Page 159 of Her Defiant Warrior

“Mother, he’ll look good, I promise.”

“All right. Be here first thing Thursday morning before the Anniversary Gala.”

Please God, let Matt be available.

18

Mateo could tell his boss was past being tense, antsy was no longer in his vocabulary, he’d left agitated in the dust, and now he was downright pissed as fuck. But who could blame him? He and Lark hadn’t seen blue-eyed little Romy who was just a little over two years old for over three weeks now. She’d gone to some secluded island with Lark’s impossibly rich mother. A mother who had made it clear she would take any other family of the Omega team with her. Beatrice Allen was a kick and a half, but that still didn’t mean a damn thing to Kostya because he and Lark wanted their daughter with them. In their home. In their arms.

It was going to be terrible after what he and Gideon had to report.

“Okay, I didn’t get any usable data on Ely Roberts yet,” Mateo started. “He did talk to his old high school buddy Pepper Higgins, but all he wanted from Pepper was his sister’s contact information.”

“Are you sure you got everything from him?” Jase wanted to know.

Ryker laughed. “You’re kidding, right? Mateo is quiet and creative. I’d never want to be on the other side of an interrogation from him.”

“Let’s just say there were ants and cockroaches involved, and I’m sure I got all the information that was available. Unfortunately, it was not good. I took it to Gideon, and he checked it out. Pepper’s sister spent the last ten years working at a daycare in Pennsylvania. She was liked and well thought of. Ely paid her seven grand to quit and apply for a job in Virginia Beach.”

Lark, who was sitting in her normal seat in the corner of the couch, gasped. “Not Tiny Tot’s Playtime.”

Mateo nodded.

Lark reached out blindly with her hand, and Kostya grabbed it. She was white as a sheet. Her head was shaking, and her silvery blonde hair was flying across her face.

“Was it?” Lark’s voice was shrill. “Was it Romy’s daycare?”

Mateo looked at Gideon, then turned back to Lark. “It was.”

“When?” Kostya demanded to know as he picked up his wife and sat down on the sofa with her nestled in his lap. All that could be heard in the room was Lark whimpering.

“When?!” Kostya roared the question.

“Two days after Romy left with Lark’s mom,” Mateo answered.

“Where is she?” Jase and Linc were hovering near the hallway, ready to go to the daycare.

“Calm down. Don’t you think that Mateo would have been all over that if she were still there?” Gideon said sharply. “She worked there for two days. Long enough to find out that Romy was going to be out for an extended length of time. Our assumption is that she reported to Sykes who told her to get the hell out of Dodge. Right now, I’m continuing to check morgues. Mateo and I figure Sykes is not going to want any loose ends.”

Mateo’s gut clenched. He couldn’t get the picture of the little girl holding her cat out of his mind. Christina Higgins was definitely dead to his way of thinking.

“I’ve been working on something with Jada when it comes to Ivan,” Linc spoke up.

Mateo’s gut clenched again. He didn’t want to hear about Ivan’s account with Lionel Security and Trust Bank. Lainey was officially off the table.

“Linc, before you talk about what you’ve found, I want to bring all of you up to speed about MacLaine, Lainey Simpson,” Mateo interrupted.

Linc nodded, and Kostya said ‘Go ahead’ from where he was sitting. Lark still had her face shoved into his neck.

“You know that I’ve been undercover with her for almost three weeks now. A few days ago, she mentioned that she was going to recommend that they bring on a strong cyber-security programmer to make sure all of their cryptocurrency and other types of complicated transactions were given an additional level of scrutiny.”

“That’s very promising,” Gideon said slowly.

“What do you mean by promising?” Mateo demanded to know. “That’s more than promising. Why would she want someone to come in who would find out her illegal activities? She has to be on the up-and-up.”

“Mateo, I still haven’t been able to track down where the gold came from. She didn’t inherit it. She didn’t earn it. I’ve searched her father’s records going back thirty years. He has not purchased gold. Where did that come from? I’m sorry, man, she’s still on our watch list.”

“Well, I’m the one who has been with her for the last three weeks, and I’m telling you she is not part of the Kraken.”