Sam shot Sid a glare, who promptly threw up his hands. “It was Theo.”
“Of course it was,” Sam muttered, before she looked at Travis. “And you? Could you drop the f-bomb any louder?”
“I didn’t know he was here,” Travis defended. “What’s up, little dude,” he greeted his nephew.
“I was trying to climb the rope,” Hudson shared.
“Oh yeah? How’d you do?” Travis grinned.
“Good.” Hudson nodded proudly.
Sam stifled a smile but wrapped an arm around her boy. “He did. I’m gonna get this guy home for some dinner. Are you coming?” she asked Sid.
He scraped his chair back and grabbed his jacket. “Yep. I think Dec has some news for you,” he told Travis.
Travis nodded and looked down at me. “You all right for a few minutes?”
I raised a brow. “Yes, so long as I have your agreement that if that briefing has to do with me, you’ll come get me.”
He blew out a breath, clearly not happy with my request, but nodded anyway, kissing my temple.
“Good woman,” Sam whispered in my ear with a grin as Travis strode off. “See? You’re learning how to handle him a hell of a lot faster than I learned with Sid.”
“Well, I had someone to teach me the ropes.” I looked at her meaningfully.
“True.” She winked. “But you would have done just fine on your own.”
I nodded thoughtfully. There wasn’t much that had come naturally to me in life. I’d had to work hard for almost everything. Travis and I wouldn’t be an exception—almost everything that mattered wasn’t. But there was something about being with him—about who I was with him—that came more naturally than anything ever had.
“Em!” Travis’s deep voice called from the conference room.
Looked like that briefing was about me after all.
“I’ll catch you later.” I gave Sam a brief hug in parting. “See you, little man,” I added, smiling at Hudson warmly.
“Don’t think you’re getting out of a housewarming party!” Sam called after me.
I merely rolled my eyes and walked into the conference room where Theo, Declan, and Travis sat around the table.
“What’s up?” I asked, trying to keep the wariness from my tone. I was the one who’d asked to be included, after all.
“Declan was just briefing us on Roy’s whereabouts,” Travis shared, looking frustrated, which I took to mean that we didn’t have good news.
“Trail’s cold,” Theo grumbled.
I took a seat at the head of the large glass table and looked at Declan steadily. “What does that mean, aside from the obvious?”
“It means we keep looking,” Theo replied simply.
“Aren’t the police looking for him too?” I asked, feeling guilty that Travis and his team were having to expend so much energy on this.
Travis shrugged. “Likely not much. From all our scouting, he doesn’t appear to be in the area, which puts him out of LAPD jurisdiction. This hasn’t become a state-wide focus. And plus, Morales was their big fish. They caught him.”
“Well, that sucks,” I grumbled, looking down at the table in frustration. “I don’t understand why Roy even had me kidnapped. I hadn’t talked to the police,” I added, the worry and frustration clear in my tone.
“You said he recognized you. He could hold a grudge at the connection you have with May. It’s hard to know.” Travis put in gently. “Hey,” he continued in the tone I only heard him use with me. It had a tenderness to it that always melted me a bit. “We’ve got this, baby. We can do more with four men than that entire department could do even if they were trying. And the man is obviously short of a full stack. Who knows what drove him to this. But we aren’t going to wait around to find out.”
“Damn straight,” Declan put in.
