Page 18 of Zero
“You’re willing to stake your brother’s life on that?”
The wind died in my sails. The police in the city had their thing under control. But the little station in this neck of the woods wouldn’t know their ass from their elbow. If my brother was in danger, they’d just get him killed.
I sighed and hung my head.
“Didn’t think so.” He muttered. “Look, I may be a stranger here, but Justice means something to me. I’m not going to leave his life in anyone’s hands. You want to act like a petulant child—take it outside. I have no time for it.” He went back to what he’d been doing.
“This man—Tex, do you trust him?”
“With my life.”
“Good, because it might depend on it.”
Rei turned to look at me for a moment, but I merely walked from the room to search somewhere else. Whatever my brother had gotten into was something dangerous. They’d all but destroy his place and had taken him. If they were truly looking for something, all Justice had to do was keep the location a secret until we could find him.
But I hadn’t gotten a call for a ransom. That could mean it wasn’t about money. Rei had to be right—whoever took my brother wanted something my brother had.
I rubbed the back of my neck, fighting the unshed tears burning just beneath the surface.
“Hang on, Justice.” I whispered. “Just hang on.”
Time passed.
“There’s nothing else here.” Rei’s voice was strong, serious. “Whatever they were after isn’t here. Is there anywhere else we should be looking?”
I stood to my full height and shoved my fingers into my back pockets. “There’s a place in Runaway Bay. It’s locked up though.”
“Well, it’s one more area to look into.” He told me thoughtfully. “Right now, we should go. In the morning if we haven’t heard from them or him, I’ll get the others involved. In the meantime, we wait for Tex.”
Speaking was beyond me. I walked him from the house and peeled off the gloves as I climbed behind the wheel of his jeep. My car was parked in a safe place and we could go back for it later. The drive would be about an hour with traffic.
The sun was barely high enough in the sky and already it was as if the planet was sitting on my head, sinking me into the ground.
At some point, Rei’s phone rang. “Okay, I’m going to put you on speaker. Go ahead, Tex.”
“Hello, Bailey.”
“Hi.”
“Wow—one word replies. Awesome.” Tex cleared his throat. “Anyway, Justice is clean.”
“But?” Rei asked.
Tex laughed, a sexy booming sound that surprised me. “You know me too well.Buthe’s been on a few missions into a few places that worry me.”
“Overseas?”
“Yes.” Tex replied over the familiar click of keyboard.
“Tex—talk to me.”
“First, after we finished speaking, I need you to call Beast.” Tex’s voice was serious. “Because Justice has been on ops in Rotterdam, Tehran and Haiti.”
“Wait.” Rei shifted in his seat. “Justice is a soldier—not special ops, yet. How did he get missions into these hot zones?”
“I’m still digging into that.” Tex replied. “But until I have something else, I need you to call Beast and have them look into—Bailey, you do understand what’s said in this car stays here, right?”
I blinked. “I’m sorry, what?”
