Alibi (Brantley Walker Off the Books #5) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,13
steel-blue eyes. Even after all these years, after all the ups and downs, the babies they’d brought into the world, the arguments they’d had over stupid shit, Gage’s body still stirred whenever he saw Travis or Kylie. Both of them together … yeah, that was potential for spontaneous combustion.
His thoughts briefly wandered to last night when Travis had cornered him in the shower. Gage had been finishing up when the sexy man stripped down and joined him where they proceeded to waste a considerable amount of water taking one another to the pinnacle and then over.
Travis had always had an extremely high sex drive, but in the past few weeks, ever since he broke down, admitting he was obsessed with finding the woman responsible for kidnapping their daughter and needed help in moving forward, he’d seemed to replace one need with another. There hadn’t been a day since that they hadn’t indulged at least once, usually twice, and on occasion a few times more than that. Travis was spontaneous about it, too. Whether in the shower, in Travis’s office at home, or at the resort, and once or twice they’d even enjoyed some oral indulgence in the SUV.
Not that Gage was complaining. He enjoyed the time he had with Kylie and Travis, especially when they could find some stolen moments, whether it was two of them or all three at the same time. He looked forward to those, but he knew right now he was feeding Travis’s need for distraction by giving in when the man gave him that come-hither look.
Good thing was, they were safe from that here at the park.
“You good?” Travis asked, joining him on the bench.
“Yep.”
Travis kicked his long legs out in front of him, crossed his ankles, and exhaled. “Nice day.”
That it was. Lots of sun, not much wind, and no rain in the forecast. The temperatures were inching closer to sixty than forty, which meant the kids weren’t battling cold-weather gear. Couldn’t ask for much better than that.
“You think the kids’ll sleep all night?” Travis asked, the question drawing Gage’s attention to the playground.
“You can bet on it. They might actually—”
Gage’s words were cut off when he saw Travis’s cousin Brantley running toward them. It wasn’t a jog but a full-out sprint, his expression one that had the hair on the back of Gage’s neck standing on end.
Brantley slowed upon his approach, his eyes meeting Gage’s then shifting to Travis.
“What’s wrong?” Travis asked, his voice cold and dark as he got to his feet.
“It’s…” Brantley inhaled deeply, exhaled slowly. “We just got a call from Z. At our request, they’ve been runnin’ an algorithm that does some form of advanced facial recognition on any camera with a live feed. As of this mornin’, one of the cameras on the toll road caught an image of Juliet Prince.”
Gage’s heart slammed against his sternum, but he managed to stand. “How do you know for sure it’s her?”
“Sniper 1 Security validated it. They’ve confirmed with ninety-eight point seven percent certainty it is her.”
“Where is she now?” Travis demanded, his good mood definitely gone.
Gage gripped Travis’s wrist, urging him to relax. The last thing they needed was for Travis to go off the rails before they even understood what they were dealing with.
“She was seen taking the Highway 79 toll exit shortly after eleven hundred this mornin’.”
“Eleven o’clock?” Travis snapped. “That was four hours ago. Why the fuck are we just hearin’ about it now?”
Because that wasn’t important, Gage spoke over him. “Have you seen her since? Any cameras catch her?” Gage kept his tone even. No sense getting Travis in a panic when there was no way to prove she was nearby.
“We have not,” Brantley stated, his gaze bouncing back and forth between them. “Where’s Kylie and the kids?”
Gage motioned to the playground. “The kids’re fine. We’ve got a lot of eyes on them.”
“And Kylie?” Brantley repeated.
“She texted me a few minutes ago,” he replied, “said she was gonna grab coffee with her sister.”
Brantley nodded, his eyes calm, his expression stony. He was the polar opposite of Travis, who was already shifting and moving, looking around.
“Get the kids,” Travis commanded Kaden, who happened to be nearby, watching a couple of the rugrats playing in the sandbox. “And don’t let ’em outta your sight.”
“I got it,” Kaden said, meeting Gage’s eyes briefly, a silent confirmation that he wouldn’t let on that Travis’s grip was slipping, something they’d all dealt with over the past few months.