110. Left Behind
“What do you mean she’s gone?” Keegan was half furious when he got home only to find a note from Mara, telling him that Cody was at Seamus and Charlotte’s. In the note, she did thank him for his generosity in taking them in but in the end she was going to let her stepdad find her. Keegan had read the note, then read it, probably a dozen times before he checked the guest bedroom only to find that it was empty. Mara and Cody’s belongings were all gone. Keegan looked at the tidy room and found that there was no indication of them having ever stayed there before.
“Exactly that, and no, I don’t know where she is. She wouldn’t tell me anything about her plan only to say that she will let you know when it’s time. Look, Keegan, now that you know… why don’t you do your best and find her?” Charlotte raised her perfect brow, silently judging him for not doing his job.
Keegan grunted, while Seamus just shook his head, telling him silently that whatever he was going to say was going to be shared behind his wife. A dozen scenarios were crawling into his mind. Keegan had spent days going through her stepdad’s footsteps and the man was nothing but tricky and devious. The man was smart and Keegan had come to know that he was eager to get to Cody because he was easier to control. Turns out that Mara’s grandparents are loaded. They’re old money, and her stepdad knew and was planning all along to milk money out of them. He hoped to live well for the rest of his life when he handed Cody. It was the breakthrough that Keegan finally got, he was about to tell Mara when she had gone missing. If only he was a little bit faster.
“Where is Cody?”
“He’s in his room, we got Marjorie to accompany him. Mara had told him that she was going with you and he needed to stay here and wait for her.”
“So, I can’t see him?”
“No, not without revealing that his sister had gone missing and looking for their dad all by herself. This was all Mara’s idea. I told her that it was a bad one. But she wouldn’t listen. I know that you’d get it all sorted out in the end. I know you would, she just… sped up the process. I guess.” Charlotte shrugged and Keegan wanted to shake her shoulder and told her that she most definitely not making things easier for him.Text content © NôvelDrama.Org.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck,” He cursed when he realized that he was too fucking late, and she might be in real trouble.
Keegan stepped towards the foyer and Seamus followed behind him and led him out of the room. Out of his new wife’s hearing distance. “Keegan, you have our resources behind you. Use them. Clearly, Mara is Charlotte’s best friend and she didn’t want any harm to happen to her. We will be here, keeping Cody safe, at least she was thinking about her little brother. There is a reason why Mara is doing this, and you are going to find her by figuring it out.”
The man took in Seamus’s words, saying nothing back as he calmed himself. Keegan realized that he was not going to think straight when his blood was running on fumes. “Okay, I need to disappear until I find her. I will meet up with the guys to….”
“Go, I’ll take care of business until you’re back. Let me know if you need anything else. You got this, Keegan. Just clear your head, you’re getting too attached to your subject. You need to re-assess and look at everything from a different perspective.”
Seamus was absolutely correct. His feelings were all over the place. Keegan was worried about her, if only he spent all of those nights in front of his computer instead of his bed with her under him, he would surely find the bastard already.
Keegan listened and he nodded. He didn’t have any words to say but to thank his boss and tell him that he was going to be back as soon as possible.
When he was back at his place, Keegan went straight to his home office. The first thing he did was fire up his computer and start clicking on his keyboard. He cursed a couple of times until he finally had a location on her.
The GPS on her phone was showing that she was near her previous rundown apartment. Keegan had tried calling her several times to get the precise location, but she was not answering and all of his text was unanswered.
The next thing he tried was traffic cams, he took a big gulp of his energy drink before digging deeper into the web and started typing in codes. Keegan was tired, he needed rest, but he needed to pull through for Mara and Cody.
It took him longer than the usual couple of minutes to finally get traffic cam feeds for the surrounding areas. His eyes squinted and he hunched down to see more clearly as he took another gulp from the can and cursed when he saw the thin older man instead of Mara.
“Damn it!” Keegan was getting nervous, he should find her first, but now she was out there while he couldn’t leave his computer because the bastard was there too. He needed to keep an eye on him while trying to contact and warn her about him.
Keegan did what he could and called one of his men to get to her side of town and be ready for his instruction. He didn’t want to lose the old man. He needed to follow him, need to know where he was staying, and get to him before he got to Mara. Her idea of being a human bait did not settle in well with Keegan and she knew. Because it was exactly why she was doing it behind his back, because he was sure as hell won’t agree to it the second she proposed the idea.
“Keegan, I’m here. The man is staying at the roadside motel. I’m on his tail. I got you, Seamus had cleared my schedule to be assigned to your stakeout.” It was Leonard that had been assigned by Seamus to shadow Keegan. And he was thankful that his boss would spare one of his best guys to help him out. Well, it was probably because Seamus didn’t want to upset his new wife. He was making sure that everything runs smoothly as he was providing Keegan with the best resources available. Manpower included.
When the evening was nearing, Keegan was getting more nervous when he still couldn’t find Mara. Her phone was showing the broader area since she hadn’t used the thing and Keegan couldn’t pinpoint her exact location.
He was getting desperate when Leonard finally called, telling him that he was going to follow Mara’s stepdad into the motel complex. Leonard was trying to find out the room number and possibly sneak in when the bastard decided to go out again. Leonard was a pro at breaking and entering, and of course, taking data, or in Mara’s case finding out how the hell he was planning on getting to Mara.
“Oh shit!”
“What? What the fuck is happening, Leonard?” Keegan asked, his tone was heaving with worry and anticipation that he almost choked on his drink.
“Mara, she’s in the same motel. She was subtly checking him out, she knew that he was near.” Leonard had been briefed about her and Keegan had sent pictures of her and Cody to his tablet. Deep down Keegan knew that Leonard was not making any mistake in identifying her.
“Fuck, I’m on my way.” His fingers continued to type furiously on his keyboard, transferring all the data to his tablet before shutting it down and racing to his bedroom to get his guns before he was out the door.
“Okay, I’m back. Tell me you still have eyes on both of them?” Keegan asked the second he put his phone on speaker and he was en-route to join Leonard.
“I do, but you need to hurry. I don’t know what she’s planning but I am not liking the situation. I need to get close in case something goes south.”
“Go, I’ll find you. Just keep the comms open.”
“Will do boss.”
As soon as Keegan puts on his earpiece, he sighs when Leonard reports back that he was going to get closer to the target. From there Keegan Multitask by calling Mara again, hoping this time she answered his call.
“Holly sit!” he almost hit the car in front of him when Mara finally answered him.
“Keegan?”
“You are in big trouble, Mara,”