Infuriating - Onley James Page 0,75
first murder that hotel had ever seen. Hell, it wouldn’t even be the first that year.
When Jackson shoved open the doors to the lobby, they rocketed back on their hinges hard enough for them to protest, causing a racket that caused most everybody to stop and stare for a brief moment before going back to what they were doing. Linc was right behind him, but Jackson went straight to the front desk where a uniformed man with graying hair and out of control bushy black brows glared across the lobby at a group of rowdy twenty-somethings all huddled together.
When Jackson approached, the man pulled his gaze away, taking in Jackson’s elegant clothing with confusion. “May I help you, sir?” the man asked, though his tone implied something along the lines of ‘are you lost?’
“My name is Jackson Avery. I own Elite Protection Services. One of my clients’ cellphones pinged here. Have you seen him?” Jackson showed a pic he’d taken the day he’d met Day.
The man frowned as he gazed at the picture then shook his head. “I’ve never seen him before, but another man came in here about fifteen minutes ago and handed that group of idiots a phone and walked off. I suspect it might be the phone you’re looking for, but the guy was definitely not your guy.”
Jackson took off towards the group of kids. “Hey, let me see that phone.”
One look at the glassy-eyed group told Jackson they were all high on something. As twitchy as they were, it was likely meth. Jackson recognized Day’s Care Bear case immediately. “It’s ours. Get out of here. Find your own, creep.”
Jackson didn’t have time for this. He reached into his wallet and pulled out a hundred dollar bill. “Phone. Now.”
The ginger-haired girl who clutched the phone squealed in delight, trading the phone for the money without so much as another look. Jackson returned to the now empty desk. Before he could ring the bell, Linc returned with a piece of paper clutched in his hand. “Let’s go.”
“Go? Go where?”
Linc handed Jackson the paper. It was a grainy picture of an old man with shorts that went well past his knees and a t-shirt that appeared to have holes in it. His face had jowls and a double chin, and his dark hair looked dyed even though the picture was black and white. It was combed over to hide a bald spot. He was overweight by about sixty pounds, his belly hanging out from the bottom of his shirt.
“Who the fuck is this guy?” Jackson said to nobody in particular.
“I don’t know, but we need to get back to the office and regroup. If that guy left the phone here, he is clearly not stupid enough to take Day here. Besides, the guy at the front desk said there’s a guard at the back entrance because there are too many people who try to break in on the other side.”
Jackson was silent the entire way back to the office while Linc called Webster and told him to rally anybody nearby. It was an all hands on deck situation. They stopped to give Jimmy a copy of the perpetrator, and Jimmy said he’d put out an APB and have Day listed as a missing person. He said he’d also check if any of the footage from the hotel showed a vehicle coming or going from any side. Linc had already examined the footage, but Jackson nodded anyway.
By the time they made it back to the office, a dozen people stood in the conference room, but only half of them still worked for him. Wyatt and Charlie sat on the conference room table with actor Elijah Dunne and his former boyfriend, Robby Shaw. Their husbands, Jayne Shepherd and Calder Seton, stood against the wall along with Donnelly, another of Linc’s men, and Webster as well as Jackson’s second-in-command from the Miami office, Hurley.
The only people who were supposed to be there were Webster and Hurley, who’d flown in to take a meeting with a potential client. “What’s everybody doing here? How is everybody here?”
“Day’s our friend,” Wyatt said.
“Yeah,” Charlie seconded. “We want to help.”
Jackson looked to Shepherd and Calder. “You guys don’t work here anymore.”
“We were in town for Charlie’s birthday,” Robby said, smiling at the brunette sitting cross-legged on the conference room table.
“You’ve stepped up for us, even when we no longer worked for you. Now, it’s our turn,” Shepherd said.
Elijah smiled at his husband before nodding his head towards