Читать книгу Holiday Homecoming Secrets - Lynette Eason - Страница 16

Bryce opened the door to his sister Kristy’s kitchen, and his dog, Sasha, darted around him to shake the snow from her coat. “Sasha, stop!” The dog did, but it was too late. She’d splattered melted snow everywhere. He grabbed the hand towel from the rack and made a futile effort to wipe her down.

Kristy entered with eighteen-month-old Liam on her hip. When the child’s gaze landed on Sasha, he squealed. “Doggy!”

“Shh. You’ll wake up your brother.”

“My doggy!”

Kristy rolled her eyes. “Wet doggy.” She walked into the laundry room, returned with two bath towels and shoved them at Bryce. “Messy doggy.”

“Thanks,” he said. “Sasha, sit.” The dog obeyed, and Bryce draped the first towel over her and rubbed. “She decided it would be fun to roll in the snow.”

“Of course she did. Which means she brings in a gallon of water just on her fur. You couldn’t get something like a schnauzer or a Chihuahua, could you?”

He raised a brow. “Really? You can see me with one of those?” He finished with Sasha and turned to the walls and pantry door.

“I guess not. What are your plans today?”

When everything was dry, he tossed the towels into the laundry room and told her about finding a lead into Frank’s disappearance. “So I’m going to rinse off, change and head over to the shooting range.”

Her gaze dropped to his prosthetic, the curved one that allowed him to run without falling over. “I forget you have that most of the time.”

“That’s one of the nicest things you’ve ever said to me.”

“Well...that’s kind of sad. I’ll work on it. There’s a ham biscuit in the fridge if you want to warm it up.”

“I’d love it, thanks.”

Her expression softened and she hugged him. “Go change your leg—you do realize how weird that sounds—and I’ll pour you some coffee. You can warm up the biscuit when you get done.”

“Thanks, sis.” He kissed her cheek and blew a raspberry on the baby’s, then headed to his room.

Once showered and changed, he returned to the kitchen to find Liam in his high chair and Kristy feeding him ham, eggs and little pieces of biscuit. Sasha lifted her head and watched him, tongue lolling from the side of her mouth.

Bryce shook his head, grabbed the biscuit from the fridge and popped it in the microwave. “She’s such a slug.”

“She’s a monster.”

“A monster in body, but she’s pure love in that big heart of hers. I don’t know what I’d do without her.” The microwave dinged and he grabbed the food. “I appreciate you letting us stay here. I know it’s not convenient.”

Kristy sighed. “We’re happy to have you here. We’ve missed you.”

Liam tossed a piece of ham straight at the dog. Sasha snagged and gulped it, then turned pleading eyes on the child as though begging him to do it again. “Hey, Sash, you already had your breakfast.” He chucked the baby on the chin. “You need to eat yours.”

“Doggy eat it.”

“You eat it.”

“No no.”

“Yes yes.”

Liam giggled, his little teeth glinting. “Doggy.”

Bryce raised a brow at his sister. “I’m not going to win this one, am I?”

“Nope.”

“Right.” He glanced at the clock. “I need to get going.”

Kristy set the baby on his feet, and he went to Sasha and climbed on her back. “Horsey. Go.”

Sasha settled her head between her paws and Bryce thought the dog almost smiled. She loved kids. His sister loved kids. Her kids. A pang hit him. Ever since moving into his sister’s home, his vow to never have children kept slapping him in the face, making him wonder why he and Kristy had turned out to have such different views on their ability to raise children. “Hey, sis, could I ask you a question?”

“Of course.”

“How come you didn’t have any reservations about getting married and having kids?”

She frowned. “What do you mean?” She wiped the tray down while Bryce tried to think of a way to explain it. “I mean, motherhood comes so naturally to you. You’re nothing like our mother, and I don’t understand how that can be when you had no example of what being a good mother was supposed to look like.”

Kristy blew out a low breath. “But I did have examples.”

“Who?”

“Ladies in the church, people I worked with, friends.” She shrugged. “I don’t know. I just knew that our parents were the outliers, not the norms. I knew most people loved their kids and wanted the best for them—and I vowed if I ever had kids, I’d be the complete opposite of our parents and I couldn’t go wrong.”

He snorted. “Do the opposite? I suppose that makes sense in some weird way.”

“Of course it does.” She walked over to rescue Sasha’s fur from Liam’s mouth. “And if you ever have kids, you’ll be a great dad.”

“How do you know?”

“I’ve watched you come to love my two. And you love your dog.”

“Dogs are easy to love. They don’t talk back.”

“True, but I still don’t think you have anything to worry about when it comes to fatherhood.”

“Well, it’s not like I have to worry about it anytime soon, but what if you’re wrong? What if there’s something lacking in me?”

She sighed and walked over to press a kiss to his head—much like a mother would. “I’m not wrong, but I guess that’s something only you can figure out.”

“That’s not very helpful.”

Kristy smiled. Then frowned. “I hope something turns up today on Frank. I’m worried about him.”

