Special Forces Father - By Mallory Kane Page 0,40

to. If he played his cards right, he could bill that to this guy, too. Maybe be could double his money. “Fine,” he said grouchily. “Same fee.”

“Same? You can’t be serious—”

“Hey,” Bent interrupted the man. “You’re the one worried about the information getting out. All I gotta do is pack up and leave. You’ll be stuck with the kid and trying to keep your nose clean at the same time.”

“Okay, okay. But you’d better get back to me with some information and fast. Don’t forget that a whole bunch of the Delanceys are police. Don’t make ’em suspicious.”

“I’ll get your information. You get me my money.”

“You’ll get it when the job’s done, along with the second half of the original fee. I’ll call you back this afternoon.”

“All right.” Bent hung up. Delanceys. It sounded as if it would be in his best interest to find out who the Delanceys were and why they were interested in Dr. Kate Chalmet.

As he pocketed his phone, the kid’s wailing went up a few hundred decibels. “Can’t you shut that kid up?” he yelled. He was going to go crazy if he had to spend another minute in the same house as that spoiled brat. When he wasn’t crying for his mommy, he was complaining about the toys Shirley had bought him or telling her he wanted milk not juice, or juice not milk.

“I’m taking the laptop and going out,” he yelled over the kid’s whining. “I’ll be back later.” A lot later.

“Bring me some more of that jambalaya you bought the other day.”

“Aren’t you sick of that stuff yet? I didn’t like it the first time.”

“You don’t have to eat it,” she countered. “Get it from the same restaurant. And get some more apple juice for Max.”

Apple juice for Max, Bent mocked as he got in his car and headed to the small shopping center a couple miles from the trailer park. It had a grocery store, an office supply store, a coffee shop that sold pastries and sandwiches and a Chinese restaurant. He’d have to drive another three miles to get Shirley’s jambalaya. But first he was going to have a latte and do a little business. He needed to check on that Maryland plate and he wanted to do some research on the Delanceys.

He’d left a message last night for a buddy of his who was still with the Chicago P.D. By the time he reached the coffee shop, got his coffee and signed on to the internet, his phone rang. It was his buddy calling him back. “Hey, pal, what’s shaking?” Bent asked when he answered.

“Not much. What’s up with you?”

“Nothing new. Still scraping by with a couple private jobs. You know how it is.”

“Yeah. So I ran that plate you gave me. The car’s registered to a Travis Delancey. I dug a little deeper and found out he’s active military.”

“No kidding? So he’s stationed in D.C.? Is that why his car has a Maryland license plate?”

“Got no idea. You know all I know now.”

“Okay. That helps,” Bent said. “Thanks, pal, I owe you one.”

“Yeah, you do.”

Bent sipped his coffee and typed the name Travis Delancey into a search engine. He found out he was the third son of Robert Delancey, older son of the late Senator Robert Connor “Con” Delancey. There were lots of news stories, comments and blogs about his grandfather, Con Delancey, who apparently was murdered by his personal assistant twentysomething years before.

Bent was surprised at how much information was online about the family, especially the grandfather. Con Delancey had shaken hands with a lot of famous and infamous people—politicians, foreign dignitaries, celebrities. His grandchildren were all over the internet, too. Bent paged through hundreds of family photos, school pictures, candid paparazzi-like shots until he was practically cross-eyed. It didn’t take long for him to see that they were a state-sized version of the Kennedy family. Both lines were revered as American royalty and yet their histories were fraught with scandal. As with the Kennedys, the Delanceys were a handsome bunch, with a definite familial resemblance. Bent saw how Stamps could have recognized a member of the family even if he’d never met that particular Delancey before.

But as much information as was out there, the girl, Cara Lynn, was the only obvious connection between the Delanceys and Dr. Kate Chalmet. When he entered Chalmet and Delancey into the search engine, he found the same information he’d discovered before. The doctor and Cara Lynn Delancey had entered LSU