Alibi (Brantley Walker Off the Books #5) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,71

asked about her next appointment,” Baz answered, his voice lacking any luster whatsoever. “Told her I’d like to go with her if I’m in town.”

“What did she say?”

“She didn’t answer me.”

“As in she ignored you?”

“More like she avoided the question. Changed the subject.”

Ah, hell. That was fucked up.

Reese didn’t say as much, but he found this woman’s responses suspicious. She’d bombarded Baz with the news that she was pregnant only a couple of days after they’d slept together, yet she was unwilling to provide absolute proof. Admittedly, Reese didn’t know anything about pregnancies, but he thought it took a little longer than two days for a woman to know for certain.

Not that he was questioning it. If Molly Ryan said she was pregnant, he had no reason to believe otherwise. What he found odd was the fact that she was withholding the big things from the man she claimed was the father. When Baz asked to see the pregnancy test, she refused. When he asked to go to the doctor when she got the test to confirm—something she said she was doing—she refused him. Now, when she was going into her ninth week and could get an ultrasound, she wasn’t willing to let Baz be part of it? Something was off.

And fine, maybe the woman was private. Maybe she wasn’t comfortable letting him be part of it in that regard. But she had no qualms texting him three dozen times a day in an attempt to see him. The woman had messaged and called him so many times, Brantley’d finally had to say something about it. She had become a disruption to their work, and Brantley asked Baz to deal with it.

For the record, it hadn’t worked. The woman was relentless.

Reese didn’t bother asking Baz how things were going between him and JJ. He was there. He could see that it was … well, the word he’d use would be weird. Those two seemed to have become best buds in recent weeks. They were working side by side, still living together, going to and from work together. It was as though they’d never had a romantic entanglement at all.

Speaking of JJ…

“I think you’ll have company on your trip,” she said, speaking directly to Reese. “When I called RT for housin’ options, he mentioned he was sendin’ someone down there ahead of y’all. A Decker Bromwell, I think. Said he’d be waitin’ at the airport.”

“Good. We could use the help.” Unless this was the guy who had failed already. If so, it was probably a waste of manpower.

As far as Reese was concerned, the more boots on the ground they had the better, but he preferred someone capable. Although he wouldn’t stop until they found Juliet Prince, he wouldn’t deny he hoped they found her sooner rather than later. As it was, they’d been at it full throttle ever since Kylie’s funeral, and they had little to nothing to show for it.

Sure, Z was busy perfecting their facial recognition algorithm, and they’d compiled a list of people they knew to have associated with Juliet at some point in her life. Thanks to social media posts mostly, they’d documented quite a few people they were keeping an eye on to ensure she didn’t seek their help, but so far, those had turned up nothing.

Hunting door to door was their only option. And if that didn’t work … well, Reese was fairly certain it was going to come down to drawing Juliet out from her hiding spot.

Truth was, he wasn’t quite ready to see what that entailed. Whatever it was, it didn’t sound good. For anyone.

Two hours later, they were boarding Sniper 1 Security’s private jet.

It had taken less than an hour for the team to get everything in order, another half hour to swing through and grab go-bags and whatnot. JJ and Charlie had stayed behind, agreeing to get access to the camera feeds Z was monitoring so they would know what they were dealing with.

“What’re we waitin’ on?” Reese asked Brantley as they sat on the tarmac.

“We’ve got one more comin’.”

Reese sighed. “You couldn’t talk him out of it?”

Brantley glanced over, frowned. “Who?”

“Travis? I assume he’s joinin’ us?”

Brantley relaxed again, stared straight ahead. “Actually, no. He and Gage are sittin’ tight. I promised to keep them in the loop.”

Reese knew his shock was evident. Never would he have predicted Travis would back off of this. Sure, the man had calmed some since Kylie’s funeral, what with the tree-planting ceremonies and all,