Page 114 of Hide From Me

I raised my fist, and X grabbed my wrist.

“Come on, man. Chill. It’s Rylee. We know. We get it. It was a bad time to joke. Got it,” X said.

I didn’t bother answering him because it was a shit time to joke. But worse is that I just wanted to get in there. I needed to know no one was touching her. I needed to know that she was still safe. I didn’t go through hell to save her just to lose her now. She’d never know what kind of war I’d waged killing her father. Of course, she didn’t need to. She needed to know that I could keep her safe now. For always.

“I’ll pull over and park by that group of trees. I’m guessing that he doesn’t expect anyone to come for her. That last PI didn’t have anything mentioning us or any affiliations at all,” X said.

I was wondering what else I didn’t know. I’d been so preoccupied with her that I’d failed to pay attention to some details. I relied on my blood brothers far too much lately.

“I’m sorry. I seem to have fucked everything up lately.”

X pulled over and cut the engine. They both turned to me.

“A part of us wanted to see you chill the fuck out over the years and knew it was because of her you never did. Seeing you with her, although it has distracted you, at least you seem a little less scary.”

I didn’t bother responding, but the way they both had shit-eating grins on their faces? Yeah, my death glare had lost some of his effectiveness on these two.

“Now, let’s go get your girl so we can have our fearless leader back,” X said and hopped out.

The sun was setting, and that was the only thing going our way. We were walking into a poor plan at best.

“Something I found in articles about this family is all the female heiresses have died from the Whitehall line until our little Rylee. But the thing is though that there are no birth records for a Rylee Whitehall. I looked up the father’s name, and even then, no Rylee. How did her mom hide her so well? And why did she have to?”

We were all out and creeping along the treeline. This was old money. Every house had a few acres that it was doubtful anyone actually did anything with. Maybe a few horses or some shit, but really, it was for fake privacy.

“Is the house in the Whitehall name?”

We crouched down in the brush a few feet away from the wrought iron fencing. Not much for privacy, really.

“What? Do you think I have nothing else to do but stalk her family?”

I gave Zeid a side glance.

“No. I know you have no other shit to do than to worry about my sorry ass, but she is my business, therefore I know you checked everything.”

I could see him doing a slow shake of his head like he would have punched me if I weren’t me.

“Fine. You’re right and no, it isn’t. It’s under Pendleton. And there was a Chloe Rylee Pendleton on record at the hospital. There was no paperwork for a legal name change that was on public record. But I don’t think Grandpa was looking for a Pendleton, regardless. Her mother was Genevieve Whitehall.”

“And the plot thickens,” X said.

I jabbed him in the ribs.

“Have you seen any guards at all?”

The three of us watched like that was going to manifest anything.

“Nothing. Not even a dog,” said X. At least he was back to being focused on something other than my girl.

“Lots of speculation hit the news around why Whitehall has all but disappeared as a formidable business threat. They still have the building, and he still lives here. But nothing new had been registered, and from what I can see from bank accounts, this guy’s nearly broke,” Zeid said.

I hated to admit that X was right, but hell. The plot thickens.

“Alright well, let’s just follow the fence line. You said it looks like there’s no fence at the rear?”

Zeid nodded, so we started to walk.

“Well, one thing’s for sure. This is not the guy who is killing off our judges or planting shit at our properties. No one’s out here even trying to get us, and we don’t blend in here,” I said.