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“You fucking know it. No matter what it takes.”
CHAPTERNINE
For a moment, Lucas thought that Rick might hear Sly’s desperation and choose to continue the search anyway. And though he promised he would after he stopped by home for a bit, the sheriff must’ve heard something inRick’s tone.
Instead, he used his position as the head of the HSD to order Rick—and Lucas, too, who wasn’t part of Hamlet’s law enforcement, but who didn’t want to argue with his sister’s distraught fiancé—to get a couple of hours rest before resuming the search early tomorrow morning.
When Rick asked if he would do the same, the sheriff changed the subject. With a quick warning that a trip to Thirsty’s—Hamlet’s local watering hole—wouldn’t help any of them, Rick cut the connection and moved the cruiser back to the middle of the road.
It was only a five-minute drive back to his house. Parking his cruiser next to his truck in the drive, Rick held onto his keys so that he could let them both into the house.
As though the women were waiting for their return, the second the door swung inward, Grace called out, “We’re in the kitchen.”
The change in the deputy was immediate. Just hearing his wife’s warm voice had his back straightening from its frustrated slouch, his brutish face softening as he abandoned Lucas in the front room, stalking purposely in the direction of the kitchen.
With only the tiniest of amused smirks—there for a split second before his simmering fury banished it—he strolled right behind Rick.
When Grace said ‘we’, she meant herself, Tessa, and the baby. Grace was standing at the stove, stirring something in a large pot, while Su was sitting on Tessa’s lap, babbling in that way infants have when they’re content but don’t quite have the words to express themselves just yet.
Seeing the look that passed over Tessa’s face when she saw her husband appearing in the kitchen was almost enough to make Lucas do the same.
“Luc,” she said breathlessly. “I missed you.”
That was all she had to say. To the other couple, it might seem excessive since they were only separated for about twelve hours, but it was something they’d done from the beginning of their illicit relationship. With Tessa a state away and Lucas in Hamlet,I missed youwas another way she meantI love you.
Grace leaned into her oversized husband, squeezing his side. “Anything?” she murmured.
Rick shook his head.
The former ballerina’s face fell, but she recovered quickly. “Tomorrow,” she said, summoning more hope than Sly had been able to. “You guys’ll get her back tomorrow.”
Lucas fucking hoped so.
Still bouncing the baby on her lap, Tessa said, “Grace kept dinner warm for you guys. I know you probably don’t feel like eating, but you should.”
Rick dropped a kiss on the top of Grace’s head. “Thanks, Tiger. Let me make a bowl.”
Sidling around her, he opened one of the cabinets, pulling said bowl out. Pausing, he searched for Lucas. “You want one, too, doc?”
“I’m not hungry.”
Tessa frowned. “Have you had anything besides coffee today?”
Lucas raised his eyebrows. “Have you?”
“I finally convinced her to have some pasta with me,” cut in Grace.
“I ate,” murmured Tessa. “You should, too.”
He knew that tone. Whenever his wife spoke like that, it was her gentle way of giving him her very own command.
Besides, starving himself because his obsessive need to watch over his baby sister wouldn’t do anything but hurt him in the long run. Maria would be furious if she knew he refused to eat out of spite, and he’d only hurt Tessa if he refused.
Meeting the love and the worry in her golden gaze, he relented.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll have some.”
* * *
