Page 61 of After All

Chase’s eyes flickered to Scott’s leg again, but a small smile tugged at his mouth. “Yeah?”

“Yeah.” Scott figured seeing the damage a bullet could cause would be something that would stick with Chase, but seeing it would also prove to the kid Scott was healing.

“Okay. Cool.” Chase headed around the corner of the house at a run.

Scott shook his head. It was good that Chase was here. That was a pretty amazing thing Peyton had done. Damn, he’d been crazy about her for so long it was hard to remember a time he hadn’t been, but it seemed every day she gave him another reason to want her. For good.

He made his way to the kitchen and gathered the rest of the supplies Chase would need. His phone rang just as he was carrying them outside. Setting everything on the pavement by the bucket Chase was filling with water, Scott glanced at the phone screen.

He’d hoped it was Peyton, but it was an Omaha number. “Hansen,” he answered.

“Scott. It’s Lance Shepard.”

“Hey, Lance.”

Lance was an FBI agent who had worked with Scott and the task force a number of times.

“Heard you got yourself shot,” Lance said, a touch of humor in his tone.

Scott laughed. “Yeah, taking a bit of a vacation.” It didn’t surprise him that the news had reached Shepard. The world of law enforcement was a small one, a tight brotherhood, and it really would have only taken Ed mentioning it to one other officer for it to spread, even as far as Omaha.

“How soon are you going to be back at it?” Lance asked.

“Not sure. Few more weeks probably,” Scott answered. “Why?” Lance wasn’t a guy to beat around the bush. He was not just calling to check in on a past task force member.

“We have a situation. North Dakota. I’d love for you to be a part of the team.”

Scott felt his heart thump. As it always did when he was called for a special operation. “North Dakota? That’s not really our area.”

“They want our team,” Lance said simply. “Told them I’d be in contact with everyone. We’re meeting in two weeks. I’d like for you to be there. In fact, I’d like you to go in with me and do the initial stay.”

“In North Dakota?” Scott asked.

“Yep.”

“Don’t know if I’ll be up to it in two weeks,” Scott said, his mind spinning.

He wanted to go. That was the clearest thought. He always wanted to go when they called him. And nine out of ten times he did go. But they were usually more local ops, and the last couple had been short and sweet. They’d gone off of solid intel and been able to bust in and make the arrests. This time Lance wanted Scott to be one of the guys gathering that intel. That was a lot longer process. It could take weeks. It would involve being away from Sapphire Falls, his work…Peyton.

Sapphire Falls was very supportive. Ed, TJ, Hailey, everyone involved in figuring things out when he was gone with the task force, were great about making sure he could do that work occasionally. But it had always been just a few days at a time before.

“You don’t have to be up to much. At least at first,” Lance said. “We’re going to go into a little town called Cedar Downs. It’s almost to the Canadian border. They’ll think we’re coming in to check things out for a possible takeover of the local lumber mill. That will give us a chance to hang out in town and talk to a lot of locals.”

“What’s going on?” Scott asked.

“Two girls have disappeared from there in the past month,” Lance said. “Three other unsolved disappearances in the past year in a hundred-mile radius. Two supposed runaways, but apparently local law enforcement is suspicious.”

“Why there?” Scott asked.

“That’s what we need to go find out.”

Scott watched Chase hosing down his truck, but his mind was only minimally on the boy. North Dakota? For an indefinite amount of time?

“You’re one of the best ones for the job,” Lance said. “You know how small towns work. You know what to look for. And you’re too shot up to be chasing all those bad guys through the streets of Sapphire Falls anyway. Come hang out with me in a pub in North Dakota so we can bust some bad guys.”

Scott scrubbed a hand over his face. “Let me think on it.”

“We meet in two weeks.”

---