Chapter 13

Trevor looked over his shoulder as Kirk came through the door into the master bedroom in cabin twelve where he and Snaf were painting. Even from across the room he could feel the tension, the complete alertness, in both brothers as they shared a look. Slowly, he set down the paint roller he was using and turned to Kirk. He shot a look at Snaf whose entire focus was on his brother.

“Kirk, what’s up?” he asked as calmly as he could. It had been almost three weeks since he and Kirk had had that disturbing conversation in the woods about the FBI chatter.

“We’ve got company.”

“Company?”

“The kind that travels in packs drives dark colored SUVs and wears cheap suits.”

“I’m going to guess the FBI, either that or we’re being invaded by a convention of IRS accountants,” Trevor replied with grimace.

“Good guess.” Kirk grinned.

“What have they said?” Snaf asked as he moved across the room to stand beside Trevor.

“Not much, the man in charge of the little field trip grabbed a couple of his minions and they’re holed up in the office with Mom and Dad. The rest are hanging outside the office like they’re waiting for all hell to break loose. I high tailed it over here to warn you. Made a stop on the way to warn Chloe to stay inside the cabin.”

“Right, we’ll we act as if nothing out of the ordinary is going on and pray to God you’re right and I can bluff my way through this.” Trevor looked between the two of them.

 “Right. Keep up the good work here then cuz.” Kirk sent them both a grin, one that never quite reached his eyes, before spinning around and leaving the cabin.

Trevor shook his head and turned back to the paint roller. “Wonder how long before they split up to search for clues.”

Snaf guffawed at the remark. “Think they brought Scooby and Shaggy with ’em?”

Trevor sent him a grin; it felt good to be joking about the subject, even if it really wasn’t a joking matter. It helped him to relax a bit, release some of the tension he was feeling now that the FBI had caught up to him. He hoped he could stare those agents in the face and bluff his way out of this. Because if he couldn’t, he was dead meat. And he definitely didn’t want to have them haul him away in handcuffs.

He cocked his head to the side. “Hey, if I can’t pull this off and they figure out who I am I’ll be sure to look straight at you as they drag me away and yell out, “I would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn’t for you meddling kids!” ”

“I would laugh my a*s off if you did. It might be worth it to turn your a*s in just to hear you say it.”

“Shove it Snaf.”

They both dissolved into fits of laughter.

***

Agent Brooks stared silently across the room at the tiny woman sitting calmly behind her desk. She wasn’t shifting nervously. Wasn’t blinking excessively. No nervous eye twitches. The woman was dead calm, staring back at him steadily. His eyes flicked to her husband where he stood protectively behind the woman.

Just as calm. Though there was a burning anger deep in the man’s eyes. He was damn pissed off they were here, pissed they were harassing his family. His arms were crossed over his chest and while he glared at them, he was doing a damned fine job of looking at them as if he were memorizing their faces for a future beat down.

Didn’t hurt that the man was six foot four and built to match the height. Big, lean and muscular. The man could do intimidation rather easily. Brooks managed to keep his evil little smile to himself, he wasn’t easily intimidated, especially by over muscled brutes like this one. Didn’t matter how big. Come at him with a fist, a gun leveled the playing field real quick.

“Mr. Brooks, if you aren’t going to fill us in on why you’re here, then I see no point in us sitting in my office all day wasting my time,” the woman said.

“Agent Brooks, ma’am,” he reminded her. “I guess we should get to it. We have information that puts a wanted fugitive on your premises.” He watched for any sort of reaction from the couple. They both tensed and the woman looked up at her husband, obviously worried, before her focus came back to him.

“Do you believe he’s staying in one of our cabins?”

“It is possible, though we don’t think he has the money for that unless he’s found someone to help him.” Another agent handed him a folder containing information on Trevor Madison, including a photograph. He removed the picture from the file and held it out to Mrs. Maher, watching her face as she took it from him.

“Is this the man? He doesn’t look particularly dangerous.” She suddenly frowned at the picture, before holding it up for her husband to see. “Bray, doesn’t he look a bit like Treacy?”

