Page 5 of Falling Fast

How’s my favorite son?

“Oh.” Losing the joking demeanor, Kai stepped back and began rummaging in his locker. “How’s she doing this week?”

His whole team knew the situation, and that he’d just been out to California to visit her last weekend. “The same,” he said, typing back a response.I’m good. Long day. Did you get a milkshake down you like I asked?At least she was no worse. For now, anyway.

Kai nodded and opened his mouth to say something else, but faltered and went back to rummaging as though he didn’t know what to say. Jamie understood. What was there to say?

His phone buzzed with a text. Yes, half of one. Your father keeps trying to make me finish it.

A sharp burst of pain lanced through his chest.You can do it. Just about to hit the shower. Will call in a bit.He needed a few minutes to collect himself before he talked to her. Every time he talked to her, he worried it would be the last time he heard her voice. And every time he went back home, it tore him in two when he left.

Setting the phone back on the shelf, he pushed out a sigh and looked over at Easton. His buddy was studiously gathering a change of clothes, not looking at him. Easton knew the score, knew exactly what Jamie was going through. It helped. “Wanna grab a burger before we head home?”

“Yeah, sounds good. Lend me your shaving kit, will ya?”

“Uh-uh, not until I’m done with it,” Jamie answered, heading for the showers.

Scrubbed, refreshed and dressed in clean civvies, he strode back into the locker room where the seven other guys were grabbing their jackets and keys. “Colebrook and I are gonna grab a burger and a couple beers if anyone else wants in.”

“I’m totally in,” Kai said, stuffing his wallet in the back pocket of his jeans. His response surprised no one in the room, since he had the most voracious appetite of all of them and never turned down an opportunity to eat. The guy was an eatingmachine.

“Sorry boys, it’ll have to wait.”

Jamie swung around to face the doorway at the sound of that familiar voice. Their team leader, Supervisory Special Agent Brock Hamilton stood there, still dressed in the black T-shirt and camo utility pants he’d worn all day. “Rodriguez and Colebrook, I need a word.”

Jamie exchanged a puzzled glance with Easton and followed. “Meet you at the usual place after we’re done here,” he said to Kai on the way past.

Hamilton was already in his office, seated behind his wide desk when Jamie and Easton arrived. “Shut the door,” he said.

Jamie pulled it shut and took a seat in one of the chairs in front of the desk as Easton took the other. This was unusual. “What’s up?”

Hamilton pushed a manila folder across the desk at them and flipped it open, exposing a picture of an unfamiliar middle-aged blond man. “After a few months in max security prison, Brandon Gallant has had a change of heart and decided to cooperate with authorities.”

The asshole drug trafficker responsible for the chaos at the Colebrook place back in September. Jamie had thought Gallant’s arrest would be the end of that whole situation, but he’d been wrong. So what now? Something to do with the cartel he’d worked for?

“Apparently he just gave up some juicy intel on this guy,” Hamilton went on, tapping the photo, “in exchange for a reduced sentence.”

Jamie looked down at the open file, read the name. “Dean Baker.” He glanced over at Easton. “Mean anything to you?”

“No. Who is he?” Easton asked Hamilton.

“We’re gonna find out soon enough, because the three of us have a meeting to get to right now.” His gunmetal-gray eyes slid to Easton. “And just so you’re aware, the taskforce is calling in your sister too.”

****

“You’re gonna make me wear a pink dress, aren’t you?” Charlie muttered as she looked over the dress images Piper had pulled up on the laptop before them. Her longtime friend was marrying Easton, the youngest of Charlie’s brothers.

“As the maid of honor, I’m letting you pick whatever color you want. And just for the record, with your dark hair and pale complexion, you would look adorable in pink.”

Charlie made a face. “I hate adorable. Ravishing, powerful and sexy I can get behind, but not adorable.”

Piper laid her head on Charlie’s shoulder, her honey-blond hair spilling down the front of Charlie’s bright red top. “Sorry, you’re seven years younger than me, so you’ll always be adorable to me.”

Because it was Piper, Charlie wasn’t annoyed. The woman was impossible not to love. She studied the bridesmaids dress choices before her with resigned distaste. Two had all kinds of girly ruffles that made her want to gag, but the third wasn’t so bad. “You know I was a tomboy until I was eighteen, right?”

“Oh, I remember it well. And even when you decided to finally embrace your femininity, the boys were still too terrified of you to ask you out.”

She snorted. “You mean they were too terrified of my dad and three overprotective older brothers.”

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