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Alex Jansen was Bliss’s uncle through his marriage to Natches’s sister, Janey, and Erin’s father. Shane Mayes and Samantha Bryce were close friends of the family.
Moving to them were three undercover DHS operatives and one very pissed-off assistant director of DHS, Chatham Bromleah Doogan. The assistant director was engaged to Dawg’s youngest sister while two of the others had married his older sisters, Eve and Piper.
The family ties were starting to get a little tangled amid the Mackays, Angel thought with a spurt of humor, and with that group involved she had no idea what Duke thought they could do there.
“Why are we here?” she asked him quietly as he parked the Jeep behind a black pickup in a neighbor’s yard. “Looks like Mackay family members have this pretty well covered.”
Duke glanced at her before turning his attention back to the scene. “There’s a lot of people here.” He nodded to the crowd. “And there are two dead bodies inside. I figure whoever came in gunning for her might be curious.”
Oh, she had no doubt they’d be curious, but she wasn’t so certain they’d hang around and risk being seen just hours after hitting the house.
“Why go in shooting? They tried to abduct her earlier, not kill her,” she pointed out.
“And that didn’t work,” he reminded her, his gaze still narrowed on the crowd. “Maybe they weren’t taking chances this time, or maybe they thought to get anyone protecting her out of the way before snatching her. Whatever they were here for, they figured out the hard way that this house was a setup. I want to ID the bodies and I want to see who’s here, who’s watching, and see if I can’t get a lead on who’s so determined to get one little fifteen-year-old kid.”
As he spoke, he was quickly snapping pictures with the small camera he’d pulled from the glove box. And if his movements were any indication, he wasn’t missing much where the milling crowd was concerned.
“You’re just here for pictures?” She slid him a doubtful look. “Wouldn’t you learn more if one of us was actually in the crowd? And what’s on the security cameras?”
“The cameras showed four black-clad, black-masked figures, and a van parked across the street but no plates. So they weren’t of much help. We have the crowd covered, though,” he assured her. “There’s no less than four friendlies making their way among those gathered out there and hearing what there is to be heard. And I’d rather just sit back for the moment and see what Jansen and the others find first.”
A waste of time, in other words.
“I could be sleeping.” She sat back in her seat, ignoring him as he scowled at her. “I didn’t come out with you to sightsee.”
And she was damned tired. It had been a hell of a day and all she wanted to do was escape it.
“You’re the one that always demands recon,” he pointed out, staring at the people milling around in the street.
It was three o’clock in the morning, for Christ’s sake. Hadn’t they figured out that the excitement was over for the night?
“I don’t demand recon when I haven’t slept for twenty-four hours and I’m running on caffeine rather than a good night’s rest.” She was running on aspirin, caffeine, and ragged emotions was more like it. “Even I have my limits.”
She sipped at the coffee she held in her hand, aware that she was defeating the purpose by drinking it.
“You’re admitting to limits,” he murmured. “You surprise me.”
She just bet she did.
“This is pointless.” She brushed at the fringe of bangs that escaped the clip she’d hastily anchored her hair in. “What’s going on in that house isn’t going to help us until they identify the dead. Unless something useful was actually recorded by the security cams.” She took another sip of coffee.
Her eyes narrowed on the crowd, assessing the bodies, the expressions, the small groups that huddled together and those standing alone. Not that many were standing alone.
Two of the four standing back and watching were definite Mackay associates; she’d seen them with one or another of the cousins several times in the past year or so. The other two she remembered seeing recently fishing at the lake.
“Those two.” She nodded to where they stood some distance apart. “Did you snap their picture?”
“I did, but they’re turned this way more now.” He snapped several more shots. “You recognize them?”
“I’ve seen them at the lake, just as I’ve seen the majority of everyone else that’s milling around here rather than going back to bed,” she snorted. “I saw them hanging around at the fishing hole near an old cabin a few miles from the marina. But since they’re not known to me as Mackay associates, let’s check them out. I’d rather be safe than sorry.”
She continued to stare around, watching the crowd silently, the way groups shifted, grew then dissipated. Even the four loners drifted into the smaller groups a few times, but there was nothing that really snagged her attention.
“Why did you wait so long to tell Chaya and Natches who you are?” The question was asked casually, as though it were something commonplace to ask.
It had her staring blindly into the small crowd, though, tension building through her body as she fought the need to confide in him.
“Why? Need more information to give your cousin and his wife?” Her lips curled derisively. “I think you probably had enough to give them.”
