Beauty & The Beast (Book 1)

81. Check it out

"Detective Chandler, my name is Paul Davis, your mother was my mentor when I first started working for Muirfield..." The man on the video looks behind him as he rushes down an alley recording his message. "I've alwayd had my suspicions about what happened to her but I never said anything, and for that I'm truly sorry."
Vincent looks at Catherine's face as she listens. "I don't think anyone else knows about you yet, but that's not gonna last. You have to be careful. Because Muirfield had to move their operation, they're vulnerable for the moment..." A car starts to chase him and he runs a few feet before he stops, panting. "I can lead you to everything you need to expose them..."
Gubshots are fired and his words become more rushed. "Go to The Orchard!" The video cuts off and Vincent sighs.

"We have to get busy," Cat says, looking at Vincent. "We don't know how much time we have and we have to figure out where 'The Orchard' is... Or what it is." Cat stares at the table, her eyes widening with new thoughts.
"I bet this has something to do with that uh, swipe card that Tess found..."

"Catherine, the reason I showed you this video is so you know how much danger you're in." Not for you to start playing Nancy friggin' Drew.
"If this guy could find you then anyone from Muirfield could be circling, okay? Now the last person they circled ended up dead."

"This could be our chance to expose Muirfield and take them down for good."

"Or it could be a trap," he retorts.

"So an agent pretended to defect and let himself be killed in order to lure me out?" she asks incredulously, getting up from the table in her dining room and walking to the kitchen. "Seems like a pretty elaborate trap, don't you think?" Vincent had to concede it was pretty out there if she voiced it like that, but who knew what tricks Muirfield had up their sleeves? "I wonder if Gabe knows what The Orchard is?" Cat asks quietly, staring at her kitchen counter.

"This Gabe guy has given you no reason to trust him," Vincent sighs, turning in his chair. She just looks at him. "Come on...Not really," he shrugs.
"Anyone from Muirfield could have made this story up."

"But you didn't see his face, he's traumatized. Vincent," he looks away, "they did horrible things to him. This is the first person who knows about Muirfield who could actually help us."

Vincent lifts his eyebrows in question, playing with his thumbs. "And you trust him completely?" She sighs. "Enough to tell him about me? About us? Because if you do there's no going back. Everything changes."
Cat looks down, biting her lip nervously. She didn't trust him, but she needed to use Gabe. Vincent gets up and walks to where she is standing. "Look, Catherine, all I'm asking is that you stay away from him until we check out his story."

"And The Orchard?" Vincent sighs in defeat. "You want me to wait around while you check that out too?"

Vincent takes her hand. "Catherine, I couldn't handle losing you. Alright? I couldn't live, I wouldn't want to."

"And I can't face everyday knowing that Muirfield is out there hunting you," she then smiles, "We have this fantasy that you're gonna find a new place to live and I'm gonna come visit you and we're gonna live our lives..." She trails off, her face wiped of the smile just as fast. Vincent looks at their hands. "But that is never going to happen as long as this threat is hanging over our heads."

He sighs. "Just give me the time to work this out, please?" he begs and she nods her head.

***

Vincent spots JT driving up the alley along the river bank that he took just to confuse anyone who might be following him and he walks a little faster.
"Okay, so," he starts as soon as he gets in the car and pulls his hood off. "Checked the Muirfield warehouse, completely empty. Seems they went back underground. Did you manage to find anything?"