Page 47 of Stolen Salvation

He stepped to the side as Reaper angled toward Charlie, his guard still up despite the apology. “I’m sorry, Charlie. I should never have gone off at you like that. I guess I just over-reacted.”

“It’s fine, and honestly, I don’t blame you. I might have done the same if the situation had been reversed. But for the record, I’d never betray Noah again. I know I have a lot of making up to do, but I’ll prove I’m worth it.”

“Good, now that’s cleared up, let’s have a pow-wow and fix this shit. Because if I have to spend another day with Mr Grumpy Knobhead Cavendish, I’ll be the one doing the shooting.”

Bishop raised his eyebrows at Charlie and grinned as Duchess motioned toward the old wooden table in the rectory kitchen.

“I like her,” Charlie stage whispered to him making Reaper cough to hide the chuckle.

“As Bás has left me in charge of you children, let’s get a few things straight. Charlie is in the clear. She’s not involved in this shit storm in any way apart from being a target. Now we have news, so let me just get Watchdog’s ugly mug up on the screen and he can fill us in on everything.”

Bishop watched Duchess press a few keys, appreciating her no-nonsense attitude.

“Ah, there he is. Wonderboy, what can you tell us?”

Crowded around the table he saw Watchdog look off to the side of the screen before focusing back on them, his mind always working at light speed. “Well, Carter Cavendish has a serious hard-on for Charlie. He wants her found and dealt with, and from what I hear he’s raising hell because he hasn’t found her or Bishop.”

Duchess nodded. “I heard the same thing.”

“Do we have anything tangible on him yet?”

Watchdog was leaning back in his seat but sat forward with a shake of his head. “No, motherfucker is as slippery as an eel in a bucketful of baby oil.”

“So what do we have?”

“I’m working on a list of properties. Once I send them through, it would be a good idea to get some surveillance set up on them and see what we have, but I’ve narrowed it down to four. I’ve been using drones, but I need actual eyes on some of them as trees are making it difficult with the signal.”

“Send it through,” Duchess instructed.

“Yeah, will do. Also, I found out Dr Joseph isn’t Dr Joseph. He’s Dr Junior Nkosi and is a South African national. He was struck off for performing terminations on young girls without parental consent.”

“He did have pretty strong opinions about girls having babies they didn’t want but I didn’t peg him for a bad guy.”

Bishop squeezed Charlie’s leg in support. He hadn’t thought so either.

Charlie looked to Duchess who was biting her fingernail. “Do you want us to go back and see him?”

“No, your cover is blown and we can’t risk Carter finding you there. Reaper, you and Lotus go and pick him up after he leaves for the day and question him. Find out what he knows, and feel free to be creative. I’m sick of these fuckers being ten steps ahead of us.”

“I want to talk to him.”

“Me too.”

Duchess cast her glance at him and then at Charlie, her expression a controlled mask. “Fine. Reaper, pick him up and bring him here. We can use the storage shed at the bottom of the pasture.”

“Will do.”

“Watchdog, anything else we should know?”

“Yes, but I’m not sure how to say this.”

“Spit it out.”

“The men from the safe house were all known associates of Gideon Cavendish. Seems they work security at one of the underground casinos.”

Bishop watched Duchess swallow, her entire body going still at the words. “Understood. Do we know how they found us?”

Watchdog’s pause was only a split second, but it was enough to tell him that he wasn’t being honest. “No.”