Not that Reese’s curiosity was necessarily a secret. But he was interested in knowing where Baz went when he claimed to have visited a hospital with Evan. Obviously, it wasn’t the hospital because why would he lie about Evan going with him if that’d been where he was going?
“I wanna know why he lied,” Reese admitted.
“What makes you think it was a lie?”
Reese cocked an eyebrow, daring Brantley to keep with that line of argument.
“Maybe he merely bent the truth a little.” Brantley laughed. “Fine. He lied. But did you ever think it was because he had somethin’ important to do?”
“No,” Reese said flatly. He honestly hadn’t considered that.
Brantley grinned again.
“Did he?”
“Did he what?”
Reese groaned. “Did he have somethin’ important to do?”
Brantley gave a one-shoulder shrug. “You’ll have to ask him that.”
“Who’s stallin’ now?” Reese countered. “What aren’t you tellin’ me?”
This time, he got a wink in response.
“Brantley.”
Brantley stood.
“What did Baz tell you?”
“What makes you think he said somethin’? Maybe I’m just a better investigator than you are.”
Reese choked on a laugh. “Or maybe he told you where he was goin’.”
Brantley gave another one-shoulder shrug as he headed for the door. “Guess you’ll never know.”
Reese got to his feet and followed Brantley toward the stairs, then down. “Where’d he go?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Yes,” he hissed. “Yes, I would. So tell me.”
“You didn’t say please. Maybe if you said please, I’d—”
Reese charged him, attempting to grab Brantley around the waist, but he wasn’t fast enough. Brantley’s booming laugh echoed in the house as he danced out of the way, moving swiftly, keeping just out of Reese’s reach. For such a big guy, he was really fucking agile.
“Tell me.”
Tesha popped up from her bed, her tail wagging happily. She wanted to play the game, too.
“Say please.”
“Brantley.”
Another smile.
God, Reese loved that wicked smile. Even when it frustrated him to no end. He honestly hadn’t intended to turn this into a game. It didn’t surprise him that Brantley did. It was what Brantley did to liven things up when they went down a dark road. And that was where they’d been this past week. A dark, winding road, what with JJ’s kidnapping and then Baz’s almost arrest.
