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Following at Lucas’s heels, she waited on the front step with him after Lucas knocked on the door. The Harts were waiting for them—as the light on the porch suggested—and within seconds, Rick was pulling in the door.
He was fully dressed in his HSD uniform, from the brown shirt to the black pants, and the uniform belt—complete with his Glock—circling his waist.
“Lucas. Tessa. Come on in.”
Stepping aside, he held out his hand to take a suitcase from either of them. Lucas ignored him, and Tess pretended not to notice, either. But when Grace came rushing toward her, wearing a plus white robe and a friendly if undeniably worried expression, Tess set her case down so that she could accept the other woman’s hug.
Drawing back, Grace said in a soft voice, “It’s good to see you guys. I wish it was under better circumstances, but at least you’re here… and you’re welcome to stay with us as long as you want.”
“Thank you,” Tess murmured. “We appreciate it.”
“Think nothing of it. And thank you for keeping your voice down. I finally got Su to sleep and… yeah. Things have been tense enough. She barely slept last night which means I barely slept what with Maria and Rick being out there… sorry.” She shook her head slightly. “I’m babbling.”
“You need to go back to bed,” Rick said, matching his wife’s tone. This close, Tess noticed the dark circles under his eyes—obviously, the deputy hadn’t been sleeping much, either—and it surprised her when he added, “I’ll be back in a few hours. Get some sleep while you can.”
Lucas lowered his luggage to the floor. “Are you going somewhere?”
“Sly sent some of the kids home. Ethan… Nat. They’ve been at it all day, but it’s frustrating for them that we still got nothing. It’s late. Phil Granger’s somehow got his hands on a couple of pair of night vision goggles this morning and some of us are gonna use them to continue searching. What about you?” Rick asked Lucas. “You want to come with, doc?”
Tess sucked in a breath. She didn’t mean to. Her reaction to being separated from Lucas so soon into their stay was instinctive.
His crystal-blue eyes slid over to her.
He must have seen something in her face because he slowly shook his head. “I should get Tessa settled in. Me, too. It was a long drive in the rain”—that he still managed to shave an hour off of, speeding when Tessa could swallow her fear enough not to mention it—“and I have a lot to think about where to start looking for Maria.”
“If you change your mind, I put an extra communicator in the guest room. Buzz me and I’ll give you a set of coordinates to search.”
Coordinates… the Marine was treating this like some kind of op. Like a rescue mission straight out of the armed forces which, in a way, it was, wasn’t it?
“Thank you. I’ll make sure to do that.” Grabbing two of the suitcases, one in each hand, Lucas turned to Tess. “You ready,cuore?”
He must be more rattled than she thought. It was understandable, but when he let slip a hint of the accent he worked so hard to eradicate in front of Rick and Grace, she knew that Lucas was on the verge of losing control.
Maybe sleep would do him good. If that didn’t, then just hearing her tell him that everything would be okay might help.
Picking up the lightest of the suitcases—and the one Lucas left for her—she nodded. “Of course.”
Grace smiled warmly at them. “Come with me. I’ll show you to the guest room.”
Before she could start toward the exit of the front room, leading them down the hall to the first-floor guest room that they’d borrowed last winter for an evening, Rick slid his arm over his wife’s shoulder, tucking her into his side as he pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I’ll have the line open in case you need me, Tiger.”
“Don’t worry about me. It’s Maria who needs us all.”
Tess’s stomach twisted at the sadness in Grace’s voice. Because, she had to admit, the idea that Maria needed help more than any of them was probably true—even though she would do anything so that it wasn’t.
Not just because of her husband’s sake, either, though Lucas was a big part of the reason why. Maria was her friend. Heramica, as Maria called it, and it would be worth being back in Hamlet indefinitely so long as she was found safe and sound.
* * *
Lucas couldn’t sleep.
Laying next to Tessa, propped up on his side as he twirled a strand of her dirty blonde hair into a curl around his finger, it was so hard to believe that—just that morning—he’d been sleeping in on his day off, enjoying the moment of peace with his wife so close.
She needed the rest. He knew how much his speeding through the rain had triggered old memories, and though he tried his best to throttle it, the closer he got to Hamlet, the harder he’d pressed down on the gas pedal.
Hearing straight from Sly that Maria wasn’t just missing, but kidnapped? Being in the village again always reminded her of the part she played in her first husband’s murder; discovering for sure that her friend was a victim of another crime? She’d gone as pale as a ghost beneath the station house’s fluorescent lights, shaking enough to catch Lucas’s attention.
He couldn’t leave her alone. As much as every part of him was coiled up tight, needing to go out and dosomething, there was at least thirty people currently under Sly’s command, looking for Maria.
