Off Course, page 20
But now his thoughts involved kissing her, and clearly, they weren’t on the same page anymore.
“Shit,” he grumbled as he headed for the bathroom.
Fifteen minutes later, Evan emerged, showered, shaved, and ready for the day. He grabbed his phone and the room key Becs had given him, then ventured down to the hotel’s restaurant to meet the rest of the team.
He was the last to arrive, which caused all eyes to shift to him. He didn’t bother looking at his watch. He wasn’t late, but he was cutting it close.
“Mornin’,” Reese greeted as Evan pulled out a chair.
“Good morning,” he replied, dropping into the seat beside Slade, skimming all the faces at the table to see if he could determine what he’d missed. If Atticus’s bored expression was anything to go by, he hadn’t missed anything yet.
“I ordered for you,” Slade told him.
Evan had been partnered with Slade long enough that the guy knew what he ate for breakfast. Most of the time, it was toast and coffee, but when he went all out, he preferred his eggs over easy and his hash browns extra crispy.
“We’re heading back today,” Brantley announced as Evan took his first sip of coffee. “We found Deck last night.”
All heads snapped in the boss’s direction, which told Evan that news hadn’t been shared before his arrival.
“Where was he?” Atticus asked.
“Is he all right?” Becs asked.
Brantley nodded at Becs and answered Atticus with, “A house in Chelsea.”
Becs looked at Evan.
He smiled at her. “You were on the right track.”
“Right track?” Reese asked.
Becs recapped their eventful evening.
“You were even closer than you thought,” Brantley noted. “We found him on Twentieth Street.”
And they’d been on 23rd. Definitely close.
“Was he okay?” Becs’s tone was rife with worry.
“Perfectly fine,” Brantley grumbled. “He was on his own. Willingly.”
A complete waste of time, then.
Not that it would do him any good to let it bother him. During his career in law enforcement, he’d chased down many leads that had gotten him nowhere. That was part of it. When searching for someone, you did what was necessary to get the result you wanted. And since finding Decker had been the ultimate objective, they could count this as a win. Even if he hadn’t been missing as Z had thought.
“He’s meetin’ us at the airport,” Reese relayed, probably to keep Brantley from getting angrier than he already was.
Evan understood. They’d wasted so much time looking for a man who wasn’t missing but rather hiding that they’d neglected other cases that could benefit from the time they dedicated to them.
“Is he comin’ back to the task force?” Atticus asked.
Evan watched Brantley and Reese, waiting for an answer.
“Fuck no,” Brantley said firmly. “He can go back to Dallas.”
For some reason, that made Evan feel a little better.
Based on Reese’s expression, he hadn’t been expecting Brantley’s harsh response.
And his partner must’ve sensed the silent question because Brantley elaborated, looking at each of them as he spoke. “I know we’ve all got personal shit that takes us away from the job. That’s expected. You prioritize the way you need to. But you don’t do it like this. You don’t run off and tell no one where you’re goin’. I don’t have a problem with you needin’ time off. Take it. But tell me where you’re goin’, and by God, be there when I’m lookin’ for you. Understood?”
No one spoke, but heads nodded all around.
Evan respected Brantley for his straightforwardness. He would tell it like it was, making it simpler for those around him to follow. Evan understood why Brantley didn’t want Decker working for him. Considering he couldn’t bother to call to say he was all right, Evan figured that was for the best. A team was only as good as its weakest member. And the last thing they needed was someone who might disappear when they needed him most.
“You’ve got the next few hours free,” Reese said. “Check-out’s at nine, so be sure to do that, then we’ll meet at the airport at fourteen hundred. We’ll leave an hour before in case you want to ride with us.”
Evan noticed Becs checking her watch. A second later, her eyes were practically glowing as she looked at Atticus. “You wanna go check out the sights with me?”
“Love to.”
And that told Evan all he needed to know about where he stood with her.
***
As soon as JJ walked into the barn, she looked around, eager for the team to arrive so she could tell them it was time to move on from this case. They had done what they’d set out to do—find Decker Bromwell—and while he hadn’t actually been missing, they had succeeded. Brantley and Reese had confirmed his whereabouts and instructed him to come home. That was the most they could hope for.
Unfortunately, no one was there. Not even Darius, who was known to sneak in early to see if he could beat her.
Her gaze shifted to the electronic board mounted to the wall. Someone had left it on last night, and the screen showed a photo of Decker and a few bits of personal information. It was the official file they’d created for him to track the various pieces of information they gathered. It was stored on a shared drive and backed up in the cloud so everyone had access.
With coffee cup in hand—the only caffeine she was allowed for the day—she walked over to it and tapped the screen to bring up the full details of the file.
JJ stepped back and stared at it, impressed by how much information they’d ascertained in such a short time. Far more than she would’ve wanted someone to find out about her if she hadn’t truly been missing, that was for sure.
A moment later, the door opened behind her.
“All good?” Baz asked.
“Yep. Just lookin’ at the fruits of our labor.”
“You want your bag upstairs?”
She glanced at him over her shoulder and smiled. “Yes, please.”
