Edge of Danger (San Antonio Security #2)

Chapter Sixteen

Two days of looking into Tessa’s story had left Brax more certain of one thing than he’d ever been: Robert needed a good throttling. He’d needed one for a long time.

“I knew he wasn’t exactly a sweetheart,” he murmured, passing files back and forth among his brothers. “But this takes being a rotten human being to a new level.”

“He’s playing in the pros,” Luke grunted.

“He could manage an entire team.” Chance blew out a low whistle at the report of the accident that had killed Tessa’s parents. “Wild. No matter how many times I see something like this, it always shakes me up a little. One minute they were on their way to dinner. The next? It’s over.”

Brax only half heard his brother’s musings. What concerned him was Tessa. How it must’ve felt to lose her parents so suddenly. How terrified she must’ve been. How alone.

One of those little reminders of life’s unpredictability. “Never get too comfortable. You never know when it’ll end.”

“Wow.” Weston rubbed his temples with a rueful grin. “We’re a cheerful team today.”

Brax sank into the chair behind his desk. “What I can’t understand is why Robert would go to all the trouble of taking Walker away—setting Tessa up, concocting stories for CPS—if he was planning on leaving the kid with me. He stole his son. Not an easy thing to do, and punishable by law if it turns out the reports were faked. Up to two years in jail, a sizable fine. He took a real risk.”

“He probably didn’t count on getting himself in trouble.” Luke shrugged. “Though knowing him, even as little as I do, I can’t imagine why, considering he was always in trouble for something or other.”

“Arrogant.” Weston sighed. “That sort of person has to be arrogant. They have to believe they’re untouchable. That they’ll be able to get out of any situation—and, of course, that this close call will be the last close call. Their luck will turn around.”

“A lot of good that’s ever done him,” Luke muttered, flipping through the falsified reports Robert had called in. “He’d gone into detail too, like it had taken real thought to put this plan together.”

When Brax looked over the signature on the paperwork terminating Tessa’s parental rights, that part made a lot more sense. “Look who it is. Robert’s cousin Ray. He must’ve coached Robert on what to say, how to make an effective case.”

“At least that works in Tessa’s favor,” Weston pointed out. “It’ll take time, no doubt, but just the fact that the judge is Robert’s cousin is a positive for us. No way should anyone remotely related to one of the parties be involved in a legal proceeding.”

“I know that’ll make her happy.” She deserved a little happiness, a little hope, after everything Robert had put her through.

He looked around at his brothers. “So, the best we can come up with is Robert didn’t figure on getting himself in trouble and having to leave town. I guess running with a baby would slow him down.”

Luke nodded. “I guess we can assume it wasn’t for Walker’s sake that he ended up on your doorstep.”

“Let’s say that if Robert took his son’s safety into consideration, I’d just about fall over in surprise.” Brax smiled, but it was a grim smile. Bitter.

There were people out in the world just dying to have kids of their own, while others treated their children like possessions. Pawns to be used in a larger game.

Just as there were men like his biological father who refused to accept a son’s existence and left him to suffer out of sheer selfishness.

“I can’t believe Tessa kept all this to herself.” Luke shook his head. “So much for one person to carry on their shoulders.”

Brax nodded. “She’s been through a lot. I wonder what those thugs must’ve thought when she didn’t scare easily. And the way she slipped past them and out of Eagle Pass.”

Even he could hear the pride in his voice. He was proud of her. She’d done well.

Once he was alone in his office, he opened his laptop and pulled up the list of dates Tessa had been terrorized. He’d asked her to compile the list in case there was a way of cross-referencing those dates with security footage in the areas in which she’d been accosted or attacked.

License plates, images of the men involved, anything—as long as he could get an idea of exactly who they were dealing with. It had been too dark to make out much about the two attackers who’d found Tessa in his car.

Brax wanted to see them. To know them before he taught them what happened to men who terrorized women.

He recognized one of the dates immediately. The night they’d gone to Nick’s. Her account of the situation confirmed this. She’d been inside the office building with Walker when two men had tried to get inside.

He sat up straighter, eager now, digging into the network to find their security footage. There were cameras mounted at each corner of the building, along with one over the front door. Perfect.

“There you are,” he muttered, staring at the men. One who glared in through the window, one who tried to force the door open.

The longer he studied them, going back and forth through the feed from all three cameras, the more certain he was that these were the men who’d attacked him behind the strip mall.

One of them had a pockmarked face—Tessa had mentioned him, had described what he’d done to her outside the mall before taking her purse. He was the one who’d tried to open the doors.

Brax was no expert in body language or reading facial expressions, but he knew pure frustration when he saw it. The sort of frustration that could turn into violence with little provocation.

