Page 25 of Clap Back (Carter Brothers)

Athena was bite-sized, as she liked to refer to herself.

Small in stature, big in attitude.

Her utter devastation had me shaking my head.

“I truly don’t understand you sometimes, Athena.”

Athena, my best friend in the world, rolled her head on the back of the booth and stared at me. “What do you not understand?”

“You have a genius IQ,” I pointed out. “Create an app. Have people upload their loved ones’ photos. Then use the photos uploaded to create what they would look like today. Then, you create a database of all the missing kids’ photos. Maybe you’ll start getting some hits that way.”

Athena was doing a project for her thesis.

Her thesis centered around missing children in America, and what could be done to help.

There was obviously more to it than that, but Athena had a vested interest in the topic because her little sister, Mary Beth, had gone missing at the age of five and had never been found.

It’d hit her especially hard after last year when her one and only surviving brother, Gavrel, had been killed in the line of duty with the Dallas Police Department.

“That’s very…” she scrunched up her nose. “Stupidly simple.”

It wasn’t simple for normal people.

But Athena was a genius, literally.

She’d gone to a school for genius kids. Had graduated high school at eleven. College at fifteen. She’d played around in the working field for a couple of years, then decided to go back to school for her master’s and graduated in a year. Worked more.

Got bored, switched jobs.

Which eventually led us to now, her getting her doctorate.

In the meantime, she was working as a dispatcher for Dallas Police Department because she thought it was fun.

Honestly, my best friend had the smarts to take over the world if she only wanted to.

“Then do it,” I suggested as the door opened, catching my attention.

That’s when the Carters stepped into the house.

My breath hitched, and my gaze went to them as they filed into the door, one by one.

The Roost was a popular coffee shop for cops because it was run by a cop’s wife.

She only served actual coffee in actual coffee cups.

She didn’t give discounts, and she had a time limit of thirty minutes that you could stay, unless you were a cop, or a cop’s family. Then you could stay there for two hours.

Athena and I liked it because it was hard to find good, normal coffee.

Others liked it because it was a good place to hang out near the police station.

That was a downfall for me.

At least, it used to be.

Now, knowing that the Carters came in? I might become more of a regular.

Quincy was first, followed by Atlas. Auden was behind Atlas. Gable, Garrett, Quaid, and Quinn followed up.

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