“Fucking finally,” Dominic said. “Don’t ever fucking hold your breath like that again. I don’t care what happened to make it so.” He cradled Brett’s cheeks again, meeting his gaze. “Felix stillneeds you, Brett. He needs you to find his…to find him. So let’s find him together.”
Brett inhaled deeply, blowing it out as quickly as he could, and pushed down anything personal he needed to. This was just another case. Just another person they had to locate. He needed to look at the evidence and follow the train. That’s all.Don’t think about what you saw, Brett. It’s not true. It can’t be.
He yanked his face away from Dominic. “Get me everything we have so far!” he shouted, stepping behind his desk and clearing it all to the side. “EVERYTHING!”
The entire room exploded into motion, and Brett settled in his seat, the creak a comfort more than a pain at that moment. Throughout the night, they worked, and by early the next morning, eyes gritty and dry, he dragged his laptop towards him and brought up the latest reports he could find. His gaze scanned the many online newspapers, the blogs, the independent so-called experts until his eyes caught on a photo of Felix outside of a club Brett knew was a gay club. As the words from the article registered, his blood ran cold.
ROYAL BODYGUARD FOUND TO BE SUSPECT IN SHOOTING
A high-standing royal bodyguard has been made a person of interest in several shootings in recent years. Forensic evidence is being tested, but it seems the guard is actually a professional sniper and has been used on several occasions to dispose of people who threaten the crown. Should the royals also be investigated? Click to read more.
He stared at the words. How the hell did they find out Felix was a sniper? Was it supposition from the rifle being found at his home? No one knew that except for him and Felix, and of course, the king. He supposed it wasn’t beyond guess work that maybe Kean and Kendal knew as well, but he doubted anyoneelse. Except, they had told a couple of the guards, but surely they wouldn’t say anything. Which circled back to his question. If they hadn’t said anything, then who knew? No one in Felix’s family knew… He cursed a storm.
“Sam! I’m sending you a link to a report. I need you to track this as far as possible, and also find out who else has reported on this.”
“Okay!” Sam shouted back.
Brett sent the link and started his own investigation, too. He hoped his wish came true. That this was the only media outlet with the report, because if it wasn’t, and it was becoming common news, he needed to speak with Felix’s family as soon as possible.
It took around an hour—far too long as far as he was concerned—but the news wasn’t good. That outlet might have been the first one Brett found, but it certainly wasn’t the only one that had mentioned the sniper comparison. The photo, however unconnected to the accusations, only added weight to the words. As everyone knew, being part of the LGBT+ community made some people look down on them. Not that it was true but having that photo next to it appeared intentional. Adelaide Thompson had a lot to answer for.
“I need to go out!” he called to the room. “Keep working on finding any correlations between what is happening here and what happened with Dominic, Owen and Nick. There has to be something.” He sighed. “There has to be,” he murmured, more to himself.
He strode for his car, his stomach advertising exactly how much he was looking forward to this next visit. Not. When he parked and climbed out again, he paused with his fist upright, ready to knock. He knew exactly how much this was going to hurt everyone involved.
He knocked and waited.
A man opened the door, eyes like stone, jaw clenched. “I’m surprised it’s not Felix here. Although he’s probably hiding.”
Brett swallowed hard because, shit, they hadn’t even been told that Felix had been kidnapped. “I have several pieces of news for you. May we take it inside?”
The man stared at him for a moment, and Brett expected him to slam the door in his face, but he opened it wider and gestured towards the inside. He crossed the threshold, readying for an extremely uncomfortable conversation.
****
Chapter 14
Brett
Brett nodded to the woman sitting on the sofa, wringing her hands in her lap. He waited until the man settled in an armchair before taking the other one. Taking a breath, he started with the most difficult part.
“I am sure you have heard the news about Felix’s so-called sniper duties and trafficking suspicions by now, but what you don’t know, and what hasn’t been published, is that…Felix is missing.” The woman, Felix’s mother, gasped, her hand covering her mouth as her eyes filled with unshed tears. “Early yesterday, Felix left Windsor Castle to go to meet a friend at Book Drunk. As far as we can tell, something caught his attention and he diverted to a side street and then into an alley. From there, we lost his trail. We’re working as hard as we can to find him. We have leads, but so far, they’re not panning out. We are doing everything we can and have lots of people searching in a variety of ways to find him.” He met Felix’s father’s eyes. “Wewillfind him.”
“Why hadn’t we been told before this?” the man said, leaning forward and piercing Brett with his gaze.
Brett closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “That is completely my fault.” His voice cracked on the last word. “I’ve been so hellbent on trying to find him…” He caught himself and started again. “We’vebeen so hellbent on trying to find him that it completely slipped my mind, and I can’t apologise enough.”He looked at Felix’s mother. Her face had lost colour, and her chin trembled, but she gave a small, crooked smile at his words, though he wasn’t sure why.
“What can I do to help?” the man said, standing.
Brett was fully aware of Stephen’s Army career and that he had wanted Felix to follow in his footsteps, and that Felix had pushed back, despite knowing he would succeed fully if he had. What Stephen hadn’t known was that Felix didn’t want his sniper skills to be known, which was why they had kept it so quiet. He wavered about whether or not to tell them about his abilities but ultimately decided not to. That was a conversation for Felix to have another day… His heart skipped a beat, and he looked down at his hands. No, Felix wouldn’t be telling anyone anything, so there was no point in telling them about it. It wouldn’t do anything except cause hurt.
He couldn’t breathe for a second, but then he filled his lungs, held it for a moment and let it out again before meeting Stephen’s gaze. “We do have it all in hand, but we would be grateful for any contacts you may have that could help with computers and things like that. Felix was our expert, and…” He stopped.
“I know a few people. I’ll make some calls. Shall I give them your number?”
Brett nodded. “Please.” He gave him his details and then stood. “I will keep you updated as much as possible.”
Ruby saw him out while Stephen went to make calls. “Thank you for coming, Brett.”