Page 69 of Hard Rain

“You bought kettle corn.”

Axel scowled. “It was good kettle corn.”

Whip smiled and started the SUV.

“It was. Tammy makes it homemade.”

“You know the kettle corn lady now?”

“People talk.”

Whip snorted and pulled away from the curb.

Axel was still defending the kettle corn when they hit the highway.

Whip didn’t mind, though.

Because that right there?

This was them.

NO TURNING BACK

The radio chirped, and Boone split them up before they left Daniel’s.

“Grady, take Grant and Knox. Follow up on another Paisley address. Seems there’s a second sighting. Tauber, Bain—you’ve got Sissy Haskins.”

“Figures,” he muttered and ran a hand over his face.

“Why?” Whip tossed him a quick glance.

“It’s already after 3. I’m hungry,” he groused. “And tired.”

“Of course you are,” Whip soothed and reached into the center console to pull out and hand him a protein bar.

He tore the wrapper, his first bite was half the bar.

See? Whip got it.

Nobody got him the way Whip did. Not even his own brother.

Whip pulled out of the parking lot.

“We should take Highway 31.”

“Is there another one?” Whip cocked that brow at him.

“Smart ass,” he snorted.

Whip just smiled.

Sissy’s place sat at the end of a road off of Hwy 31.

The gravel crunched beneath the tires as Whip eased the SUV to a stop. Blackberry vines had swallowed most of the fence line. If somebody ran into that mess, they’d come out looking like they’d fought a bobcat.

“I’ll take the back,” Axel said.

“No, you won’t.”