Page 23 of Barrett

“Not you, Raiden. Your brother. As much as it pains me to say, he can read Barrett better than you, which means they would work better together.” Jordan glanced down at Vail, who motioned for him to keep going. Sighing, Jordan added, “And Hart and Vail think you should stay here with us, Raiden, because Lane would like to go… Fuck if I remember where, but he’ll need a guard.”

“What?”

“That’s all you’re getting out of me,” Jordan growled.

Both my brother’s and my back straightened.

“Yes, sir,” my brother said.

Hartley turned to smile at us. “Don’t be so miserable. This will be good for both of you. You mope too much, and we've all seen it before you say you don’t. However, it’s more irritation in Reghan and longing in Raiden. You both have unresolved shit with other men. I also think you should talk to Alton, Raiden, but it might be too much if I ask you to speak to both of them. We’ll tackle one at a time. With Lane here, he’s easier.”

Raiden opened his mouth and closed it before opening it again, no doubt weighing if he wanted to question the boss’s partner or simply go along with it.

I wasn’t happy about having to ride up to Monroe County with Barrett, but I wasn’t going to question Jordan, especially not after he growled at my brother. I was good right where I was, at least for now. Once I got into the car with Barrett, well, I would have to resist trying not to strangle him.

“Barrett is aware of the situation, and although he doesn’t like the idea of one of my men going with him, he sees the merit in it,” Jordan stated, his jaw no longer clenching. “You’ll meet at a predetermined location so you can ride together. Your research will be done on foot, talking to locals. As we’ve noticed, cameras only catch so much. Sometimes, you have to be on the ground speaking with people.”

“Which is where you come in,” Vail said. “You’re much more intimidating than Barrett is. He has that whole sweet, dimpled, boy-next-door look about him.”

“Don’t forget the nice body,” Hartley added.

“You’ll question people with Barrett, and hopefully, you can get more information than the police could.”

I couldn’t tell if this was a legitimate reason to shove Barrett and me together or if it was ideal to have us both go. Either way, I was fucked, and not in a good way. It wasn’t as if I was going to sleep with Barrett.

“It will be off the books,” Vail said. “Barrett isn’t going up there as a cop. He thinks acting as if someone he cares about is missing will have people willing to talk.”

That made sense, as much as I didn’t admit it out loud. If Barrett pretended to be one of the victim’s relatives, he’d easily have the sympathy of others. And if they wouldn’t talk, I was the muscle. I could be intimidating as hell and had more power than Barrett did. There was also that I could protect Barrett. He wouldn’t want me to, but I’d do it just the same. Much like Jordan always had Vail and Hartley protected, whether they wanted it or not.

“You can go,” Jordan said. “I won’t be leaving today.”

“Yes, sir. We’ll be downstairs if you need us,” I told him. By that, I meant we’d be in our apartments or one of our apartments. Raiden and I were both reeling from our new assignments. At least mine was clear. Raiden’s was still up in the air.

When we were in my apartment with the door shut, I leaned heavily against it. There was no reason to be angry or frustrated about not wanting to go with Barrett because part of me did want to go with him. He would drive me insane and make me want to fuck him against a wall while I shut him up with my tongue, but maybe in the middle of that, I could get him to at least drop his mask for a little while. To realize I wasn’t his enemy, no matter how much he thought I was.

“We’re screwed,” Raiden said as he leaned against the counter. “There’s nothing we can do but go along with it.”

“Yup.”

“At least you only have to deal with one man. Eventually, I’m going to have to deal with two.”

“That you are.”

11

BARRETT

There was no way this wasn’t going to blow up in our faces. It was bad enough I had to drive out of the city to meet Reghan at a location where I wouldn’t be seen. I was in my personal car; one I knew wasn’t tracked. Reghan picked me up at our predetermined spot in his Jeep Gladiator.

The moment I was in it; I wanted to throw myself right back out. It smelled like him, the scent of his cologne. It went into my lungs and fueled my body's reaction to it. How one scent could make me halfway hard was completely up to the man wearing it. The drive north was going to suck.

The mountains spread out in Monroe County. There were a lot of places where someone could hide. In less populated areas, among shoppers, or walking around in the towns, pretending to be regular citizens.

The fact that there was a kidnapping that matched the description of the men who were taken in Dremest was enough to raise flags. I tried to get the chief to let me go up there and coordinate with them, but he wasn’t having it. He said we should have solved it by now and shouldn’t need anyone’s help. Others tried to talk him into coordinating our efforts. No go. Anyone else would have already had a meeting with them and been joining forces to get this solved. To the chief, it was a matter of who caught them first, and he wanted us to win.

It wasn’t a fucking race. It wasn’t a competition. It was the lives of men on the line, but what the hell did I know? I was only a detective on the case, so apparently, I didn’t know shit.

Here I was with Reghan, off the clock, going to look for clues. It shouldn’t be this way. Then again, I didn’t always follow the law. I cared more about finding the men and bringing the one who did this to justice than measuring my dick against others so we could come out on top.

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