“Did you get my text?” Toby asked.
Zeke grinned. “I did. I’ve already got something for you.”
Brock sat down heavily next to him.
Zeke crinkled his nose. “You smell like smoke. What took you guys so long, anyway?”
“Rhys Dillon,” Jax said.
“What? How did you bump into him?”
“Love triangles are dangerous. That’s about all I’ve got to say about that.
Brock ignored the comment. “What did you find?”
“Dillon owns several companies on paper. One of them is a real estate holding company.” He laughed. “Not surprising, right? It’s almost like the guy is asking to be caught.”
Brock had no idea why that was pertinent. “Where’s this story going?”
“Someone named Jacob Morris received a property last year from Dillon’s company.”
“Just one?” Brock asked.
Zeke shrugged. “The other ones they’re using for cooking are probably owned by other associates of Dillon’s that we don’t know about. Morris could be running all of them, or some of them. Who knows. It may be the same Morris the kids mentioned.”
“Let me have the address.”
“I already texted it to you. By the way...” Zeke hesitated, his right hand nervously tapping on the chair’s arm. “That man is back.”
“Which man?” Brock asked.
“The middle-aged guy who’s been sneaking around Reno-Sparks spying on us.”
At the news, Jax’s posture stiffened. He pushed himself off from the wall and stared at Zeke. “How do you know?”
“There are a few mentions of him online. He’s been spotted heading this way for a week or so. Today one of the ranch hands at the farm said he was being followed in the woods.”
“Just like he did to me,” Jax said.
Brock nodded. “If that’s the case, you got him on tape, right Zeke?”
“Yes. I’ll review it and confirm. We have to do something about him…find out why.”
Brock knew what was coming. Zeke was about to go off on one of his anti-government conspiracy spiels. Brock had no time for this level of paranoia. Not today.
“He’s here to expose us,” Zeke insisted.
“I’ve got to agree,” Jax whispered. “It’s the same guy who left Joleen the note suggesting shifters healed her arm.” Jax looked down the hall to make sure none of the human firefighters were nearby. “If this guy knows about us, we need to know what he wants.”
Toby crossed his arms and didn’t say anything.
Brock rolled his neck to stretch out the sore muscles there. “We’ve got enough on our plate right now. Let’s deal with one thing at a time. Zeke, go ahead and check the tapes, but let’s hold off until after we handle this Dillon problem.”
“Fine,” Zeke muttered. “Just know that if we don’t do something about it soon, anything can happen. Who knows if the feds are behind it. I’ve heard shifter accounts of what the feds do when they get their hands on them, Brock. It’s not pretty.”
Brock turned away. “Understood.”
They found Nash in the kitchen, his feet up on the table and his phone in his hands. “What did I miss? And what took you so long?”
“Long story,” Jax answered. “Zeke found us another location.”
“We’ll head there right after our shift is over,” Brock said.
Toby looked uncertain. “I don’t think that’s a good idea, boss.”
“Why not?”
Toby leaned his back against the table and crossed his arms to gaze at Brock. “Respectfully, you’re tempting fate. You and Zeke crossed the line once already today, and got away with it.” He lowered his voice so that no one outside of the kitchen would hear. “It’s not a good idea to count on being so lucky again. Give the tip to Haverty.”
Brock opened his mouth to argue, then shut it. Toby was the voice of reason.
“You’ve got a lot going on,” Toby added. “Your mom. Sky. Let’s focus on them. Yes, these labs need to be shut down… and they will be. The cops have everything they need now. We did our part, and now we can pass along whatever Zeke finds so they can do theirs.”
“All right,” he conceded. “Give the tip to Haverty. Only because there really is something else we need to be doing.”
“Seducing Sky?” Jax suggested. “Man, you’re gonna be in the dog house for so long, you’ll have to start paying pooch rent.”
Nash laughed. “What happened?”
“Long story.”
Nash whooped. “Crap. When did I missed it?”
Brock crossed his arms. “Enough about that. I’ll take care of it. We have something more pressing…We can’t talk about it now, but Zeke thinks we can help Mom.”
The three men fell silent at the announcement. Nash removed his feet from the table and set them on the floor. “I didn’t even think of that.”
Jax nodded his head. “I was ready to go since this morning. Let’s get it done right now.”