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She felt a smile cross her face. “Thanks, babe.”
“This is serious,” Hale insisted.
It was for him. It was for all of them, but especially for Hale. She held out a hand. “I know, and we’re going to get through it. I promise. But we can’t do it by being apart. I’ve been told that’s not the way we do things here in Bliss. It’s in the pamphlet and everything.”
Van leaned over and brushed a kiss to her temple. “Did you find anything out today?”
They hadn’t even gotten to her news. “I did. The lawyer talked to Gene out at the Movie Motel. He took her card. I called her but her office was closed. She’s with a family practice firm in Spring, TX.”
“My mom lived there for a while.” Hale was back to his deep-thought face. It was slightly softer than his the-world-is-after-me face but with squintier eyes than his what-should-I-eat-for-lunch face.
“We’ll know something in the morning. I’ll call her again,” she promised, feeling like they were almost past the dangerous part of this conversation. “So can we head home and sleep on this? I promise it will all be okay.”
Hale sighed and took her hand. “All right.”
She heard the door to the station house open and then a handsome man with dark hair and brown eyes strode in. He wore a winter coat over jeans and boots. “Can I help you?”
“Jake?” Van stepped away. “What are you doing here?”
Jacob Dean held up an envelope. “I found her, and I came up here because the situation is worse than you think.”
Nope. The dangerous part started now.
Chapter Sixteen
Van stared across the conference table at his brother. Who should be in Dallas. “You hopped on a plane? You know we have phones here. You could have called.”
Jake shrugged out of his jacket, hanging it on the back of the chair before he sat down. “It was an impulse. I don’t like this. There’s something going on that we don’t understand, and I came up here because you’re my brother and I’m not going to leave you alone. Also, you should know we’re staying through the holidays because again, you’re my brother. I remember what it’s like to have no one willing to change their schedules to see me. Adam and I spent many a holiday alone.”
“Adam’s here?” The idea of spending the holidays with Jake’s kids, introducing Elisa to his family—it wasn’t anything he’d ever thought he would have. It made him feel more guilty about what he was going to have to tell his brother. But he was still going to do it. He loved Jake but he had to put Elisa and Hale first.
Jake nodded. “He took Serena and the kids to the cabin. I had them drop me off here because I wanted to talk to you.”
“How did you know he was here?” Elisa asked.
“I track his phone, of course. I think one person in the world should know where he is,” Jake replied like that was a perfectly reasonable thing to do to a grown man. “I would have put a tracer in his shoulder but he whined.”
He was not going to walk around with a tracker buried in his body, but he did let Jake track him. For his brother it was a sign of his love, and it comforted him knowing where Van was in the world. So Van allowed it. There was nothing controlling about the gesture.
“Fair,” Elisa replied with a nod. It was obvious she and Jake were going to get along. Actually, now that he thought about it, she and Jake had a lot in common. “But you do remember I rented your cabin, right? Am I now expected to share it with a whole family?”
“You spend next to no time in it. I check the security logs. You haven’t spent a single night there since you rented it,” Jake countered. “I figured you could save some money by simply staying where you’re actually staying. Please tell me you’ve done it in every room of that cabin because I want Ian to know. Don’t be embarrassed. He deserves it. I’m pretty sure he and Charlotte sneak into Adam’s office a couple of times a year and do it on his desk.”
“Could you tell us what you’ve found?” Hale’s entire mood was grim, his focus on the envelope Jake had put on the table.
Jake ignored the question, looking at Van’s face. “Are you okay? It looks like your jaw is starting to bruise. What happened?”
“Hale tried to take down the dude we think is trying to kill him and got Van instead,” Elisa explained. “They were both arrested and brought down here, hence the reason they’re at the station house.”
“I thought you were in to see her. I’d heard you were seeing the new deputy.” Jake had introduced himself to Elisa before they’d entered the conference room.