Knowing she’d been inside the building and able to see the men who wanted to hurt her sent his blood pressure soaring. Oh, yeah, he was going to enjoy teaching them what happened to men who terrorized women.

He rolled back the footage in hopes of catching sight of the car the men had arrived in, but it was out of the camera’s range.

He switched to another camera, this one mounted at the corner of the building, and rolled the footage back to before he’d arrived with Walker. Just in case the car had passed in the distance, in case they’d been watching even then.

It wasn’t the two men he ended up catching sight of. It was Tessa, emerging from the alley next to the office building. Where had she come from?

He switched feeds, watching her emerge from the alley from a different angle. But there was no footage of her entering the alley, like she would if she’d come up behind the building.

He moved to the camera at the other end of the alley, mounted at the rear of the building, and watched the timestamp at the top of the screen. She hadn’t entered the alley from back there.

So where had she come from?

A sick feeling bloomed in the pit of Brax’s stomach. He rolled the footage back to the time they’d left the office together earlier that night.

There they were, talking. He’d asked if she could come in early, and she had accepted. Then he’d walked away, carrying Walker to the car. Tessa had watched for a moment or two before turning and heading for the alley. Only she’d never come out at the other end.

No wonder it had been so easy for her to get to the office in a hurry. And why she hadn’t even let him finish asking her to move in before accepting. It wasn’t just motherly love.

She’d been sleeping in the alley all along.

His fists tightened hard enough to make his joints ache. Robert had so much to pay for.

Brax was still furious enough when his phone rang that he practically barked into it on answering. “Yeah?”

“Brax. It’s Janice Morgan.”

He forced his anger away. “Hi. How’s it going?”

“About as well as can be expected when dealing with the Riviera cartel.” She sighed. Somehow, the DA sounded even more exhausted than she had the last time they’d spoken—considering that he’d noted her exhaustion then, too, that was saying something.

“What happened?”

“Our shopkeeper passed away last night.”

He closed his eyes, stricken. “I’m sorry to hear that.”

“So am I, considering that the poor guy was recovering well as of yesterday afternoon. I checked in with his doctors to see about his progress, and they were pleased with the way things were going. They told me he might be able to go home as early as tomorrow.”

“You’re kidding.”

“It happens that way sometimes,” she allowed. “But the doctors expressed surprise when I talked to them a few minutes ago.”

“We know what we’re talking about, then.”

“I think we can safely say this has ‘the cartel’ written all over it.”

He couldn’t think of anything to say except to offer a single reassurance. “You can count on me. I don’t plan on backing down from testifying.”

“Thank you for that—but remember, be careful. Now’s the time to grow an extra pair of eyes in the back of your head. With Prince out on bail until the trial, there’s no telling what else he’s put into motion.”

He took this to heart and was still thinking about it hours later when he left for the night. A quick call home confirmed everything was okay there. Tessa and Walker were waiting.

They were quickly becoming the center of his world, if they hadn’t already firmly planted themselves there. What a time to need eyes in the back of his head.

The ride home normally helped clear his mind. It wasn’t a heavily traveled route—he liked it that way, liked not having to sit in traffic the way some commuters did.

The wash of high beams took him by surprise, almost blinding him when the light hit the rearview mirror. He threw an arm up, blinking hard to clear away the spots in his vision.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he asked, tapping the horn. Some people...

His car jolted forward, pushed by the car behind him.

That was no accident.

He floored the gas, determined to outrun them. There was an on-ramp for the freeway about a mile ahead. He could lose the tail there.

The driver had other ideas, ramming him harder than before and almost driving Brax off the road. He corrected in time, swinging the wheel to the left, kicking up clouds of dust. In the end, though, it gave the car behind him just enough room to slide in alongside and force him into the ditch.

Brax’s chest hit the wheel when the car pitched forward, and pain exploded in his shoulder when he hit the door. He pushed the pain aside and brought the car to a stop.

His heart hammered wildly. At least the adrenaline kept the pain at bay, but he knew that he’d be bruised come morning. If he made it to morning.

Looking around, he tried to spot the car that had caused this. There was light up on the road, telling him they’d come to a stop with the high beams still on. The best thing to do was stay in the car, doors locked. He was armed, but there was no way of telling how many people were up there.

Was this because of Robert? Or Prince Riviera?

He found out soon enough. A familiar figure reached the edge of the road, standing just where it dropped off into the ditch. The high beams created a sort of halo around him. But there was nothing holy about the head of the Riviera cartel.

Prince stared down at Brax’s car. What was he waiting for? To see how badly Brax was hurt?

How had the cartel found him?

Rather than descending to the car or sending somebody down in his place, Prince called out from where he stood, “You have the choice not to testify.”

With that, he walked away, and seconds later the sound of a car door closing came as a relief. The glow of the headlights faded to darkness, leaving Brax alone.