Page 130 of Heresy

His responsive smile is blinding.

“No problem.”

Shane

It’s about damn time, I think as I walk into Tanner’s home office to drop my weight in a seat facing his desk.

I’m so damn happy that Brinley is finally cooperating that I smile brightly in the asshole’s direction, ignoring how Gabe stares at me from the other chair to my side, and Jase glares at me from where he’s leaning against a wall.

“Why are you so happy?” Tanner asks, his voice tenser than usual.

Kicking my feet up onto his desk, I lean back in my chair and ignore the warning glare on his face.

“Because my job is done. Brinley will tell us what she knows just as long as we help her find her dad. And if we find him, we find the servers. Problem solved.”

Tanner just stares at me. Gabe chuckles.

When Tanner picks up a pen and starts clicking it incessantly, I know he’s annoyed.

Speaking calmly and a little too slowly, he asks, “Don’t you think if we could find Jerry, that we wouldn’t have needed Brinley in the first place?”

I consider it.

And damn. He’s got a point.

Gabe chimes in. “Okay, so Brinley is obviously of no help. She doesn’t have the information we need. Where do we go from here?”

Tanner launches the pen across the room, his temper flaring.

“I have no idea. We still can’t find Jerry, and now we have special ops rolling up on my house and torching our fucking cars.”

That grabs my attention. I pull my feet from the desk to sit up straight. “Special ops?”

“According to my cameras, yeah. There were four of them. All in black clothes and masks. All coordinated as they ran up into my back parking area, took out the cars, sprayed their damn message on my house and were back out of there in less than three minutes flat.”

Gabe again. “We assume Scott may be involved and that the governor was sending over a love tap.”

Fuck…

“Maybe Brinley is still helpful,” I offer. “She told me she’s willing to tell us what she knows in exchange for helping her find Jerry, meaning she knows more about this than she’s already admitted.”

They both stare at me like I’ve grown a second head.

Tanner scowls. “You could have started with that, Shane. Where is she?”

“The living room. I came up here to get you two before talking to her. And if you think back, dumbass, you’ll realize I did start with that.”

They don’t bother to respond.

Tanner and Gabe stand from their seats then head toward the door. Jase and I follow after them, my pace a little slower because I’m exhausted after this entire day.

I’ve been up since six thirty in the morning, and it’s nearing one thirty in the morning now. If I don’t get some sleep soon, I’m going to pass out wherever the hell I’m standing.

We find Brinley downstairs on the couch by herself.

Everybody else left about ten minutes before I got back, every one of them taking Ubers because their cars were torched.

Ezra and Emily waited behind for Damon, then they took off as soon as he got here.

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