“I might have an idea.”
I became even more uncomfortable as we walked across the street to the fire station. The men who greeted us were all just as gorgeous as the one standing next to me and they obviously knew each other well.
One of the firemen stretched his hand in greeting. “Hey, Officer Thompson. Great to see you again.”
The tiny piece of self-worth I’d managed to cling to shattered as those words hit my ears.Officer?The man with a key to Beckett’s apartment was apolice officer?!
Oh, this can’t be good for me. Who am I to compete with these guys?
“Hunter, have you seen Beckett? His family is worried.”
“No, I haven’t seen him in a few weeks.”
“Mind if I check the tower?”
“Go right ahead, but unless he just slipped by us in the last couple of hours, he won’t be there. We just ran drills this morning.”
“Thanks.”
“Oh, hey, Jake!” another man called, waving his hand in greeting.
Jake.Why did that name sound familiar? Beckett told me about a Jake, only briefly. What did he say?Wait!Jake was the name of the cop who was with him when he interviewed Amelia! But that still didn’t answer the question of why he had a key to his apartment.
I waited while Jake ran up the six flights of stairs to the top of the tower, returning in a fresh coat of sweat and short of breath. I was glad to see him suffer. It meant the gorgeous man still hadsomeflaws. If he’d run up those stairs andnotbeen short of breath, I’d have died.
“Why would he be up there?” I asked.
“He likes heights. Especially,” he took a few breaths, “when he needs to think.”
Of course!Why didn’t I think of that!
A warm wind rustled my hair, drawing my attention to the dark clouds rolling in. A late summer storm meant…
BOOM!
Thunder.
“Beckett,” I whispered.
Jake and I shared a look and I knew… I just knew this man was aware of Beckett’s fear of thunder too. That fact alone had the green-eyed monster fully unsheathing its claws. I was even more desperate to know who this guy was now, how he knew Beckett so well, but I couldn’t bring myself to ask.
“Have any ideas?” Jake asked, pulling his phone out to check another text.
Lightening flashed not too far from us, transporting me back to the day Harold Henry had scolded us about how dangerous it was to be in a tree during a storm. We’d spent the morning out there when a storm rolled in without warning. Beckett had been too afraid to climb down, so we’d ended up staying in the tree house, waiting it out before heading home. There would be no reason for him to be there now… but with how upset he was, I doubted he was making rational decisions.
“I think I know!”
I started to run back to the car but stopped. I could try to pull up directions on the GPS, but if this guy knew his way around town, it would save a lot of time. “Do you know how to get to the Juniper Subdivision?”
His brows furrowed. “Where his sister used to live?”
I nodded.
“Yeah. I think I know.”
***
The storm was whipping the trees this way and that as we drove across town. Lightning painted the sky before each roll of thunder, slicing through the silence and making me jump. I pulled tighter on my seatbelt, desperate forsomethingto give me comfort. Jake and I both tried calling Beckett a few more times, but neither of us had any success.
