“Something must have come up.”
“Yeah. Something Bryce hasn’t bothered to tell me about.” I tossed Jade my phone. “Send a text for me, will you?”
“I can’t get on. I need your thumbprint.”
I took one hand off the wheel to access my phone for her.
“What do you want me to say?”
“How about ‘where the hell are you going?’”
“Marj…”
I huffed. “Fine. Start with, ‘Jade and I are heading into the city to…’ Shit, I already told him what I was doing this morning.”
“He knows we know they’re going somewhere. Surely he recognized your car, with you driving.”
“Was he looking at me?”
“If he wasn’t, Joe was. Joe was driving, right?”
“Joe wouldn’t forgo seeing his wife and son for just anything,” I said. “I want to know what’s going on.”
“Okay. How about, ‘What’s going on?’”
“Good enough. Send it and tell me what he says.”
She tapped into the phone and then the phone beeped when she hit Send.
A few seconds passed.
“He says, ‘Stop texting and driving.’” She let out a laugh.
“Tell him to kiss my ass.”
“Marj…”
“I’m serious.” Then I thought better. “No, don’t do that.”
“I wasn’t going to.”
“Tell him I’m going to keep texting and driving until I get an answer.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. Send that one.”
Tapping and sending again.
“What’d he say?”
“Nothing yet. Okay, he’s typing. Hold on.”
She chuckled. “He says, ‘Hi Jade.’”
“Oh, for God’s sake.” I was tempted to stop the car abruptly but not with my pregnant best friend in the passenger seat. I slowed to a crawl and pulled over to the side of the road.
I took my phone from Jade and called Bryce.
It rang.
And rang.
Just when I thought he was going to ignore me, he finally responded. “Hi, honey.”
“Don’t honey me. Where are you two going? Joe was supposed to go to the hospital, but it doesn’t take a genius to see you two are headed in the wrong direction.”
“Tell Melanie Joe will be there as soon as he can.”
“Sure. Be glad to. Now where the hell are you going?”
Silence for a few seconds that seemed like forever.
“Mills and Johnson found Cade Booker. We’re going to talk to him.”
I gulped. “He’s dangerous, Bryce.”
“After what he’s put us through, he’d better think the two of us are dangerous,” Bryce said. “We’ll be okay, baby.”
“I’m tempted to turn around and follow you, but…”
“But you’ve got Jade in the car.”
“Yeah, and she hasn’t seen the baby yet.”
“Go. Enjoy yourselves. Visit your nephew and Melanie. Joe and I will take care of Cade Booker.”
I nodded, knowing he couldn’t see me. “I want to talk to my brother.”
“He’s driving.”
“So? I am too.”
“No, you pulled over.”
How did he know?
“I know you,” he said before I could ask. “You wouldn’t put Jade in any potential danger. That’s how I knew you weren’t the one texting.”
“I’m pretty sure my brother can walk and chew gum at the same time. Put him on, please.”
Some rustling. Then, “Hey, sis.”
“I just want to remind you that you have a newborn baby and a wife who adores you.”
“You think I ever forget those two things?”
“Well…you’re walking into a situation without thinking it through, as usual. How do you know this isn’t Cade Booker screwing with you?”
“Mills and Johnson found Booker, and we’re going to—”
“What if the phone call was a fake?”
“It was their number. And it was Trevor Mills’s voice.”
“And Booker could have been holding a gun on him. Just be careful.”
“I always am.”
“I know. But this time you have the love of my life with you.” I closed my eyes, unwilling to let an emerging tear fall. “Please.”
“We both know what’s at stake here, Marj. I have a family, and so does Bryce. We get it.”
“Just don’t be a hothead.”
Stupid words. Words had no effect on whether my oldest brother went into “Red Joe” mode. But he did love his wife and son. I knew that as well as I knew anything. Bryce loved his son as well.
And he loved me.
“Just be safe,” I said. “Both of you.”
Chapter Forty-Nine
Bryce
“I suppose she has a point,” I said. “Booker could be deceiving us.”
“It’s possible. But is it enough to make you not go?”
I shook my head. “Hell, no. We need answers, and I aim to get them. Today.”
“One way or the other. If it is a trick, we know he’ll be armed in at least three places, which is why I’m armed in two. You?”
“Right there with you.” I patted my shoulder holster and pointed to my ankle. “How much longer?”
“About ten miles. Mills says they’ve got him in an old ranch house just outside the Belldore property.”
“I sure as hell don’t want to be blinded again, even if it is temporary.”
“Fuck. Me neither. That’s why we’re going in with guns drawn.”
I nodded. Sounded damned good to me.
“What the hell do you mean he got away?” Joe grabbed Trevor Mills by the collar of his shirt.
I held my gun steadily on his partner, Johnny Johnson.
“Let go of me,” Mills said. “Right fucking now.”
“For what I’m paying you clowns, you’d better find the bastard.” Joe let him go.
I forced back a sigh of relief. Joe was on edge, and Joe on edge could easily turn into Joe in a rage.
“We had him locked in a bedroom with bars on the windows,” Johnson said.
“Is he goddamned Houdini?” Joe said sarcastically.
“No. He must have picked the lock.”
“With what?”
“I have no idea. I frisked him good. There was nothing on him. We took his shoes, too, so wherever he is, he’s in his stocking feet.”
“Did you strip search him?” I asked.
“Uh…hell, no,” Mills said.
I swallowed. “This guy is dangerous and unpredictable. Hiding a bobby pin or anything else up his ass would be nothing to him.”
“You two should have foreseen that,” Joe said. “Why didn’t you tie him up?”
“Because we’re PIs, not lunatics. It’s bad enough we took him against his will.”
“The mercenary PIs with a conscience.” Joe rolled his eyes. “You two take the cake.”