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“That’s what Sly said,” confirmed Rick.
Showing off his own set of keys, “My car will get us there faster.”
Rick’s mud-brown eyes lit up. “Can I drive the Mustang?”
He tossed the keys to Rick. “Don’t slow down for anything, Hart.”
“I’m not planning on it.”
* * *
As it turned out,Rick Hart was a speed demon in disguise. Lucas would’ve made it to the station house faster, but that was only because he knew how to handle his car, and he’d spent nearly fifteen years mastering the roads of the small town.
The difference was negligible, though, and he hopped out of the car before Rick had even finished parking. On the quick ride over, the deputy had filled him in on Sly’s early morning buzz.
They knew who had Maria. The didn’t know where he kept her just yet, but they knew who had her—and why.
A trade. He wanted a trade. Maria for Grace, scheduled at eight o’clock that night, barely nine hours away now. To rub salt in the wound, the rendezvous point he picked was on the farthest side of Hamlet, near the mountains.
That told Lucas two things: they were right when they assumed that this was a targeted abduction, and that he was cocky enough to believe he could make it all the way across the village with Maria without being caught before then.
Of course, that was only is Sly agreed to his terms. Otherwise…
Jogging into the station house, Lucas found the sheriff alone.
Sly Collins was prowling around the middle of the space, handcuffs on his belt jangling with every forceful step he took.
Lucas started to question him, only pausing when Rick came bounding into the station house a few steps behind him.
“Boone.” Rick was still flabbergasted at the identity of Maria’s captor. “Boone?”
“Nathaniel Boone. Sergeant. He rattled off his SSN, too, just like he was a POW, the asshole.”
“That’s how the bastard introduced himself to me when he was sizing me up, right before we fought that first time.” Rick’s stunned expression became a glower. “The last time I saw him, Grace put a bullet in his shoulder.”
“And wasn’t that after you plugged him with three yourself?” asked Lucas.
Rick’s head shot toward him. “Yeah.”
“That’s where you went wrong. You both shot to incapacitate. You gave that outsider bastard the chance to come back, again and again. This time,don’t.”
Rick whistled between his teeth. As adamant as he was that Grace was off-limits, he actually seemed impressed by Lucas’s calmly stated suggestion.
“You’re cold, doc.”
“Ice cold,” Lucas agreed. “You need it in my line of work.”
Sly was giving him a curious look.
It wasn’t the first time he caught his sister’s partner eyeing him so closely.
“You would’ve made one hell of a soldier.”
“Not quite.”
“No?”
“Soldiers fight for a cause. Something they believe in. Even if they’re like Hart here, running off to join the Marines because he needed to get out of Hamlet, you think you’re doing some good out there. Not me. I love my sister. I love my wife. Other than that, I couldn’t care less.”