Brooks’ eyes narrowed as he watched the man study the picture, shrug, and look at his wife. “Kid in the picture looks like a rich, pampered, wimp. Weak. That’s not our Tre.”

“Be nice dear, you don’t know what this young man is like. I’m sorry but other than the resemblance to our cousin’s boy who works for us, I’ve never seen him.” She held the picture out to him.

“Where is this cousin?”

“He and our son Douglas are working on a remodel of one of the cabins. I could fetch the two of them for you, if you’d like.”

He nodded. “Yes, I’d like to speak to the boy.” He watched her reach for the phone, call her son Douglas, and request that he and Traecy come to the office.

“They’ll be here in a few minutes, just as soon as they lock up the cabin.”

 

Trevor watched Snaf slip his phone back into the holster on his waist. “That was Mom; they want us in the office. Show time.”

“Right, okay I can do this.”

Snaf’s hand landed on his shoulder and gave a small squeeze. “You can. Remember, you are not Trevor Madison; you ceased to be that man when you arrived here nearly three months ago. You’re a Maher now. No matter what, you’re one of us.”

That sent a warm thrill through him. He belonged, for the first time in his life he belonged. He may not remember his entire life, but he knew that he’d never really fit in anywhere.

Together they walked back to the office. Both hoping this meeting went well. Trevor knew that if it didn’t and the FBI took him away with them, the Maher’s would look after Chloe. Kirk was with her now, watching over her, the second they hauled him away�"if it came to that�"Kirk would rush her out of the cabin and hide her in case they searched the resort looking for her.

He sent Sanf one last glance as they mounted the back stairs. “Last chance to bail.”

“Not a chance, cuz.” He gave him a light slap on the back before he opened the door. “We’re here Mom, what’s up?”

Trevor recognized Agent Brooks the second he laid eyes on him, but skimmed over him and looked at the other three agents, giving them all an equal amount of face time so Brooks wouldn’t get suspicious, thinking he was studying the agents’ faces or anything.

Ava smiled at him and Snaf and then gestured at the agents. “These men have a few questions for you.”

Agent Brooks was staring at him. Instead of avoiding the man’s gaze, he stared right back. Daring the man to come out and ask him if he was Trevor Madison. Waiting for it.

 

Brooks realized that Ava Maher was correct Treacy looked a hell of a lot like Trevor Madison. There were differences though. For one, Madison probably wouldn’t have been standing there staring him down as Treacy Maher was at the moment. Madison had bravado, but it had been short lived, he had come off as tough when they had first met, but inside he’d been nothing but a scared kid. Sheltered and protected by Mommy and Daddy because of his gift, he’d had no experience in the real world. When Madison had run from them and gotten out into that big, bad, real world, it had beaten the crap out of him, and shown him who was really in charge.

The last good surveillance video they had of him was outside a convenience store in Colorado where he had apparently tried to hitch a ride. A trucker had beaten the s**t out of him and stolen his wallet. Brooks had handled the trucker; the man was sitting in a holding cell waiting to hear the charges he threw at him. How Madison managed to survive that beat down, he didn’t know. It was a miracle that he had.

Now as he stared across the room at the Maher cousin, he couldn’t be a hundred percent certain if the man was or wasn’t Trevor Madison. There were subtle differences as well as similarities between the two.

The eye color was the same. Their build was similar, though Madison had been slighter, less muscular. He noticed a scar that ran down the right side of Maher’s face, from up near his hairline down his temple, to the middle of his cheek. Something pretty boy Madison hadn’t had. The scar looked to be recent. Interesting.

He leveled his gaze fully on Treacy Maher. “You’re Treacy?”

“Yes, though nearly everyone calls me Tre.” He pulled off the baseball hat he wore, shoved it into one of the pockets on his tool belt, and ran his fingers through his hair. The hair, though similar in color to Madison’s, was several shades lighter and sun streaked with lighter highlights.

If this was Madison, the b*****d wasn’t at all worried about standing in front of him. Either he had become one cocky son of a b***h or this man was not Trevor Madison.

