Page 43 of Hard Rain

Whip pulled out his phone. One bar flashed, then none, then one again. He thumbed out a quick text.

Road blocked. Heading to cabin.

The message sat there, waiting, spinning, and then stopped doing anything at all.

“No service.”

“Figures,” Axel grunted.

Tucking the phone away, he moved into the storm that was turning the mountains into a dead zone.

The farther they got from the road, the worse it became. Lightning flashed overhead, and for a heartbeat, the entire forest appeared in sharp relief with towering pines and blowing branches. Then darkness swallowed everything again.

Ahead, Axel stopped near a washout where runoff had carved a muddy channel across the trail.

The flashlight beam found Whip immediately. Like Axel had tied a line to him somewhere in the dark. Tracking him and making sure he saw the hazard.

Keeping him close.

The same thing Axel had done beside the SUV.

The same thing he did on every job.

“Be careful.”

Whip stepped over the washout.

“Appreciate the confidence.”

“You fell through a porch once,” Axel reminded him.

“That porch was broken.”

“Not the top step.”

“I didn’t see it,” Whip muttered.

Axel laughed, and for a second, the storm seemed farther away.

Whip followed when Axel started moving again.

Funny thing was, he couldn’t remember exactly when that had become automatic.

Not tonight. Not this case. Maybe sometime during the past year. Somewhere between long drives, motel rooms, and too many warrants to count.

At some point, he’d simply stopped imagining doing any of it without Axel beside him.

The thought arrived with enough force to pull another memory loose.

Boone had walked into the Lakeview office carrying a folder and wearing the expression he got whenever he was about to make somebody else’s day more complicated.

Whip remembered barely looking up from his paperwork. People moved through task forces all the time. Deputies. Detectives. Marshals. Most of them stayed just long enough to learn where the coffee was before disappearing again.

Then the room had gone quiet.

He’d looked up and found Axel standing beside Boone.

Boone had partnered them, and Whip hadn’t thought much of it at first, but three weeks later, he was checking the parking lot for Axel’s truck before he even poured coffee.