Baz didn’t like where this was going, but he understood what she was saying. He frowned, stepping around behind her so he could massage her shoulders while she turned her attention back to the computer monitor.
“And?” he prompted. “Does he?”
“I was tracin’ the serial number to see where he bought it.”
“Find anything?”
“More than I thought I would. The phone we know about was bought at a convenience store not far from Toby’s house. And yes, my hunch was right. The good news is, he bought more than one that day. Three, actually.”
“I don’t suppose you pinpointed his position, and we’re about to swoop in and pick him up?” Baz would be happy to put this case behind them so they could get back to their lives, back to Coyote Ridge.
“Not that lucky, Detective.” JJ glanced up at him over her shoulder. “However, I do know he’s been usin’ one of ’em.”
“That’s good news?”
“Since it pinged cell towers along the route up here, I’d say it is. It means we haven’t made the trek for nothin’.”
“So he’s here? In Dallas?”
“Unless he dumped it along the way, that’s my best guess. Maybe notinDallas but close.” She slumped against the seat. “Bad news is, he hasn’t turned it on in the past twenty-four hours, so I don’t know where he went once he reached Red Oak. That’s about half an hour south of here. Twenty minutes with no traffic.”
“You tell Brantley yet?”
JJ sighed, shaking her head. “No. There’s not a whole lot to go on yet. I’m runnin’ a program that’ll notify me the moment it pings off another cell tower, but for that to happen, he has to turn it on.”
“That’s more than we had before,” he told her, wanting to ease her disappointment. “You hungry? Want me to grab you some lunch?”
JJ tipped her head back and looked up at him. He couldn’t resist smiling down at her. This woman, she undid him in so many ways. Her brains, her beauty. He was in awe of her, and his feelings for her intensified each day, growing stronger the longer they were together. He sometimes couldn’t believe he was building a life with this woman, that he’d gotten so fucking lucky, yet here they were.
“I wouldn’t say no to lunch, although…” JJ tilted her head back down to glance at her watch. “Could you give me another hour?”
Baz kissed the top of her head. “Sure can.”
***
“Go left,” Evan instructed Slade as theymade their way through the maze of cargo containers that filled the inside of the S1S training facility.
They were being put through the paces by Z Tavoularis, Reese’s older brother, today. Usually, RT oversaw their simulated missions, and Evan could admit he preferred RT’s laid-back methods to Z’s overexuberance. Sometimes it was hard to believe that Z and Reese were even related. They were like night and day. Where Z was quick with the jokes, Reese always seemed more reserved. And Z’s overdramatization of everything certainly wasn’t a trait little brother had inherited from their parents.
With night-vision goggles casting everything with an eerie green glow, Evan continued to make his way through the maze, doing his best to focus on the task at hand and not let his mind wander to Becs. For some ungodly reason, she’d been plaguing his thoughts more than she should. He figured it had to do with the fact he’d caught her flirting relentlessly with Luca last night at the bar. He had no right to be jealous in the first place, but there was a spark of envy every time he saw them together.
It wasn’t like he intended to make a move on the woman. Hell, she was far too young, too inexperienced for the likes of him. Who wanted a washed-up, thirty-eight-year-old detective who’d spent the past seven years mourning the death of his wife and plotting his revenge on the bastard who’d killed her? Becs deserved someone young and energetic, someone who could make her laugh all the time. Evan wasn’t that guy, but damn it all to hell, there’d been a few times lately that he wondered if he possibly could be.
A strong vibration in the center of his chest had Evan jolting out of his reverie and standing tall. “Son of a bitch.”
“You’re killin’ me here, Smalls,” came the gruff voice in his comm.
“Shut up, Slade,” he grumbled, yanking off the glasses seconds before the main lights were flipped back on.
Another voice sounded in his ear, this one Z’s. “You killed the hostage and yourself, Vaughn. Nice job.”
With a heavy sigh, Evan started back toward the control room. He knew he would spend the next hour getting ribbed by both Slade and Z about being lost in his head and taking a bullet from the bad guy. It wasn’t the first time it had happened. Hell, it wasn’t the first time it had happened today.
“What do you say we grab some lunch and call it an early day?” Slade asked when he appeared around the corner. “I’ll buy the first round of drinks.”
Evan glared over at his partner even as he considered the invitation. A drink would go a long way to easing some of the mental strain. And perhaps more than one would help him to put the thoughts of Becs out of his mind completely.
“Fine.”
