Alibi (Brantley Walker Off the Books #5) - Nicole Edwards Page 0,40

home for them. But in the past few years, many of his cousins had settled down, gotten married, had kids, and Brantley hadn’t been around. Even in the six months since he’d been back, he hadn’t spent much time with most of them.

The same could not be said for those who’d remained in Coyote Ridge. His mother and father, brothers and sisters… they were all close to the rest of the family. They spent time with each other, at family gatherings, in town, at church, and whatnot. They’d all had a personal connection with Kylie, and he knew it was as much for them that he was determined to find Kylie’s killer as it was for Travis.

But that didn’t mean Brantley wasn’t aware of what was going on. Nor did it mean he hadn’t developed friendships since. He’d spoken to Kylie a few times at Curtis and Lorrie’s. She was kind and funny, with a positive outlook that had been refreshing. Her loss was felt by all.

“You’re worried about him.”

Brantley glanced at Reese as he climbed in the truck. “I am, sure. I think everyone is.”

“He’s strong.”

Yeah, Brantley knew that, too. Didn’t mean the man could go it alone. “You think we should give Gage a heads-up?”

Reese shook his head. “We have to trust Travis to do that.”

Fair point.

Three hours later, Brantley was standing shoulder to shoulder with Reese, alongside Baz, JJ, Charlie, and Trey. They had invited Luca and Holly to join them, but Luca had insisted on being available to take calls once they started coming in, and his sister had wanted to help out.

The task force was joined by other members of the Sniper 1 Security team, as well as Mayor Bianca Stewart and Sheriff Jeff Endsley, all backing RT, who was standing behind a microphone in front of a handful of reporters.

When Brantley had first mentioned Travis’s desire to offer a reward for Juliet Prince, he’d had his concerns. Even now he knew it was a risk, but in all fairness, it was the best option they had for finding the woman. There were only so many of them, but a reward would increase their numbers tenfold by bringing the public into the investigation.

After a lengthy discussion, RT and the team had agreed it was the best avenue to pursue, so he’d gotten some people in place to man the hotline that was being set up and started the process of gathering the press.

Brantley was grateful RT had agreed to speak. The man had a way of articulating that brought people together, had them rallying for the common goal. He listened as RT outlined the events that had taken place, the tragedy that had impacted the Walker family and the community as a whole. He spoke of the kidnapping of Kate Walker, then outlined the devastating loss of Kylie.

While he spoke, Brantley watched the cameramen, the media correspondents, and the few onlookers who’d gathered. He had to wonder if Juliet was watching this live, if she was stalking the town the way she had been for months. He hoped so. Brantley wanted her to see they were stopping at nothing to find her. And he wanted her to see that Travis wasn’t giving her the time of day.

“With that said,” RT continued, “the Walker family is offering a one-hundred-thousand-dollar reward for information that directly leads to the arrest of Juliet Prince.”

That announcement set the press in motion. Questions were lobbed at RT, who handled them brilliantly. He seemed to have an appropriate response prepared and Brantley admired him for it. The guy was definitely good at what he did.

Now it was time for Brantley’s team to prove they were good at what they did, too.

*

Juliet glared at the television screen.

At all of them, in fact, since she was currently standing in the electronics section of a Walmart watching what was evidently the biggest news story in five counties.

With her sunglasses and ball cap on, no one was going to recognize her, even if there’d been more than three people in the store at the moment. This small hick town didn’t have many people to begin with, and at one o’clock on a Monday afternoon, they apparently had better things to do.

One hundred thousand dollars.

She snorted, taking her cart and pushing it toward the beauty department. She’d come into this godforsaken store to pick up a few extra pairs of clothes, although she felt sick at the idea of having to wear such crap. She’d been stupid