Page 137 of The Deadly Shallows

He fired again. This time up in the air.

What an idiot.

Austin gestured for Caleb to take the go-around route this time, and she’d continue moving forward.

Caleb nodded and made a wide arc around the trees to the north.

Gower hit the road, his form outlined by the streetlights. He lifted his hand to shade his eyes as he looked up and down the road.

“Nowhere,” Caleb said, his gun aimed, his stance firm.

Gower whined. Literally whined. “I can’t go to jail.”

Austin crept up behind him, gun aimed, and relieved him of his gun. “You should have thought of that before you started dumping toxic chemicals in our waters.”

Caleb stepped across the short space and handcuffed Gower.

Forty-five minutes later, Austin leaned back against Caleb as they stood by his car, his chin resting on her head.

A patrol car drove past with Gower secured in the back.

Austin’s shoulders dipped as she turned with a smile. “That was fun.”

He chuckled. “You have a very interesting idea of fun.”

“You know what else is fun . . .” A sparkle lit her eyes as she opened the passenger door and slipped inside.

Climbing in, he shifted to face her.

She leaned across the seat, pressing a long, slow kiss against his lips.

He could get used to this.

Spreading his fingers through her silky hair, he kissed her back, unable to keep a smile from curling on his lips.

“What’s the smile for?” she murmured against his mouth.

“You.”

SIXTY-FOUR

Noah held the station door open for Brooke, and she passed through. The day had started on a high note with Caleb and Austin busting Huntington Foam and its CEO, Braxton Gower. Noah hoped for more good news.

“Hey, guys,” Em said. She strode over to Noah and handed him a printed-out article. “A present for you.”

His eyes scanned the page. The image was of the man labeled John on the back of the photograph they found at Caldwell’s. His gaze tracked down.

“Senior chief corpsman in the Navy,” he said.

“Yep.” Emmy leaned against her desk, crossing one leg over the other.

“You are good.”

He caught Logan’s smile at his compliment for Emmy.

“How did you find this?” Noah asked.

“I followed a hunch. Because of his resemblance to Scott, I started searching for John Mirch. Of course, nothing came up, which is freakishly weird, given he’s active duty in the Navy. Anyway, I ended up finding this small news article about John’s latest commendation. Guess whoever was busy wiping out identities dropped the ball on this one.”