He looked down at her, his gaze more tortured than she’d realized. “I’m not sleeping until I find that cat, dead or alive.”
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Before Millie could offer to hunt the woods with Wolfe, Scott opened the screen door and stepped outside. She jolted and looked up at him. “Hey, Scott.” A pretty pink blush wandered over her face.
“Hey.” He held out a hand, waiting until she accepted it before pulling her up to place a quick kiss on her nose. “You go back to sleep.”
She looked down at Wolfe. “Oh, but...”
“I’ve got it,” Scott said. His mind kept spinning and wouldn’t stop. He couldn’t get Dearth’s statement out of his brain.
“You require sleep too,” she retorted, looking at the fresh bruises on his face. “You got in another fight tonight.”
“It barely qualified as a scuffle,” he countered. “Silas wasn’t really into it. Honestly, I pulled my punches.” He hadn’t wanted to cause serious injury to a man so obviously angry and grief-stricken. “Get some sleep, Millie. You have that baby shower tomorrow, and both the arraignment and your termination hearing at HDD next week.” The poor woman needed her sleep. He hadn’t gone easy on her earlier, either.
She hesitated.
“We’ve got this, Millie,” Wolfe said, pushing his bulk off the porch. “I didn’t mean to keep you up.”
“You didn’t,” she said, patting his shoulder. “I’ll see you two tomorrow.”
Scott opened the door for her and she disappeared inside. “Where do you want to search tonight?” Or rather, this morning.
Wolfe partially turned, his thumbs tucked into his jeans. “I’ve got this, Terentson. You don’t need to go with me.”
Every instinct in Scott’s body whispered that Wolfe required backup. The man was obviously on the edge and needed a friend. “No, I’m good,” he said. “My mind won’t stop spinning, which means the nightmares are coming for me anyway. I’d rather help you look for Kat.” It was charming how worried the big brute was about the little feline.
“Okay,” Wolfe said, lifting his shoulder. “I’ve looked through the forest and the bunkhouse and all along the river, so I thought to head out toward the main road this time.”
“It’s a good idea.” Scott had thrown on jeans, boots, and a sweatshirt with a hood, which he drew over his head. Rain began falling again, which in his experience meant the skies would soon crack wide open and drench him. “I wonder if the weather’s always like this out here.”
“Seems like a normal spring to me,” Wolfe said, loping into a walk. “What’s on your mind?”
Too much. “Besides the obvious?”
“Yeah.”
Scott rolled his aching neck. “Werner Dearth. He’s an ass, and he seems to want to harass Millie, but something he said bothered me.”
“What?”
“He said to call my mother.” Scott ran through the last few days with his mom. Her best friend had been missing, yet she’d calmly gone to Nantucket. “Damn it.” He yanked his phone from his pocket and dialed.
“Hi,” Theresa said. “What’s up, Scotty?”
His instincts started to hum. “Where’s Julie, Mom?”
Her silence was telling. He waited her out. Finally, she sighed. “She’s here. Safe and sound.”
“What about the blood at her place?”
“Werner demanded to see her that night, then threw a vase at her after a fight, so we decided she should get out of town.”
Scott pinched the bridge of his nose. “She didn’t need to run. I would’ve kept her safe.”
Theresa chuckled. “She’s perfectly safe. In fact, her disappearance has upped the heat on Werner, that ass, and we’ve enjoyed that. Don’t be mad.”
He didn’t have time to be mad. “We’ll talk about it later. Love you.”
