“Does it have somethin’ to do with Tobias Land?” Slade asked.
“Toby,” Brantley corrected. “Yes, it does.”
“Do we have a case?” Charlie inquired.
“Is this guy missin’?” Darius questioned.
“What do we know about him?” Holly asked.
“If you’ll pipe down a minute, I’ll tell you,” Brantley said with a gruff laugh. “Shit.”
The group laughed, and Reese got the sneaking suspicion they were learning how to push Brantley’s buttons and making a unified effort to do so. If it was even possible, he liked this team more because of it.
“Over the weekend, we got a call from Reese’s brother,” Brantley began, then went on to explain the high-level details.
“Isn’t this right in your wheelhouse?” Charlie asked Slade. “You were a bounty hunter, right?”
“I was.” He smiled, looking proud that she’d brought it up.
“Technically, there is a bounty on his head,” Brantley told them. “But we’re more concerned with the danger he’s in than deliverin’ him straight to the police.”
“What’s the bounty?” Slade asked, glancing between Reese and Brantley.
“It’s a sizable amount, but we’re not worried about the money,” Brantley stated.
Slade chuckled. “I agree.Wemight not be interested, but if it’s high enough, others are gonna be lookin’ for him, too.”
Reese hadn’t considered that, but it made sense. Which meant they would need to increase their urgency if they expected to keep Toby out of harm’s way.
“Good point,” Brantley said, then went on to explain to the others what they’d done so far in their search for him: the minimal research, checking out his house, his previous business, talking to the ex-girlfriend at the strip club, and the run-down tract of cabins that had netted them zilch.
“You think he’s in Dallas?”
“It’s a good possibility,” Reese chimed in. “Based on some searches I did last night, he owned a few properties up that way. I don’t think he’ll be hidin’ out at any of them, but I think he’ll consider it a safe place to be.”
“However, there’s still a chance he’ll be here,” Brantley added, “which is why I need two people to volunteer to stay behind.”
Charlie was the first to raise her hand. Because her mother’s health was failing, she preferred to stay close to home, and Reese couldn’t blame her.
No one else volunteered, so Brantley picked Jay. “You’ve got kids and a wife. I’m sure they’d prefer you to be close by.”
Jay seemed pleased that he’d been chosen without having to draw attention to himself.
“What about y’all?” Brantley asked Evan and Becs, the only others with children. “Do you need to stay behind?”
“I don’t,” Evan stated. “My mother’s with Sophia.”
Sophia was Evan’s seven-year-old daughter.
Brantley glanced at Becs again.
Her gaze swung to Evan, and Reese couldn’t help but wonder if something was going on there.
“She can stay with Soph,” Evan said easily, although he didn’t look at Becs for long, and the same went for her.
Becs must’ve felt all the eyes on her because she finally spoke up, as though it warranted an explanation. “Carly and Sophia have become good friends since the party you threw. They’ve had a few sleepovers since.”
Reese glanced between Evan and Becs, wondering if the parents had been having sleepovers as well.
