Page 67 of Lost Truth
“Of course not.” Gabe dropped the marker into the tray. “But he loves all things water and owns his own boat. One that will outperform Collins’s boat in every way. It’ll hold the entire team and more, but has a super-fast motor.”
“Who will be piloting this thing?” Reece asked, her arms still tight around her body.
“Sawyer, of course. He’s chomping at the bit to go on an adventure like this.”
“I’ll just bet he is.” She looked down at the table.
Hayden wasn’t certain about her feelings for Sawyer, but the attraction between the two was obvious to all and could interfere with the op. He should talk to her outside the meeting. Her sharpshooting skills meant she was critical to the mission, and he needed her not only on the boat, but zeroed-in on her job. He had to make sure she could manage her emotions while close to Sawyer.
But that was a private discussion for the two of them. For now, he would move on. “Thanks for securing the boat for us, Gabe. Let’s review the items we made progress on today. First is related to an attempt to pin our vehicle in and fire at us with a small caliber handgun. We believe the shooter was after the documents we recovered from a bus station storage locker.”
He described finding the key, the gunfire, and how they got away. “My Raptor is toast.”
“There’s no way you can operate incognito anymore,” Nolan said. “You should use the company vehicle going forward.”
“Thanks.” Hayden had never needed to use the SUV the team had sprung for in case of emergency.
“I can get the plate you need run in like five minutes or less.” Gabe dropped onto his chair.
“I’ll hold you to that timeline.” Hayden gave him a challenging grin.
“No worries. My contacts at OSP never fail me.” He blew on his fingernails and rubbed them on his shirt. “I’ll do it as soon as the meeting ends, and you can time me.”
Rolling his eyes, Hayden picked up the marker and wrote Gabe’s name next to the item. “We met up with Nolan at Palmer’s house and gave the documents to him. It would be good to have a couple sets of eyes on these papers to pull out anything we can use.”
Cady sat forward. “I started reviewing the file in the car and found a company called Emerald Scorpion Group. They’re behind trafficking the women, but the really big news is they were funneling the money through Kai’s shop.”
Reece gasped. “But he helped rescue women. Why would he funnel money for them?”
“That’s what I hope we’ll figure out by doing a detailed review of the documents,” Cady said. “I want to finish my review but need help in case I miss something. And research needs to be done on the Emerald Scorpion Group.”
Hayden sipped his coffee. “I’ll write algorithms to search for the group, but it would be good to get multiple pairs of eyes on the documents.”
“I’ll volunteer.” Reece planted her palms on the table. “My gut says Kai isn’t guilty, and he’s being set up.”
Jude nodded at her. “If Reece’s gut thinks he’s not guilty, I do too. I’ll be glad to help with the documents.”
“Thanks.” Hayden added their names, along with Cady’s, to the list. “Next is Palmer. While we were watching his house, Wade Collins paid him a visit.”
Gabe’s head jerked back. “Collins? That seals Palmer’s connection to the trafficking.”
“I wouldn’t say ‘seals.’” Abby shot Gabe a sidelong glance. “They could be legitimately working together on something else. Like maybe Collins is offering boat cruises for guests at the mansion.”
“Were you close enough to hear their conversation?” Nolan asked.
Hayden shook his head. “But Palmer has a doorbell camera. I hacked his Wi-Fi to download recent recordings and reviewed the one from today right away. Collins didn’t like the fact that we’ve been snooping around and wanted to bow out of tonight’s meetup. Palmer told him there was no way we could know about their Thursday night pickups, and the meeting would go on as usual. He told Collins that if he didn’t show up, he could count on the Chinese coming after him.”
Reece shook her head. “Palmer’s as nice of a guy as we thought.”
Gabe snorted. “A class act, that one. We’ll have to hope the guy doesn’t rethink this and get cold feet.”
“As far as I’m concerned, we’re still on for tonight.” Hayden controlled his breathing so the others didn’t see his extreme level of stress. “Anyone not with me?”
He waited for someone to disagree, likely Gabe, but no one spoke up. “Good. Then we’re a go. Until then, we haven’t had a chance to review the older videos and need help.”
“I’ve waded through my share of videos in my career.” Abby gave him a focused stare. “So count me in.”
Hayden smiled at her. Watching video files could be extremely tedious, and he was thankful she stepped up right away. He added her name to the board, then tapped the last item,Search for names on the dark web matching code names.
