Page 44 of Keeping Collette

“What are you guys working on?” Cass asked as she walked into the room, followed by Jag and Fox along with Irish and Angel.

Hound gave them a quick rundown of what they’d been discussing.

“I haven’t wanted to say anything,” Cass began, after Hound had finished. “But because Collette had given me Courtney’s laptop, I was able to get into her social media and also her texts on her phone.”

“How long have you had this information?” Deal queried, recalling them dropping Courtney’s laptop off after their visit to Collette’s parents’ house.

This type of information was something that should’ve been announced the moment she had it. Which Cass normally did, so why had she kept it quiet—again? She’d done a lot of things differently with this case. Things that she wouldn’t normally do.

“I know what you’re thinking, and you’re right I should’ve said something sooner, but Collette had to make arrangements for Courtney’s farewell, along with handling everything else.”

Deal understood her reasoning, but he still found it unusual that Cass hadn’t said anything.

“Plus, I didn’t want to burden her with the things I’d found when she was dealing with so much.” There was also an undertone he was picking up on from the way Cass was speaking.

“I take what you uncovered isn’t great?” he asked, aware that the other men in the room were watching the exchange.

Cass sighed. “Not so much not great, but what Collette may not expect from her sister.”

Was Cass talking about drugs? Or something else?

The coroner’s report had shown Courtney wasn’t a drug user, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t involved in other ways. If that was the case, it would hurt Collette so much. She believed to the depths of her soul that her sister was as against drugs–the use of, and dealing them–as Collette had been.

“Right. Collette should be here to for this. I don’t think we should be hearing it before her.” Deal didn’t want to keep anything from her. He didn’t want her to think that they all knew things about her sister before she did.

“I’m calling Growler to see if she is available to drop by. He said Astrid was filming a segment for one of her specials not far from here.” Angel held a phone to his ear.

Deal was glad that Growler was with Astrid, it meant that Collette was protected as well.

Angel placed the phone on the table. “They’re wrapping up what they need to do, so Growler will bring her here in about half an hour.”

“Okay.” Deal nodded, anticipation firing in him that he would be seeing Collette sooner than they’d planned. Because of her returning work and him heading back to the office, they’d made plans to catch up for dinner that night.

It was crazy how easily he’d fallen into the habit of going to her place once he’d been home and showered after PT. It had been so natural for him to knock on her door and then work from her kitchen table, while she’d done what she’d had to do with handling Courtney’s death and finalizing funeral arrangements.

“You’ve got it bad, haven’t you?” Jag teased after Fox, Cass, and Irish had left the room. Angel and Hound were over by the sideboard getting coffee.

“Yep.” There was no point denying it. He did have it bad for Collette.

“Never would’ve guessed that you and she would hook up, especially after your first meeting here with her.”

“It’s not a hook up,” he ground out.

Jag held up his hands in surrender, a huge grin on his face. “Settle down. I didn’t mean anything by that.”

Deal’s irritation at his friend began to dissipate. He had taken the words too seriously. “It’s fine. Sorry for taking offence when I shouldn’t have.”

“Nah, it just proves she’s important to you. If she wasn’t, you wouldn’t have been pissed at what I said.” Jag grabbed the nearest file and opened it. “Do you think Hound’s right? That everything is connected?”

“No fucking idea. If it is, then there has to be a reason why. Seems strange they’d all work out of the one location. How many other places like this are there? Do they rotate through them so they don’t get caught? It would make sense if they did.”

“And then there’s the serial killer angle as well.” Jag pointed at the images in the file. “That is one sick fuck.”

“The world is full of them,” Deal said. “And every time we eliminate one, another three pop up. Just ask Julian.”

“Speaking of our FBI contact, I wonder how things are with his associate, Rowan. The last time she was here, she left mightily pissed at Fox,” Jag commented.

“There’s definitely no love lost between them. Zadie is demanding, and given what Fox has gone through, I understand his reluctance to work with her again. But also repeat business and word of mouth builds that side of our business.” Security/bodyguard work wasn’t Deal’s favorite thing part of the job, but like the rest of the guys, they’d known this was going to be a big component of what they would be doing when they’d joined Alliez. It had been the backbone of the organization when it was formed in New York years ago by two former SEALs.