“Thatisstrange…especially since Rudy expected them to fight.”
“Yeah…his men surrendering really pissed him off.”
“Hmmm…but Tristan expected it,” Jackson muttered.
“I’m glad he was right because none of my men got hurt,” Groose said.
Jackson nodded in agreement but made a mental note to ask Tristan how he’d known what would happen. Setting aside Groose’s report, he pulled up the video of Ollie at the front gate. Swiveling his screen so they could both see it, he asked, “Have you seen this yet?”
“Tito showed it to me last night,” Groose said, watching the screen. “I don’t know who that is, but…”
“That is Oliver…Theo’s cousin,” Jackson replied. “He turned up at our front door.”
Groose’s eyes widened. “No way! I checked the camera feeds from the driveway myself, and I can assure you he wasn’t on any of them.”
“Well, somehow he got through the gate and made it to the front door without being detected.”
“Thatcan’tbe,” Groose insisted. “I had Tito do a complete check of each camera last night, and they’re all operating properly.”
“Good to know. I sent the tape to Zane and asked him to check to see if someone had tempered with it.”
Shaking his head, Groose said, “He won’t find anything…the security system has a built-in alarm if someone tampers with it.”
“I know…but before I talk to Oliver, I wanted to make sure there wasn’t any malfunction that could explain how he disappeared and then reappeared at the front door.”
“There has to be another…”
Before Groose could finish, Zane barged into the room and exclaimed, “Wait till you see what I found!” Then, seeing Groose, he added, “Oops…sorry…I didn’t know you were in a meeting, bro.”
“Clearly,” Jackson said, smiling at his brother’s exuberance. “Take a seat and tell us what you discovered.”
“It’s about the video you sent,” Zane began. “I couldn’t find any evidence that it had been messed with…”
“Good,” interjected Jackson.
“Right,” Zane said. “So given that the image of Ollie disappearing is real and, as far as anyone knows, he isn’t a magic user, I decided to slow down the tape using a program I wrote. And that’s when I saw Ollie become a blur before disappearing completely.”
Frowning, Jackson said, “I don’t get it…what’s so important about that?”
“Well, it proves he isn’t using magic to disappear, so after doing a quick bit of research, I think he used the power of invisible speed,” Zane said. “I can’t be certain, but it would explain the blur and why he disappeared from view…at least from our view.”
Groose glanced at Jackson. “Have you ever heard of that? It sounds pretty far-fetched.”
“No…I haven’t,” Jackson replied, before asking his brother, “Exactly how does it work?”
“I’m not totally sure, but supposedly he can move faster than our eye can see and, of course, that would also mean a camera couldn’t capture his image,” Zane said.
Raising a brow, Jackson replied, “Well, that would make sense, then.”
“I agree…and if true, it takes a load off my mind,” Groose said.
“Me too…but without proof…” Jackson murmured, his voice trailing off as he thought about how he could get the information.
“You could ask Theo,” Zane suggested. “They’re cousins, so maybe he knows.”
Jackson conceded his brother might be right, but he’d prefer not to reveal to anyone what was still just speculation, so that meant he would have to ask Ollie—preferably without Mac in the room. But that would have to wait for the time being. The threat against Theo and Norm came before anything else. “What did you find out…”
“About the asshole who targeted Theo and Norm? Nothing for now,” Zane said. “The ad has been removed, so now I’m looking to see if I can access the deleted page.”