Snow instantly pulled free of Noah’s loose hold and crossed the room to Jude. He wrapped his arms around from behind and he pressed his face into Jude’s neck.
“But if I do this my way…no cops…” he continued softly a moment later, “then maybe I won’t feel like a failure. Won’t feel like this is all my fault. I’ll be able to take back a little bit of what they stole from my brother.”
“I’m with you,” Snow whispered against his neck. “I’m with you no matter what you decide. You know that. No regrets. Whatever you need.”
“We’re with you on this, Jude,” Rowe said. His voice had lost its hard edge, becoming more understanding and compassionate. “I needed to be sure that you made your peace with this. I don’t want you to have the regrets that we have.”
“Regrets are inevitable,” Jude said. “But handling this might mean that I’ll be able to sleep at night.”
Snow continued to hold Jude for a few more minutes, trying to let his warmth and support soak into Jude. This man was his entire world now. Jude had been there when his world was falling apart, and his mistakes had come back to haunt his family. Jude had never wavered when things got ugly, and Snow was desperate to show that he’d be there for Jude the same way.
When Jude was breathing a little easier, Snow guided him over to the couch while Rowe returned to the chair. With a little smirk and nod to Noah, his boyfriend placed a small pad of paper and a pen on the table in front of Jude before sitting down on the arm of Rowe’s chair.
“Jude, I need you to write down your brother’s cell number, his address, email address, and his cell service provider,” Rowe said. He sat back and flinched when Sergeant jumped into his lap. Noah instantly scooped up the cat and snuggled him against his chest. Rowe wasn’t much of a cat person, where Noah had proved that he just loved animals. “Snow told me that you tried to use the ‘Find My Device’ app with no luck. It’s unlikely we’ll be able to hack the phone’s location, but we might be able to see which towers the phone frequently accessed. Could give us an idea of his habits.”
Picking up the pen, Jude nodded and started filling out the information that Rowe had requested. “The website…”
Rowe sighed heavily. “Normally I’d give this to Gidget, but after the Boris Jagger thing…” The former Ranger paused and shook his head. Snow watched his friend, hating to see the grim look fill his usually happy eyes. Even more than a year after his death, that bastard Jagger still had the power to cast a dark pall across their lives with his memory. “I’m going to pull in Cole McCord. He’s damn good, and he’ll keep this private from everyone. No one else at Ward Security beyond us will know about this.”
“I appreciate your discretion, Rowe,” Jude said. He cleared his throat and continued. “But my priority is finding out who this bastard is and getting justice for Jordan. I trust you and Noah. If you have to involve more people, then do it.”
“We’ll stick with just Cole for now. He will examine the video and the website. See what he can pull out about the person who set it up.”
“I used the Smith credit card to get the premium access,” Snow said.
Rowe flashed Snow a wicked grin. “Lucas and I were just talking a couple of weeks ago about finally shutting down that entire account. Guess we should hold on to it a little while longer.”
“Hopefully this will be the last time we have to use it.”
“Cole will also see if he can track the money.”
“What about the man…the tattooed man?” Jude asked, his voice cutting out slightly at the mention of Jordan’s attacker.
“The tattoos give him away,” Noah replied. He gently placed Sergeant on the floor so he could wander under the table toward Snow and Jude. “The ink is clear and distinct. Cole will be able to pull the images and run them through our database and the local cop database. It’ll give us a good start.”
Jude grunted. He didn’t seem to be reassured, and Snow couldn’t blame him. There was a chance the man had never been arrested, at least not locally, and that would mean that he wasn’t in their databases. But Snow clung to the idea that his attack of Jordan hadn’t been his first. They would find this bastard.
“It would be helpful if you could also write down the color, year, and make of Jordan’s car,” Noah suggested. “That we can give over to Quinn or Gidget. They have made a fine art of accessing the city’s traffic cameras.”
Jude’s head suddenly popped up from where he was writing. “We don’t know where his car is. I don’t think the police even told us where he was found. Just that it was a field in Sharonville.”