“What about Mary?”
“I’m still the boss.”
“I know, but if she sees us snooping around…”
“She won’t. We’ll use my office.”
“She’s not using it?”
“No, she’s using the other office. The one I used when Larry was City Attorney.”
An hour later, we were in Jade’s office. Mary had taken off for her lunch break, so we wouldn’t have any interruptions.
“I just had a thought,” I said. “What if someone got into the databases and made changes again, like before?”
“They shouldn’t be able to. Not after the safety upgrades I had installed.”
“I know, but these people, Jade. They get away with everything. Someone walked into a mental health facility and took my disabled mother away…and no one seemed the wiser.”
“Well,” Jade said, “we’ll soon find out. I’m going in.”
She tapped on the computer and went through screen after screen. Wow. She really had put in top-notch security.
“The city of Snow Creek really paid for all this?” I said, flabbergasted.
“Oh, no. I didn’t even ask. Talon gave me the money to have this done.”
I nodded. I should have known. Maybe this security would hold after all.
“Bingo,” Jade said, coming to a screen. “Here he is. Justin C. Valente. Father Bertram Valente. Mother Cadence Russo Valente. Last known address just outside of town. He would have been bused to school.”
“With your brothers?”
“No. Looks like he lived east of town.”
“So we check out the house?”
“We can, but I’m sure they’ve been gone forever. I can check the property records.” She tapped furiously. “Looks like they rented a small place on someone’s farm.”
“Did he have any brothers or sisters?”
“No, not that it says. The school records don’t show any siblings. Looks like an only child.”
“Okay. My research shows that Bertram Valente is dead. Died ten years ago, shot at a convenience store.”
“Yeah.” She tapped. “Just substantiating that.”
“Did they ever catch who did it?” I asked.
“Doesn’t look like it. It’s an unsolved case in Denver.”
“So Bertram Valente left Snow Creek, went to Denver.”
“Looks like it. He bought a— Wow!”
“What?”
“He bought a freaking mansion nearly thirty years ago in Cherry Hills. That’s posh Denver.”
“And his wife?”
“Let me check. They divorced about a year later. It’s all here. Public records.”
“What happened to her?” I asked.
“Looks like she remarried… Let me get the name.” Then she swallowed and turned pale.
“What? What is it?”
“She married a man named Booker. Richard Booker.”
Chills rattled my flesh. “Booker? As in Cade Booker? Dominic and Alessandra Booker?” Thoughts whirled in my head. “Justin C. Valente. Cade must be his middle name. Cade, Cadence. After his mother.”
Jade typed frantically. “Here are the birth certificates. Dominic James Booker and Alessandra Cadence Booker. Father is Richard Booker, mother is Cadence Russo. Shit. The. Fucking. Bed.”
“Dominic James. That’s the name he uses for training.”
“Is he even a trainer?”
“He claims he went to UCLA and studied… Oh, hell. I don’t even know. Does it matter? Is he really any better than his half brother? He claims he’s acting on orders to keep me safe, but he still drugged me and took me against my will.”
Jade was still staring at her computer screen. “They can’t be the same person. Justin died, right? He’s dead. Tom Simpson killed him.”
“No,” I said quietly. “Tom Simpson drugged him, and then Tom Simpson bought him.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Bryce
“Now we just have to find the bastard.” Joe shuffled through all the records Jade had printed out.
We were at the main house, outside as usual. Marjorie had grilled burgers, but none of us were particularly hungry. The food sat uneaten on platters in the center of the table.
I swallowed, trying to dislodge the apple-sized lump in my throat. Now we just have to find the bastard.
I couldn’t fault Joe’s words, but if Cade Booker was indeed a bastard, Joe and I had something to do with it.
We’d taken him camping. We’d given my father access to him.
“Don’t do this to yourself.” Marjorie rubbed my forearm. “This isn’t your fault. You’re not the one who sold your son.”
Just the thought made anger rage within me. I was a father, for God’s sake, and I’d do anything—anything—to protect my son. This motherfucker, this Bertram Valente.
Still, if we hadn’t taken Justin camping…
“Please. Stop,” Marjorie said softly.
The others were talking, but the words jumbled in my head. Only the warmth of Marjorie’s hand helped keep me sane.
Because I knew the truth.
This was our fault. Joe’s and mine, and more mine, because my father had taken us camping. We’d had no intention to harm him, but that didn’t negate the fact that, but for us, my father would have never known Justin Valente.
Justin hadn’t died after all, and his father had given him up and been quieted by my father’s money.
Then what had happened? So far, we knew only that he’d “returned” after his mother had remarried Richard Booker and Dominic and Alessandra were in their teens. He changed his name to Cade and took the last name Booker. Had he truly trained with the FBI? That could have been totally fabricated. My father could have taught him to handle weapons as well or better than the FBI. Cade’s law degree could be fabricated, as well.
Where had he been during those lost years? Dominic was twenty-four now and had been sixteen when Cade returned. That was only eight years ago.
We knew absolutely nothing.
“…probably trained as a slave,” Ruby was saying. “That’s what they did to the rest of the kids. Those who were trouble were killed, and some probably died from the training. Whatever happened to Cade, we know he didn’t die.”
I eyed Joe. He shook his head at me slightly.
I suppressed the bit of anger that threatened to emerge. I’d never spill the beans about the leather club. But Cade knew who Joe was. He’d clearly been watching Joe through the club, and the rest of us through… I didn’t know. Dominic had said his brother was obsessed with the Steels and with my father.
My father was now dead, and I was the substitute. Or perhaps I’d never been the substitute. After all, I was the one who’d invited him camping.
Marjorie’s hand never left my arm, though she did join in the conversation.
“Alex was a lot more hotheaded than Dominic,” she said. “She didn’t have a lot of patience with Colin or me, didn’t seem to understand that we didn’t like being taken against our will, and if we didn’t want her protection, we could just leave. She even said she wanted to crush my skull at one point.”