“Go after the guy. I don’t want him coming after you or any other gullible girl. Even if he doesn’t go after you again, he could very well keep this up by luring other girls to meet up with him. And very likely you’re not the only one he has been in contact with before this.”
“Gullible.” Ivy scowled at him.
“What would you call it? Naïve?” He paced across the room, wanting to get out of there and go after the guy, wondering if anyone had any information on him. Then he got a call from Rowland. “Hey, any word?” He put it on speakerphone so Kendra could listen in on it.
“His name is Jeb Younger. He has been in prison for kidnapping young girls. He should have gotten life without parole, but because they escaped, they keep letting him out after a few years in jail. Typical justice system. There’s no such thing as rehabilitating someone like him.”
“Is he local?”
“Now. He’s from Boston. Ivy was right about his accent. He hasn’t been in jail in Montana yet, but when we catch him, he can serve time here. He has been jailed in Massachusetts three times, once in Wisconsin. He got off on charges in Minnesota. Evidence was illegally obtained. He was acquitted in North Dakota; the jury said the prosecution couldn’t prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The guy is a real conman,” Rowland said. “I’m surprised he ended up in jail four times for the same crime and wasn’t able to manipulate the trials back then.”
“Hell.”
“The other thing is, he was a Marine, dishonorably discharged for fighting with other Marines. He’s a hunter, other than just for young women. He has lived off the land when he was on the run; he’s good at hiding in the terrain,” Rowland said.
“Not with us looking for his sorry ass.”
“Exactly. I’m sending you a picture of him.”
Grayson examined the photo and swore under his breath. “He skipped out on his bond, and we’ve been looking for the bastard ever since.”
“What was he arrested for?” Kendra asked.
“Attempting to steal a thousand dollars of camping equipment at a department store. His wife, Mimi Younger, put up his bail. Maybe he planned to take that gear on the run. But he used a different name.” Now Grayson had twice as much reason to take the guy into custody. “His name isn’t Jeb Younger, at least on the paperwork we have on him.”
“An alias. Gotcha,” Kendra said.
“He used others for some of his other criminal arrests. But his real name is Jeb Younger,” Rowland said.
“Okay, well, I’m taking Ivy back home to Whitefish.” Despite wanting to go after the kidnapper and bail skipper, Grayson needed his sister back home so that Dad and Marcus could watch over her. His home in Whitefish was only a little over an hour away from Kalispell, and it wouldn’t take long for him to grab some clothes, return to Kalispell, and search for the guy. “Then I’ll return.”
“You don’t need to. We’ve got this,” Rowland said.
“If I can help, I’ll do anything I can. I’m retired from the Army, Special Forces, just like my brother and Dad. They’ll take care of Ivy. Marcus and Dad can assist in doing searches for him. But since we have him on our list of bail jumpers, I’ll be after him for that reason also.”
“So can I,” Kendra said.
“Okay, you can arrest him as a bounty hunter. Even if you hadn’t been a bounty hunter, you could have arrested him as a civilian. You can detain him and bring him in, or we’ll come and get him,” Rowland said. “But hopefully, we’ll catch him before that can happen."
3
Kendra gave Grayson her phone number. "Call me when you get back. Maybe we can get together on this unless you want to separate forces to look for this guy."
"I'll let you know when I return." On the one hand, Grayson felt they needed to separate and look for the guy on their own to have a better chance of finding him, yet another part of him worried that Kendra could be at risk. She wasn't as young as his sister, but she was still about twenty-six. He could see that Younger might be interested in grabbing her to fulfill his sick fantasies.
"I'll ask my friend Amy and her husband, Cedric, if they can also help. They're grizzlies like us, but have psychic abilities and might get a read on him," Kendra said.
Grayson was surprised to hear it. He hadn’t ever known anyone who could do that. It could really come in handy.
"You need to go with Kendra," Ivy said, as if she were in charge of the operation. "This guy is dangerous, and she'll need extra protection." Then she frowned as she read his shirt. "Where did you get that shirt? I mean, it's totally you, but I've never seen you wear it before. You look like the Hulk, and you're about to break out into the green man. Couldn't you have gotten one a little bigger that would fit you better?"
He scoffed and folded his arms. "You ripped my shirt to shreds. I didn't think you could do that as a human."
"It was an old shirt. Besides, I have long nails, and you broke two of them." Ivy showed him the evidence.
He smiled, then frowned. "You shouldn't have been ripping off my shirt in the first place."
"They wouldn't let him in places without wearing a shirt. I think he nearly made one of the elderly Winston twins faint at the sight of his naked torso when they were at the bank," Kendra said.
