Page 63 of Hold Me Before You Go

Ash leveled him with a look. “It was before the SEALS, Jake.”

“I don’t give a shit when it was. Why the hell wasn’t it on your record when I pull a background check on you?”

“The SEALS got it erased,” Dominic explained calmly from his place, tapping his fingers on the surface of the table.

Jake whipped his head around, his eyes wide. “You knew?”

Dominic raised a brow. “I thought everyone knew.”

My tech man returned his attention back to Ash as Hayes pinched the bridge of his nose, muttering something under his breath. I know I should stop it and get everyone back on track, but for the first time in days, I felt normal. Jake and Ash bickering back and forth provided me with a sense of familiarity and in a way, it urged the hope I was beginning to lose to hold on just a little tighter.

We were going to find Carrie.

We were also going to expose Robert Hale for what he truly was and bring closure to so many families.

We were also going to go to prison, but not before I killed Monica Lark and Brandon Hale with my bare hands.

“Do you two always have to bicker like children?” Hayes bit out through clenched teeth.

Ash leaned back in his chair. “Do you always have to have a stick up your ass, Mitchell?”

Dominic chuckled from beside me, reviewing his notes from Donna. When everything was said and done, she would serve time too. Her husband would spend the rest of his days alone and without two teeth, but he would be breathing. Dominic came close to killing the fucker when Mr. Hale refused to give us any information.

He didn’t know anything.

He’d been blind to it all, thinking he had two perfect sons and a beautiful, safe daughter. No one could blame him for his wife keeping him in the dark.

“It’s interesting,” Dominic mused softly as the rest of the Red Snake team bickered.

“What’s that?” I asked, leaning forward to rest my forearms on the table, my eyes on his notes.

“Robert Hale wasn’t abused by his parents in any way,” he said, looking at my profile.

I pondered that for a moment. “No, but his father was essentially missing from his life the majority of his childhood, and we have to assume there’s more to the story.”

Dominic hummed. “You think Donna Hale is hiding something?”

I looked at him. “I think Donna Hale was the ringleader in all of this.”

“Or perhaps she was just scared of Robert.”

“A mother should protect her children from anything—including her other children,” I deadpanned.

“Do you want me to question her again?”

I shook my head. “I want both of them out of our fucking holding rooms and back in St. Louis. They can sit in Garner’s holding rooms.”

“Garner doesn’t take serial killer cases,” Dominic reminded me.

“Nope, but he’ll take this one. It’s too close to home. He made a deal with the Mafia and Oasis, after all.”

“One of these days, I’m going to shove my foot so far up your fucking ass—”

“—you are so fucking grumpy when you’re tired,” Jake interrupted Hayes’ threat to Ash.

I took a deep breath. “Could you three not kill each other right now? At least wait until we get Carrie back,” I clipped, putting our conversation on the back burner for now.

The men sat back in their seats.

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