Jake spun and pointed at him. “Do not say that to her. You’ll upset her. And she’s just filling in for Megan.”
Kellan held up his hands. “Fine. I don’t know why you thought I would say anything.”
“Yeah, no idea,” Jake said dryly. “What are the two of you doing here? I thought you had to leave town for a case?”
“Hmm. We did. But that case brought us back here,” Kellan told him.
Jake stilled. “What? Why? Is something going on?”
“We’re not sure,” Eli said, running his hand over his face. “There have been reports of a new drug being out on the market. It’s meant to enhance your senses and it can’t be detected on any sort of standard test.”
“Then how do you know about it?” Jake asked
“Because people are dying from it,” Eli said. “Take it in small doses, everything is all good. Large doses and you get delusional. People think they can fly and they’re jumping off bridges or the roofs of houses. They’re trying to outrun trains or swim in a bayou known to have alligators. The list goes on and on. And it’s taken a while for people to start piecing all of these deaths together and figure out that something weird is going on. It wasn’t until we got several reports from relatives or friends of the deceased who said they were taking this new drug. And that they had been acting weirdly before their deaths, saying things like they thought they were invincible.”
Jake frowned and sat behind his desk. “Get off my desk.”
Eli sighed and glanced at Kellan just as one of Jake’s deputies knocked on the door.
Who was he? Eli hadn’t seen him before.
“Yes?” Jake said coolly.
That was surprising. From what he knew, Jake was a good boss. He took care of everyone under him. But it was clear he didn’t think much of this deputy.
“I’m just headed out. Anything you need?” the guy asked. “Hey, I’m Zane.” He walked in and held out his hand to Kellan, who just stared at him.
Eli got off Jake’s desk and walked forward, holding out his hand to Zane. “I’m Special Agent Eli Jones and this is my brother, Special Agent Kellan Jones.”
“Oo-ee, FBI agents,” Zane said. “I’m in the presence of greatness.”
This guy was . . . weird.
“You are,” Kellan said without inflection.
Zane blinked at him, clearly not knowing how to take him. “Right. Well. Anything, boss?”
“No,” Jake told him. “But try not to upset anyone today.”
“Just doing my job.” He walked out with a wave of his hand.
“You don’t like him,” Kellan said immediately.
Jake raised his eyebrows “You’re not here to discuss my deputy.”
“Why did you hire him if you don’t like him?” Kellan asked.
Yeah, he could be like a dog with a bone when he wanted to know something. But right now, Eli was interested in the answer as well.
Jake sighed “I didn’t. We’re short-staffed and the sheriff from the next county asked me if I could take Zane for a while. He was struggling with him and thought I could help sort him out. But the truth is that he’s not a good fit and I wish I had never said yes. I’m planning on sending him back. It would have been good if Linc had returned though because I’m going to be very short-staffed.”
“But if he’s causing you issues, he’s probably making more work for you,” Eli pointed out.
“Yeah, he is. Right. Back to this drug. Why are you telling me? So I can keep an eye out? That hardly warrants a personal visit from you guys.”
“Well, we’re talking to a few different county sheriffs in the area about this.” Eli brought out his laptop and connected it to the projector, showing Jake a map of Texas. “These are all the cases we’ve discovered so far.”
They stared at the map for a moment.
