook his head. “Nobody is here but us right now. Is there a reason you’re looking for her?”

“Why don’t you let us ask the questions,” Arellano bit out.

Luke forced himself to keep a relaxed posture against the doorframe. Something about these guys was off, and he wasn’t going to give them any info about Claire until he knew more.

“We know you’ve been in contact with Claire Wallace today. We need to ask her some important questions.”

“She wanted for something?” Brax asked with his friendly smile.

Fisher and Arellano glanced at each other. “We’re not at liberty to say. It’s in your best interest to let us know where she is.”

Like hell it was. If Rick hadn’t sent them, then how did they even know Claire had been in contact?

Luke took a step forward. “She was only here for a few minutes.”

“What did she want?” Fisher asked. “What did she talk about? You need to tell us everything she said.”

Luke shrugged. “She wasn’t here very long. Was asking if we had any protection agency contacts for Toledo. It was Toledo, right, guys? Wasn’t that where she was going?”

His brothers backed him up with affirmative responses immediately. Luke hadn’t had any doubt they would.

“Toledo, Ohio ?” The tall cop’s face folded in annoyance.

Chance perched himself on the edge of the couch. “I know, right? Why would anyone leave Texas to go to Ohio? Sadly, we didn’t have any contacts there to offer her.”

Arellano’s eyes narrowed. “Why’d she come here in the first place?”

Brax hooked a thumb in Luke’s direction. “McDreamy over here was on the news a month ago. Now we’re overwhelmed with clients of the female persuasion. Not that we’re complaining.”

“Sorry we’re not more help,” Luke said, not at all sorry. He wanted them out of here so he could talk to Rick and find out exactly what the hell was going on. “If you want to leave your card, we can let you know if Ms. Wallace contacts us from Toledo.”

The officers glanced at each other again like they weren’t exactly sure what to do with that offer. Just another clue that something was off.

“We’ll be in touch if we need you,” Fisher said, and they walked out the door without another word.

“What the hell was that all about?” Brax asked.

Luke wasn’t sure if his brother meant the fact that there was something completely off about those cops or the fact that they’d just lied to them.

He was saved from answering by his ringing cell phone. Pulling it from his pocket, he saw it was just the man he wanted to talk to.

“Rick. Talk to me.”

“Who the hell is Claire Wallace, Patterson?”

The words were so loud, Luke knew all his brothers could hear.

“What did you find?”

“It’s crazy. I’ve haven’t seen such red flags in my whole fifteen years of law enforcement. It’s like she’s a fugitive and there’s a statewide manhunt going on for her—all inquiries are sent straight up to the top of the law enforcement food chain to the Criminal Investigations Department in Dallas.”

Luke’s heart sank. “So she’s wanted for something pretty bad.”

“You would think so. But that’s where it gets really weird. There’s not even an official APB on her. She’s got no record, and she wasn’t even in the Texas Department of Public Safety system until a few days ago.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Rick. Is Claire a wanted criminal or not?”

“I’m saying something really weird is going on, and it’s way above my pay grade.”

Luke ran a hand through his hair, looking at his brothers. “We just had a visit from a couple of officers. Fisher and Arellano. They legit?”

He could hear Rick type into his computer. “Yeah,” he whispered a minute later. “They’re Criminal Investigations Division in Dallas. My inquiry must have led them to you. There’s something not right about all this, Luke. It doesn’t make sense to send someone from Dallas when they could’ve just sent someone from our office to talk to you.”

“Yeah. That doesn’t seem right.”

“Look, I’ll send you what I have on Wallace, although it’s not mu—” Rick muttered a curse under his breath.

“What?”

“File on Claire Wallace had been locked. I can’t get into it anymore.”

Luke had no idea what to say about that.

“Look,” Rick finally said. “Someone way high up is looking for this woman and not through normal channels. I’ll see if I can find anything else, but it looks like they’re closing it down on my end. They’ll probably say it’s an Internal Affairs issue.”

“Thanks for trying, Rick.”

“Listen, Luke. This whole thing stinks to high heaven, and now you’re right in the middle of it. Until we know what’s going on, you guys be careful.”

“We will.”

Luke hung up and looked around at his brothers, who all wore matching grim expressions. They’d heard enough to know this had just gotten ugly.

Luke needed answers. They all did.

The quickly falling night drew his attention outside. He wasn’t supposed to talk to Claire until tomorrow morning, but this couldn’t wait. She was the only one who really knew what was going on.

And it was time for her to start talking.