Manhunt (5 page)

He watched as she carefully dried and brushed out her hair until it was perfectly straight and knot-free. He couldn’t resist ruffling it and messing it up, laughing at her shocked gasp and her dropped jaw when he did. It earned him a splash of cold water from the sink, but the shivers were worth it just to hear her laugh. Still, he gently grasped her wrists to keep her from doing it again. Nikki looked up into his eyes and, for a moment, time stopped. But then the moment dissolved into awkwardness as Michael quickly released her and excused himself.

It was peanut butter sandwiches and fruit cups for dinner. Then Michael checked Nikki’s wounds one last time before loading up the car. They both took a much needed nap, and headed out shortly after sunset. Michael thanked the man once more on their way out, again heading south.

After their usual battle, Nikki offered to let him leave the rock station on if he was willing to answer some more questions for her. He agreed, expecting more mundane trivia like the day before.

“Where are my parents?”

So much for mundane trivia.

“Your parents are dead, Nikki. Your mother’s name was Candice, but everybody called her Candy. You were 15 when she died and you moved in with your dad after that. Your father’s name was Joseph. He died the summer after high school graduation.”

Silence. Nikki didn’t ask for further explanations, and Michael didn’t offer. He waited for her to digest the information he offered and ask something else.

“Where are your parents?”

Hopefully his dad was rotting in hell, he thought to himself.

“My parents died when I was 15, too. Dr. Aaron Brennan and his wife Olivia adopted me. Aaron is the doctor who was taking care of you when you woke up.”

“He… He said I was like family to him.”

“You were. Are. They love you every bit as much as they love me, if not more. There’s nothing they wouldn’t do for you. After you moved in with your dad, you spent a lot of time at their house. When your dad was working, anyway.”

He didn’t bother to tell her she had to sneak over there because her father wouldn’t let her associate with him, despite Aaron and Olivia’s many attempts to change his mind. Olivia didn’t feel the least bit guilty about helping Nikki lie to Joseph. She would even go so far as to cook extra food for Nikki to take home and pretend she’d made dinner for him. Michael always considered it rather gullible of Joseph to just accept Nikki was such a good cook. After all, Candy could barely manage to heat a can of soup without burning the kitchen down. Nikki was a fast learner, though. After a while, she became a first-rate cook in her own right, although she much preferred baking.

Michael changed the radio to the oldies station. He only got off the highway when they needed to get gas, and even then was cautious when he went in to pay, scanning the walls and lampposts for Missing Person signs. Luckily, he didn’t see any more, nor did he hear anything on the local radio.

Perhaps their luck was beginning to turn around.

Chapter 6

“Mr. Jefferson, says here you have a juvie record that’s been sealed. You wouldn’t want to let us in on what’s in there, would you?”

Christian smirked at the federal agents sitting across from him at his kitchen table. They’d introduced themselves simply as John and Joe, no last names, and had flashed their IDs at Sophie way too fast to catch. As far as Christian was concerned, they might as well be Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum. Assholes should consider themselves damn lucky Sophie answered the door because Christian wouldn’t have allowed them over the threshold. They’d intimidated her into letting them in and she begged Christian at least to pretend to cooperate.

“No, I wouldn’t. That’s the whole point of the records being sealed, so ass— So folks like you can’t hold the mistakes of my youth against me.” He bit the inside of his cheek to keep from chuckling.
Mistakes of my youth, indeed.

“Yes, Mr. Jefferson, I’m aware of that,” Tweedle Joe replied smoothly. “But you know how it goes. When something is a mystery, people tend to imagine it as far worse than it probably really was. I just thought perhaps you’d like to set my mind at ease.”

Christian struggled to refrain from rolling his eyes.
This guy thinks he’s slick, doesn’t he?

“Nope.”

“Nope?”

“Nope, I don’t wanna set your mind at ease. I don’t give a shit what you think about me.”

“Christian!” Sophie hissed, kicking him under the table. He put his hand on her knee and started rubbing circles with his thumb to calm her down.

Tweedle John turned his attention to Sophie. “Mrs. Jefferson, you seem like a reasonable person. Perhaps you would care to answer a few questions for us?”

Sophie looked so nervous she was practically vibrating, and it pissed Christian off. They had no reason to be stressing her out in her condition. She may have married a devil, but she was an angel.

“Ummm... okay,” she replied, biting her thumb and rubbing her hands together. Christian worried what she would say when they asked her if she’d seen Michael and Nikki. He didn’t like that she was going to be forced to lie. Plus, she sucked at it.

“Can you please tell me where you and Mr. Jefferson were yesterday around 2 AM?”

Oh, God. The feds weren’t here to see if they’d had any contact with Michael and Nikki. They were here on a hunting expedition, trying to round up the usual suspects, and naturally Christian would be at the top of their list.

Christian discretely grabbed his cell phone and shot out a text to his attorney. “We were here, asleep, of course.”

“Can you verify that?”

Christian’s tenuous hold on his patience started to crack. “How the hell are we supposed to do that, asshole? It’s not like we have visitors who watch us sleep!”

“Calm down, Mr. Jefferson. No need to get hostile. We are merely trying to get all the facts.”

“No,” Sophie replied, intentionally bringing the attention back to herself. “No one else was here at 2 AM yesterday morning except Christian, myself and Nana, our dog.”

“Do you know anyone by the name of Sebastian Cross?” Tweedle John asked, obviously trying to sound casual, and failing miserably. How did these guys get trained? From old Get Smart episodes?

