Page 29 of Whispers of You
My gut twisted with a combination of sympathy and unease. That kid was staying alive on rage and fear. I’d seen that kind of combination before.
And it was deadly.
8
WREN
“Guard my donutsfor me while I’m out on this call, Little Williams?” Nash asked, lowering a bakery box in front of me.
Abel snorted from the cubicle next to us. “They’ll be gone before you’re even out the door.”
“Hey,” I said, tossing a paper clip.
He leaned back in his chair. “You know she’s got a thing for sweets.”
“Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. It’s a good life motto.”
Nash tightened his grip on his donuts, raising the box away from my desk. “Will you watch my donuts, Abel?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re just like—” My words cut off.Holt. He was just like Holt with his obsession with food—pie, in particular. But food of all kinds was worthy of devotion.
Nash shifted uncomfortably and then opened the box. “You can have one. Just not the Boston cream.”
How pathetic must I have looked for Nash to offer me one of his precious confections? I forced a grin as I nabbed the strawberry one. “Works every time.”
Nash gaped at me. “You faked emotional distress to steal my donuts?”
The laugh that came was real, and it felt good. The sound hadn’t passed my lips since before I’d met Grae for lunch yesterday. “Hasn’t anyone ever told you it’s a cliché for cops to eat donuts?”
Lawson swooped in and stole a glazed one. “I’ll take that cliché every single time.”
Nash snapped the lid of the bakery box closed. “My donuts. Mine.”
“Did someone say donuts?” Jude asked as he strode up, pack slung over one shoulder.
Nash let out a pathetic moan. “Next time, I’m getting two dozen.”
I pressed my lips together to stifle my laughter. “Might want to go for three.”
Jude leaned on the half partition to my cubicle, scanning my face. “You hanging in there?”
I fought the curse that wanted to surface. It wasn’t that I didn’t appreciate Jude and Chris looking out for me. I did. But asking that in front of two of Holt’s brothers? Not freaking cool. The last thing I wanted was one of them telling Holt that his presence hurt me. Holt didn’t get to know that he affected me at all.
I took a large bite of the donut, speaking around the fluffy dough. “Perfect now that I’ve got this strawberry goodness.”
Nash grinned. “Donuts make everything right with the world.”
Lawson didn’t buy my act quite so easily. His eyes narrowed a fraction as he studied me. I’d tried to cover the dark circles the best I could, but I was no makeup artist. And I couldn’t do anything about the red streaks in the whites of my eyes.
So, I opted to shift my chair, turning back to my screen and willing my phone to ring. That was an awful thing to hope for. That someone was in enough distress to call nine-one-one. But that was where I was at.
Lawson cleared his throat, shifting his focus to Abel. “The team’s meeting at the trailhead. We should have enough officers left to cover incoming calls, but will you call in reinforcements if things look thin?”
Lawson and Nash served on the volunteer search and rescue team for the county with a couple of other officers. Having a law enforcement presence on the team was helpful but could leave us short-staffed.
“Will do,” Abel said.
“Let’s head out,” Lawson ordered.
