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“What the fuck does that mean?” Bender asked.
Tazer looked at both of them. “It means, she’s hurting emotionally. It’s why she has kept closed up, why she won’t commit to you guys or accept your attraction. Something happened that really shook her up and scarred her.”
“Damn,” Kenneth said and ran his hand up and down over his beard and chin.
“Listen, I know you guys are pissed off and don’t like the way this is happening, but you need to step back a little. It doesn’t seem like this guy is looking for her. I do have Burker and Lynch looking into things as well. Let us handle this for now, and if it appears like she could be in danger and that these men might come looking for her, then we’ll let you in, too. It doesn’t mean you can’t go see her, check up on her, and still try to convince her that you’re here and want to be part of her life,” Tazer said to them.
They were both silent a moment.
“You know I won’t be able to keep away. None of us will. I expect that you’ll keep us in the loop on everything,” Bender said to Tazer and then looked at Parker.
“Of course we will. She’ll come around and learn to trust us, and to trust you, and that because of our backgrounds, here in Chance is the best place for her to be,” Parker said to them.
Kenneth looked toward the bathroom.
“What is taking her so long?” he asked.
“Oh shit,” Tazer said and stood up. He walked down the hall just as Betty Ryan was coming out. “Hey, Betty, did you see Shelby Ann in there?”
“Nope. All empty.”
“Thanks.”
He headed back to the table.
“Well, we all just learned something about Shelby Ann.”
“What’s that?” Parker asked. Tazer placed money on the table for the ice teas.
“She’s an escape artist. Let’s go,” he said, and Kenneth and Bender were just as surprised and shocked as Tazer and Parker.
“Where the hell did she go?” Bender asked.
“She couldn’t get far on foot,” Kenneth said as they exited the diner.
When they walked out, they saw C.J
. walking along the sidewalk in uniform.
“Hey, is everything okay? Caroline called and said she heard that all you guys were in here with Shelby and that there was going to be a fistfight.”
“What?” Kenneth asked him.
“Where is Shelby?” Tazer asked.
“Inside with Caroline I assumed.”
“There you go. She must have been waiting outside, maybe,” Parker said.
“What’s going on?” C.J. asked.
“Get Caroline on the phone and we’ll explain. Hopefully they’re together,” Tazer said, and they stood there telling C.J. what was going on as he tried unsuccessfully to get in touch with Caroline.
“If she’s ignoring my calls on purpose, it’s going to cost her,” C.J. said aloud when Caroline didn’t answer.
“Don’t panic. They should be fine. There’s no indication that any of these men are in the vicinity,” Parker told C.J.
“Well, they still can’t be going off like this without protection. It makes me nervous and we have rules she needs to follow after everything that happened,” C.J. said.
