Page 28 of Crossing Lines

“Hey, you work your shit. I work mine.”

“How—never mind. That woman has robots for fingers.”

I finished my beer.

“Damn, Ruby could give Derek a run for his money.”

I snorted at Chip. Ruby was good, damn good, but she wasn’t Derek. Nor did she have Derek’s FBI friend Hatcher to help her if she needed it.

“She’s good, I’ll give her that. Those two together would be unstoppable,” Chip added.

Tank nodded. “I don’t like sharing her, so we’ll just keep the setup as is, yeah?”

Chip and I exchanged looks and chuckled.

“Where was his body found?” Chip questioned, bringing us back to the issue at hand. Tank scrolled for a moment and made a face. It was a look I knew well.

“Where?” I asked again. Tank looked up.

“Arkansas.” My heart leapt in my chest. How did this happen? That confirmed our fear. The asshole was on his way here. Two days ago…he could be here now.

I pulled my phone back out and sent Stel a message.

Trace: Where are you?

I hit send and waited. I was hoping she was home with Wayne. Safe. I tried not to panic when five minutes passed with no reply. I got up and used my crutches to balance myself.

“We need to go tell Gabe what’s happening,” Chip stated, standing.

“I have to find Stel first. You two go.”

“Brother, you won’t get far on those sticks. Relax. We’ll make sure she’s safe and catch that mother fucker.”

I gave Chip a hard look. He only pointed to the door and started walking.

Bossy assholes.

Ten minutes later, we were walking into the Burke County Sheriff’s office. I still hadn’t heard back from Stel—I was starting to panic, the worry in my gut twisting painfully.

“Derek, can you find Stel for me?” I called out. He looked up from one of his many computer monitors and nodded.

“Anna, is Gabe in?” Chip asked, taking the lead.

That was okay. I wasn’t in the right headspace at the moment.

“Hey, Trace, Carter said she went out with the baby. He’s not sure where. Wayne was with her, though.”

“What’s going on?” Anna asked.

I sighed as Gabe’s office door opened. “I’m not sure anything is wrong,” I replied honestly.

“Why don’t you boys come in and tell me what’s going on?”

It wasn’t a suggestion, so we piled into his office to tell him everything we knew, what we thought, and to get an idea of what in the hell we needed to do next. So much had happened already over the last week, it was all a crapshoot. Where in the hell should we even start? I wasn’t sure if any of us could handle much more of this insanity. I checked my phone again, still nothing from Stel.

“Derek, let me know when you find her. I want to make sure she’s okay.”

“You got it,” he called out. I turned and moved into the room, flopping down in a chair.

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