told me they’d be keeping an eye on him for a while. Mitch took my phone, told whoever it was to put Sean on.” She broke off, her breath catching beneath the echo of fear, of helplessness. She shook her head, stared down at her lap. “He was so scared. Said they were waiting for Mitch’s word to kill him.”
“And the wedding was back on.” Brett’s voice was grim.
“Yeah.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “I pushed the new wedding date as far back as Mitch would allow and asked the private detective I already had on retainer to find Sean. I thought if I had a location, I could hire someone to go in and rescue him. The guy tracked down phone records and debit card receipts proving Sean was still alive.”
“You could have come to me, damn it. You knew damn well I would have gone after him.”
Sarah looked back up. “You and your team were out on rotation. I had no idea when you’d get back. But it wouldn’t have mattered anyway. The private investigator never found Sean. He’s still looking. Phone records and debit card transactions still trickle in—but he’s never found him.”
Brett digested that and shook his head. “You canceled the second wedding?”
“Yeah.” She grimaced. “To try to force Mitch to let me talk to Sean. Nobody would answer his phone. I hadn’t talked to him in months. I wasn’t sure if he was even alive.”
“Did they?”
“Finally.” She frowned, running white-knuckled fingers through her tangled hair.
“But?”
Dropping her hand, she sighed, exhaustion crashing over her. “Mitch called and put Sean on the phone. But Sean was acting so weird. I know it was him, it was his voice. But he kept rambling, and most of what he said didn’t make sense. And he was so over the top sentimental, which isn’t like Sean at all.” She broke off and sighed. “I think he was high.”
“When’s the last time you actually talked to your brother?” Brett asked.
She glanced at his face and flinched. The gentleness was gone…the hardness was back.
“Two months ago.” She shook her head and stared into the corner between the desk and the window. Avoiding Brett altogether. “He was supposed to come to the wedding yesterday. I told Mitch I’d call the ceremony off if Sean didn’t show up.”
“Jesus,” he said, swiping his palm over his head. “You were going to go through with it this time?”
It felt like glass ripping into her throat when she swallowed. “I don’t know. If Sean did show up, maybe I could have gotten him away from Mitch and his buddies. But there was still the threat to you…”
This time he let Mitch’s threat go. “Okay. So you gave Mitch an ultimatum. And Sean never showed up.”
“No, he didn’t.” Sarah’s voice shook. “And then Mitch’s associate—”
“Porter Hayes,” Brett supplied grimly.
“Yeah.” Sarah relaxed slightly. The worst was over. Brett knew everything now. “He took me and Langs. You know the rest.”
Brett took up his position in front of the window again. “So Hayes wanted his share of the spoils?”
“That’s what he said, but I don’t know how he was involved. He wasn’t on the video.”
“He worked in the arms depot the guns were stolen from.” Brett’s voice was back to grim.
“Oh.” She shrugged. “He never told me that.”
“What exactly did he tell you while he was holding you?”
Sarah recounted everything her kidnapper had said.
“Wait.” Brett frowned, suspicion suddenly touching his face and glittering in his eyes. “He told you he was going to let you go. He told you he was going to send you the evidence he’d collected against Mitch—proving that Mitch had been involved in the sale of stolen military weapons—and you still went after his gun? Even though he told you he was going to let you go come morning?”
She scowled back. “How was I supposed to trust the word of Mitch’s criminal associate? He could have told me that just to keep me quiet, to keep me in line, and then killed me and Langley when he’d had enough of Mitch’s silence. Of course I went after the gun.”
The suspicion on his face eased. “Point taken.”
She waited for him to say something else, but when he didn’t, she massaged her eyes and fought a yawn. Now that the whole sordid story was out in the open, she just wanted to sleep. Forever. Escape the coming consequences.
“What are you going to do, now?” She couldn’t hold the question back.
“I’m going to get hold of Tram and