“Are those nunchucks?” I asked with a startled laugh.
He nodded, not breaking his steely stare at Josh.
“Where the hell did you—” I cut myself off and sliced a hand through the air. “Never mind. We’ll have a talk about bringing weapons to work later. You need to go get someone with….” I didn’t want to say “an actual weapon” and hurt his feelings. He did just insert himself into a potentially dangerous situation for me. “Training,” I finally managed.
Boom. Nailed it. All feelings left intact.
“No,” Josh hissed, drawing my full attention back his way—to the gun gripped in his hand.
Well, shit.
This just went from bad to “a week-old liquefied body in a tub” bad.
“I’m not leaving without you, Rain. You’re coming home with me, and we’re going to make this work.”
“Um,” I muttered, jerking my gaze around the room, looking for any type of weapon. If I’d prepped the area for an autopsy, there would be lots of sharp and deadly tools to chuck his way. “I’m pretty certain there are two men who will absolutely disagree with you on that plan.”
Josh’s lips curled into a snarl. “I’d like to see them try.”
Well, if I knew my guys, he wouldn’t have to wait long.
Because the longer I was away from them with no communication, the sooner they would be here.
Now we just had to wait. And hope Josh didn’t get trigger-happy.
30
JAMESON
The rising sun’s glare through the glass door, burning my retinas, was offensive and fucking rude. Grumbling under my breath, I shifted on the living room couch to face the kitchen to save myself from being blinded. Sneaks hissed at me for interrupting his bath and darted off toward his room. I rolled my eyes at the animal and shot another annoyed look out toward the pool deck.
In its defense, the beautiful sunny day wasn’t to blame for my bad mood. It stemmed from the worry of not hearing from Rain. She’d promised she wouldn’t be gone long, but now almost three hours had passed since she left, and the knot in my gut wound tighter with every minute that ticked by.
“Who pissed in your cereal?” Slade rumbled as he shuffled into the kitchen. It took him all of five seconds to realize I was alone in the living room. “Where’s Rain?”
I took a slow sip of my coffee. “She left just after five this morning.”
“For where?” He leaned both forearms on the island. Sleepy Slade was gone, intense and terrifying Slade now wide awake and glaring at me.
“The morgue.” I stared into my dark coffee. “But that was a while ago, and I haven’t heard from her. I know she’s somewhere safe, but….” I took a sip, trying to give myself a second before making him worry too. What if I was wrong and had no reason to be nervous? “I don’t know. Something feels off. I can’t explain it.”
“Did you text her?” The urgency in his voice had my concern kicking up another notch.
“Yes, once, but—”
My phone vibrated along the coffee table, and I released a relieved breath. But that relief changed to confusion at Charlie’s number filling the screen.
I swiped to answer the call and put it on speaker. “Charlie—”
“Where is Dr. Evans?”
Coffee sloshed over my hand, dripping onto the rug, when I lurched to stand at his panicked tone. “What?”
“Just tell me where she is, Jameson. Now.”
Fuck, I couldn’t breathe. If something had happened to Rain while I sat here drinking my fucking coffee, I wouldn’t forgive myself. “She went to the morgue earlier this morning.”
“Fuck,” he cursed under his breath. “And where are you or Detective Taylor? Are you with her?”