Page 13 of Cross & Crown

rescue, understand?”

“Of course, sir.”

Branson slapped him on the back. Nick watched him

walk away, breathing out a sigh of relief, then glanced at the

officer on the door.

12

“Do you even know how to play good cop, Detective?”

the man drawled.

“I don’t know, no one’s ever let me do it.” Nick put his

shoulder against the door and pushed into the room. JD’s

head shot up. He’d been dozing. Nick smiled gently for him.

“Doing okay?”

“I guess so.” He pushed the notepad across the table. “I

wrote down everything I could think of.”

Nick took the notepad and flipped it over. JD had written

bullet points in a neat block print. Nick snorted. It was the

type of handwriting that was hard as hell to analyze. The kind

that people who worked black ops often had a habit of using.

Nick wrote in the same neat block print. “You always write

like that?” he asked JD.

“I guess. Why?”

Nick shrugged one shoulder and stuck the notepad back

in his pocket. “Muscle memory. It can be interesting. I’ll look over this in a bit. Right now I’m going to take you to get

something to eat, then to a hotel so you can get some rest.”

JD stood hesitantly. “You’retaking me?”

“Yeah, my partner has some things to tie up before he can

meet us there. Is that a problem?”

“No. No, I just assumed it’d be someone . . . lower on the

rung.”

“I’m going to take you out there and get you settled, but

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