“Yeah, but I don’t think we’ll need it.”
“Really, why?”
“Put your dad on the other line.”
Wyatt walked to the foyer phone and handed the receiver to his father.
“What did you find out?” William asked once they were both listening.
“I think Nathan hired the guys to pull Wyatt into the bar fight.”
“Are you sure?” Wyatt asked.
“Luke came to the same conclusion and he didn’t even see the reaction on Nathan’s face when he was trying hard to hold back his thoughts. Bottom line, he knew the names of the guys who fought you both. Luke didn’t even know and he was there. When I told Nathan that Ty was getting picked up for questioning, he—”
“Started to get rough!” Wyatt heard Luke yell from what sounded like the inside of the truck.
“He did what?”
“He grabbed my arm. I’m fine. But yeah, he was pissed. Then Luke came in and Nathan stormed off.”
“And you have that all on tape?” William asked.
“Every word.”
“We need to call Jo.”
“Already done,” Melanie informed him.
“Are you on your way home?”
“Yeah, pulling onto the main road now. Raining like crazy. I didn’t want you to worry.”
Wyatt placed a hand over his chest. “I’ll worry until you’re back. But take your time, I don’t want a delay due to an accident.”
It was hard to hang up, but he did anyway.
It took a few minutes for the gravity of Melanie’s words to sink in.
“Talk about setting your ex up for a fall.” For a moment, Wyatt thought his father was giving Nathan kudos. “Makes me wonder just how far the guy would go.”
“Hiring a couple of guys to beat me up is really out there, don’t you think?”
Wyatt watched his father pace. “Yeah, but it isn’t like you and Melanie are living together. One piece of the puzzle helps the overall case . . . but you alone, bar fighting wildcard and all, wouldn’t give a judge what he needs to take Hope away from her mom.”
“He needed to stack the deck,” Wyatt assumed. “After all, at the end of the day, he’s just a deadbeat dad who skipped out on his girlfriend and their child. He wants to come out looking like the better of the two parents, and what better way than to suggest the ex is hanging around with criminals?”
Wyatt’s father paused, looked around the room. “But how far would he go? Hire one thug, two . . . what about three?”
“Are you suggesting Nathan hired Mr. Lewis?”
“I’m suggesting anything is possible. You were here when Lewis showed up the first time. Was that before or after Nathan came around?”
“After.”
“Well, I’d be interested in hearing what Nathan Stone has to say to the FBI when they pull him in for questioning.”
“You and me both.”
“You need to disappear,” Nathan yelled into his cell phone as he took the corner a little wide.
“What makes you think I haven’t?”
Why couldn’t the man just do what he’d been paid to do? Why did he have to improvise along the way? “You’re still answering your phone.”
“That’s because every time I see your call I picture another payday. You paid so well the first two times, why say no to a third?”
“I don’t have any more money to shell out. Take what I gave you and get out of the country. If they can’t find you, they’ll have nothing on me.”
The windshield wipers were going at Mach speed, the road winding as he made his way back to Eugene.
“I wouldn’t be too sure. That pretty little ex of yours was wearing a wire, you know.”
Nathan slammed on his brakes. “What?”
“Whoa, careful, mate, you wouldn’t want a car accident on this road.”
Oh, fuck, oh, fuck . . . Nathan twisted in his seat, looked around the car, and spotted the shadow of one following from behind. The fog and rain brought down his visibility to almost nothing.
“What the hell?” he said into the phone. “Why are you even in the state? Everyone is looking for you.”
“No, mate . . . everyone is looking for Mr. Lewis.”
And Ruther, aka Patrick Lewis, was a man of many disguises, which was why Nathan had hired him in the first place. His family had money but had cut him off years ago, and Ruther had a little problem. A problem that Nathan could use to gain respect from his family. He’d sent Ruther into Miss Gina’s inn as a spy . . . find the dirt on Melanie and report back. Yeah, he knew about his unusual taste in little girls, which he had every intention of using in court to make the judge see Nathan’s need to remove Hope from Mel’s care. But then the pervert decided to murder his kid. A part of him hurt with that, but a bigger part of him worried that everything would come back on him. That Ruther would say he was hired to remove Hope from the equation, or something equally disturbing.
“Why are you following me?”
“Making sure you get back safely. Keeping that FBI agent from following you.”
The car sat idling, the smoke from the exhaust the only visible sign that there was someone in the thing. “What agent?”
“You really have no idea how deep you’re in, do you?”
Nathan was shaking, couldn’t control it. “Stop following me.”
He hung up and put his foot on the gas.
Ruther followed. The road continued on a steady incline and narrowed. At the top, he knew it leveled out, which would give him the space he needed to pick up his speed.