She placed the file folder she’d been carrying on the desk along with her coffee cup. Four smiling men turned her way, apparently having no idea what subject she was about to bring up.
They all greeted her warmly, and her father reached out to place his hand on hers for a moment. She’d talked to him about hugging her too much in the office or calling her sweetheart or kitten in front of the other employees. They might all know she was a nepotism hire, but she didn’t want to remind them too often.
Luckily, she’d earned the respect of most of her co-workers. The others? She didn’t worry about them. They probably would never respect her, no matter how well she did.
“We need to talk about next quarter’s budget,” she said without preamble, flipping the folder open.
Four smiling faces immediately turned serious, shooting glances at one another.
Yep, they’d all known. Not just her dad.
“Did you actually think you could slip this in and I wouldn’t notice?”
Their identical guilty faces told the tale. Yes, they had thought that.
Her gaze went from man to man and finally to her dad.
“I think I’ve earned the right to know what’s going on.”
This was one subject she wouldn’t let him get away with anything. She’d had far too many sleepless nights, nightmares, and general trauma to deal with in her life to make it easy for him.
“You have,” he said, his voice quiet in the room. “And I was going to tell you. I didn’t think you’d find out so quickly.”
Her uncles weren’t talking, and she had a feeling they’d all discussed this before and made the executive decision that Logan would take the lead.
And she didn’t like that thought at all. They’d been talking about her when she wasn’t there.
“Well, I did, so here we are. So, I’ll just ask straight out. Why are we closing the Bryson investigation? Are we truly not going to keep an eye on the daughters anymore? Who made that insane decision?” She searched the faces of the dearest men she’d ever known. She trusted them with her life. “Who did this? And why? Why on earth?”
Jared gave her father a look and shook his head slightly.
“They’re gone again,” Jared said. “Up in the middle of the night and left. We haven’t been able to find their trail.”
“They’re getting better at it,” Reed replied. “They gave no sign at all that they were going to do it. They were there at midnight and gone by three in the morning. They left pretty much everything behind. I’m guessing they already have new identities and hair colors.”
The room spun, and Brianna had to suck oxygen into her lungs. It had been one of her greatest fears all these years that the two daughters had inherited their family’s murderous ways. It had also been a comfort when she found out that her dad and uncles had kept a loose eye on the Brysons, trying to keep tabs on them as much as possible without camping a team on their front lawn.
“They’re gone? You have no idea where they are?”
“None,” her father confirmed. “We haven’t given up, but right now, we have nothing to put a full-time person on. This is something we’ll work on personally.”
“Their car?” she asked hopefully. “Traffic cameras didn’t catch their escape?”
Jason scratched at his chin, his expression sober.
“Brianna, honey, they didn’t escape anything. They’ve done nothing wrong, and they’re not prisoners. They’re free to live their life just as we are. And when we say they left it all behind, they left everything, including their cars, their clothes, and pretty much all of their belongings.”
“Then how did they leave? Do they have credit cards? Can’t we track those?”
“Bus?” Reed replied. “Maybe a friend helped? Maybe they had another car parked around the corner? We’ve checked traffic cameras in the area. This isn’t their first time disappearing, and I doubt it will be their last. Poor girls. They just want to live their life in peace.”
“You don’t know that,” Brianna said sharply, her head swiveling toward her uncle. “You can’t possibly know that.”
“You’re right,” Reed conceded. “I can’t know it one hundred percent, but damn, all this time these women have done nothing illegal, not even a parking ticket. Every couple of years, they have to give up the lives they’ve created and any friends and move on. Get new names and new jobs. That cannot be easy. In a way, they’re just as much victims. Yes, they’re alive, and a lot of people aren’t, but they’re barely living. I’d call it existing, to be honest.”
“We’ll find them again,” her father assured her. “It will just take time.”
“And until then what?” Brianna asked, her voice higher and more panicked. She wanted to jump out of her skin. Didn’t theysee this was bad? This wasn’t good at all. “We just sit around and wait for one of them to slit our throats like?—”
