Anxious unshed tears filled her eyes. “Did you find anything that will help me locate my brother? Is that all you have? He’s the reason I’m here, guys. Finding him is all that matters to me.” Her ever-present companion of worry banged on the inside of her head. No Trent.
Austin leaned forward in his chair. “We found your brother’s business card in Winters’s basement.”
Hope sprung up inside her. Trent might be alive. She looked him directly in the eyes. “You think Malcolm has him?”
“Probably.” Austin paused for a moment as if unsure what to say. “But there was a lot of blood down there, too.”
Mac’s jaw dropped and her tears could no longer be held back.
“Austin, please. God, you can be so insensitive.” Jessie took her hand and squeezed. “Mac, we believe your brother is alive. The asshole was in a hurry to slip away. There’s no way he would’ve taken the time to load up a body. Doesn’t make sense. Trent’s alive. You’ll see.”
Mac squeezed her hand back. “Thank you for that.” Jessie’s logic did have some merit. The odds weren’t great, but at least there was a slim chance Trent was still alive. She mentally grabbed onto that belief with all that was left inside her.
Wade put his arm around her. “Every lawman in Nevada is on the lookout for Malc
olm. Mackenzie, we will find him and your brother.”
She shifted beside him and opened her clutch, pulling out the napkin. “Austin, do you know what this means? I found this at Trent’s apartment. Two. Six. One. One. Two. Zero. U. Four. Three.”
Austin’s eyes narrowed. He came around the desk. “Let me see that, Mac.”
She handed him her brother’s note.
Austin read it aloud several times. “Two. Six. One. One. Two. Zero. U. Four. Three. Could it be?”
“Could it be what?” Jessie snapped. “Don’t keep us in the dark, husband.”
“If ‘U’ means unit, I think I might be able to solve this mysterious note of Trent’s.” Austin went back to his desk and typed something into his computer.
Mac held her breath, praying he was onto something.
“Well?” Jessie’s anxiety seemed to be growing as fast as hers.
“Still looking, pet. Hang on.” His fingers punched his keyboard again and again.
She squeezed Jessie’s hand and closed her eyes.
Austin slapped his hands together, and the sound shocked her eyes open.
He shook his head. “Son of a bitch. Your brother was smart, Mac. Very smart.”
She stood, unable to sit still any longer. “What have you found?”
“Trent’s last e-mail to me mentioned something about several storage units that he’d gotten a tip Winters was renting in Denver. He was going to check them out and get back to me. After Trent vanished, I’ve always believed he’d found something that would’ve put Malcolm away that day. My contacts checked with every storage facility within a fifty-mile radius of Denver, but not surprising, none of them had Winters listed as renting from them. I didn’t have an address or a unit number that could help me find where Trent had gone, until now.” He turned his laptop around so the screen faced all of them. “The Drop and Dash Storage Units located in Denver at 2611 20th Street. I’m betting 43 is the number to the storage unit. Trent probably uncovered the proof we needed on Winters.”
“And someone made sure that evidence never saw the light of day,” Champion chimed in.
Mac took a deep breath. “Malcolm Winters has my brother.”
* * * *
Malcolm had always known he would eventually say good-bye to the town he’d grown up in. Good riddance was all he could say. He’d been working long and hard to bring the whole town of Wilde to its knees one day. All he’d ever needed to realize his dream was enough money and power. But it was far too late for that plan to work out, now, thanks to several motherfuckers.
No sense in crying over something lost. He was too pragmatic for that.
It hadn’t been hard to get the jump on his thick-skulled ex-lieutenant, but his ex-bosses had better-skilled killers than the recently dead Lester in their employ. The clock was ticking.
One more loose end for him to deal with, and after that, he would make his getaway.