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“So what’s going on?”
“Just felt like having a drink with my brother.”
“You don’t want to talk about anything? Therapy?”
I shook my head. I wasn’t even going to ask wheth
er Steve Dugan had been in touch with him and Joe. “I am really looking forward to the time when not everything has to be about me. Tonight I just want to share a drink with my brother. Please, just accept that.”
Ryan clinked his glass to mine. “I can accept that, bro.”
We talked mainly about the ranch until we heard a frantic knocking at the front door.
Ryan stood. “At this hour?”
My first thought went to Dugan. As far I knew, my brothers hadn’t yet been questioned about Colin Morse’s disappearance, but why in the world would Steve be coming around after midnight on Friday night?
Ryan returned to the family room with my sister in tow.
“God, Talon,” Marj said. “Thank God I found you.”
“What’s going on?”
“First of all, Jade’s still at the house. She’s sleeping in her old bedroom tonight.”
“Okay. You pounded on the door to tell us that?”
She shook her head. “No. I have something way more important to tell you. I was just talking with Jade, and you know her boss, Larry Wade?”
“Yeah, she doesn’t like him much.”
“No, she said he’s unethical and creepy. And guess what else?”
“What?” Ryan and I asked in unison.
“Jade says he’s missing the littlest toe on his left foot.”
I let the words sink in for a moment. Larry Wade? Here I thought I might have found one of my abductors in Jade’s mother’s boyfriend, and another one might be her boss? How in the world had my abductors come so close to the woman I loved? I wasn’t protecting her very well.
Rage boiled within me.
Ryan sensed my fury. He placed his hand on my forearm. “Talon, a lot of people are probably missing a toe.”
“A lot of people here in Snow Creek?” I stood, agitated. “It just seems too coincidental, doesn’t it?” My nerves were on edge. My heart beat rapidly, the fight-or-flight instinct kicking in. I wanted to track down Larry Wade, question him, and then beat the life right out of him. “Jade’s in her own room?”
Marj nodded. “Talon, don’t bother her. She’s sleeping, and she’s just been through a lot with her mom—”
I stopped listening, striding away swiftly, out the door and back up the path to the main ranch house. When I walked in the back way, I ran through the kitchen and down the hallway to Jade’s room. I opened the door without knocking.
“Jade!” I yelled.
She sat up on the bed abruptly, her eyes full of sleep. “What? What is it?”
“It’s me,” I said. “I need you to wake up. I need you to wake up right now.”
“Talon, my God, what’s wrong?”
“I need you to tell me everything you know about Larry Wade.”
