At that, I would give some points to Max for being a gentleman. If there was one thing I couldn’t stand, it was guys who were jerks to women. Mom was a classy woman who raised me to respect women. While Tristan was who he was, independent and his own person even at a very young age, I was more of my mother’s son as the oldest of the twins. So…I learned to be more gentle, more refined than my other brothers because of it.
And because I was a mother’s son, I recognized that of Max. He was raised to be a gentleman, too. He did treat Haven like a gentleman, which was why I did go along with him dating Haven in public.
He definitely cherished Haven. I could tell by how he had hidden this photo in such a secret yet intimate area, only for his eyes to look at, dreaming of being with his dream girl. He had it just as bad as us Tritons.
Max couldn’t be behind the kidnapping of Haven’s mother. He wouldn’t risk doing anything that would jeopardize his chances with Haven. But he knew about the flash drive. He knew that Haven would be in danger because of it.
What was in this thing I was keeping near me, hidden in the inside of my coat pocket?
Why would Max have the password for it? What does Max have to do with the people who wanted what was on the flash drive?
It had something to do with being a Bradshaw. It had to be. Megan’s purse was sent to him as if he knew what to do with it. Megan was involved with the kidnappers.
I looked around Max’s closet. He definitely knew how to live it up. A male version of Megan, he had leather jackets, blazers, jeans, shoes, accessories, t-shirts, and suits from the latest designers. He even had a table displaying his watches, wallets, pens, and gold cuff links like a department store would, in the middle of his huge walk-in closet.
I remembered when we were kids how huge his closet used to seem before he filled it out with clothes and fashion. We would hide in it during hide-and-seek, behind his large collection of toys.
Max, being the only child of Betty and Bruce Bradshaw, had never had to share. Whenever he wanted a toy, he would get it and be the only one to have it. His closet was filled with every toy a boy could want.
Now it was cleaned out, and only his essentials were in it… clothing, accessories, and stuff a guy needed to look good. No toys here.
Nothing indulging except this one magazine photo of Haven.
Haven was the only thing, toy, or person he wanted.
It hit me then.
Fuck. Why didn’t I even think of it?
I quickly texted Tristan and Dillon that I figured it out.
Me: Meet me at the door.
Dillon: On my way.
Tristan: OK
I quickly walked out of Max’s room, leaving no trace behind me as I made my way down the stairs to the front door of the Bradshaw Mansion.
Dillon was already there, standing with a smile on his face. I joined him as Tristan walked towards us, taking a bite out of Roberta’s cookies and handing a glass container filled with them to Dillon.
“Thank you so much for the cookies and walking me through how you made them. I will try to bake this at home. You are such an angel!” He kissed her on the cheeks, and she blushed deep red.
We all thanked her for the cookies and left.
Chapter 10
Tristan
“Good timing about getting out of there,” I said. “I just received a text from Dad and Holmes. They traced the call to an exact location at the Falls. One of the old abandoned warehouses Triton Industries had. Dad assumed we went to get the deed to our new condo to hand over to the kidnappers. Ha! If only it was that easy. Wake up, Dad! Kidnappers do not kidnap your wife just to get the deed to a condo.”
“Hell no!” Drake said. “Dad can’t be that naïve.”
“He sent me the location we’re supposed to make the drop of the deed,” I said.
“So we’re supposed to go there, drop off the deed, and they’ll hand over Dr. Hillshire?”
“Supposedly,” I said. “Sounds like something’s off.”
“Sounds like there’s more to it,” Drake said.
“Hey guys!” Dillon said from the back seat. “You want to know what I found at Max’s?”
“Yeah, what did you find?” I asked.
“There are secret doors everywhere, and there is one from the sitting room itself, behind the bookcase is a door. I went in and kept walking and walking. Thank God you kept Roberta busy because it was a long tunnel. Guess where it led?”
“Where?” Drake asked.
“To the building on Main Street… the one Dr. Hillshire’s Office is in. There’s an underground tunnel that goes from that building to the Bradshaw’s mansion.”
“No!” Drake and I said at the same time.
“Could have been used for the Underground Railroad or maybe Prohibition parties,” Drake said.
“Well,” Dillon said. “You know how you didn’t see Dr. Hillshire go out of the building in any of the security cameras.”
“Right!” Drake said. “Because she didn’t. She may have been taken from her office into the tunnel that ended up at the Bradshaw Mansion.”
“Who owns the building?” I asked.
“A company called Monroe Management,” Drake said. “Which owns and manage several commercial real estate properties in town.”
“Did they know about the tunnel to the Bradshaw Mansion?” I asked.
“Don’t know,” Drake said. “Have to question them for that.”
“No time for it right now,” I said looking at my watch. We have 20 hours left to hand over Haven to the kidnappers in exchange for her mother. How the hell are we going to do that?”
“We don’t even know where Haven is?” Drake said.
“She’s with Max,” Dillon said. “Wherever
