Baylor had seen it time and time again, and he knew better than to walk away from somebody after an argument. It was so important to make sure that healing happened because there were times when life happened, and people were lost forever, and you could then do nothing about it.
Too many times he’d seen situations where someone had died, and the other person was completely racked with guilt because they’d had an argument the night before, and they’d never had a chance to resolve it. It was always a hard realization to know their last words together had been harsh rather than full of love.
He could only hope that Gizella would have an easier time of it. She had a lot of anger issues with her father, so she would have to adapt, and, to a certain degree, it would just take some time.
He bit down on his breakfast wrap—or whatever it was, and didn’t really care. It was food. It was filling, and he was tired and needed sustenance.
He really loved to cook when he was home. He loved to barbecue and enjoyed the barbecues hosted by Mason and Tesla at their place. Mason loved to barbecue as well. They often got into cook-offs and even rib competitions. That was his kind of outdoor respite. He loved being with his buddies and all the camaraderie that went with it. That all the families were expanding made him enjoy it even more.
He studied Gizella. While breakfast was happening, she stayed quiet, focused on her food, trying to keep her emotional turmoil at bay. He saw that, although she’d slept, she hadn’t really had much in the way of restorative sleep. Dark circles were under her eyes, and her grief pulled on her features. His heart went out to her. The double loss was an unexpected twist that nobody could have anticipated. He suddenly became aware of something he’d heard Dane say. He looked over at him. “Wait, what was that last bit?”
“We pulled more cameras farther out of the city,” he said, “tracking one of the vehicles that was on the dock at the time the boat came ashore.”
“Did you find anything?” Baylor asked.
Dane nodded grimly. “Yes, a driver hopped out at one of the villages not too far from here,” he said. “He went into another building and never came back out.”
“Define never came back out,” he said, slowly lowering his hand with the wrap.
“As in, he never came back out. The vehicle sat there for the next twenty-four hours before somebody else got into it and drove it away.”
“Interesting,” Baylor said. “Are you thinking that, whoever it was, he might have been killed?”
“It’s hard to imagine what other options we have.”
“Hmm,” he said. “Was this one of the guys on the ship?”
“It looks like it. But we didn’t see anybody else coming off.”
“Unless he got off early.”
“And that’s possible too.”
“It’s also possible they are cleaning up,” Hudson added.
“Yeah, sure. Wouldn’t be the first time. Particularly if we’ve got a government-sanctioned hit or something. They can’t have anybody left alive, possibly talking.”
“Which is what I suspect.”
“Then we need to go find this building and where the vehicle was.”
“We’re just waiting for you to finish eating,” Hudson said, with a laugh, pointing to everybody else’s plates.
Baylor realized everybody else was completely ready, including Gizella. “Wow,” he said, standing up, popping the last of his breakfast into his mouth. He walked to the kitchen, washed his hands, and drank two big glasses of water. Turning, he said, “Let’s go.”
On that note, everybody but Dane got up.
Dane turned, looked over at Gizella, and said, “I’ll stay here to look after you.”
“Great,” she said. “You realize I probably don’t need a babysitter.”
“Maybe not,” he said cheerfully. “But I started with this job, so …”
She frowned, looked over at Baylor. He smiled and said, “He’s safe.”
“Of course he’s safe,” she said, with a shrug. “He’s part of your team.”
Baylor was surprised at the trust she automatically extended to everybody on his team. “Yes, he is that,” he said. “And we’ll be back soon.”
“What does soon mean?” she asked.
“A few hours,” he said, motioning at Dane. “Unless Dane wants to go, and I’ll stay behind.”
With a quick grin lighting the dark depths of his eyes, Dane shook his head. “Oh no, I’m always happy to visit with a beautiful lady.”
Gizella snorted at that. “Don’t tell me that line actually works for you.”
“I don’t need any lines to work for me,” he said cheerfully. “I have the most beautiful woman in the world waiting for me at home.”
She smiled. “Well, that’s nice,” she said. “It’s always nice to see a happily married man.”
“The marriage hasn’t occurred yet, but it’ll happen pretty damn soon,” he said.
“Really?” Baylor asked him. “I hadn’t heard.”
“Well, we’ve changed our plans so many times to accommodate family that now we’ve pretty well just given up on that whole concept, and we’ll just go get married.”
Hudson laughed. “That would be my style. You can’t make everybody happy, so why even try. Just go and get yourself married and then have a big party afterward.”
“I kind of like that idea too,” she admitted.
Baylor looked at her with interest. “Interesting,” he said. “Usually females want a big wedding.”
“I’m not the usual female,” she said in exasperation. “Remember?”
At that, he laughed out loud because she was anything but usual. Thank heavens. “I do,” he said. Looking over at Hudson, he said, “Come on, Hudson. The sooner we go, the sooner we’ll get answers.” And, with that, the two of them walked out.
Chapter 9
As soon as the door closed, Gizella looked over at Dane and asked, “How come you got stuck babysitting?”
“It’s not a matter of getting stuck,” he said, “but we take turns.”
“So, because Baylor’s been looking after me, now he gets to break
