Page 52 of Pigeon

“I thought he was already out here,” Gunner states with a frown.

“When’s Lucy coming home?” I ask.

“Tomorrow, I think,” Petey answers.

Pulling out my phone, I call Chubs. No answer, and it goes to voicemail. Waiting a few minutes, I try again with the same result. Looking up, I notice everyone is watching me. Livi looks worried, so I speak to her first.

“What do you know?”

“Nothing, really. Feds were in the department waiting for me and James yesterday, but we blew them off. Didn’t answer any questions, didn’t ask any either. We left and stayed out on the street for the rest of our shift,” she answers.

When I don’t receive an answer on my next call, I call Rex.

“Where’s Chubs?”

“Thought he was at the ranch today. He’s not there?” Rex questions as I hear his fingers typing furiously on a keyboard.

“No, never showed.”

“Okay, wait. His tracker is showing his bike on 70, outside of Eagle. Any reason why he’d be going that direction?”

Repeating the information to the others, no one has an answer.

“I’ll keep an eye on it and let you know if anything changes,” Rex offers before we disconnect.

“Rex is checking into it. He’ll let us know when he finds something out.”

“Care to explain how Rex knows this?” Gunner asks.

“Because I asked Rex to put a tracker on Chubs’ bike,” Cash admits. “I would rather have had one implanted into his arm, but since that would have caused a fight, I went the bike route instead.”

“Smart as long as he sticks with his bike,” Petey murmurs.

“Best we could do considering the curly-haired bastard won’t talk,” Cash replies.

Heads nod, and the conversation moves to other topics, but it’s obvious everyone is concerned about our buddy Chubs.

“Toss in the fish pellets, and they swarm the surface. Fucking unbelievable. I can’t wait to drop a line,” Trigger says when the group returned.

“You’re welcome anytime, Trigger,” Ivy assures him and smiles at the huge grin that comment puts on Trigger’s face.

“I don’t want to catch fishies. I just want to eat them,” Mia, or Zoe, states as she climbs into my lap for some uncle cuddles.

“Trigger, Luke, and I will do the catching. Miss Ava can do the cooking, and we all score,” Craig states.

I look to the tapping on my arm to see Luke standing there. When he sees me looking at him, he quickly signs, “When?”

Before I can answer him, Axel signs back. “Whenever Trigger comes out next.”

Luke grins and nods enthusiastically before turning to give Ivy a shy smile. Signing “horse,” Ivy nods her head and signs back, “when you come to fish.”

Luke tosses up a victory sign and takes off across the lawn with Craig and the dogs.

“I’ll be here early tomorrow, Ivy. That okay?” Cash asks in his quiet rumble.

“Not fair! I have to work,” Livi says with a pout before Cash pulls her down into his lap.

“Weather forecast is perfect for cutting hay, so I can’t thank you enough, Cash. We should be able to get several fields done,” Ivy answers.

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