“I’ll make you a quick cup of coffee. Price too.” She was absolute speed-pulling on her own jeans and hurrying out of the room.
It wasn’t until he was fully dressed and downstairs that he took a moment to think about the night before.
After they had shared more than a few moments in the shower, they had settled into the bed in a contented quiet. They hadn’t yet talked about the two of them. About what their time together then meant for the future. If the stress of everything had made them impulsive. If, when they finished with the investigation and the need for close proximity ended, they would still want to be close to each other.
They didn’t talk at all.
They just slept, holding on to each other.
Now didn’t seem like the right time to talk about it either.
So they didn’t.
Blake handed him a coffee and told him to be safe.
Price showed up soon after, and together they told Liam not to worry.
Yet, as he drove away from the little house, now all lit up, he couldn’t help but feel a new weight pressing down hard against his chest.
He didn’t want to leave them.
And, only later in hindsight would he realize that he shouldn’t have.
THEREWASAlot of movement at the hospital. That didn’t slow once the sun came up, and it didn’t slow by the time shift change happened. Liam became the man in charge at the scene and directed his deputies in a search for the gunman. Then he helped Darius Williams speak to Ray’s mother.
Doc Ernest helped her when she broke down in tears.
Ray’s father was absent.
The security footage didn’t help anyone. The man wore a mask, had been fast, and had known exactly where he was going.
“He targeted Ray,” Liam had said to Darius while both standing outside of the security room.
The detective had nodded.
“Now I think we might know why our dear Glenn isn’t saying a word,” Detective Williams said.
Glenn Lowell had been the man in the baseball cap who had broken into Blake’s home. Although he had finally given up his name, he had refused to explain anything else. Considering he was from a small town in Alabama and seemingly had no connection to anyone involved, his presence was still a mystery. One that now he might be more inclined to keep unsolved.
“It could be the fourth guy, the bald man in the rain jacket, tying up loose ends,” Darius had added. “Ray didn’t have any law attached to his bed because of the state he was in. Mater had Deputy Little outside of his room. So maybe he went for the easier target.”
Still, it didn’t sit quite right for Liam.
“Killing him seems like an extreme consequence, but for what?” Liam had asked. “The chance that they might talk about their plan for why they broke into the Bennet house?”
Darius had shrugged.
He still didn’t know the whole story or about the laptop connecting Missy and Beth together. Liam was about to let him in when Liam was called to the hospital front desk.
He went there, for a moment thinking it might be Blake, when instead he was met with a stone-faced and determined teenaged boy.
The boy didn’t waste any time.
“I need to talk to you,” he said. “In private.”
Liam quirked an eyebrow.
“And who are you?”
