“I didn’t tease you. You assumed.”
JJ’s eyes narrowed on him. “Just for that, you’re wearin’ a cummerbund to your wedding.”
Brantley smirked. “I’ll wear whatever you want me to wear. Hell, I’ll go naked, I don’t give a fuck. As long as I’m at that altar, I don’t care.”
JJ rolled her eyes. “You’ve gotten mushy in your old age.”
Maybe. Or perhaps it had nothing to do with age and everything to do with the man he was marrying in forty-three days. If it weren’t for the fact JJ was planning the wedding with his mother and Reese’s, Brantley would’ve eloped by now. He didn’t care about the hoopla; he merely wanted to make Reese Tavoularis his husband.
“Speakin’ of mushy.” JJ opened the lid on the juice. “Where’s Reese?”
“He took Tesha to the vet.”
JJ’s forehead creased with concern. “Somethin’ wrong?”
“Nope. Routine shit. Something about wanting to learn how to brush her teeth correctly.”
“There’s awrongway to do it?” JJ said at the same time Baz said, “And the vet’s gonna show him that?”
Brantley looked at JJ. “I don’t know.” He glanced at Baz. “Who else would show him? They don’t have dog dentists.”
“You know this for a fact?” Baz said, deadpan.
“I do, yes. Reese checked.”
Baz nodded as though that made sense, then took a sip of JJ’s juice when she passed it to him.
JJ’s eyebrow quirked. “You don’t find that weird?”
At first, he had, yes. The same way he found it weird that Tesha sometimes slept in their bed and that she could get so excited when someone mentioned hamburgers or how “go” now seemed to be a trigger word that made her tail wag ridiculously fast.
But his answer was, “Tesha’s his baby. I just nod and agree.”
JJ looked at Baz. “That’s how it’s done, Detective. Nod”—she nodded her head slowly—“and agree.” Her voice dropped an octave or ten. “Yes, dear, anything you say.” She smiled. “Now you try.”
Baz laughed but turned his attention to Brantley. “You hear anything from Charlie or Jay?”
And just like that, Baz had redirected the train barreling down the wrong track, bringing their morning back to the work topics they usually discussed when they stopped by the house on their way to the barn.
Brantley set down his coffee mug. “Charlie checked in last night.”
“Is it as hot in Chicago as it is here?” JJ asked.
“No,” he told her before looking at Baz. “Charlie said they talked to the mom who thought she was chatting with a neighbor a few doors down. She admitted she didn’t know who lived there, but whoever was on the other end knew enough about the neighborhood to sound legit.”
It was the first person they’d found who admitted to interacting with the human trafficking ring using social media as their personal shopping center. The traffickers infiltrated online groups and posed as members of small communities to track the comings and goings of the children they were attempting to abduct. In the past year, ever since the task force had first heard of the problem, the kidnappers had successfully abducted three kids across the country. After the last one, Brantley had assigned Charlie and Jay to the case full-time, with Baz overseeing it.
“What’s that entail?” JJ asked, then formed air quotes with her fingers. “‘They knew enough about the neighborhood.’ I mean, did they know that Susie Homemaker put her kid on the bus every morning at eight? Or that Joe Schmoe’s Doberman barks all night long? I don’t get it. How do you trust someone online when you’ve never met them face to face? Don’t they know you can learn far too many intimate details about a person and their habits just from what they post on social media?”
That was the question of the hour. And it was true. Some people didn’t realize when they complained on Facebook or Twitter about missing their kids because they were spending a week at Aunt Susie’s house that they’d given people a little too much information. Now the bad guys knew to check out Susie, their target’s Facebook friend, to see where she lived. Or when they ranted about Fido waking the neighbors when he snuck out the dog door that they’d told everyone there was easy access to the house—through a dog door.
“No idea,” Brantley admitted. “But they’re takin’ the lead on this one. I’m just in the loop.”
“It’s hard to believe it’s been so quiet the last couple of weeks,” JJ noted.
Brantley looked at Baz and sighed.
“What?” JJ’s gaze bounced between them. “What’s that look you just gave him?”
