Jefferson, New York

"Are you sure that this is the right place?" Liam asked, as he stepped out of the car and pushed the door shut behind himself.

"According to the GPS, these are the exact coordinates that Dad left us," Killian explained, casting a look around their surroundings. It took him a moment to spot the building hidden behind the diner, but when he did, his eyes lit up with his excitement. "Hey, Liam. Over there."

His little brother craned his head around to see what Killian was looking at and groaned a little when he saw the partially illuminated sign in the distance.

"It couldn't have been a hotel?"

"Hotels ask too many questions," his brother reminded him, while he checked to make sure that the road was clear, before crossing it at a jog.

Liam took a moment just to consider his very limited options before he sighed and took off after Killian. "Do you even have a plan?" he asked.

"Yep. I'm gonna tell them the truth."

"The truth? That our dad might have been captured by some kind of supernatural being, and we're here looking for clues on how to save him?"

Killian waited until they were both on the same side of the road before he turned to level his brother with a withering glare. "No, Dumbass. I'm gonna tell them we're looking for our dad. They don't need to know anything more than that. Jesus, you really have forgotten everything that we taught you."

"I've already told you, Killian, I don't want anything more to do with this. The moment we find Dad, I'm done. I'm going back to Boston, back to my girlfriend, and back to my life."

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You're only here because you have to be. You know, you could at least act like you're enjoying spending time with your big brother, Liam. Would that really kill ya?"

Before Liam could utter a word in protest, his brother squared his shoulders and strode off confidently in the direction of the office for the cheap motel they'd found.

When he pushed through the front door, Killian's expression settled easily back into that of the charming young rogue women seemed to love, as he aimed a flirtatious smirk at the middle-aged woman behind the desk.

"Hello… Janice," he greeted, sidling up to lean against the counter as he turned the full force of his smile down on her.

Janice flicked a bored glance up at the two men who had entered the building, and then back down to her computer before her eyes flew up to settle on Killian's face.

"H… Hi," she stuttered out.

"I'm wondering if you can help me at all?" he continued, as he leaned in a little closer. "My brother and I are looking for our father. He gets a little lost and confused at times, poor guy. The last time we heard from him he said he was staying here, but he's not answering the door or his phone. You haven't seen him, have you?"

Killian pulled out his own phone and loaded up a picture that he'd taken with Brennan for this very purpose, before turning it around to show the clearly flustered woman behind the desk.

"Oh… oh, yes," she declared, when she eventually managed to pull her eyes away from Killian's face. "He was here a few weeks back. But he left in a hurry, and I haven't seen him since."

"That sounds like Dad," Killian commiserated. "Did he leave anything behind at all?"

"A few things. He paid for the month up-front, so we haven't really touched his room yet. We figured he'd be back before his time was up."

"You don't happen to have a spare key I could use, do you?" he asked, batting his lashes a little harder to try and sway her over to their side. "The chances are he left clues there as to where he went, and my brother and I can clean it out for you before we leave."

For a moment, Liam thought that his brother's charms might not have worked as well as he'd have liked, as the woman seemed to hesitate, before finally reaching back for a key to room seven.

"Don't tell anyone about this," she implored, as she handed it over. "I could lose my job."

"Your secret is completely safe with us, Janice."

The moment Killian had the key safely in his palm he spun on his heels and strode straight out of the office. Liam offered the flustered older woman a small smile of thanks, before hurrying after his big brother.

"Do you honestly think that you're going to find anything here?" he asked. They both knew Brennan Jones well enough to understand that he would never leave obvious signs of what he was doing, where they could fall into the hands of an innocent bystander.

"Dad left these coordinates for a reason, Liam. There must be something here, even if it's not obvious."

Killian stopped outside of the door to room seven and pressed his ear to the wood for a moment, to check for noise inside. Even though he was certain that the room was vacant, he still pulled a small handgun from the waistband of his jeans, before he slid the key into the lock.

"Seriously?" Liam scoffed. "Now you're carrying guns too?"

"We always carry guns," his brother reminded him. "Don't worry, I've had plenty of practice over the years. I haven't yet killed anyone who wasn't already dead to begin with."

Somehow, Killian's words didn't fill Liam with comfort. But he didn't protest any further either. They both knew just how dangerous their father's line of work could be. Being prepared was the best tool they had in their arsenal.

As Killian pushed open the door he raised his weapon, before reaching out to flick on the lights. But the room looked as empty as it sounded. He took a moment to check inside of the small bathroom, before he ushered his little brother inside, and closed the door behind them both.

"See? There's nothing here." Liam gestured around himself at the empty space, but something in the back of his mind was telling him that the room was all wrong. He watched as his brother's face creased with his own concern, while he tucked his gun away once more. "What?"

"I know you've tried hard to block out your childhood, but does anything about this-" Killian gestured at the neatly made bed and the clean sides "-feel strange to you?"

It took a moment for Liam to make the connection, but when he did, that feeling of wrong that had settled into the back of his mind flared again. "It's too clean," he stated.

"Yeah. Way too clean for both a sleazy motel and for Dad. Almost like someone tried to hide something so that someone else wouldn't be able to find a trace of it."

Liam cast his gaze around the room, searching for anything that looked out of place. His father might have been an expert at keeping secrets, but if he'd left the co-ordinates for the motel in his journal, then that meant that he'd have left something for the boys to find there.

They just had to know where to look for it.

While Killian made his way through to the bathroom to check for anything that could have been hidden there, Liam searched for any grates set in the walls, or safes under the counters, as he made his way around to the small closet in the room.

When he opened the doors, nothing immediately jumped out at him as being out of place, but all of his instincts were telling him that he was looking in the right spot. So Liam pulled out his phone and switched on the light, to shine it around the small space.

"Killian. In here," he called out, as his eyes landed on the handful of stray fibers, sticking up oddly from the carpet on the floor. "I think I've found it."

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