Tainted: Book Two - Coerced

30. Throwback Thursday

Rome

John felt well enough to walk over to the restaurant for supper. Taking over a couple of tables in a corner, we drew a lot of curious stares from the diners who were obviously locals in this small farming community.

I could certainly understand why they were looking. With his wild eyes, messy hair, heavy tattoos, and scarred face, Kerry alone was enough to turn heads. Add in my extreme self, Mira the Amazon, and movie-star gorgeous Gigi, we became quite the circus.

Only John and Travis could have fit in here.

Speaking of Travis, he looked ready to burst if he didn't get to share what he'd found in his research soon.

Good thing Kerry talked with him and Gigi about what to keep from Mira.

After the waitress handed out menus and took our drinks order, I asked Travis what he'd discovered.

"I couldn't find anything on Samuel Castle, but that only means he's not on any human radar. I'll hack into the Council's files later and look. Anyway, while I was looking up Hubler, I only found his official bio, business interests, etcetera, but something Gigi said yesterday made me think in a different direction. She was talking about last names and how the woman usually took the man's surname when they got married."

"It's been an ongoing discussion between me and Jax." Gigi smiled. "I don't see my very Irish name changing to Bridget Kosta, nor can we imagine Jax's Greek name going well with Carnahan. I think maybe we should hyphenate."

"Or each of you keep your own last name," I suggested.

"I like Gigi Kosta," Travis said. "Sounds like a movie star."

"Anyway," Kerry growled at him, "what different direction did you look in?"

"His wife." Travis looked around at all of us. "Her name's Emily and there wasn't too much about her anywhere other than her status as his wife. However, I did find some things on her mother's social media sites."

"Her mother," I repeated.

We shut up as the waitress came over with our drinks and took our meal orders.

"Well, what did you find?" Kerry asked the second she left.

"For one, good old Mom posted a picture from Emily Hubler's freshman year of college." Travis looked like a smug cat. "She was holding two babies!"

"Her mom was?" Kerry looked lost.

"No, Emily Hubler was!" Travis glowered at him. "Before she was Mrs. Hubler. I dug deeper into Mom's site and found out Emily married Hubler her junior year of college. Mom posted a picture from their wedding on a Throwback Thursday. They were standing with two children. They were obviously twins and looked like they were maybe two years old."

"What's Throwback Thursday?" Kerry was getting irritated.

"So they had kids before they got married." I waved a hand. "What does that matter to us?"

"Because her husband is not the father. The twins have her maiden name in all Mom's posts. But here's the part I found most interesting: Before she was Emily Hubler, she was Emily Argaud."

Silence.

"No!" Gigi gasped. "It can't be connected to Reilly. It can't! Can it?"

"Do you know her? Him? Uh, them?" Mira raised her eyebrows as she looked around the table.

"Argaud is not a common last name." John looked at Travis.

A thundercloud built on Kerry's face, and I kept an eye on him while I listened.