Page 9 of Instinct & New Identity

“I’m not trying to marry you off, dumbass,” he said, grinning even bigger now like he knew somethingIdidn’t, andIdidn’t like it. “Iknow you like your puzzles, and you likely won’t rest until you solve this one, so we’re offering to help.”

“Who’s we?”Iasked just asArchercame around the corner with twoOreosstuffed in his mouth.

“Us, the two smartest people you know,”Wadesaid, pointing at himself andArcher, who was smiling with a mouthful of cookies.

I snorted and shook my head.

“I don’t need your help, but thanks,”Itold them.

“We know you don’tneedit, but you’re going to get it anyway,”Archersaid. “IputAxelon it since he’s a whiz at the computer stuff.AndDanecan help, too.”

DaneEndersonandAxelSkarsgårdwere two of our other newer hires.Theycame recommended byWade’ssister.Bothwere great with tech work and computers.

“Jack wants in on this too, but he’s gotta finish up his stakeout of the cheating husband, and that could be a couple of days, so we’ll fill him in when he gets back,”Wadeexplained.

I rolled my eyes at them.Sometimes, they meddled worse than a bunch of grandmas.Myphone buzzed in my pocket, andItook it out to see it was the copI’dhandedOklahomaoff to.Ianswered and put it on speaker soArchercould hear sinceIhad a feelingIknew what this was about.

“Hey,Parker,”Isaid, andArcherandWadeboth looked up.

“Vince, thanks for dropping off my latest prison guest,”OfficerParkerquipped in response.

Parker andIwent to high school together, though he was a couple of years older than me.Aftergraduating, he went straight to the academy, andIwent into theArmy.Heoften worked with my dad when he brought in skips, so we’d stayed in touch over the years, and he was usually my go-to person whenIneeded to drop off one of his “runaway inmates.”

“I hope he decided to be chatty this time and give you what you needed,”Itold him, knowing they were hoping he was the weak link in his local gang of drug dealers.

“He’s chatting alright, but not about whatIneed,”Parkersaid, andIknew what was coming, which was why this call was on speaker. “He’sclaiming police brutality from you, even though you aren’t an actual officer.”

“I got a dash cam and two cameras from businesses nearby whereIcaught him that would prove otherwise,”Iexplained.

“I figured,” he noted. “Iknow your dad taught you better than to screw up something so simple, but you knowIgotta call and ask.”

“I know, man.It’sfine.Doyou need me to send the camera feeds over to you?”Iasked, not offended at all since my dad went through this a lot too.Itwas just part of the business.Whenthese men, and sometimes women, were backed into a corner after having skipped court dates or broke parole or whatever, they would grasp at any straws they could to get free.

“I likely won’t need anything else unless this goes to trial, butI’lllet you know if that changes,” he said. “Sincethis was his third strike anyway before he bailed on his court date, the judge is likely gonna throw the book at him.Hedefinitely won’t be getting bond this time, so his buddies won’t be able to bail him out.”

“Figured as much,”Ireplied.

“I will warn you though.TheCrimsonVipersare not a group to take lightly, so until this gets all squared away, watch your back,”Parkerwarned me. “Alright, well, never a dull moment around here, soIgotta get back to it.Hollerif you need anything.”

Never a dull moment, indeed.

5

VINCE

Archer,Wade,Diego, andIwere all sitting in one of our conference rooms a few days later, reviewing a new case we had just gotten and mapping out the timeline, whenAxelknocked on the door.

“You want me to come back later?” he questioned the room.

“Nah.What’sup?”Archeranswered, knowing we had pretty much finished everything we needed to and gone over the timeline twice now with a fine-tooth comb.

"I thinkIfound her,"Axelsaid, his mildSwedishaccent doing nothing to soften the seriousness in his voice.

He hesitated for a beat, "AndIthinkIknow why she ghosted you."

I knew exactly who he was talking about, and whileIwas happy to know she wasn’t dead,Ialso didn’t need the guys all up in my business on this one.Iwas about to say so, but my meddling cousin interrupted.

“What do you mean?”Archerasked, bringingAxel’sattention over to him.

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