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“Guys,” Nate said on a sigh, but Ellis held up a hand, stopping him before he could go all kumbaya on them.
“I toldmystory,” Damian said through his teeth. “If it made you look bad, then that’s on you. Not me.”
“Guys!” This time, Nate stepped between them and gave Ellis a shove back when he lunged toward Damian. “Jesus, enough already! What’s done is done and we can’t change it, so let’s focus on finding Dad, then going our separate ways.”
A floorboard creaked, and all three brothers looked toward the sound. Bree hovered in the doorway of her room, eyeing them like they were all wild animals and she had to calculate her next move carefully or risk getting mauled.
Her chin hitched up and she stepped out into the hallway, firmly closing the door behind her. “The troopers are here. You three do whatever you want, but I’m going down there and telling them what I know.”
“Which is what?” Damian asked.
If she was phased by his caustic tone, she didn’t show it. “That Dr. Will is in danger.” Saying nothing more, she shoved between them and descended the stairs with her head still held high.
Ellis couldn’t help but smile at her retreating back. For the first time since he’d known her, she wasn’t hiding her scars behind her hair.
When she was gone, he returned his attention to his brothers. They all had different mothers, but he still saw bits of himself in both of them. All of them had the same eye shape, same eye color, same nose—their dad’s features. Nate looked exasperated, Damian all but sizzled with anger and defiance, and Ellis was suddenly exhausted by it all.
“Listen,” he said at last. “I think she’s right about this. Dad’s in danger. I know we don’t owe him much, but nobody deserves to be killed and that’s where this is headed if we don’t find him.”
“If he’s not already dead,” Nate muttered.
“Well, if he is, then we gotta bring him home. He’s a shitty father, but he’s still our father. Our responsibility.”
“What do you know about responsibility?” Damian snapped.
“Not much,” he admitted. “But I’m starting to learn.”
The sound Damian made landed somewhere between a sad laugh and a bitter scoff. “This is bullshit. I never should’ve come back here. I don’t know what I thought I’d accomplish by—” He broke off, stuffed his hands into the pockets of his coat, and walked away. “Forget it.”
“Day,” Nate called after him.
Ellis shook his head. “Let him go. He’ll either talk to them or he won’t. We can’t change his mind. Never could. Remember the Superman cape?”
Nate gave a quiet huff of laughter. “I wouldn’t be surprised if he still had it.”
“Nah, I threw it out.” His smile faded as he listened to his brother’s footsteps retreat. “Right after I told him to grow up. I was so hard on him and he was just a kid.”
“So were you.”
“Yeah.” Ellis cleared away the sudden knot in his throat and reached into his sweatshirt pocket to check on Peanut. She’d curled up and was happily snoring away. He ran a finger over her soft tuft of hair and some of the tightness in his chest eased. “Okay. Let’s get this over with.”
26
Bree found the state troopers already waiting in a room off the main dining area downstairs that, Josie explained, was used by locals for everything from town meetings to baby showers to game nights. Now it was set up with one long table and the two troopers sat behind it with mugs of coffee growing cold in front of them as they talked quietly over a laptop. She took a moment to study the two of them before they noticed her. One was a large muscular man with close-cropped dark hair already going silver at his temples even though he couldn’t be more than mid-thirties. His nose had been broken at one time and hadn’t healed straight. The crinkles around his dark eyes reminded her of Dr. Will. This guy liked to laugh. She bet he had a big, roaring laugh, too. His name badge read Strickland.
The other trooper was a tall woman who looked more like a model than a cop. Her straight blond hair was pulled back in a high ponytail that sharpened the Nordic angles of her face. Her badge read Ashby.
Something about the woman rang a bell of recognition in Bree’s mind but she couldn’t figure out where she might have seen her before. It wasn’t like she spent a whole lot of time socializing.
The woman looked up and smiled. “Ah. Brielle Ives? Thank you for coming down to talk to us.” She stood and held out her hand. “I’m Lieutenant Freya Ashby. I coordinate search and rescue operations for the state troopers.”
Thatwas where she’d seen the woman. “You were with the team that rescued us.”
“Yes, I was.” If Freya was annoyed that Bree didn’t return the handshake, she covered it beautifully. “How are you feeling?”
Bree didn’t answer. Although the question was probably innocent small talk, it felt too probing and she was still raw from this morning. Instead, she said, “You had a dog with you. A German Shepherd.” Her huskies had gone crazy when they spotted the new dog.
A small smile ticked up the corner of Freya’s mouth. “Yes, my partner, Xena. I left her home today.” She motioned to the man beside her. “This is Sergeant Tage Strickland. He’s the trooper who handles this part of the interior.”
