Page 44 of Cassidy

“Me either,” Raelyn added.

“Go, please.” She waved them off. “There’s nothing any of you can do.”

And that included her.

Her teammates filed out, each giving her a quick one-armed hug to show their support. They’d barely left the precinct when Rhy poked his head out of his office. “Cass? They found the Corvette.”

She sucked in a harsh breath as she hurried over. “Where?”

“Abandoned in a park-and-ride lot about five miles from where you and Gabe found Travis’s phone.” Rhy looked grim. “They also found a smear of blood on the rear panel.”

“The trunk?” She wasn’t a car expert, would a body even fit in the trunk of a Vette? “Is Travis...”

“The trunk is empty,” Rhy said quickly. “The local crime scene techs are heading out to take a sample of the blood for testing.”

Blood on Travis’s car. She swallowed hard, glancing toward the equipment room where Gabe was sleeping.

The news was concerning. Was the blood an indication Travis was hurt?

Or worse, dead?

ChapterTen

A split second after he’d closed his eyes and relaxed into the blessed darkness, Cassidy shook him awake. “Gabe?”

He groaned, cracking one eye open. She was blurry, and he threw out his hand to reach for his glasses. Then he remembered he was wearing contacts. The blurriness was because of his head injury.

“What?” He forced himself to wake up. With both eyes open, he could see her more clearly. Sort of. The room was still relatively dark with a little ambient light coming through the open door. He focused on her face, noting her concerned features. “What’s wrong?”

“They found Travis’s blue Corvette. No sign of Travis or any obvious damage to the vehicle. It was located about five miles from the spot where you were assaulted.” She held his gaze for a long moment. “There was a little blood on the quarter panel. Not a lot, but the crime scene techs are there and will send it for testing.”

“Blood? Travis’s blood?”

“We don’t know. Try not to think the worst.” She sat beside him on the cot. “To be honest, I have been wondering if the blood is yours. Maybe from the wound on the back of your head.”

His blood? The image of Travis’s blue car flashed in his mind. A memory? He wasn’t sure. “If my head hit the car, there would be a dent.”

The corner of her mouth twitched in a smile. “True, you do have a hard head. But from what Rhy has been told, there’s no dent. Could be you wiped it with your hand or something equally innocuous.”

He hoped the blood was his, not Travis’s. He wished he could have gotten more sleep, the pounding in his head wasn’t that much better, but there was work to do. He pushed himself to his feet, then swayed.

“Hold on, where are you going?” Cassidy jumped to her feet and stepped in front of him to grip his arms. “You need to rest. I only woke you because I promised.”

“Can’t.” It was all he could do not to collapse back down to the cot. He steeled his resolve. “There’s no time. We need to find Travis.”

“How? You don’t have anything to go on.”

He hated to admit she was right. Especially now that they’d found Travis’s car. That had been the one connection they had to his half brother.

Now they had nothing.

“The code,” he muttered mostly to himself. “The answer to where Travis is and who has him must be in the code.”

“A code you’re in no condition to look at right now,” Cass said firmly. “Seriously, Gabe, I’m begging you to get more rest. We need your help to run down the computer stuff.”

“What time is it?” He didn’t have a watch, and there was no clock in the equipment room.

“It’s almost six,” she said. “You’ve been sleeping about an hour.”

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