“He also knew his life was on the line,” Kraven continued. “Maybe this was him making sure you guys had this part of the story by the time you found out the rest.”
“But how’d he get all this?” Hill asked. “All this detail except for the one thing that makes it useful?”
“What are you saying?” Carlos probed.
“Maybe we’re looking for the wrong detail.” Hill said.
“Can you elaborate?” Moses asked while looks traded among the group.
Hill leaned forward bracing his elbows to his knees. “You guys have been scouring that stuff-hoping it’d lead you to the place where Shannon’s holed up. Maybe Lamont meant for it to tell you something else.”
“Like what?” Bill frowned.
“Anything in Lamont’s narrative give you insight into Shannon’s behavior? His interests beyond the research? Anything that might give us a clue on the sort of place he’d feel safe calling home?” Hill asked.
SyBilla settled deeper into Caiphus’ chest as she concentrated. “First place we can put him on record is the island, then he went to another island when he moved to Hawaii…”
“Islands are remote,” Carlos noted. “He’s got an affinity for out of the way places.”
“Did Jasper give you anything else we could use to find this guy?” Moses queried. “Shannon was one of his, right? Did he ever say anything about where he came from?”
Hill and Kraven shook their heads.
“He didn’t have much,” Hill said, “Only that he came from somewhere in the northwest.”
“Near Minnesota?” Bill recalled the place where she’d first been abducted by Jake Shannon.
“It’s remote.” Caiphus noted.
“But you didn’t stay there, right?” Kraven inquired.
Bill shook her head. “That’s where my team tracked the shipments we’d been following.” She looked to her brother-in-law. “You found similar patterns in all those records Quest sent you, right Hill?”
“Yeah,” Hill settled back on his side of the sofa. “So somewhere in or outside Marshall… maybe...that’s a lot of ground to cover,” he cringed.
“Yeah,” Caiphus rested his chin atop Bill’s head. “And we don’t even know how much time we’ve got to find it. Remember, we’ve lost eyes on Eva...this research facility she’s looking for could very well be Shannon’s hide out. If she gets to him before we do-”
“We may find Shannon, but all his main inventions could be in her hands.” Dena finished to a round of groans.
“I need a drink,” Moses grumbled.
“Lots of ‘em,” Bill agreed.
Hill’s focus was across the lively room on
Persephone with his folks and the girls. All he needed was for this
to be over.
~~~
“Let’s not have any more fights. Ever.” Quest murmured, his entrancing eyes onyx darkened by emotion as he followed the path his thumb traced across his wife’s tempting mouth.
“Mmm...sounds good…” Mick ran the tip of her tongue across his thumb. “Any thought on how we could make that happen?”
“Sure. You just do what I tell you from now on.”
Mick laughed and Quest joined in soon after. They had taken a secluded spot near the rear of the dance floor where they barely glided to the music, preferring instead to just hold one another.
“So you like that ‘obey’ stuff, huh?” she asked.
“Only when I’ve got you in bed.”
“Oh...I see...on my back.”
“I kind of like you on top.”
Desire flooded her exotic gaze instantly. She leaned into his lean, potent frame but resisted doing more. “Stop Q, we can’t leave your cousin’s wedding.”
“Who said anything about leaving? There’s a nice wall right here and everything.”
Mick’s resulting laughter came to an abrupt stop when he held her fast and gave her a slight shake to command her attention. “I don’t like that obey stuff,” he said. “What I like is you just as you are.”
She smoothed the back of her hand across his jaw and marveled at the flawless dark chocolate of his complexion. “You know that me doesn’t obey very well out of bed.”
“Sadly, she’s the one I fell in love with.”
“Even though she rattles your nerves to no end?”
“That’s one of the parts I like best about her.”
“What other parts about her do you like?” Mick couldn’t resist melting into him then.
