Mother fucker! Dex, or William Dexter to the press, was Nicole’s husband. They’d been married for nearly three years. Son of a bitch. All those months Bailey was seeing Dex, and they never knew he was married. How had Ryan missed this? Usually, he got a pretty good handle on Bailey’s boyfriends, but this completely caught him off guard. Shit. All the times Dex hadn’t shown up when he’d promised Bailey he’d be here. All the times he flaked on her or had some lame excuse. Jesus, Ryan felt like an idiot now for not seeing this.
Then he thought about the break-ins, the vandalism, how Dex had tried so hard to convince Bailey not to search for her family. Could he have been the one to drive them off the road in Wisconsin?
Ryan pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and searched for Agent Sharpe’s phone number. As he was dialing, his dad walked through the office door.
Ryan glanced over at him and pointed to the TV. “Did you see this?”
“Yes. Isn’t that—”
He nodded. “The very same. I’m calling Sharpe again.”
“Special Agent Sharpe.” His deep voice penetrated the phone on the second ring.
“Hello, Ryan Walker here.”
“Hey, Ryan, I was planning to contact you today about Bailey’s case, but—”
“No. Actually, I have an update for you.” Ryan turned toward the TV, where he’d paused the screen on a photo of Bailey’s sister with her husband. “William Dexter. The husband of Nicole Spatz Dexter?”
“William Dexter, what about him?”
“He and Bailey had an intimate relationship. Recently.” He sat back down, afraid his knees would give out. “None of us knew he was married. He came up here regularly to see Bailey. He must’ve figured out who she was pretty early on.”
“Ryan, thank you for the call. Let me check into this. Can you give me the dates of their relationship? When they met and split?”
“They started dating last fall. Dex was here for a bachelor party with a bunch of other guys. They just split a few weeks ago. Like I said, recently.”
Sharpe repeated what Ryan said as if he were writing it down.
“He must have something to do with this, right?”
“I can’t answer that. I haven’t met the man yet, but Ryan, we have some leads. We know Bailey met someone on the road while she was walking back to the boutique from the bank.”
Ryan asked, “Do you know who?”
“No, but we got the vehicle on surveillance from a local business.”
Ryan’s heart nearly froze in his chest. “Was it a red, full-size Chevy truck?”
Sharpe waited a long moment before he said, “Why do you ask? Do you know it?”
“Yes. William Dexter drives a red, full-size Chevy truck.”
“I need to go. I’ll stop by the house later to give you an update.”
“Thank you,” Ryan said. “I’m actually at my club, El Lago Bar and Dock, near Stateline. We’re starting a few search groups, and this was the largest place to gather.” Ryan lifted his eyes to the ceiling and ran his hand through his hair, hoping he was making sense. He didn’t want the guy to think he was just hanging out at a bar while the love of his life was missing. “Can you meet me here instead?”
“Of course. Text me the address, and I’ll be there when I can get away.” The line went dead, and Ryan breathed a sigh of relief.
Ryan was surprised when, an hour later, Agent Sharpe walked into the club. He, Ryan, and Vince sat at a corner table.
“Ryan, it’s good to see you again. I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to give you a thorough update.”
Ryan waved away the apology. “No need. I know you’re busy doing the important stuff.”
He smiled and looked around. “This.” He scanned the room with his finger. “This—all of it is important.”
Vince agreed and patted Ryan on the shoulder as a sign of reassurance.
“I’ve also been tied up with the media and disseminating the information about Bailey’s biological father. As you’ve probably heard from the news, we’ve gone public with the information.”
Ryan nodded. Fear of a different kind crept into his heart. He knew it was unfounded. Nobody could take Bailey from him. No one had the power to come between them emotionally, not even her newfound biological father. But what was he even thinking? Bailey was in danger, and he was sitting here being jealous of a man Bailey had never even met.
However, he also feared he would lose some standing in the eyes of the FBI. He wasn’t technically a family member. Did they have to talk to him at all? He wasn’t sure, but he prayed her biological father wouldn’t interfere with what he needed to know about Bailey’s disappearance and the search to bring her home.
“Yes, we saw footage from the news conference this morning. I wish I would’ve been warned before it aired on the news.”
“Yes, I also wish that, but it all happened very fast, and we were in a hurry to force the press to talk about Bailey’s current predicament. That, of course, is our priority now—finding her.”
Ryan nodded, not sure how to comprehend the use of the word predicament. “Of course. Our priority is to find Bailey, period. Don’t be confused about that.”
“Did you check into William Dexter?” Vince asked.
“Yes, we have. We’ve learned a few things. Here are all the details I can share with you now.” He tapped his phone a few times then read from a list. “First, we have an exact location of where she was picked up. I’ll share it with you so you can pass it on to your search groups. ”
Ryan’s heartbeat spiked when he heard this. “Great news. And the vehicle,” Ryan swallowed hard. “Is it a red Chevy?”
Sharpe looked at Ryan
