parish. “Boone is much more difficult. His family owns a ton of properties. When he’s not in prison, he chooses one and just moves in, regardless of who is in it from what I understand. That’s what makes him hard to find when the cops are after him.”
“What about Bridges? Are there places he likes to go when he wants downtime? Or when the cops are after him? A fishing or hunting camp? Tell me about him,” Code persisted. “The more I know of him, the more we can narrow down any of the Abernathy properties that he might choose to go to. If his father does that, maybe he thinks he can do what his father has always done—use the family holdings to hide.”
The questions made Breezy have to think about her father. She realized she never did that. She tried to put him out of her mind as much as possible. She had when she was a child as well. She’d been a frozen little mouse, afraid if she even thought about him, she would come to his attention and he’d hurt her. For a long time, the emotional damage was far worse than the physical. At least Bridges tolerated Junk, but she didn’t seem to be worth anything at all to him—and that had hurt for the longest time.
“When he’s not on his Harley, he drives a Jeep. He only will drive a Jeep. Once, he needed to rent a car and he nearly beat up the attendant because they’d rented the Jeep they had to someone else.”
“That’s good, that’s the kind of thing I need. I can find Boone’s family properties easily, but Bridges’s habits are what is going to trip him up,” Code encouraged.
“He drinks Jack Daniel’s and smokes Marlboros. He prefers to get his gas at a mini-mart where he can load up on snack foods, like Twinkies. He likes diners, but not a restaurant if you understand what I’m saying.”
“People have habits, Bree,” Code said. “He has them. Patterns. Keep talking about him.”
“He uses women all the time. I can’t tell you how many women he moved in with and then pawned me off on when I was little, so they were forced to take care of me. He said he could avoid mortgages by letting the women pay.”
“Did he stay friendly with them after he left?” That question was from Transporter.
Breezy shrugged. “He beat the hell out of them, terrorized them so they wouldn’t dare leave him or report him, and then he would leave, but often, he’d go back time and again just to scare them. I don’t think you could call them his friends.”
“I need a list. Every name you remember. Every town. Every address. If he had no problem dumping you on them, he might not have a problem dumping Zane on them,” Code said.
Breezy closed her eyes and pressed her head into Steele’s chest. She hoped Zane was with one of Bridges’s past ladies and not at one of the Abernathy properties. At least he’d be safe. The women hadn’t always liked taking care of her, but they’d done it, and some of them had been nice.
“Medications?” Code prompted after she had rattled off the last of the women’s names she could remember.
Her head was still pounding from all the wild crying earlier and thinking about her father wasn’t helping. She thought about trying to be strong and sitting up away from Steele, but it seemed like too much trouble, especially when he was rubbing her arm soothingly. She could feel his chest moving with every breath he took. When he exhaled, it was warm air against her neck and it felt familiar to her. Familiar. Intimate. A connection between them when she desperately needed someone.
“He takes heart medication and always gets it at a Winn-Dixie. He doesn’t like the other pharmacies. It’s the same with actual groceries. He refuses to go to any of the bigger supermarkets.”
Reaper stirred. “Sergeant at arms for the chapter? Anyone know? If Czar took off, I’d be on him immediately. If we know who it is, we can track him as well.”
“That’s a good point, Reaper,” Czar said. “You don’t let me shave without one of you checking the shaving cream.”
There was laughter, but it didn’t ease the terrible weight pressing down on her. They spent the next couple of hours questioning her about every detail of her father’s life, going as far back as she could remember. In the end, she