“Yes, we do. He’s a miserable sack of shit who lives on the other side of town. I’ll give you the address so you can go bother him for a while,” Christian interjected, earning him yet another nasty glare from his loving wife.

The Feds didn’t miss a beat. “Well, we would, except for the fact he’s dead. But you two already know that, don’t you?”

Sophie turned to Christian in shock. She’d seen the blood on their clothes, assumed something bad had happened, but Christian hadn’t filled her in on the specifics. Although he had no doubt he’d pay for the omission later when Sophie read him the riot act for keeping stuff from her, it worked in their favor now. Her response couldn’t have been more genuine and he could tell the Feds recognized it as such.

“Oh, my God...” she muttered to herself. She sat silent for a minute, deep in thought, then lifted her head. “No, I didn’t know.”

“All right. Well, I would say I’m sorry for your loss, but it doesn’t sound as if you were close to him.”

Sophie’s eyes narrowed. “No, we weren’t. He went to school with us, and my best friend dated him for a while after we graduated, until he started beating her up and she had to file a restraining order.” She was unapologetic in her anger, despite the fact the fucker was dead and she was being questioned by federal agents, and quite frankly, it turned Christian on. She loved Michael and Nikki every bit as much as he did.

“Your best friend? You are referring to Nicole Wright, correct?”

“Yes.”

“How long have you been friends?”

“Since I moved here in elementary school. Christian’s been friends with her even longer than me. I met her through him.”

“Mr. Jefferson, how close are you to Ms. Wright?”

“Very. She’s like a sister to me.”

“Then it must have been truly upsetting to you to learn she was being abused,” Tweedle Joe said, reeking of false sympathy.

“Yes.”

“And what would you say if I told you Sebastian Cross violated the terms of the restraining order and had injured her again?”

“I’d say the son of a bitch deserved to die. Slowly.”

“Is that what you said to Ms. Wright when she called you two nights ago, looking for help?”

Sophie’s eyes widened as she seemed to catch on to what was really going down. “Surely you can’t possibly think Christian or I had something to do with Sebastian’s death?!” Sophie’s shaking got worse, and she started to rock back and forth.

Christian had had enough.

“Cut the crap. You already pulled my phone records, I’m sure. You and I both know she didn’t call here. Probably because she knew how I would have reacted. Now, unless you intend to charge me with a crime, I am politely asking you to get the fuck out of my house!” He slapped the table with the palm of one hand and pointed at the door with the other.

Tweedle Joe tried to placate him, holding up his hands in mock surrender. “Just one more question. Have you had any contact with Michael Brennan or Nicole Wright since their disappearance?”

Christian figured the time had come to earn his Oscar before they caught Sophie in a lie.

“Disappearance? What are you talking about? Where are they?” He mentally preened for the way his voice rose the more he talked, and hoped he looked adequately panicked.

Tweedle Joe did not seem convinced, and actually had the gall to chuckle at him as he slid a business card across the table, leaving it in front of Sophie. “All right, whatever you say. If either of them contact you, you need to call me at this number. Failure to do so would result in criminal charges.”

Tweedle John was putting his jacket back on when he eyed the gun rack. “Quite the extensive collection you’ve got, Mr. Jefferson. I mean, I’m assuming they’re yours and not your lovely wife’s. Are they all registered?”

Sophie looked like she was going to throw up, and Christian was terrified of the impact this was having on the baby.

He ground his teeth and locked his knees to reduce the temptation to run across the room and punch this guy right between the eyes. “Out. Now. We’re not answering any more questions without our lawyer present.” He slammed the door shut behind them and turned just in time to see Sophie’s hands rush to cover her mouth as she ran to the bathroom. He hurried after her, holding her hair back with one hand while using his other as a makeshift cup to pour cold water from the sink over her neck.

When she finished, Sophie flushed and tried to stand on shaky feet. Groaning and a little off balance, she plopped down on the toilet instead, clumsily unbuttoning her baggy jeans and pulling them down, along with her underwear. She put her head in her hands and moaned. Blood stains speckled the lining of her panties. She didn’t notice, but Christian did.

“Stay here and relax. I’ll be right back, baby.” Christian’s heart pounded in his chest as he bolted back to the kitchen table to call Michael’s dad. Christian cursed under his breath when Michael’s mom answered the phone instead. Not that she wasn’t wonderful, but she was not who he needed.

“Mrs. Brennan, it’s Christian. I need to speak with Aaron, please. Right away!”

“Are you all right, dear?”

“Olivia, please!” No matter how many times she asked him to call her by her first name, he never had. He felt addressing her so informally was disrespectful, and she was one of the few people in his life who deserved every bit of respect he could offer her, but he was way beyond proper manners at the moment.

“He’s not here, sweetie. He’s at the hospital. You can reach him on his cell.”

Christian found a pen on the kitchen table, but no paper. He wrote the number on the tablecloth instead. Let Sophie bitch later. He’d buy her a new one. Luckily, Dr. Brennan answered on the second ring. Christian heard Sophie moan louder and headed back to her while he talked.

“Dr. Brennan, it’s Christian. Sophie, she’s in her third month, she’s bleeding. The bloody Feds were here and got her all worked up. What do I do?”

“Get her here quickly. Who’s your OB/GYN?”

His mind drew a complete blank. He was just at the doctor’s office with her two days earlier for their first ultrasound. How could he forget her name?!