Reese looked at both of them again. “Deck knows Allison?”
“Looks that way.”
“Reese,” Baz said, coming to stand between him and the board. “I really think this is somethin’ we should hold off on lookin’ into right now.”
“Why?”
“Because there’s a lot going on. Your wedding.” He glanced at JJ. “The baby. If we start lookin’—”
“We might go down a rabbit hole,” Reese said. “I agree.”
“You do?” JJ exclaimed.
He definitely did. With the wedding roughly a month away and JJ’s baby due in two and a half months, they couldn’t afford to get sidetracked by something that could mean absolutely nothing.
“What if it has something to do with Kylie?” JJ asked.
Reese frowned. “Kylie’s dead, JJ.”
She swallowed, and her eyes rounded. “I know that.”
“Then what would it matter?”
She shrugged.
It wouldn’t. And that was the problem. Regardless of what the connection was, it didn’t matter. It couldn’t. Nothing was going to bring Kylie back. Certainly not Decker Bromwell or Allison Bogart.
“I told her to keep it but to put it aside for the time being,” Baz explained.
“I agree.” Reese looked at the screen again.
Even though he knew putting it aside for now was the right thing to do, Reese couldn’t help wondering how that information came about. How the fuck was Decker connected to Allison? Obviously, it wasn’t a coincidence that she’d applied to join the task force at the same time Z had assigned Decker to be on it. Reese had always wondered about her disappearing act. She hadn’t done well on the only case she assisted with, and the next thing he knew, she was gone. Was this why? Had her interest in joining the team merely been a ruse?
And how the hell was it tied in with Decker?
“Close it,” Baz told JJ.
She did.
Reese looked at her and waited until she met his gaze. He doubted for one second that JJ was going to let this go. It wasn’t in her nature. And Baz had already admitted that he’d told her to keep it quiet, yet it was the first thing she told him when she saw him.
“Do not let Brantley get wind of this. Understood?”
JJ nodded, and Baz said, “We won’t.”
“I’m serious,” he reiterated. “No matter what. He doesn’t need to know. Not until after the wedding.”
“Agree,” JJ said softly.
Reese shook his head as he turned away. The last thing he wanted was for Brantley to get wind of this. There would be no stopping him from seeking the truth. But Baz was right. They had too much going on, and there was a good chance it was all a weird coincidence.
Sure it is. And the sky is green, grass is blue, pigs fly, and cats swim.
***
Atticus pulled down the driveway, bypassing thetwo trucks parked by the house. The gate was open, which meant he wasn’t the first to arrive, but that was always the case. He’d tried at least twice to get there before anyone else but failed both times. The error in his logic wasn’t only because Reese and Brantley lived a few yards from their office, which meant they were technically always there.
No, he hadn’t expected to beat them. But he had hoped to show up the rest of the team. Then he realized Baz and JJ were always there. Or it seemed they were, anyway. Atticus was dedicated and all, but he was not coming in at the ass-crack of dawn to try to get there before them. Sometimes, he was sure they’d stayed the night, maybe camped out on the couch in JJ’s office.
