Page 51 of Riptide

“This FBI guy. Are you sure he’s not involved?” Kaimana paused and glanced at Seth. “You’re positive? Because I’ve been in hiding for months and now that we, ugh, may have killed—”

“Protected. We protected ourselves from an attack,” Seth interrupted. “Seriously, fuck those guys.”

“One hundred percent,” Kaimana agreed. “But if this gets leaked to the wrong people…they’ll move somewhere else. Or worse…they could come after us.”

“I give you my word that my contact is clean. We could also pull in Raine.” Garrett shook his head. “I don’t know.”

“She was into him,” Seth said. “Seemed broken up after his death.”

“She stopped working for Emerson. Took leave.” Garrett reached for his coffee cup. “Yeah, I don’t think we should bring her in now that I think of it. It was a dumb idea.”

“She’s been through enough. If…when we find Evan, he could be in rough shape. Does she really need to see that? And God forbid something worse has happened to him. No. I vote no.” Seth looked to Kaimana.

“I know you believe he’s alive,” Garrett said.

“He is alive,” she insisted.

“I agree with Seth.” Garrett set his cup onto the table and sighed. “I’m sorry. Even if he was alive when he gave that matchbook to Joli, he might not be now. And before you say anything, I want to believe more than anyone he’s alive. But I’m just being real.”

Guilt threaded through Seth. They hadn’t told anyone he was alive. “I think we need to call Lars.”

“Lars?” Garrett shook his head. “No. We already talked about this. If we tell him what’s going on, his ass is going to be back here on a plane, and he will put himself in danger.”

“We can just tell him I’m fine and then hang up.”

“When you died, and Braelynn went into witness protection, he was pretty bummed. He’s in the Himalayas. Said something about doing some climbing. It’s part of some kind of an off the grid meditation retreat. Braelynn is in witness protection, and he’s not allowed to see her for a while. That alone is killing him. Let’s just get through this next week and when he comes back online, we can tell him you’re alive. Or you can go to Nepal yourself and try to find him and tell him. Whatever you want.”

“I can’t believe he’d go to Nepal.” Seth shook his head.

“Losing you and Brae at the same time was rough on him. I encouraged him to get away for a few months. Clear his head. I’m confident he’ll meet up with Brae soon enough. Right now, I agree with the Feds that it’s better she stay hidden…even from him. It is what it is.”

“Okay, okay, okay. No Lars. No Raine.” Seth’s stomach tightened and he set down his fork. “We’ll head up to LA this afternoon.”

“There’s a safe house in Malibu. Nice view of the ocean. Gated. Secluded. You’ll be close enough to downtown LA. Marcus Taylor is the name of the agent who’s going to meet us up there.”

“Hopefully Joli knows something about this auction. If she’s not there, we need to we see if there’re any neighbors around.”

“She gave me the impression she was staying on a permanent basis. But who knows? If she’s being trafficked, they could move her anywhere,” Kaimana told them.

“These days they don’t even have to move them. Plenty of business in LA. We’ll find her.”

“The matchbook cover. Xtra. It’s got to be tied into this thing with Evan. The auction.” Seth’s mind churned with thoughts. “Maybe it’s a cover for trafficking. Or maybe there’s more than swinging going on there.”

“High-end club. But Marcus said it’s mobbed up. Dom Marretta. He bought it six months ago,” Garrett said.

“You been there?” Seth asked.

“Just once but it was over a year ago. Before I met Selby. I went with Chase. He used to be a member which allows him to gift nights to friends. Mostly couples with your occasional single mixed in. It gives off that secret society vibe that people seem to like. Comes at a high price tag. They recruit models to attend. Lord knows LA has plenty of them. Members must pass a screening process. They need to be interesting and bring something to the club.”

“So did Chase hook us up?” Seth asked.

“Yeah, but of course, he doesn’t know it’s you who’s coming with me. At least not yet,” Garrett said. “Marcus is investigating. He has contacts we don’t know about. He couldn’t tell me much this morning, but he’ll probably share more information when you get there. He’s got to keep this on the down low because if someone in the government is involved…well, that wouldn’t be good. We go slow and steady.”

“Anything else?” Seth asked.

“Only that I’m not going to be able to get up there tonight. I have some very important government officials visiting Emerson. But I promise I’ll meet up with you again in Hawaiʻi.”

“We’ll text you when we’re done,” Seth told him.