“I’m helping you, Gabrielle. It may not make sense now, but once everything is over, you’ll thank me.”
“No! Let me go!” She twisted in his arms and tried to break free.
Brad held her tighter, slipping an arm around her waist as he lifted her from the ground.
He clamped his hand against her mouth, stifling her screams as he dragged her back toward the jungle trail.
Chapter49
“What’s the latest on Ike? Is he okay?” Sebastian demanded as he walked into the war room of the compound. The cryptic text had caused him to drop everything and head over to see what was going on.
“Sorry, we couldn’t take a chance someone might intercept the text,” Everett gripped his shoulder, then patted him on the back. “My buddy Rocco Forrester is here. He’s a doctor and former DEA. Ike is banged up pretty bad, but Rocco believes he’ll pull through. It might take a few months. We will keep Ike hidden until he regains consciousness to tell us what happened to him.”
Sebastian relaxed. “So this is related to Brooks?”
Kane glanced up from his tablet. “We realized we were focused on the wrong man. Brooks is a stalker for hire, attacking Gabrielle to earn money from the incel website.”
“But whoever is posting the requests is the real threat,” Sebastian said, understanding the change in strategy. “Has it been the same profile?”
“It has,” Bobby confirmed. “Geppetto. Like Pinocchio.”
“More like a puppet master getting other idiots to do his dirty work for him,” Sebastian growled. “Have you found evidence that Geppetto requested the flowers to be sent to Gabrielle’s hotel or the attack at the safe house?”
“No, and I’ve searched everywhere. The last two don’t quite fit the pattern of the requests that come through the site,” said Bobby. “The flowers with the note are too benign. Violent requests are quickly shut down on most of these sites. They get off on pranks, not actual bodily harm. Good thing is that I haven’t seen any other requests posted that target ‘Black Butterfly’ since the snake incident.”
Kane added, “We decided to switch focus to tracing an IP address for Geppetto. Bobby got a hit. It’s to a house in St. Killian.”
“And get this,” Everett said, walking to Sebastian with his laptop. “When Bobby hacked into the home security cameras of houses on the same street, we got a match on Tony Brooks being at the property a couple of days before Gabrielle’s plane landed in St. Killian.”
“Does that mean Brooks is Geppetto? Why would Brooks send messages to himself to torment Gabrielle?” Sebastian peered at the footage on the laptop. There was no denying that it was Tony Brooks going into the house.
Kane looked glum, his tone serious as he said, “It makes sense when you find out who owns the house Tony Brooks was entering.”
“Who?” Sebastian asked, looking around at each of the men who were like family. His fists clenched, and he fought the urge to break something.
“Detective Brad Shannon,” Bobby said with disdain.
Everett said, “We think he was not only arranging for Brooks to perform the attacks for him but also setting the guy up to take the fall. Shannon planned to arrest Brooks, let him go down for the crimes, and look like a super detective for cracking the case. But Brooks must have gotten suspicious and left. He hasn’t been seen at the house since the night Gabrielle found snakes in her purse.”
“Fuck!” Sebastian slammed his fist against the table. “That fucker has been behind it this whole time?”
“He must have planned it when he found out Gabrielle was coming home. The photos leaked of her were the same ones the police had collected as evidence a decade ago,” Kane said. “Who had the best access to leak those photos than the lead detective on the case?”
“It gets worse,” Bobby said. “I traced pings from his cell phone to within a hundred yards of the safe house around the time Gabrielle was attacked. It would explain how the attacker got past the security and into the house without triggering the alarms.”
“He wants the St. Felipe police chief job. Remember what Adonis told us? He got fast-tracked to detective after saving Gabrielle last time because Bernadette King pulled strings for him,” Everett said. “He probably thinks saving Gabrielle again would make the King Family so grateful that Serena would step in and recommend him for the police chief role.”
Sebastian was quiet as the litany of evidence against Shannon became overwhelming. He paced around the room. A red haze clouded his vision. A job wasn’t Shannon’s only motive. He’d heard the bastard ranting about Gabrielle being in love with her bodyguard. Shannon had likely been harboring a sick obsession for Gabrielle since he rescued her from Damian Hester a decade ago.
The fucker wanted his woman.
There was no way in hell he would let that happen.
He was going to kill Shannon for tormenting the woman he loved.
“Means, motive, and opportunity are all there,” Kane said. “Problem is he has plausible deniability. We can’t definitively prove that he’s behind the Geppetto account. The house in St. Killian is listed for rent on dozens of websites. He could claim Tony Brooks broke in, and he had no clue the guy was squatting there, using it as a home base to threaten Gabrielle.”
“Then what’s our move?” Sebastian asked.
