“That’s one way of explaining two dead bodies,” he mumbled. “Can’t say I’m surprised that Eden and Braun were the same person.”
“Neither was I. But realizing Maxwell’s bodyguard, Matthew, was Hannah’s boyfriend was not on my bingo card.”
His hands stopped moving on his keyboard, and he finally looked at me. “Her boyfriend went to work for them? I thought his name was Jack.”
“His middle name is Jack. He wanted to find proof of what Eden was doing to women.” I’d come across a lot over the years in the retrieval business, but from memory, this quest for vengeance certainly topped the charts.
“No shit.” Callum blew out a breath, his hands flying over the keys before he grabbed his mouse, panning over a storm cell. “Talk about the long game.”
I grunted and briefly recounted what had happened when Lara found her sister.
I wasn’t sure what was more tragic—what had happened to the young girl, or that her boyfriend had spent years tracking down the people responsible to bring them to justice, only to sacrifice himself to their end.
“So that was how Lara made it back to camp without you.” My brother shook his head. “I tried to tell her there was no way you weren’t okay.”
The unbidden compliment surprised me, but responding to it would only make Callum more miserly with his emotion. I didn’t needthe vote of confidence, but I had to believe if he could acknowledge it in others, one day, he’d do it for himself.
“After we left Wilderness Within, Matthew worried his window of opportunity was closing, so he decided to kill Eden instead,” I began and told him what happened once I’d entered the cabin.
“So, Eden isn’t dead? I thought for sure he was the one under the tarp.”
“You saw?”
He shrugged. “I already had a drone out there in case. When Lara said she was going to look for you, I figured something went wrong, so I sent it low in case I could be of any help.” And there was the bitterness curling at the edge of his voice.
“It was the other guard from the retreat. Ben.” Even though he was dead, I still felt rage thinking about him. “He went after Lara.”
“Understood.” Out here, we preferred pacifism but accepted killing on principle. “Well, if you’re wondering, I finished looking into the UnitedLife angle. They’ve paid out on tendeath by misadventureclaims to Adam Eden over the last three years, totaling almost eight million dollars.”
I shook my head. “Guess we found where the money was coming from.”
“I’ll send what I found to the police. I’m sure once they process all the records from Wilderness Within, they’ll find some matching names.”
“I wonder if their partners even know they died or if he just told them they left the compound,” I mused.
“Were the women hurt?”
I swallowed. “Not physically, no, but I can’t help but think this was just as bad.” There wasn’t much that curdled my stomach. Not in my line of work. But opening up the storage building with one of the officers and seeing shelves lined with baby oil and K-Y Jelly, condoms, and sex toys, and sedatives. Lots of sedatives ...
Callum grunted. “The kind of man that manipulates women into a sex cult is the kind of man who doesn’t even know how to find the clit.”
An unexpected chuckle erupted from my chest, and I stared at my brother. It was a glimmer of the old Callum who had spoken, and he realized it.
“Well, I guess the case is closed, then.”
I’d never felt so reticent about the idea before. It was always finished with one case and onto the next.I’d never wanted more time with anyone before.
“Unless there’s something else you need?” he said tersely, scorching any evidence that his former lighthearted nature still existed underneath all his wounds.
One step at a time.
“No.”
Callum whipped his chair around me, rolling toward the side door of his house. “Then I’ve got a cell to monitor.” He grabbed a ball cap from the bottom of the coatrack, catching it the wrong way and sending the pole tumbling to the ground, hats and coats littering the floor. “Fuck.” Twister barked and ran through the casualties.
“Here—”
“Leave it,” Callum snapped. “Just leave it.” And then he pushed outside and disappeared down the ramp.