His to Take (Wicked Lovers #9)(67)
Author: Shayla Black

He dragged in another breath and looked down at her belly, which Hunter rubbed protectively. Cursing under his breath, Joaquin winced. He couldn’t blame his brother-in-law. In Hunter’s shoes, he’d tell himself to back the fuck off, too.

Scrubbing a hand down his face, he sighed. “Sorry, Kata. Bailey has endured a lot in two days and it’s not over. I know there’s no way to avoid causing her pain entirely. I just . . .”

How did he put into words something he really didn’t grasp himself?

“You wanted to spare her whatever you could. I get it. She matters to you,” Kata said softly.

Joaquin frowned. How had his sister come to that conclusion? For that matter, how had he come to care about Bailey so quickly?

“Something like that,” he grumbled.

“She thinks she’s nothing more than a case to you. If that’s true, you need to make that clear and keep your hands off her.”

His little sister telling him how to run his life wasn’t exactly improving his mood, and he looked at Hunter for backup, only to realize that the man was strictly in his wife’s corner. Well, shit. But wasn’t that as it should be?

Hunter’s phone beeped, and he pulled it from his pocket, read a text, then shoved it back in his jeans. “Stone is here. He’s got intel.”

Tonight? “He drove out here from Lafayette? I thought he was watching Oracle.”

His brother-in-law nodded. “He said it was urgent. Jack is on his way back, and they can always call Tyler for backup if shit hits the fan in the interim. I’m going to ask Thorpe if we can use his office.”

A moment later, Hunter and the club owner exchanged some words. Sean joined in. Less than thirty seconds later, Thorpe took Callie’s hand and kissed her forehead while Hunter and Sean headed back in Joaquin’s direction.

“You two wait in Thorpe’s office. I’ll bring Stone back,” the groom offered.

They both nodded, and Joaquin held in a grimace. If Stone was traveling a few hundred miles just to fill him in, none of the news could be good.

He settled in a chair facing Thorpe’s desk. Hunter hung back near the door. It didn’t take long for Sean to arrive with Stone. Sean seated himself in Thorpe’s big chair that Joaquin thought looked more like a throne, while the tech guy Jack employed plopped into the other chair facing the desk.

Joaquin turned to look at the guy beside him. “Thanks for coming out here. Lay it on me.”

A lot of men would hesitate before imparting bad news. Not Stone. “The police sketch of the guy who broke into Bailey’s house is done. I’m sure they intended to call you tomorrow, but I was trolling through their case files and thought what the hell? I printed it out. Here.” He passed a piece of paper Joaquin’s way. “Look familiar?”

“No,” Joaquin said after a glance. But he wasn’t the one who needed to remember seeing this face in the past.

“May I?” Sean held out his hand.

Joaquin passed it over and watched the other man study the drawing of the balding man with the unremarkable face and the unfamiliar military coat. Sean dissected it visually with a scowl.

“It might be one of the guys who pursued Callie, Thorpe, and me through Vegas last November. I didn’t get a good look at him. It was a car chase, after all. But he definitely looks familiar.”

“Fucking fabulous.” Joaquin resisted the urge to punch a wall. The damn stress was mounting, as were the connections between Bailey and the bastards who had caused Callie a decade of woe. They’d likely killed Callie’s family, given the fact that they’d tried to do her in as well. Were these the same assholes who had killed Bailey’s birth parents and the other Aslanov kids?

“I want to show this to Callie, see if he looks familiar to her. I think you should show it to Bailey, too.”

Joaquin didn’t love that idea, but he agreed. “I’d planned on it.”

“Good. I’d also like to run this through the bureau to see if we get any hits on facial recognition software or if he matches up to any known dissidents on file.”

“Ahead of you,” Stone said. “He’s been identified as Joseph McKeevy. He’s a known, longtime member of LOSS. He’s a real asswipe, by all accounts. He’s a known felon with a couple of armed robbery charges on his rap sheet. But he has a special affinity for crimes against women. He was convicted as a minor for raping a friend of his younger sister’s. After a few years in juvie, they released him, but he turned out to be a repeat offender. He was the prime suspect in a string of torture/rape/murder cases near his hometown of Springfield, Missouri. He disappeared into Mexico for a while. We think he spent time in Juárez, contributing to the body count of women assaulted and snuffed out before being buried in the desert. He sneaked back into the country a few years ago. I’m guessing LOSS has given him the green light to continue his sick ways in the name of breaking up the USA. Great group of folks.”