“Maybe he’ll send someone to do his dirty work. Someone we won’t see coming?” Darlene mused beside him, steam rising from her coffee.
He shook his head. “He’ll want to end this himself. He’s hands-on that way.” The words tasted bitter in his mouth.
Brick’s father may have been cavalier when it came to things like the law and the gray areas between right and wrong, but the man had never raised a hand to a woman. It was a line that real men never crossed. “You’d better hope that we catch him first then,” Darlene said, her cool green gaze finding some far off point on the water to fixate on. “Some of our fine folks are itching for a good fight after that winter.”
“He’s mine,” Brick said coldly.
“I get that you want to be the one slapping the cuffs on him.”
He wondered what the chief would think if she knew exactly what he felt compelled to do to the man who’d almost ended Remi’s life. He should have wrestled with it himself. He was a man of the law. Of strong morals and a belief in rules and the reasons to follow them. But Vorhees wasn’t human and therefore didn’t deserve to have that same moral code applied to him.
He wanted to end him. To extinguish the threat so that the woman he loved would be safe. Would stay safe.
The last of the passengers exited the boat, a woman with a knapsack and suitcase. She beamed at both of them as she hustled toward the road.
People came to Mackinac for adventure, for the community.
But sooner or later, a monster would come to destroy.
“Don’t let it cloud you,” Darlene said, turning away from the ferry.
He followed her down the concrete pier toward the ticket booth and Lake Shore Drive, where fresh tourists eagerly clustered around maps.
“I won’t,” he said.
This time those green eyes assessed him. “Don’t let a monster turn you into one,” she said. “I’ve known you a long time, Will. Long enough to know that you’ve got an extra large heart beating under all that muscle. I know you’d do anything to keep the ones you care about safe. That you’d go the extra mile to protect them. I also know that Remi can inspire strong feelings. Don’t let those feelings push you across a line you don’t really want to cross.”
There wasn’t a line he wouldn’t cross for Remington Ford. “I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe, chief.”
“I have no doubt. Just make sure you don’t get yourself hurt in the process.”
He nodded. “Any updates on the shopkeeper in North Carolina?” In Remi’s research, she’d stumbled across the name of an old girlfriend of the senator’s. A woman who had moved across the country, deleting her social media and starting fresh in a small town. Darlene had volunteered to talk to her woman to woman.
“She won’t talk. Scared to death, the poor thing. I managed to get out of her that there was an NDA. Beyond that, she doesn’t want to be involved.”
He blew out a breath through his nose. “I’ve got a half-assed affidavit from the Vorhees’s former housekeeper. She saw bruises, evidence of struggles, but never witnessed anything.”
“In other words, we’ve still got bupkis,” the chief said.
“When Remi talked to Camille, she mentioned re-election,” Brick said, his gaze studying each face on the street, comparing it to the one he was searching for.
Darlene pursed her lips. “Maybe there’s something there. Guy tries to murder his wife, why wouldn’t he play it fast and loose with his campaign finances? He’s above the law. The rules don’t apply to him. I’ll make a few calls to see if I can find out if there’s an active investigation.”
Brick nodded. In a perfect world, he’d keep Vorhees occupied with law enforcement in Chicago or D.C., keeping him far away from Remi.
His phone buzzed on his belt.
“Dad?” he answered briskly. Darlene gave him a salute and strolled off.
“How’s the weather up north?”
“Do you have something for me?” Brick asked, not in the mood for small talk.
William cleared his throat. “Uh, I might. Maybe a source. I might be able to convince him to go on the record.”
Brick’s grip tightened on the phone. “You were only supposed to be keeping tabs on Vorhees,” he reminded him. He could trust his father to follow a trail, but not jump into the middle of a mess like this. Not with Remi at stake.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been doing,” William assured him. “But in doing that, I may have struck up an acquaintanceship of sorts.”
“What did you do, Dad?” he asked, starting to feel panicky.
“I merely helped one of Vorhees’s staffers out of a jam in a scuffle at a bar. Got him out the door just before the cops came. He’s feeling appreciative.”
“What does he do for Vorhees?”
“Security. I read the room and mentioned how I wouldn’t mind getting some information on his boss’s questionable activities.”
Brick wanted to crawl through the phone and wring his father’s neck.
“Did he give you anything, or did you just put a target on Remi’s back?”
“Son, this ain’t my first rodeo. I told my new friend that I wouldn’t mind making a few bucks off his boss and I’d be inclined to share the proceeds if he was helpful. This was after I saw the senator spit in the man’s face when he tried to help Mrs. Vorhees into a car. The senator didn’t seem to like that.”
Fucker.
“You told the personal security of a United States Senator that you intended to blackmail his boss?”
“Well, if you want it in a nutshell, then yeah.”
Brick closed his eyes. “That was not a smart move. If word gets back to Vorhees—”
“It won’t,” William assured him. “He’s the source you’ve been looking for. Insider. Been kicked around by the rich boss. Not feeling too loyal. Best of all, he knows a lot of dirt. “
“What kind of dirt?” Brick asked.
“Seems that the boss called him to pick him up at the airport a few months back. He wasn’t due back in Chicago for another three days. When he got there, Vorhees took his car and told him to catch a ride home. Never saw his car again. It was a Chevy Tahoe.”
Brick’s mind ran through the timing.
“Fuck,” he swore.
“Senator Vorhees was so appreciative he gave the guy a brand new Escalade.”
“That still doesn’t prove anything,” Brick pointed out, frustration rising.
“I’d be inclined to agree if I didn’t have pictures on my phone of the wreck. Tracked it down to a junkyard in the ’burbs. Looks like it hit something head-on. I also have the Lyft receipt of our friend getting picked up from the airport that night.”
This was something. Something he could work with.
“Will he talk?” Brick demanded.
“I’m working on that. If there’s money in it for him, he has no problem singing like a goddamn canary. But it’s going to take some time to make him comfortable with the idea of the cops.”
“Make him.”
“This takes finesse, son. I’ll do my best.”