At least they had a plan of action. It might net them nothing, but it was a hell of a lot better than sitting idle.
***
“What’s on your mind, Tavoularis?”
Reese glanced over at Brantley, who was behind the wheel. They’d swung by the hotel, grabbed their things, and checked out since they didn’t know where they’d be when night fell.
“I’m tryin’ to understand what my mother was thinkin’ when she nailed Atticus with a bat.”
Brantley chuckled. “She was thinkin’ that she’s a badass.”
Reese couldn’t help it, he smiled. He’d never thought of his calm, reserved, schoolteacher mom as a badass, but yeah, he could see it. She was tough as nails when she needed to be, there was no doubt about that. She’d raised three hellions without batting an eye, and all three of them had turned out fine because of it.
“Oh, shit,” he bit out.
“What?”
“No one told my sister what’s goin’ on,” he said, grabbing for his phone.
“JJ did,” Brantley replied. “I asked her to before we left the first time.”
Reese sighed heavily and leaned into the seat.
“I didn’t want her to hear it from Hugh and panic before she had all the details.”
Another reason he was grateful for Brantley. The guy thought of others first, more often than most people even realized.
“Thank you.”
He should’ve known Brantley would be keeping an eye on all the angles while Reese was caught up in the chaos in his own head. It was nearly impossible to see past his fear for his mother’s safety. The only reason he was functioning now was the simple fact that his mother had beaned some guy with a bat. It meant she wasn’t chained to a bed somewhere, being tortured and beaten.
“You think they’ll go back there?” he asked Brantley.
“It’s what I would do. It’s already been searched and cleared, so there’s no reason anyone would come back and find them. They’d be safe there.”
That offered him some relief. Not only because it meant there was a good chance they would find his mother but also because it meant Cindy was safe. There was at least one bounty hunter after Toby, plus the authorities would be on alert since there was a warrant out for his arrest. Since JJ’d managed to find the cabin, as had Atticus, it was only a matter of time before Hartwood and his goons did too. The only positive was that Hartwood was down in Austin taking care of his own businesses. More than likely, he’d bide his time and wait for Toby to return.
If they were lucky.
Half an hour later, after Brantley parked the truck in an alcove at the edge of the property, Reese was leading Tesha toward the cabin on foot, Brantley off to his right.
He would’ve preferred they be under the cover of night for the approach, but the sun hadn’t yet set on the horizon, although it was close. Thankfully, the trees provided some cover, keeping them concealed for the most part.
“The truck’s not here,” Brantley noted, his voice whisper soft.
No, it wasn’t, but Reese hadn’t expected it to be. Toby would’ve been smart enough to dump it somewhere in the event it had Lojack. Maybe. At the moment, Reese was concerned about Toby’s mental state in general. The fucker had kidnapped his mother, for fuck’s sake.
The good news was, the car that’d been here earlier still sat in the same place. So they hadn’t doubled back and bolted. At least not yet.
As they’d done earlier, they approached the cabin quietly, slipping past the windows without looking in. It wasn’t until they were about to round the corner to the porch that Reese heard voices coming from inside.
He tapped Brantley’s shoulder to get his attention. When he turned, Reese saw his nod, meaning he’d heard them, too.
So Slade was right. They had returned.
At least something was going their way today.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