While he carried her laptop bag upstairs to her office, JJ skimmed the information on the screen, then clicked on the icon for the timeline of events. It started with a phone call from Z on Sunday, August 7th. That call played in her head as she looked at the screen. Z had sounded worried. Not quite frantic. More like frustrated. And definitely determined to find one of his missing agents.
The team then went to New York, also noted on the timeline. They’d met with Ronan Kavanagh, who also hadn’t sounded worried, JJ recalled. Considering the information they’d received had said his sister was missing, that was when it had started to go off course. At least for her. Had Z attempted to determine Saoirse’s whereabouts, or had he assumed she was missing since he hadn’t heard from Decker? And why would he assume anything?
There’d been a definite change in Z’s attitude once the team landed in New York. As time went by, he hadn’t sounded quite as concerned for Decker’s well-being. Because Brantley was on the case? Or for another reason altogether?
What had changed for him because, based on this timeline, nothing had changed for them until the very last second. It was as though Z had known something all along. Something he hadn’t told them about.
Had Z found out where Decker was and didn’t want to own up to sending them for no reason? Or had Z known more than he was letting on in the beginning? Something about the whole setup felt off to her. Like they’d been used. But why would Z do that? Maybe he thought they would come up empty, and he could check off the box saying he’d done his due diligence. But they’d never failed him before, so why them? And why now?
JJ clicked out of the timeline and glanced at the dark line that connected Decker’s photo to an image of his high school. She clicked on the image to bring up the notes she’d added. Like Baz, no one else thought the connection Decker might have with Kylie Walker was significant. Luca had chalked it up to coincidence. JJ knew better. There was nothing coincidental about Decker joining the task force. For one, they’d had numerous applicants, yet Z had insisted they add Decker to the team. Why? What value had he added while he was there? He’d helped on a few cases, but he hadn’t done anything extraordinary.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs. JJ quickly closed the screen, taking it back to the image of Decker and the lines that connected all the notes they’d added.
“You need me to do anything for you before I call Charlie?” Baz asked.
“No,” JJ said, skimming the screen. “I’m gonna—why do they do this? I bet it was Luca. Probably an acronym for something stupid.”
She stepped forward and tapped the image of a Post-it note with the initials A B. When a file didn’t have a photo, there was a Post-it icon to note there was information in it. She tapped on it.
As soon as the screen changed, she stepped back and gasped. “What the fuck?”
“Is that a picture of Allison Bogart?” Baz asked, coming to stand beside her.
“Yeah,” JJ muttered as she read the notes, which provided her nothing. Nothing of importance anyway. Basic information they’d already had when she applied to join the task force.
“JJ…”
She looked at Baz. “What?”
“Let it go.”
She frowned. “Let it go? Seriously? You want to say that to me after you find out that somehow, some way, there’s a connection between Decker Bromwell and Allison Bogart?”
“Maybe it was misfiled,” he said, but she heard the skepticism in his tone. He didn’t believe that for a second.
“It wasn’t,” she assured him.
“It’s done, JJ. They found Decker. That was the job. Right now, we’ve got other things to focus on.”
“Like what? What could possibly be more important than figuring—”
“Brantley and Reese’s wedding,” he said, cutting her off.
Oh. Right. The wedding that was taking place in thirty-nine days. She had countdown blocks on her desk to remind her that time was running out to plan her best friend’s big day.
“Not to mention, a peanut to be born shortly after that.”
JJ took a deep breath and looked back at the screen.
“If you start digging into that”—Baz’s tone was smooth and even—“you and I both know you won’t stop. At the cost of all else. And right now, I think the last thing we need is to deviate from the path.”
He was right. They’d already gone off course simply finding Decker. They’d been pulled away from almost every case they worked on to focus their efforts elsewhere. Now that Decker was found, they had more important things to focus on.
“And if Brantley or Reese get wind of it…” JJ said softly.
She knew they would want to know how they connected. Allison Bogart had been with the task force for too brief a time to even resonate in their memory, so the fact her name was in the notes meant that someone had come across it while researching Decker. That meant there was a thread to pull, so it didn’t matter if it was now or a month or two from now, she would be able to pick up where someone else left off.
Baz put his hand on her shoulder and gently squeezed.
“You’re right.” JJ stepped forward and closed the file. She went one step further and added a password lock so it couldn’t be accessed or deleted. If someone wanted to see it, they would have to find her.
In the meantime, she would do her best not to think about it.
Based on the expression on Baz’s face, she knew he realized the same way she did that that was impossible.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Did you notice the chill at breakfast?”
Brantley looked around, confused. They hadn’t even gone outside, so how would he have noticed it was cooler? “What?”
“The tension? Between Evan and Becs?”
Brantley smiled. “You know, one day, you’re gonna realize I don’t pick up on that shit like you do.”
“Sure you don’t.” Reese rolled his eyes.
“Fine. Maybe I noticed. But if you haven’t noticed, I’m doing my best to keep my nose out of their personal lives. I’ve got more important things to focus on. Like you.”
