Phillip: Lanning's Leap - Paranormal Erotic Romance by Kathi S. Barton Page B

completely out. Nearly a hundred thousand in purchases.” Phillip asked him some of the places the purchases were made. “Yeah, that’s weird too. A suit was ordered but returned. Then there was the couch and love seat set that was bought and paid for, then returned.”
    “Thirty days.” Everyone looked at Phillip. “After thirty days the credit card company will give you the option of getting cash or taking a credit on your card. I’ve done that before. My bill came due before I decided to return the dresser and they asked me that. Since I’d paid off my card, I didn’t want a hanging balance. I think they were padding their cash with buying things, waiting the right amount of time, then taking the cash in return.”
    “Why?” That was, as far as Phillip knew, the ten million dollar question. Misha continued when no one answered him. “Okay. So they have about a hundred grand, give or take however much they already had. Or for that matter how long they’ve been doing this. Something spooked them into running. Or they have a plan to get us there. I’m more inclined to think it was just them running, but I have no idea.”
    When the plane landed about forty minutes later, they were no closer to figuring it out than they had been before. But one thing they did know was they weren’t going to go to the address without back up. As soon as they were at the home base, Phillip could see that Thomas had been busy. There were about fifty men there ready to help them out, all of them from the castle. At the last minute, however, Charlie contacted him.
    “Don’t take the king or Nic in. I know that telling Linyah not to go is like telling her to go ahead full force. She’s sort of stubborn like that, but if this had to do with Sonya, this is the perfect way for her to get to some of them.” He was so stunned by the idea that he didn’t speak for several seconds. “Or that could just be a crappy thought. I’m sorry I bothered—”
    “No, it’s brilliant. I think you might be right.” He moved to Misha and handed him the phone after telling Charlie to tell him what she thought. As soon as he was handed back the phone, Misha started telling them what was going to happen and why. Phillip put the phone to his ear again. “You more than likely just saved us a great deal of heartache. Thank you, love.”
    “I was only thinking about what Toby said. He wanted to bring them down, and I thought that this might be a way to do it.” Phillip told her what they’d figured out about the credit cards and the returns. “I’ve run into that before. Not me doing it…let me think. The guy was arrested on credit card fraud. I guess he’d gotten a credit card in this other couple’s name and had done that to them. He had…I think he timed it so that they’d never see the bill. You know, get the stuff bought then return it before they got the first bill. By then he’d turned in the stuff and gotten the cash. Not all places will do that, but he had enough, I guess, that he went away for a long time.”
    Phillip related the information to his brothers via their link. They’d not gone into the building as yet, but they were moving in that direction. Misha stopped them just as the door was opened and looked at him. He’d seen that look before…he was nervous.
    “I need two people to go in and have a look around. Me and…who?” Everyone lifted their hands and he smiled. “I need someone to go in with me that can be shadowed. Anyone with that ability can go.”
    “How about Phillip and I can take the bottom floor? Then each of us can pair up with both Thomas and Linyah to go with them. That leaves three to cover the other exits in the event something goes wrong.” Nic looked at Phillip as he continued. “You want to partner with me?”
    Phillip nodded, knowing that Nic knew something or he would never have decided how they were to go in. He had a feeling that Misha knew it as well when he nodded at him and told him to