Keenan
With a trembling and sweaty hand, Keenan knocked on the door at the end of a motel room nearby Newark airport. He didn’t want to be here. But he would do whatever needed to be done to take care of his family. He would do anything for Tommy and Ryleigh.
It shouldn’t have shocked him as much as it did, when Ronan tired of waiting and kicked in the door.
Donovan shouted in Keenan’s earpiece, “Fuck, Ro. Let Calum take the lead.”
Calum Walsh did exactly that by passing Ronan in the narrow doorway. He entered the room and after checking the corners, closets and bathroom, Calum reentered the empty motel room.
“Close the door behind you, Keenan. We don’t need any eyes on us while we’re here. Don’s on the lookout, so we’ll know when someone comes up to the room.”
Calum started working for Donovan as a PI months ago after quitting his job as a police officer here in Jersey. His contacts had proved themselves, as this was the first genuine lead they had on Evangeline, and it already seemed promising as he found several personal items of her in this room.
The picture of Evangeline with her parents, taken when her parents were still together, lay on the stained carpet in the room. He picked it up and Calum jerked his chin. “That’s her, right?”
“Yeah.” He said and stared like the people on this picture would come alive and tell him exactly where the hell his ex was.
Calum talked again, and Keenan realized after a beat that he’d informed Donovan about their finding. “Yes. Will do,” Calum said.
Keenan had been so distracted he’d missed half of the conversation.
“She kept this picture for over three years, so it must have meant something to her. She’ll come back. Let’s go talk to the desk clerk.”
Calum said before he did a final sweep of the place. Keenan wanted to follow Calum on his way to the reception, but he held up his hand and said, “I’ll go with Ro. You go over to Don in the car.”
Without answering the buff Viking lookalike, Keenan joined his cousin in the rental car. After closing the passenger door behind him, he said, “Quite the charmer, your employee. Is he always this short? I know that he’s the expert and all, but damn…”
Donovan laughed. “Kate and Kayla always tell me how much Calum looks like me. I guess that means they think I can be an arsehole, too.”
Donovan’s girlfriend Kate was the sweetest woman Keenan ever met. How she ended up with Austin’s most notorious player… Keenan shook his head. With Calum as her brother, Kate probably was used to the whole alpha male thing that Donovan oozed.
The back doors to the car opened and Ronan and Calum stepped in. “We’ve missed them by a hair. My contact is taking over our spot and calls me the moment she comes back. Her stuff is still in the room. Let’s head back to my parents’ house. It’s no use for us all to hang out here.”
Keenan slammed his fist on the dashboard. “Fuck!”
Leaning in from the backseat, Ronan squeezed Keenan’s shoulder. “We’ve found her, Keen. I’m sure this will all be over soon.”
“Did Derek say anything else when you called him this morning?”
Ronan had finally got a hold on one of Derek’s disposable cell phone numbers via an old friend from the underground fighting scene. The asshole denied seeing Evangeline in the past years. They should have expected as much.
“Nah, he told me he could hook me up with a fight while I’m here.”
Keenan turned in his seat. “You’re not actually thinking about going, are you?”
Ronan shrugged. “Why not? If she’s not coming back for her stuff, we’ll have to do something. Maybe someone at the fight knows about Evangeline and where we can find her.”
Keenan rubbed his forehead. Calling Derek, who’s a well-known drug lord, they’re looking for Evangeline, had been risky enough. No one wants to be on Derek’s radar. Not when they were young and stupid, hanging out on the streets of Austin—but certainly not now that the man had become a certified criminal.
He couldn’t differ any more from Derek. Was that what had attracted Evangeline to him in the first place? Because he could offer her a life full of excitement; underground fights, parties filled with high rollers and drugs?
“Shit. That’s her!”
Keenan shot upright in his seat and narrowed his eyes as he scanned the parking lot, searching for the person Donovan thought was Evangeline. With her head bowed and her arms crossed over her chest, Evangeline scurried to the motel room Keenan had just exited. There was no doubt in his mind that this was his ex.
The once beautiful, angelic cheerleader that had been his first love, his high school sweetheart, was struggling to find her key in the worn-out shoulder bag. She swayed on her stripper heels, flashing them her underwear when she scrambled to pick up her dropped key.
“Damn. This is painful, man. We need to go now and help her. Don’t want Derek to send one of his men,” Ronan said.