Page 31 of Sticks and Stones
It was Alice.
And she looked bad.
LikeREAL BAD.
“Hey,” he said, noticing she’d been crying.
Immediately, Ethan was there. Alice was family, and for her to show up in this state…
Something happened.
“What’s wrong?” Ethan asked, concern and worry in his eyes.
Gene was already pulling her in, worried about the woman just as much.
Alice wasn’t a cryer.
She was a‘punch a dude in the balls’kind of a lady.
“My son,” she said, starting to cry all over again.
Oh, hell.
This was going to be bad.
They hadn’t heard from Corbin in about two weeks. They knew he was trying to get an undercover case, despite them telling him it was a bad idea, but they figured he was handling the workload the city threw at him.
Surely, he’d know to call them if he had to go undercover—in case he needed backup.
Right?
Their baby detective wouldn’t do something stupid, would he?
Oh, shit.
He totally did something stupid.
“What happened to Corbin?” Ethan asked, almost afraid to go there.
Alice sat down, and the men flanked her.
Then, she told them.
“They found Corbin beaten, assaulted, and nearly dead outsideBull’s Biker Bar,” she whispered. “He was working at the time. The hospital got his name, and they called me. A security guard at the hospital was once a city cop.”
Oh, fuck.
Neither man spoke as she explained.
They’d both heard the waver in her voice when she said‘assaulted’, and they had a sneaking suspicion why.
That tone said it all.
“All I know is that he went in undercover for a sting the police wanted handled, and someone hurt him. That’s all his captain would tell me. He’s in the hospital, and I didn’t know who to come to. I can’t get in to see him, and I’m scared.”
Oh, Jesus.
This was exactly what they warned him about.
