Walk the Line (Man of the Month 12)

"Thank you." Tyree tipped the man, then started to open the note.

"I'll talk to you tomorrow," Brent said, assuming it was a love note from Eva setting up a tryst in one of the hotel rooms.

"Wait." Tyree reached out and grabbed Brent's arm, his voice strangled.

"What?" Fingers of dread crawled up his spine. "What happened?"

Tyree didn't answer. Just handed him the note.

We know how to get you where it hurts.

Call off your bloodhounds and quit fighting the action. If not, it will be worse for her next time.

Brent felt the blood drain from his face.

"Elena," Tyree said.

But Brent was already racing for his car, and Tyree

followed, right on his heels.

Chapter Fifteen

"Faster," Tyree yelled as Brent floored the Volvo while shouting at Landon over the car's speakerphone system.

"I've got two black and whites racing to her apartment," Landon said. "And I've put out a call that you not be pulled over. She'll be fine, you two. Just hang in there."

Brent nodded. He knew she would be. Any other reality was unacceptable. "I was right about Bodacious," he said. "And damn me, I could have nailed the bastard days ago if I'd only made the connection when the Center cut Elena loose."

"I'll follow up whatever lead you want, but you're going to have to run that one by me more slowly."

"The Fix is a prime location, right? And the folks from Bodacious have been trying to get their hands on it for ages. That's why Ted Henry called Tyree's loan," Brent said, referring to the man who'd lent Tyree the money to open the bar, then later invested heavily in the corporation that owned Bodacious. "He wanted Tyree to default so he could foreclose on the property."

Ted Henry was actually the impetus behind the Man of the Month contest. Tyree needed cash to pay off the note, so Reece and Brent invested. But Tyree insisted the bar be in the black and debt free by the end of the year. And Jenna had come up with the brilliant--and lucrative--idea of the contest to increase revenue.

"So even though Ted Henry was out of luck, the folks from Bodacious just kept trying. Stiff competition. Poaching employees. Graffiti. Vandalism. But nothing worked. They didn't shake Tyree from The Fix at all."

"And then someone must have realized that if they couldn't get the property, then getting it away from Tyree was the next best thing," Landon said, picking up the thread.

"How does this fit in with Elena?" Tyree asked.

"Someone from Bodacious must be involved with the Center," Brent said. "And when they set the plan in motion they didn't realize who she was--your daughter, I mean. Obviously, she had to go before she put two and two together."

"We find the person with a link to the Center and to Bodacious, and we have our perp," Landon said. "I'm on it."

"We have more," Brent added. "I doubt they realize her apartment has security cameras. Pull the feed, and I bet you have a face."

"On that, too," Landon said. "You two just focus on Elena."

"That's the plan," Brent said. "After all, I'm not a cop anymore."

He ended the call just as he made a hard right into her apartment driveway. The patrol cars had beat them there, and the complex was bathed in the eerie red and blue strobe of police lights.

"Come on," he said to Tyree, though the words were unnecessary. His friend was already out of the car and racing toward her unit.

"She's okay, sir," a uniformed officer told him. "Detective Landon said to give you full access."

"Thanks." They passed the cop and stepped into what looked like a blood-soaked living room.