“Whoa, someone’s fucking with you?” Declan King—Grady’s partner and closest friend—walked over to where they stood. A pretty blonde with hazel eyes sidled up to his side.
“Not sure yet.” Olly shook the guy’s hand. “But I plan on figuring that out in the morning.”
“I’m Skye, by the way.” The woman next to Declan didn’t give her husband the chance to introduce her.
Though he didn’t let on, Olly already knew all about her. Skye King, formerly known as Skye Lewis. Wife of one of Denver’s best detectives. Izzy’s close friend.
Daughter of a serial killer.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Olly dipped his chin and offered her a flash of a grin. Lord knows he wasn’t in the position to judge anyone.
“So what’s tomorrow, and why do you think someone may be fucking with you?” Declan’s intense stare searched his.
But before he could answer…
“Olly’s meeting a woman named Scarlett Hathaway,” Izzy announced. “She says she’s Rose Goodwin’s sister, but Olly doesn’t believe her.”
Nope. Sure don’t.
The other man blinked, his dark brown eyes widening a fraction before his intelligent stare bounced from Izzy to Olly to Grady and back again. “Grady and I looked into every aspect of Rose’s life. We’restilllooking. So is the FBI. Nothing we turned up mentioned anything about a sister.”
“Which is exactly whatIsaid.” Olly’s slid his focus back to Izzy. “But my sister thinks this woman’s legit.”
Crossing her arms at her chest, his sister gave her hip a slight pop and stared him down like his mom did when he was a kid. “Okay, then answer me this, big brother. If you’re so sure this Scarlett woman is a fraud, why did you agree to meet with her?”
“Because she’s the first new possible link to Rose I’ve had since Valdez.”
Dante Valdez had been a well-connected businessman who owned several establishments in and around the Denver area. One of those was a restaurant where Rose was last seen.
A few months back, Olly had managed to infiltrate Valdez’s operation in hopes of finding a bead on Rose’s location. When the cops found the brother of their department shrink had madehis way in, they decided to use him in their efforts to put an end to the trafficking ring.
Sex. Guns. Drugs.
The sick fuck had been into it all.
But Valdez had made his biggest mistake when he decided to go after Izzy. And when the son of a bitch attacked her—damn near sliced her fucking throat—Grady had shown up just in time to put a bullet straight into the man’s head.
Thank you, God.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Olly continued. “I’m damn glad Grady took out Valdez, but you know as well as I do that every lead we had in trying to locate Rose died right along him. Still, that doesn’t mean I want you handing out my number to complete strangers who may or may not be?—”
“Okay, look.” Izzy interrupted with a raised palm and not an ounce of remorse. “You seem to have forgotten that a big part of my job is getting people to talk. I spend my days interviewing witnesses and suspects to help determine whether or not someone is being truthful.”
Declan turned her way as he asked, “And you think this Hathaway woman is telling the truth?”
“I gave her Olly’s number, didn’t I?”
Touché, little sister. Toufuckingché.
When Dec looked back to him for clarification, Olly decided to catch the detective up with an abridged version of what went down.
“I got a call last night from a woman who says her name is Scarlett Hathaway. According to her, she took one of those at-home DNA kit tests like four months ago. When she got her results back, they showed she supposedly had a half-sister she never knew about. Scarlett tried finding Rose on her own, but when she couldn’t, she hired a private investigator to help with the search.”
Picking up where he left off, Izzy added, “That man did some digging and put out some feelers. One of those led him to Olly. But since my brother still uses an untraceable, pay-as-you-go phone, avoids social media like the plague, and has moved several times in recent years, he’s not the easiest guy to track down.”
“Let me guess.” Declan used what he’d just learned to infer the rest. “The P.I. couldn’t find Olly, but he found you.”
Izzy nodded. “Scarlett called me first. After speaking to her for nearly half an hour, I told her I’d be in touch in regard to Olly. We hung up, and I immediately had Grady do a check on her.”