Page 11 of Critical Strike

“We know you’ve been in contact with Claire Wallace today. We need to ask her some important questions.”

“She wanted for something?” Brax asked with his friendly smile.

Fisher and Arellano glanced at each other. “We’re not at liberty to say. It’s in your best interest to let us know where she is.”

Like hell it was.If Rick hadn’t sent them, then how did they even know Claire had been in contact?

Luke took a step forward. “She was only here for a few minutes.”

“What did she want?” Fisher asked. “What did she talk about? You need to tell us everything she said.”

Luke shrugged. “She wasn’t here very long. Was asking if we had any protection agency contacts for Toledo. It was Toledo, right, guys? Wasn’t that where she was going?”

His brothers backed him up with affirmative responses immediately. Luke hadn’t had any doubt they would.

“Toledo,Ohio?” The tall cop’s face folded in annoyance.

Chance perched himself on the edge of the couch. “I know, right? Why would anyone leave Texas to go to Ohio? Sadly, we didn’t have any contacts there to offer her.”

Arellano’s eyes narrowed. “Why’d she come here in the first place?”

Brax hooked a thumb in Luke’s direction. “McDreamy over here was on the news a month ago. Now we’re overwhelmed with clients of the female persuasion. Not that we’re complaining.”

“Sorry we’re not more help,” Luke said, not at all sorry. He wanted them out of here so he could talk to Rick and find out exactly what the hell was going on. “If you want to leave your card, we can let you know if Ms. Wallace contacts us from Toledo.”

The officers glanced at each other again like they weren’t exactly sure what to do with that offer. Just another clue that something was off.

“We’ll be in touch if we need you,” Fisher said, and they walked out the door without another word.

“What the hell was that all about?” Brax asked.

Luke wasn’t sure if his brother meant the fact that there was something completely off about those cops or the fact that they’d just lied to them.

He was saved from answering by his ringing cell phone. Pulling it from his pocket, he saw it was just the man he wanted to talk to.

“Rick. Talk to me.”

“Who the hell is Claire Wallace, Patterson?”

The words were so loud, Luke knew all his brothers could hear.

“What did you find?”

“It’s crazy. I’ve haven’t seen such red flags in my whole fifteen years of law enforcement. It’s like she’s a fugitive and there’s a statewide manhunt going on for her—all inquiries are sent straight up to the top of the law enforcement food chain to the Criminal Investigations Department in Dallas.”

Luke’s heart sank. “So she’s wanted for something pretty bad.”

“You would think so. But that’s where it gets really weird. There’s not even an official APB on her. She’s got no record, and she wasn’t even in the Texas Department of Public Safety system until a few days ago.”

“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Rick. Is Claire a wanted criminal or not?”

“I’m saying something really weird is going on, and it’s way above my pay grade.”

Luke ran a hand through his hair, looking at his brothers. “We just had a visit from a couple of officers. Fisher and Arellano. They legit?”

He could hear Rick type into his computer. “Yeah,” he whispered a minute later. “They’re Criminal Investigations Division in Dallas. My inquiry must have led them to you. There’s something not right about all this, Luke. It doesn’t make sense to send someone from Dallas when they could’ve just sent someone from our office to talk to you.”

“Yeah. That doesn’t seem right.”

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