Page 79 of Savior

“Oh, good,” Mike roared. “The Decrepit Duo totally could’ve handled it. Jesus, it’s obvious you’ve had quite enough adventure for one day, so you and Jimmy will be doing research. Deep web searches… anything and everything that might relate back to the Sons. I want to know where they are, and I want to know what they’re planning next. We’ll do a sweep of the storage facility tomorrow and search for anything that might’ve been left behind.”

It was clear that my mother didn’t respond well to being told what to do, but instead of arguing, she let the slamming screen door answer for her as she stormed outside.

“Who am I forgetting?” Mike scanned the room. “Nate!”

“Oh, no,” my husband held up a hand. “I’m not getting roped into this—”

Mike nodded. “I get it. You’re off the hook. Kate, looks like you’ll be reviewing hospital surveillance tapes with Jeremy. He’s got everything from the night Grey was shot.”

Jeremy.

At the mention of his name, stillness filled the kitchen. The blood roared in my ears and pulsed in my neck. Last night’s tequila reared its head within my abdomen, and the bile rose in my throat.

The airways in my lungs narrowed, forcing short agonized wheezes from my chest and I risked a glance toward the screen door, wondering if I’d be able to make it to my car without being caught.

“Jeremy?” Nate growled, the muscles rippling along his jaw. “I don’t want him anywhere near Kate.”

I felt myself falling and stumbled into his side without a second thought, clinging to him like a small child would a parent on the first day of school. His body stiffened in response before he allowed one of his arms to rest around my shoulders.

“Then, I guess you’ll be going after all,” Mike said with a grin.

Nate’s arm tightened around my body before he ominously stated, “Alright. Let’s get to work… buddy.”

Chapter Seventeen

Dakota

“Ithink I might need to pee.” I bounced my knees up and down with a slight wince.

Zane handed me an empty soda bottle, keeping his eyes on the dark building in front of us. “Just climb in the backseat if you need to.”

“Um, Big Guy? I can’t pee in this. It’s barbaric. Listen, I saw a7-Elevena few blocks back. You stay here, and I’ll just go take care of business.”

“You don’t really have to pee, do you? You just want snacks.”

I pushed my lips out into a pout and nodded. “I’m hungry.”

“Babe,” he stated calmly. “Told you to pack a cooler before we left. Surveillance takes time.”

We’d been tasked with tracking Bear. Initially, it seemed more exciting than reviewing hospital security cameras or trying to identify the man seen on the video sent to Kate, but now I wasn’t so sure.

We’d been sitting in here for an hour, and not one single thing had happened. The only thing that had left the body shop was a bat, and as he wasn’t a criminal, Zane didn’t care to hear about it.

I bet the others were having more fun.

They probably had snacks too.

I traced my finger around the window control button on the armrest. “What if he’s not even here? What if we’re just sitting here for no reason and he’s at home watching sports and laughing at how stupid we are?”

“He’s here. My source saw him arrive about a half-hour before we got here. We’ll wait him out and see where he leads.” Zane drummed his fingers lightly against the thigh of his jeans, perfectly content doing nothing.

I pulled my phone out to text Little Ricky again, only for Zane to pry it from my fingers with his giant bear paw of a hand. “No phones. The light could draw unwanted attention. We want this to look like any other vehicle parked along the street.”

With a grumble, I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes. I wondered what Little Ricky was doing right now. I’d thought that he would’ve been happy to know that Bear was his real dad, but both he and Molly had seemed upset by the news.

Maybe it was because they knew that Bear really was the traitor.

“Why do you think that Little Ricky is mad at me?”

---