Page 155 of Chasing Shelter

Cope, Sutton, Nora, and Leah had taken Keely and Luca to my house to play with Bumper, making sure the kids didn’t overhear anything they shouldn’t. But the rest of us stayed put.

Fallon leaned into me. “Not what I was expecting when Anson talked about his hacker friend.”

My gaze flicked over to her. “What do you mean?”

She blinked back at me. “Geez, you really are a goner.”

“Huh?”

Fallon chuckled. “He’s gorgeous. Like some mountain man with a professor-geek-chic edge. There’s something about those glasses.”

Kye stepped up to our huddle just as Fallon finished speaking, and he frowned down at her. “What’s so great about glasses?”

Fallon just sent me a sidelong look. “Men. So oblivious.”

That only made Kye’s frown deepen. “I wear glasses sometimes when I do the books at the shop and the gym.”

I had to fight back my laughter and patted Kye on the shoulder. “Don’t worry, you’re cool, too.”

“Okay,” Dex said, his fingers flying across the keyboard as Anson, Trace, and Gabriel looked over his shoulder. “I finally broke into the software company’s database.”

“I didn’t hear that,” Gabriel muttered.

I expected Trace to say the same, but he didn’t. Instead, he just pressed for more information. “What’d you find?”

“There was a single user in Sparrow Falls,” Dex said, his fingers slowing, and his thumb moving over the trackpad on his laptop. “I matched the IP address to a location. This area of The Meadows RV Park & Cabins, in a neighborhood called The Pines.”

Trace’s form went completely rigid. “That’s where Jasper’s been living.”

“I know,” Dex said, clicking on something else. “But his credit card pinged at a bus station two towns over. He bought a ticket to Salt Lake City.”

“Getting out of Dodge,” Anson muttered.

I couldn’t stay where I was any longer. I moved to Trace’s spot behind the couch and slid my hand through his. Trace pressed a kiss to my temple. “I’m okay.”

I kept a hold of his hand, needing him to know I was there. With him. No matter what came our way.

“The ticket was purchased late yesterday afternoon, and you can see a figure here.” Dex pointed to the screen.

In the slightly grainy photo was a man wearing a hat with an unfamiliar sports team logo. But his face was tipped up at an angle just enough to allow a peek at his face, likely looking at one of the departures and arrivals boards. Even with the photo’s slight blur, I recognized Jasper Killington instantly. The dead eyes. The scar down the side of his face. The scowl.

“That’s him,” Trace ground out.

“If he got a ticket to Salt Lake City, he likely got off somewherebefore there,” Anson said, staring at the screen and trying to put together the pieces. “I’d pick a stop without a station. No cameras. We’d have no clue where. Our only hope is that the bus itself had a camera, but even if it did, it’ll take time to comb through the hours of footage.”

“Then how the hell are we supposed to find him?” Linc growled, a muscle in his jaw flexing.

“His resources will run out eventually, and someone’s going to spot him somewhere. There’s only so long someone can run once you have their name and face,” Anson assured him.

Linc scrubbed a hand over his face. “And until then, we just wait?”

I sent my brother a soft smile. “Until then, we’re grateful he’s no longer in Sparrow Falls. And welive.”

Linc shoved up from his chair. “It’s not good enough.” He stalked outside and into the backyard.

Arden started to get up, but I held out a hand to stop her. “Let me.”

She studied me for a moment and then nodded.

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