“She was never yours, Stanton,” Hugh answered quietly. He was a hairsbreadth away from yanking the jackass out of his chair and beating the hell out of him. “If you’d been a better husband, you wouldn’t have needed to try to poach on another man’s girlfriend,” he added, giving into his fury that William had touched Rowan. It was a great diversion from the kidnapping.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean, O’Faolain? You don’t know shit about my marriage,” Will shot back, sitting straighter in his chair like he, too, was jonesing for a fight as well.
“Enough, gentlemen,” Jeffreys tried to interrupt.
Hugh ignored the detective to deliver another blow. “My men uncovered that Katy never cheated. She hired that society journalist to take a picture of her kissing that man. The kiss wasn’t even real.” William was reeling. “My guy spoke with the reporter. She said that Katy admitted to her that she was only doing it to get your attention. And it worked. Without allowing her to explain, you kicked her out and divorced her.
“I’ve been an asshole to Rowan for over a year and finally pulled my head out of my ass. When we find the women, I suggest you pull yours out.” By the look of horror on Stanton’s face, he’d never considered his wife to be innocent. Pride led to brutal consequences. Hugh would know better than most.
Sighing, Hugh realized he had let his emotions cloud his judgment again where this man was concerned. He slapped Will’s back before squeezing his shoulder. “I shouldn’t have spoken about your marriage.”
Will shook his head, looking grim but more determined than he had when he’d first walked into the room.
“I’m glad you did. I should have realized…I should have known…Katy…it was so out of character. Christ,” he said, shaking his head again. “Sorry about that, Detective. Finish asking your questions.”
For three hours, they reviewed the information gathered thus far and pounced on every report coming into the detective. William admitted the security breaches to his company were still a mystery, and because one of Stanton’s biggest moneymakers dealt with blocking hackers, the fact that they’d been hacked had been incredibly worrisome. One of MaGregor’s guys joined themto go over Will’s company, the hacking, and Stanton Industries’ hundreds of employees.
There was also a Canadian tech company that has been aggressively trying to partner with Stanton, but they had been turned away. Will said the company was known for some shady deals and they were toeing the edge of bankruptcy.
Dean, MacGregor’s guy, sent the company information out to the team and told them to make BlackOut, the Toronto based firm a priority. Dean said by tomorrow they should have a better picture. “We’ll find out about BlackOut’s key players, their financials, their friends and family, and hopefully any suspicious or abnormal activity. We’ll eventually start seeing connecting strands as we gather more pieces of intel.”
His determined confidence was welcome. Jeffreys’ phone dinged. After a minute of scanning the newest report, he announced, “Facial recognition software found a match for the man following Miss Byrne. Shane Reynolds. Ex-military. Special Forces. Flagged for anger issues. He left the military eight years ago.”
Dean was reading the report over the detective’s shoulder. “He became a ghost. Totally off-grid. Until now.”
“Sloppy for someone with his background and training,” Jeffreys said.
Dean agreed. “However, the article on Stanton and Miss Byrne mentioned her family lived in Ireland, and her business was there. Fewer people to worry about her going missing in Tulsa. Stanton lives in Texas. Reynolds was much more careful with covering his face in Houston.”
“It could be that whoever is paying him doesn’t know what in the hell they’re doing. Maybe Reynolds is used to being the muscle, not the brains. If BlackOut is behind this, desperation might have made them careless.” Hugh was by no means adetective, but with both women taken by the same man, all fingers pointed to Stanton as the common denominator.
“All true,” Jeffreys agreed. “O’Faolain, Stanton, go home. You’ll be notified if anything changes. Hugh, you’re paying MacGregor for his services, so you’ll probably know before me anyway.”
Dean told Hugh he’d call with a full report by eight in the morning. He and Will left the detectives office and headed to the precinct parking lot. Hugh looked at Will. “Do you need a place to stay?”
“I’m staying at Aunt Diana’s.”
The elevator ride to the lobby was strained. He and William were both lost in thought. Mom’s assistant Tina texted earlier to let him know that his mother and she were sleeping in his spare bedroom. She wanted to be close to her son. William wouldn’t be alone, though Hugh shuddered at the thought of sleeping in that Dragon’s lair.
When they stepped out of the elevator, Hugh took a deep breath and apologized again. “I should not have spoken about Katy. I should have just given you my investigator’s file. When you and Row are brought up, I lose my mind.”
Will stopped once they walked outside. He sat on the steps outside the building, his body deflating. Hugh understood the feeling. They were both trapped in hell.
“I put my goddamn job before my wife. She gave me everything. I loved her, just not enough. For the past few hours, I’ve had to live with the fact that Katy and Rowan wouldn’t have been taken if I’d been a better fucking man years ago.”
“We will find them. I will never stop looking. We can’t look back, Stanton. If I hadn’t been such a colossal cocksucker to Row, she wouldn’t have run to Oklahoma. We are both to blame for this—and whoever the hell is behind their abduction.” Willnodded, accepting Hugh’s peace offering. “I’ll have my people email me the file on Katy and send it to you tomorrow.”
“Appreciated.” Will hung his head for a moment, massaging the back of his neck, deep in thought. “I know you hired MacGregor’s services to find Katy and Rowan, which I plan on paying for, but why did you already have investigators looking at me?”
Hugh wondered when he’d ask. “If Rowan didn’t choose me over you, I planned on finding something to ruin you. I believed that Katy was never like Helen and that the divorce had to be on you, so I hired people to find out what happened. I won’t apologize. Rowan is everything to me.”
William huffed out a laugh. “I guess you being an overbearing asshole has served me well. I might have a chance of getting my wife back when all of this is over. When we find them safe,” he added softly.
“We will find them,” Hugh answered as he sat down on the steps next to the man, up until a few hours ago, he’d hated with a single-minded intensity.
“Helen was horrible. I hope you don’t mind me saying.”
“Worse than you even know. She flirted with you once, her one-thousandth attempt to make me jealous, at the Club,” Hugh admitted, wanting William to know where some of his animosity stemmed from. You didn’t shut her down even though your wife was in attendance. Even though I was standing right there. I hated you for that.”
