Page 36 of In Hiding

The penny dropped, along with Neville’s stomach.

“There’s more.”

There always was. He groaned and set his hands on his hips, in part to hurry along his informant, and in part to show his frustration at how once again, the Crossing could be caught in the middle of some sort of trouble. “Let me have it.”

Damien’s eyes hardened. “They both served with an inmate by the name of Ryan Mitchell.”

An alarm rang loudly in Neville’s mind as Damien nodded, his expression dark and ominous.

“I know you well enough to know that you are aware of Sarah Andersen’s history.”

Again with the mind reading. “What if I do?”

“Then you’ll know that Mitchell poses a risk to her.”

“Not while he’s in jail.” Across his desk, Damien’s jaw clenched. “What? You think Langley’s somehow caught up in this?”

“I don’t think, Nev. I know. The question is why is he here?”

“You telling me you don’t know?”

Neville studied Damien for a long moment, trying to decipher what he was trying to get at. Was he suggesting Langley had been sent by Mitchell? If that were true, why not let her go over the edge of the cliff or bleed out? Neville shook his head. For all his faults, Sarah’s new handyman wasn’t a murderer.

Jake Langley wanted redemption. Nev could hear it in his tone of voice and see it in his eyes but his actions shouted it loud and clear. He suspected the newcomer had yet to admit it to himself, but the man wanted to be rid of his past, and to his way of thinking, that only left one option: Jake had to have been sent by her brother.

“If he found her, Mitchell won’t be far behind,” Damien added. “I knew Langley when he was a cadet. He was wild, rash, impulsive. Exactly why I didn’t want him on my team. He’s never forgiven me for it.”

Neville shook his head. “That’s not who he is now.”

“It’s not like you to focus on the positive, Nev.”

He had a point. “Stop playing hard to get, McCafferty. Tell me what you think.”

The older man smiled and pointed at him. “You’re right. I don’t think he’s here to finish what her husband started.”

“Ex-husband,” Neville clarified. “She divorced him before she appeared here in the Crossing.”

“All the more reason he wants revenge. Mitchell is...” Damien searched for the right word. It wasn’t like him to be speechless. “Fanatical.”

Just how much research had Damien done?

“I think Langley was sent by her brother, to protect her and the boy. If that’s the case, Nev, he’s in over his head, and you and I need to help him out.”

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