“Same here.”

“Tell Jade I said hi.”

“I will.”

Bryce tapped his thigh and Sasha rose to her feet. She followed him to his SUV, and he let her into the back seat. “Say your prayers, girl. We’ve got a friend to find.”

When Jade pulled into the parking lot of the shooting range, she was glad to see the Open sign flashing bright red. At the station, she’d written several reports and done some research on Tony Swift, giving him time to open the range before she swooped in to question him.

An avid hunter and outdoorsman, he’d opened the range a little over five years ago. He had no record and appeared to be an upstanding citizen. So why had he run last night?

Jade parked and climbed out of the cruiser, her gaze scanning the area.

The light gray pickup truck sitting in the spot near the door encouraged her to think that Tony was inside. She pushed through the barred glass door and let it shut behind her. Tony looked up from his spot behind the counter and for a moment, she wondered if he was going to take off running. Then he sighed. “What do you need Jade?”

“You hung up on me last night.”

“You called me at three o’clock in the morning!”

“And you left the house shortly thereafter.” Her unruffled responses seemed to worry him. “Wanna tell me why?”

“Not particularly.”

“Come on, Tony. Did you really think that I wouldn’t show up this morning?”

With another dramatic sigh, he grabbed a rag and swiped the immaculately clean glass counter. “I knew you’d show up.”

“So...what? You were just buying time to figure out what story you were going to tell?”

His cheeks flushed a bright red, and his startled glance confirmed her suspicions. “You’re not a liar, Tony.” Not a good one, anyway. “What do you know about Frank?”

He shot a nervous glance at the door. “Not a lot. You said you were looking for him. I don’t know where he is, but if he’s missing, then I guess that means he made the wrong people mad—and I don’t have any desire to do the same.”

“And who are the wrong people?”

“Whoever he was investigating.”

The door chimed. Tony flinched, and Jade spun to see Bryce step inside. He shot her a deep frown. “I thought you were going to wait on me to do this.”

She blinked at him. “Why would you think that? You’re not a cop.”

“I’m Frank’s friend and I’ve had training in investigations, remember? I want to help.”

“We’ll discuss that later.” She glanced at Tony. “What can you tell us about the people Frank was investigating?”

“Nothing.”

Right. “Well, why did he have your name on a piece of paper in his desk drawer?”

“I guess he was going to come shooting sometime. How do I know?”

She paused, trying to find a way through to him. “What was Frank to you? Did he come shooting here a lot?”

The man blinked. “Yeah. I mean, sometimes. Not like on a regular basis, but every so often when he had something on his mind.” He paused. “Come to think of it, he was in here quite a bit in the last few weeks.”

“So, he had something on his mind?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Like what?”

“Don’t know.”

More like he wasn’t saying. “Look, Tony, Frank’s a good friend and we really need your help to find him.” Jade held on to her frustration with effort.

A flash of frustration darkened his eyes—along with a hint of fear. Then he sighed. “I don’t know a whole lot, just that he was looking into people who didn’t want to be looked into, you know what I mean? He—”

The door chimed, and two young ladies in their midtwenties walked in, each carrying a case that held their weapons. “Hey, Tony,” the taller one said. “We’re here to practice.”

“Excuse me.” He went to help the women, and Jade spun to confront Bryce.

“You could make this a lot easier if you would just tell me what Frank was having you help him with.”

Bryce hesitated, obviously agonizing over the decision, then seemed to make up his mind. He motioned her to the corner of the store farthest away from Tony and his customers. “He thought there were dirty cops in the department.”

Jade gaped. “He what?”

“Shh!”

“What made him think that?” she whispered.

“He didn’t go into a lot of details, just that he thought there were some cops on the force who didn’t need to be there and wanted to find out who.”

“But what tipped him off to that? What did he see or hear to make him suspect that?”

Bryce gave a low groan. “He thought there might be some cops—or at least one—on a drug ring’s payroll, but he didn’t know who. He just had his suspicions and told me who he wanted me to ride with. He wanted to know if any of them made unauthorized stops or met with anyone suspicious. Honestly, I didn’t know what exactly I was looking for, but Frank seemed to think I’d recognize it when I saw it—probably a phone call or a meeting that didn’t look on the up and up. I don’t know.”

Tony caught her attention and motioned for her to follow him to the back. Bryce stayed on her heels and she let him. Once in his office, Tony jabbed a finger at her. “You’ve got to leave. You’re going to get me killed.”

Jade blinked. “What are you talking about?”

“Frank was making enemies left and right. And now you tell me he’s disappeared. You two need to be smart and learn from that. Get out and don’t come back here unless it’s to shoot.”

“Tony, if you’re worried about—”

A shot rang out, and Jade and Bryce ducked as one. Glass from the shattered window hit the floor the same time as Tony, the blood stain on his chest growing bigger by the second. The second bullet whizzed past Jade’s left ear, and she grabbed Bryce’s arm as she threw herself behind the desk.