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Briar
“Royce, I was just calling you.” Raine’s eyes were wide with something like panic as she watched the four of them climb the front steps to her house.
“We need to talk to Tia,” Briar said, looking over Raine’s shoulder and into the house for the teenager. She quickly introduced Gomez and Richardson and explained that they needed to interview the young girl.
“That’s the problem,” Raine said. “She’s gone. Come inside.” She impatiently waved them into the house.
“Gone?” Richardson asked, looking around Raine’s living room as if Tia might randomly appear. “What the hell happened?”
They all crowded into Raine’s tiny farmhouse living room where Briar and Royce had been only hours before. Briar had a bad feeling as she remembered how edgy the teenager had been when they’d spoken with her earlier. Had something happened to spook her or had she fled of her own accord?
“I left for less than twenty minutes, just to grab some groceries, and when I came back, she was gone.” Raine paced, tugging on the end of her ponytail in frustration as she moved. “The front door was standing open when I got back, and she was gone.”
“Do you think she left under her own power?” Gomez asked.
Raine bit her lip. “I don’t know. There’s no sign of a struggle or anything.”
Briar wanted to reassure her that Tia was fine, but it wasn’t possible. “Raine, we think we know who Tia is and if we’re right, she’s in a great deal of danger. Did anything happen to set her off? Anything that seemed unusual?”
Raine thought for a moment before answering. “Before I left, Tia was in here reading a book.” Raine gestured at the coffee table where a paperback copy of The Count of Monte Cristo lay open to the last page read. “We’d been talking about books and movies and how I always like the book better. She looked at my shelves and asked if she could read one of my books. I mean, duh, of course. Anyway, she was reading, and I was making a grocery list. A motorcycle drove past, and Tia went to the window and peeked out.” She took a deep breath. “I should have stayed, I knew something had scared her.”
“You couldn’t have known,” Gomez told her.
They were all frustrated. With Jakes shot, Tia was their only lead and now she’d disappeared. It was imperative they find her.
Briar desperately wanted a shower. After everything that had happened, all she wanted was to stand under the spray and try to feel clean again and clear her mind so she could think. There was a young girl somewhere out there who needed her help, and Briar didn’t know where she’d been taken.
Agent Gomez, who seemed to be in a permanent bad humor, had been even more upset than Briar. On their way out to the Fed-mobile, Briar had seen Agent Richardson wrap an arm around Gomez’s slight shoulders, trying to comfort her.
After Briar and Royce arrived back at Royce’s place, Chief Banner had called to let him know that they’d checked out the report of the illegal campsite and, while there was evidence of numerous people and vehicles having been there recently, they weren’t there any longer.
“Fuck,” spat Briar when he filled her in. They’d been so close, and now whoever had Tia had slipped away. She was sure the illegal camping site, Tia, and the Spiders MC were all tied together somehow.
“Agreed,” said Royce, setting his phone on the kitchen counter.
“Do you mind if I take a shower?”
It was only seven in the evening and Richardson and Gomez had just finally left. The four of them had spent the last few hours hashing over the facts and still coming back to the obvious—Jakes had been in trouble and Tia was missing again. The only progress had been locating a picture of the young teen which positively identified Tia as Tatiana Cross.
The good news was Christian Jakes had survived surgery, but he hadn’t woken up yet and doctors didn’t know when, or if, he would. Briar had her fingers crossed. They needed to know the whole story, and he was their best chance of getting that. Everything went back to the failed undercover op in the spring and to Hank, who appeared to have had a grudge against the Spiders and whose “husband waiting at home” had been none other than their ATF handler.
“My shower is your shower,” Royce said with a lift to his lips.
Briar waggled her eyebrows, quirking her own lips as she headed toward the bathroom.
“Let me grab you fresh towels,” he called out after her.
The bathroom was small, small enough that taking a bath wouldn’t be satisfying, but a shower was all Briar wanted anyway. Something about the stress of the day being washed off her body and rushing down the drain was freeing. Turning on the water, she stripped her clothes off and left them in a pile on the floor.
Royce tapped on the door. “Towel service,” he announced with a terrible English accent.
Suddenly she wanted more than a shower. Grabbing the handle, Briar pulled the door all the way open so he could get a good look at her. She knew where she wanted this to go. Where she needed them to end up. Royce’s silver-blue eyes widened, full of heat.
“Would you like to join me?”
“Hell, yes.”
The tub was a tad small but if they squished together there would be enough space for them. She stepped into the spray and Royce followed seconds later.
