Someone pounded on the front door, cutting him off.
Dane swore under his breath and pulled back. His lips were slightly swollen, and colored by her lipstick. Isobel rubbed a red spot staining the corner of his mouth.
“Do you need to get that?”
“No,” he muttered, going back in for another deep and hungry kiss just as the visitor knocked again, more urgently this time. He growled in frustration. “Yes.”
His clear irritation warmed some baser part of her, but she nodded to the hall. “Go.”
He hesitated just a moment, then pressed a kiss to her lips. “Stay here.”
The order shivered up her spine. As he retreated into the hall, she tucked her blouse back into the waistband of her skirt. The drawer he’d set the witness accounts in was slightly ajar, and for a moment she went still, her eyes finding the edge of the stack of papers.
The intruder’s third knock was so loud it made Isobel jump, and her gaze shifted to the clock. It was late. What could possibly be so urgent? Unless… Isobel’s heart sped up a beat. Unless one of Dane’s deputies had news to report on the search?
But it wasn’t a deputy at the door.
“Len? What the hell—”
“We found Connoway.”
Isobel snapped to attention. She paced to the door, careful not to let her shadow spill into the hall.
Dane closed the door behind his brother. “What are you talking about?”
Lenny’s elation was palpable in every word. “His van was spotted on the north road,” he said, slightly breathless.
A wash of unease filled Isobel, who didn’t like the thought of Lenny Walker wandering in the dark in search of her baby sister. Not at all.
“Len.” Dane sounded pained. “We talked about this.”
What was that supposed to mean?
“I’m not looking forher,” Lenny said.
“For what, then?” When Lenny scoffed, Dane pressed harder. “For justice? Revenge?”
Isobel’s nails dug crescent moons into her palms as she held her breath.
“I’ll bring them in, Len. That’s my job. Not yours.”
“Then why aren’t you doing it?” Lenny shot back. “They could be anywhere by now! You should still be out looking—”
“I’ve been out all day!” Dane snapped.
Lenny went on as though he hadn’t heard him. “But instead you’re here, looking like…” Lenny paused. “What are you doing, exactly?” he asked, suspicion leaking into his voice.
Isobel’s cheeks bloomed with heat.
“I have Esther tonight,” Dane said evenly.
“June could take her.”
The mention of Esther’s mother was a bruise. June had been her best friend, grafted to her heart from early childhood. Later, Dane had been looped into their group, but from the beginning, it was June who’d held Isobel’s hand when she was scared, June who’d made her laugh so hard it hurt, June whom she’d promised to love forever.
And when the divorce put Isobel in an impossible place between two of the people she cared about most, it was June who’d walked away from all their history.
They didn’t talk now.
