“You sure?”
“They guy’s face down in a puddle of his own brains and blood.” Adrian’s response was clipped. “So yeah, Carter. We’re pretty sure.”
He and Gabe entered a room that appeared to be Perez’s home office. Leaning his crutches against the dead man’s desk, Adrian began opening drawers while they continued their conversation.
“What the fuck?” Nate’s question mimicked Adrian’s recent thoughts. “Is it just me, or does something seem off with this whole thing?”
“We were just talking about that,” Adrian spoke loudly as he rummaged through bills and other irrelevant papers. “Nothing with this case makes sense. Like the shooting. The more I replay that shit, the more confident I am that the shooter wasn’t aiming for Jenna.”
“Makes sense.” Gabe opened a cabinet positioned against the far wall. “Like you said before, they obviously wanted her alive.”
“That was actually why I was going to call,” Nate chimed back in. “I went over the footage from the street cams outside the police station again. There were two shots taken. One right before you were hit in the leg, which took out your driver’s side window. Jenna was standing directly across from you at the time, and given the bullet’s trajectory, the shooter had to have had a clear shot at her head.”
“Jesus, Carter.” Adrian blew out a breath. Justhearingthe possibility play out like that through the speaker made his gut tighten and his chest ache.
“Sorry.” Picking up on Adrian’s dislike for the conversation’s direction, Nate quickly got to his point. “All I’m saying is, Jenna wasn’t the shooter’s target, and either the gunman was a horrible shot, or he wasn’t actually trying to kill you, either.”
Adrian halted his search, his mind replaying the scene one last time. “He could’ve easily shot me in the head or the back. Instead, he went lower.” He slid his gaze to the set of metal crutches and then across the room to Gabe. “He purposely aimed for my leg.”
“Maybe they didn’t want a possible murder charge hanging over their heads,” Nate suggested.
“Except they had no problem taking out Campillo and Perez,” Gabe reminded him.
“Good point,” Nate muttered. “Maybe they just wanted Walker out of the way so they could get to Jenna?”
Adrian nodded. “That makes sense. They had to have been watching us to know where we’d be.”
The idea that he’d missed a tail burned his ass.
“Or they were tipped off by someone else.” Gabe gave him a pointed look. “Someone who knew you were going to meet Ben.”
He shook his head. “Benwas the only person who knew we were coming.”
The raised brow on Gabe’s chiseled face irked him.
“For the millionth time, he wouldn’t fucking sell me out.”
“He would if he didn’t have a choice,” Nate added quietly.
Gabe looked down at his phone. “You think he was being blackmailed?”
“I mean, it’s a stretch, but it’s always a possibility.”
“It’s a hell of a stretch,” Adrian seethed. “That would mean the person responsible would’ve had to have gotten to Ben sometime between when I called to set up the meeting and the shooting. That’s a small fucking window.”
“It is,” Gabe agreed. “But I think it’s one we need to crawl through. Think about it, Adrian.” He stepped toward him. “The guy drove himself and Jenna straight from the crime scene to that house. Why?”
“The big guy’s right, Walker,” Nate chimed back in. “That house has been empty for months. The owners moved to Wisconsin to be closer to family, and none of them…not even a distant relative of theirs, has a known connection to Ben.”
Guess Carter’s been keeping himself busy.
A stretch of silence spanned a few seconds before Nate spoke up again.
“I’ll go back through Campillo’s cell records and emails. Maybe I missed something.”
“Check his work line and email, too,” Gabe instructed. “If someone was forcing his hand on this, it’s possible they contacted him that way.”
Adrian felt sick even considering the possibility that Ben was involved with people who would do this sort of thing. It went against every single instinct he had about the man.