“You don’t know a man by the name of Trevor Madison?”

He shook his head. “No, should I?”

Brooks flipped the picture over onto the desk and watched as the man picked it up and stared down at it for a moment before looking up at him again. “Is this a joke?”

“I assure you that it isn’t. This man is wanted by the FBI. Sources put him at this location.”

Treacy let the picture drop back to the desk in disgust. “Look, I don’t know whose a*s this guy chaffed, but he isn’t here. You can harass us all you’d like, and as much as I look like the guy, I’m not him. So whoever decided to “inform” you that he was here, he isn’t. All you get is me and whatever this guy did to piss you off, I doubt it would be something I’d be stupid enough to do or at the very least, get caught doing.”

Balls. The guy had one hell of a set of balls. Brooks wanted to shove his gun in the prick’s face and see how cocky he was while staring down the barrel of a gun. “I never said someone told us he was here.”

The man standing beside him glowered over at him. Obviously he was the son of Brayden Maher, because they had similar looks of anger. As well as the same deep emerald eyes. “You said that “sources put him at this location”, what the hell does that mean then?”

“He has an iPad that he’s rather fond of, we’ve been tracking it. Once we triangulated the approximate location, we began looking for people who had stayed here and showed them the picture and many said they had seen Madison while staying here.”

Treacy Maher snorted. “More than likely what they saw was me. Probably going on memory they simply said, “oh yeah sure that’s him”, and left it at that.”

He’d had enough of the man’s attitude; he rose from the chair and headed for the door. “I can see this isn’t getting us answers.” He stopped, his hand on the doorknob, and flung his last question casually over his shoulder without turning. “Tell me Mr. Maher, where’s the girl?”

“Excuse me?”

“The girl, from the cabin? Chloe, I believe Captain Collin called her.”

“Am I supposed to know what you’re talking about?”

No change in his tone. He glanced over his shoulder. Stone cold expression. Unless you stared into the eyes, there deep in the depths Brooks saw something, but it wasn’t something he could identify. Yet.

“You have a girlfriend, Mr. Maher?”

“No sir. That would be inappropriate seeing as how I’m married.”

Well, now wasn’t this interesting. Married. “And where is your lovely wife?”

“That certainly isn’t any of your business. Is it? You came here looking for whoever this guy is, not for me or my wife Dale. You’ve gotten your answers, now I think it’s time for you to leave.”

Brooks gave a curt little nod, yanked the door open, and stalked from the room. He stopped beside one of the two SUVs and turned to Durn, who had followed him out. “Take a couple of men, drive off as if you’re leaving, find someplace to park, and come back. I want to know what in the hell is going on here. Got it?”

He nodded, grabbed two other men, and climbed into the second SUV.

Brooks looked back at the building that was marked office. The Maher clan was standing on the porch staring at them as they prepared to leave. Treacy Maher met his gaze, those piercing green eyes of his stared at him as if daring him to come back and accuse him of being Trevor Madison.

He turned away; Treacy could very well be a cousin to the Maher family. While he wasn’t near as big as the father and son, he was close enough. The green eyes were only a shade or two off from Brayden Maher’s, another thing to consider.

There were far too many things working against him here. He needed to get away and think. And Durn would need to set up surveillance and let him know what he found out. Particularly about Treacy Maher’s wife.

It was high time they brought Madison in, time to stop pussyfooting around; they needed to open that artifact. Get at whatever was inside. It might give them an advantage over their enemies. Who knew what kinds of weapons they could build with the knowledge inside that thing?

He who hesitates with his finger on the trigger … gets his f*****g head blown off.

His father had been fond of saying that. It was so damn true. Hesitate to defend yourself and you die. After all, that is exactly what had ended up killing his dear old dad. Dumbass hadn’t followed his own advice in the end. Never hesitate with your finger on the trigger, no matter who you’re aiming the gun at, even your own goddamned son. Likely to end up with your brains on the wrong side of your skull�"the outside.

He would do what was needed to bring in Madison.

Anything necessary, he thought grimly.