Reese’s chin tucked downward, and Brantley knew he was blushing.
“You enjoy that, don’t you? Makin’ me blush?”
Brantley responded with a grin. Damn right, he enjoyed it. Why wouldn’t he?
Reese shook his head and rolled his eyes playfully. “I’m gonna take Tesha to Central Park again. Figure I’ll give her a couple of hours to sniff around. You wanna come with us?”
“Of course I do.”
“If we go now, we’ll have plenty of time to check out before they come in and kick us out.”
Brantley fell into step with Reese, heading for the door leading to the street. “Do you think there’s a problem between Evan and Becs?”
“I don’t have a clue. I figure I’ll check in with her when she gets back from sightseein’ with Atticus. I told them to store their things with the concierge or in the SUV.”
“That’s why Atticus wanted the keys,” Brantley mused.
The walk to Central Park took twenty minutes. It was rush hour for a lot of people, so the streets were crowded with vehicles, and the sidewalks were crammed with bodies hurrying toward their destination. Thankfully, it wasn’t quite so bad when they reached the park. At least not once they’d made it into the park, past those looking to make a quick buck off unsuspecting tourists. They deviated from the main road and onto one of the secondary paths.
“Are you good with how this ended with Decker?”
Brantley was surprised that Reese asked but not surprised by the question. It was the same one he’d asked himself this morning after he explained what had happened to the team. The whole thing felt anti-climactic. It should’ve been a good feeling since Decker was alive and well, but Brantley still had reservations about how it all went down.
“No,” he admitted. “I think there’s somethin’ goin’ on that Z’s not telling us. I don’t appreciate being used to further whatever agenda they’ve got.”
“You think that’s what this is?”
“Yeah.”
“You’ve got JJ lookin’ into it, don’t you?”
Brantley had expected Reese to ask him that, so he’d stopped himself before calling JJ and asking her to stick with it. They had too many things going on right now to worry about Z’s motivations. Brantley was sure he had his reasons. As for whether they were altruistic or not wasn’t his business. The guy was technically their boss. He could send them wherever he wanted.
“No, I don’t,” he said honestly. “I wanted to. I even thought about it, but there’s too much goin’ on right now for her to go down that path. Hell, she’s still stuck on findin’ the woman she suspects to be Harrison Rivers’s first victim. Last thing I need is for her to get swept up in something else.”
“So you won’t be lookin’ into findin’ out who this Eddie person is?”
Brantley smirked. Reese knew him all too well. “I didn’t say that. But I intend to keep it from JJ for as long as possible.”
“Are you gonna ask Luca to help?”
Brantley cocked an eyebrow and looked at Reese. “Seriously? And risk JJ’s wrath when she finds out I went behind her back?”
Reese laughed. “Fair point.”
“No. I think I’ll keep this one between us for now.” He linked his fingers together and pressed his hands out in front of him. “I might surprise you, Tavoularis. Maybe I’ll become a hacker extraordinaire.”
Another laugh bellowed out of Reese. “Sure you will.”
Reese released Tesha from her leash while Brantley dug a tennis ball from one of his cargo pockets and handed it to Reese.
When Tesha took off after it, Brantley turned to Reese. “Do you know something I don’t? About Z or Decker and whatever this is?”
Reese met his gaze. “I wish I did. I don’t have a clue what Z’s up to, but I’m with you. I think somethin’s goin’ on.”
“Does it bother you that he sent us on a wild goose chase?”
Reese’s expression darkened. “It’s not the chase that bothered me so much.”
“It was the circumstance,” Brantley supplied.
“Yeah.” Reese exhaled heavily. “I can’t say I’ve minded the trip. But I don’t like spinnin’ my wheels any more than you do.”
Brantley was more worried that this particular case had stirred up bad memories for Reese. He knew Reese had been worried that Decker had been taken, and then the worst-case scenarios began to run through his head. Now that they’d seen that Decker was fine, he would be able to move past it. Or pretend he had, anyway.
Brantley figured Reese would never truly move forward until he dealt with what happened to him during his captivity. He didn’t know the details, but he knew enough to worry.
“When you’re ready to talk about it,” Brantley told him. “I’m here to listen.”
Reese’s gaze snapped to his face. Surprise registered.
“What? You didn’t think I’d put two and two together? Come on, Reese. I’m not as obtuse as you think I am.”
“I don’t think that,” Reese countered adamantly.
“No, but you think I don’t notice the small things.” Brantley met his stare. “When it comes to you, I notice everything.”
Reese’s Adam’s apple bobbed in his throat as he looked away. “I’ve dealt with it.”
It was a lie. They both knew it, but Brantley nodded. “Okay.”
And just like anytime the emotions started churning too deep, they both locked it up inside and pretended they were fine. It was how you made it through the day when you’d been through a traumatic ordeal. As long as you didn’t think about it or talk about it, you could pretend it never happened.
Until you couldn’t.
***
Slade was packing up the rest of his things when there was a knock on his hotel room door. He glanced at the clock, ensuring he hadn’t passed checkout time. He hadn’t, which meant the knock was likely his partner’s.
