Brantley followed Sonny down another street. The houses were farther apart, and the backyards were lined with rancher fences. He watched as Sonny hopped over it like he was one of those damn trained dogs on an obstacle course. Brantley hopped the first one, landing with a thud, and realized he would have to rethink his training regimen if this were going to be par for the course.
By the time they reached the next street, Brantley was coming to accept that he wasn’t a young buck anymore. If Sonny didn’t trip or end up in someone’s swimming pool soon, there was a good chance he was going to get away. He could only hope that Reese had seen which direction he went.
Brantley continued to chase the kid back toward the main road. He realized Sonny was slowing down. Not enough for Brantley to catch him, but enough for him to know the kid was losing steam.
Thinking back to his days in BUD/S training, he let the grating voice of his trainers sound in his head, urging him forward, keeping him going. He’d been determined to prove himself back then, and he had. Sure, it was a long damn time ago. At thirty-seven, he wasn’t the same kid he’d been then, but he wasn’t soft, either.
When that only got him so far, Brantley thought about JJ. Thought about her and Baz having twins. That gave him the jolt he needed because, by God, he was not going to let this fucker hurt his best friend. This was over tonight.
A pair of headlights appeared at the top of the hill, spotlighting Sonny. The lights were too bright to make out what kind of car it was, other than it was definitely a car, not a truck or an SUV.
Hoping it would distract Sonny, Brantley put on a burst of speed. He was closing the gap between them. Closer. Closer still. He was almost on him when a siren chirped, and the red and blues came on. The car swerved, turned, then came to a complete stop.
It was the exact distraction he needed. Brantley tackled Sonny from behind, both of them going down hard. The kid was bony as fuck, not providing much of a buffer. They skidded to a stop just as Deputy Downs was racing toward them, gun drawn.
“Nice of you to show up,” Brantley told him as he pushed to his knees, keeping one hand firmly in the center of Sonny’s back.
“I woulda been here sooner, but Reese said you needed the exercise,” Dwayne deadpanned.
“Did he now?”
Dwayne grinned, his pearl-white smile flashing in his dark face.
Brantley got to his feet while Deputy Downs cuffed Sonny and read him his Miranda rights.
“You wanna ride back?” Dwayne asked. “Or you prefer to show off some more?”
Brantley flipped him off and got into the front passenger seat of Dwayne’s car. As far as he was concerned, Reese and Tesha could go on their morning jog without him. He’d gotten his in already.
Chapter Thirty
One week later…
Thursday, September 1, 2022
“That was easier than I thought itwould be,” Brantley told Reese as they walked out of the courthouse.
“Good thing I didn’t let you procrastinate any longer,” Reese countered.
“I didn’t procrastinate.” It was mostly true. He simply didn’t like the idea of waiting in line to get a marriage license, so yeah, maybe he’d put it off a few times.
“Keep tellin’ yourself that.”
“I didn’t. In case you forgot, I sprained my ankle chasin’ down a bad guy.”
“Strained,” Reese corrected. “Doc said you were fine.”
Brantley grinned. True. But Brantley had milked it for a few days.
Now that they had the license, there was a seventy-two-hour waiting period before they were allowed to get married. The clerk informed them they could get it waived if they wanted, but since there were still sixteen days left, they decided not to waste anyone’s time.
“So where to now?” Reese asked.
Since they’d taken the entire day off, they could pretty much do anything they wanted. JJ had Tesha at HQ, and the team wasn’t working on anything pressing, so they didn’t need to head back immediately.
“I don’t know. Maybe lunch? Or the gun range?”
“I could—” Reese stopped talking when Brantley’s phone rang.
