“If you’d just kept your mouth shut, done medical shit like you’re meant to and left, none of this would have happened.”
I wanted to point out that if he hadn’t beaten his girlfriend none of this would have happened, but I decided to play it smart. Punch me once, shame on me, but you’re not getting a second chance because it hurt like a bitch. It was what it was. I’d probably end up saying something that pissed him off, but right now my biggest concern was whether or not Garrett was ok seeing as how he hadn’t moved since he’d been dragged in.
Turning around, Chad snarled, “Tell me where she is!”
“Who?”
Stalking over to me, he leaned in, giving me a good waft of his BO, bad breath, and whatever else he had swirling around him – and trust me, none of it was pleasant. “You fucking know who.”
That’s when my smart mouth took over. Holding my breath, I whispered, “He who shall not be named?” making him jerk back in confusion.
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“I know, he scares me, too. I got shivers when I saw him in Harry Potter. And what’s up with the whole…” I asked, waving my hand over my nose. “What if he gets a cold?”
Swear to God I heard Garrett mutter, “Jesus Christ!” But I was too busy watching the behemoth lose his temper, and bracing for the familiar big fist that was coming toward me again. It bears mentioning the word again. It also bears mentioning that I should have stuck to my original plan to not antagonize him.
Raoul“Hey, have you heard from Rose?” Ellis asked as Logan and I walked out to the cruiser. We were late thanks to the drama at old man Beck’s house – which did indeed turn out to be pensioner porn – and were now leaving to go back to the station.
Lifting my phone away from my head, I checked the screen to see if I had any messages or missed calls from her. Not seeing anything, I asked, “No, why?”
“She’s not answering her phone.”
Just then, the call waiting noise started, and I saw DB’s name on the screen. “I gotta take this, man, but try calling Garrett’s phone. He always has it on him.” Not waiting for him to say bye, I dropped the call and answered my boss’s. “Hey, it was a fa…”
“A neighbor just spotted him near Rose’s house,” he said, interrupting me and not needing to explain who he was talking about. “I’m on my way over there now, but you need to move your ass.”
Putting it on speakerphone, I started the engine, only just managing to wait for Logan to close his door. “Where the fuck is my brother?”
“We don’t know,” he rumbled, the sound of an engine starting following it. “I’m taking Tabby’s vehicle so he doesn’t get spooked and do something dumb, and I’ve sent out a text to everyone we had involved with it all so they’ll be head there, too. Dad was five minutes outside of town when I got the call, so he’s en route as well”
“We’re all screwed if the Townsends get there first,” Logan muttered, making a valid point. I was involved in a case when one of their women had gone missing and it had been one of their cousins who’d found her. She might have been saved, but the whole thing had been a complete debacle.
Tapping him on the arm to get him to take over the call, I concentrated as I navigated the streets as fast as I could. DB had made a valid point about pulling up in a marked vehicle so I was going to have to park a block down and then make my way on foot. Thankfully, the pensioner porn call that had made me late wasn’t too far away from where we lived, so two turns later I was pulling in and cutting the engine. Knowing that Logan would catch me up, I got out the car and started sprinting down the street toward her house.
With my focus on getting to her, I didn’t see the figure standing in the dark a couple of doors down from her house until a hand shot out and caught my arm. “It’s me,” DB whispered when I went to swing for him.
“Holy shit,” Logan panted, finally catching up with me and bending over to catch his breath. “It was like running after a Cheetah.”
Ignoring him, DB began outlining what he knew so far. “I’ve seen him walking past the window,” he muttered. “I can’t get close enough without him seeing me, though, but he’s talking to someone, so I’m assuming it’s her.”
We weren’t small men, and we needed to be fit for our jobs, so overpowering him wouldn’t be a problem. There was also the fact that I knew the house as well as I knew my own home, seeing as how I’d had to break into it enough times. “Ok, well, there’s three of us…”