AllFreeNovel
Share Us
That, and Tessa’s delicate little hand soothing that broken edge inside of him as she laid her palm against his tight bicep.
Though he it bothered him to no end that Sly waitedtwo fucking daysto inform him that Maria had been taken, her car abandoned, her communicator left behind, he couldn’t quite fault the sheriff. The first forty-eight hours after any disappearance were crucial, and with Lucas so far away, he made an executive decision to focus on retracing Maria’s steps, pulling together multiple search parties, and looking in the most obvious places before he turned to Lucas.
It was exactly what he would have done himself.
“Did you call in any help from the outside?” he asked when Sly had finished explaining himself.
Hamlet’s law enforcement department was solely made up of the HSD. With one sheriff, four deputies, and Willie Parker serving as the honorary fifth while also acting the part of the administrative assistant at the station house, the six members of the HSD were all the law Hamlet had.
When the last sheriff was murdered—when he had to gun his ex-wife down to get her out of the way—there had only been two deputies apart from Willie: Sly and Mason Walsh. Rick Hart joined the HSD shortly after her death, with cousins Natalie Newton and Ethan Oliver signing up in the next year. Natalie—who was Natalie McAllister now—convinced her new husband, former PI Kade McAllister, to join the team after he decided to stick around Hamlet.
Three years ago, though, Sly was happy to pass Caity’s murder over to Detective David Rodriguez, a hot shot cop from the next county over. Not quite what Lucas had expected—especially since he went to the trouble of framing Deputy Walsh from Caity’s murder—but it couldn’t be helped. One outsider turned to another, and maybe it was for the best since Mason Walsh was thrown into Montgomery County Jail and the rest of Hamlet had the opportunity to move on.
Lucas expected that Sly would’ve contacted the detective around the same time that he called Lucas—and was surprised when Sly shook his head.
“Why not?”
Sly’s nostrils flared as he took in a sharp breath. “Because of what went down during Rick’s wedding.” Then, elaborating, he added, “There’s no reason that Boone asshole should’ve been let outagain. Twice, he got arrested. Twice, he was let off. This time, we’ll handle business on our own, no matter who took my fiancee..”
Sly was an outsider—but, just then, he sounded exactly like a Hamlet local.
Even better, he sounded likeLucas.
“What can I do to help? Any new leads since I talked to you earlier today?”
This time, when Sly shook his head, Lucas had to bite back a frustrated growl. He hadn’t thought there would be, but hehoped.
Damn it!
“All we know for sure,” Sly said, “is that, whoever snatch her in the first place, they abandoned her car by the gulley. They left her communicator and her phone inside, but went to the trouble to drop her paints off at Ophelia. And,” he added, shooting a look back at Lucas, “your business card.”
“I don’t know how Maria got one.” That was the one thing that bothered Lucas more than anything else. His sister was gone,disappeared, and one of the only items left behind was a business card bearing his name that… “I only got updated business cards in June.”
“June 12th,” murmured Tessa. “Remember? They were supposed to arrive by the 11th and you called the company when they were late.”
He did remember. Lucas very rarely tolerated incompetence, whether it was in his business life or his personal one. He made allowances for Tessa because he loved her—like when she changed their plan last minute, drugging Sullivan before Lucas strangled him—but he held nearly everyone else to his exact standards.
If the printing company guaranteed a delivery date, he would expect his order to be in by that date. Tessa was right. When it wasn’t, he escalated the lapse to management until he was given a credit and an extra box of cards sent out for the inconvenience.
But that was the point. The first batch arrived in June. He hadn’t returned to Hamlet with his wife since May. There’s no reason why there should have been his updated card inside of Ophelia, unless—
“It was planted there.”
Sly nodded. “With the paint, yup. It had to have been.”
“But by who?” demanded Lucas. It made no sense. None of this did… and hehatedit when things didn’t make sense the way he wanted them to. “Andwhy?”
“If I knew that, then I’d already have Maria back, doc.”
CHAPTERFIVE
Despite Hamlet being such a small village, there were two options for anyone in need of an overnight stay.
They would need one, too. Lucas made it clear before they even left home that, until Maria was found, they would be staying in town. He cleared it with St. Paul’s—basically telling the hospital CEO that he had a family emergency and that he was taking his leave—and packed enough luggage for the two of them to stay for at least a week.
As a stay-at-home wife, Tessa could easily up and follow Lucas wherever he went. Though she had her degree in education and experience as a teacher, he made more than enough to support the both of them. A jealous man, Lucas preferred her to stay at home where she couldn’t catch the eye of another.
A woman who desperately needed to be loved, adored,worshiped, Tessa was more than happy to do anything he asked of her because he’d already proven that there wasn’t a goddamn thing he wouldn’t do for her.
