Freakin’ Air Biscuit.
Had to be.
Casey’s plan had been to stay overnight and treat Rio to brunch at some five-star restaurant in downtown Palm Springs before they went their separate ways tomorrow morning.
Another night in that bed together—it was asking for trouble, Rio knew it. But it was likely not going to happen now. Freakin’ Air Biscuit had saved him.
He was surprisingly disappointed.
After the room cleared, when Casey headed off the stage, Rio met her at the stairs. “What did Jon do?” he asked quietly. “How can I help?”
She was surprised. “How did you know?”
Rio gave her a classic shrug-face, complete with shoulder motion, in return. “Kind of an easy guess. I mean, only because I know what I know. No one else suspected anything—you were great.”
But whoops, Todd was still in the room and looking over at them with curiosity, so Rio pulled her in for a fake-boyfriend-appropriate hug. And yeah, it jangled every nerve in his body, but a man had to do what a man had to do.
“My mother texted,” Casey said, voice muffled from her face pressed into his neck. Yet at the same time, she held him tightly, as if she liked his arms around her—and might well never let go. “Jon’s gone AWOL.”
“God damn,” Rio breathed. Of course Jon had.
“He left the house in the early afternoon, and hasn’t come back.”
He pulled back from her—not that he wanted to, but... “I gotta warn Dave ASAP.”
“Mom already called him.” Casey’s eyes were huge in her face as she took her phone out and scrolled to the message her mother had sent. “She knew my schedule, so... Apparently, Dave got a friend—Decker or Becker or something like that—mom’s hearing’s not all that great, but whoever he is, he went over to Jon’s apartment. He wasn’t there.”
Dave had somehow arranged for Senior Chief Becker—who was not exactly besties with the younger SEALs in Team Ten—to do him this gargantuan favor. Kinda like a Vatican security guard asking the Pope to do a quick Starbucks run, because surely he wasn’t busy.
“But of course you should still call him,” Casey said, misreading his stunned silence. “Dave. And I need to call my mother.” She looked down at her phone. “She tried calling a few minutes ago. God, I’m going to have to go up there, to calm her down, but I also really need to go to LA, to see if Jon maybe went to my place...” She took a deep breath. “Luc, if I gave you a key to my house—”
“Absolutely,” Rio said. “Whatever you need. Look, let’s get you to the room. You can call her back, while I check flights to SFO for you.”
“I’m so sorry about this.” She was looking at him with her heart in her eyes, and he realized he was still holding her hand, their fingers interlaced. “And it’s okay if you just want to get out of here. You probably want to get back to Dave as quickly as possible.”
She thought he was worried because Jon was on the loose, with Dave still in his air-biscuitly sights.
“Dave’s a big boy,” Rio reassured her. “He can take care of himself. I’m more than happy to help you with this. It’s not that big a deal.” He quickly added, “To me. I know it’s huge to you. That’s why it’s a good idea for me to hang around and help.”
She hugged him again, hard.
Yeah, he could get used to this.
“So, yes,” Mom said, anxiety tightening her voice on the other end of the phone. “I’m now officially insanely worried, and I’m sorry, but I do think you should come.”
“Okay.” Casey was officially insanely worried, too, but she knew it wouldn’t help her mother to know that, so she used her acting skills to keep her own voice from rising in pitch. “Let me figure out my flight and I’ll call you back. You know this isn’t your fault,” she added.
“Yeah,” her mom said. “I just...” She made a sound that was an exact vocal expression of what Casey was feeling herself. Exasperation, anger, disappointment, fear... “I thought this was over.”
“I know,” Casey said. “Mom, I’ll call you soon. Love you.”
“I love you, too.”
She hung up the phone and turned to see Luc looking at her with a great big nope in his pretty brown eyes. He was shaking his head a little, to further confirm the words coming out of his mouth. “No seats on any flights out of Palm Springs ’til tomorrow. Earliest leaves at 10:40 AM.”
“Shit,” she said. “Shit shit shit.” Unlike with her mother, she wasn’t afraid to let Luc—kind, wonderful Luc—see what she was really feeling. “Someone just found Jon’s phone and wallet. Mom was calling him, pretty much nonstop, so the person who found it answered. They just dropped everything off with her at her house, and she told me that Jon’s driver’s license was still there. In his wallet.”
Luc straightened slightly—it was clear that he instantly understood. “Without ID, he didn’t get on a plane back to SoCal.”
