Under Threat by B.J. Daniels (reading the story of the .TXT) 📕

that’s where she disappeared—before it stopped, I might add. It was late, and she was waiting for my father to get off from his evening shift, and maybe she saw something she wasn’t supposed to see, or they saw her and thought she was part of it or...”

“Natalie, that’s a lot of maybes. We have to work in fact.” He tried to say it gently, but it had been a long time since he’d had to employ gentleness with someone.

“The fact is that this factory has something to do with this case. It has something to do with The Stallion. Who owns it?”

It hit him almost like a lightning bolt, painful and sharp, and he realized...

He turned to his computer and immediately pulled up the file they had on Victor Callihan. He owned the factory, and Vaughn had done extensive research into his background after the trafficking raid. He’d found nothing that might link the man to any crimes, but maybe it stood to reason to dig again, and deeper.

Callihan was a rich man. A powerful man. He’d have the means to do these things. Including keep his nose clean, even when it wasn’t.

It couldn’t really be that easy, could it?

Natalie was immediately behind him, looking over his shoulder at the screen. The soft swell of her breasts, accidentally he assumed, brushed his back, and he had to grit his teeth to focus on the task at hand.

“Does the name Victor Callihan mean anything to you?”

“No,” she returned. “He’s the owner?”

“Of the plant and the corporation that runs the plant. He’s a bigwig in Austin. After the raid, we investigated him, but we didn’t find anything remotely criminal. But if the plant is the common denominator, we should look into it more.”

“But you don’t have Wi-Fi.”

“That doesn’t mean I don’t have wired internet.” He glanced over his shoulder at her, but only came eye-level to her breasts. He quickly looked back at the computer because the last thing he was going to keep doing was noticing anything remotely sexual about her. He was too professional for that.

“First, I need to send an email to Stevens, so he can look into things from his side. He’ll have access to all the Ranger files and faster internet.” Vaughn tried to slide out of the chair, but again his shoulder blade kind of drifted across her breasts. Seriously. What the hell was this?

He cleared his throat and walked over to the entertainment center that held the cord he needed to hook the computer up to the internet jack. He didn’t look at Natalie, and he felt like a wimpy idiot, but sometimes that was the best alternative. He certainly didn’t want her to see the effect she had on him. That could lead nowhere good.

“Okay, so, what could Stevens find that might tip us off? What would we be looking for?”

“First, you are not looking for anything. You are an innocent bystander.”

She huffed out an irritated breath. Which was better than the worried lip chewing. “I’m the one who brought this connection to your attention.”

“You could have brought it to my attention a lot earlier. If you had mentioned your connection to The Stallion or this case, I—”

“I didn’t know I had anything to do with The Stallion or this case. I still don’t. I mean, I think it’s too big of a coincidence, but that doesn’t mean he has my sister. It doesn’t mean...” She trailed off and looked away, and he knew that she was struggling to control her emotions.

He didn’t like how easy it was to put himself in her place. Often, due to his father and sister’s fame, his sister had received threatening letters or emails. Paparazzi had gotten too close, and occasionally a fan had gotten too interested. He knew what it was like to have concern for your sister’s well-being.

Natalie’s situation was so much worse, because for eight years now she had been in the dark. She was surviving based on faith alone. As much as Vaughn wanted to discount faith, considering you couldn’t get much done with it, he couldn’t ignore how admirable it was.

It was admirable that she had put herself into a position where she might find some information about her sister’s case. It was admirable after all these years she believed, and she hoped. All in all, Natalie was proving to be something of an admirable woman. That was the last thing he needed right now.

“The trafficking incident was three years ago. Something could have come up in the past three years that we haven’t thought to put together.” She might operate on faith, but he had to operate on fact. “Knowing this little bit means that when we go back through all of that information with a fine-tooth comb. We know a little bit more about what we’re looking for. And we can add the details of your sister’s case with the other possible Stallion related cases. When you have a man like this, where he has his fingers in so many different things, who runs an organized crime ring, a little connection could be the connection that leads us to him.”

Vaughn connected the computer to the wired internet line. She had moved away from the table, so he could sit safely at it without worrying about her body being anywhere near his.

He logged in and typed a quick email to Stevens with all the pertinent information. His instinct was to go ahead and start searching, even though Stevens would have better luck in that department. His partner would have access to all the police files at work, and faster, less frustrating internet. But when Vaughn glanced at Natalie, she was pacing the living room, wringing her hands.

He could read all sorts of emotions in her expression. It wasn’t just sadness, it wasn’t just fear. There was a myriad of things in there. Anger and uncertainty, hope and helplessness alike. The thing he recognized the most was that antsy kind of energy