Page 88 of Defending Casey

Nora swallowed hard. “Yeah.”

“Well he’s really upset right now and the best thing we can do is to stay as quiet as we can, okay?”

Nora didn’t look like she was all that convinced, but she nodded and agreed to stay quiet. “Okay.” She looked across the room and Casey followed her gaze. Brian was pacing in front of one bank of windows, glancing out of the glass when he saw a crack.

Nora looked back up at her and Casey put a smile on her lips.

“Momma?”

“Yeah, baby?”

Nora crooked a finger at her, and Casey moved in closer to listen.

“I wish Daddy was here.”

Casey brushed a kiss on Nora’s forehead. “Me, too. I wish he was here.”

#

A tight knotof worry formed in Hale’s chest as soon as they got close enough to town to pick up a good strong signal for Casey’s tracker. Seeing it pinging off a stretch of road where there wasn’t much of anything made him pray a little harder and Stone drove a little faster.

Zeke and Bodie stayed behind them as they drove on Main Street heading toward the fire house and Iron Mountain Road. Hale turned to look out the driver’s side of his truck down Bear Paw Trail. He could see lights in the distance down the road and he forced his breathing to slow. Mister Sumner had called 911 and the lights and activity was likely from that.

Clint, alone in his vehicle, headed for the Feed Store and would call when there was an update. Hale let out a breath and held himself together knowing that his team was on the job. If he was alone, facing this situation, he would have been torn in different directions.

Having his team… having Trojan together made it so much easier to focus on what he needed to do. That was finding Casey and Nora. Once they were safe and home, he would be able to breath easily again.

He dialed Casey’s number on Stone’s phone, and it went straight to voice mail.

Stone gave him a look before he looked out through the windshield. He was driving faster than the law allowed, but they were all trained to drive in worse situations.

“It sounds like her phone is off.”

Hale nodded. “It’s better than the other option.”

Stone leaned forward and shook his head. “We’ll find her, Hondo. You know we will.” They turned onto Iron Mountain as Stone gave him a tight smile. “Isn’t that the way the story ends?”

It took Hale a second to key into what his friend was saying. “Hondo? The book?”

Stone shrugged. “Doesn’t he get the girl and the kid?”

“It’s a good ending.” Hale blew out a breath. “It’s going to be my ending, too.”

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