Then again, maybe if she allowed Molly tothinkshe would…
Something to ponder.
Whatever she did, the last thing she wanted was to push these two looney tunes into doing something that might cause physical harm. JJ wasn’t worried about herself, but she would move heaven and earth to protect the peanut, so for the time being, she was going to play along.
Chapter Two
9:00A.M.
“If you keep breathin’ like that, you’regonna pass out,” Brantley Walker told the man who was in the process of hyperventilating as he paced back and forth in front of Brantley’s truck.
Sebastian Buchanan, a.k.a. Baz to friends and family, glared in Brantley’s direction.
Brantley didn’t wait for Baz to respond; he turned to Slade Elliott, the only other member of the task force who was on scene. “Go through her car. When Sheriff Endsley releases it, bring it back to Baz’s house.”
“Sure thing, boss.”
Baz turned toward him, glassy-eyed and, yes, dangerously close to a panic attack. “There might be clues in her car.”
Brantley put a hand on Baz’s shoulder, holding him back. “There might be, but you and I both know it’s highly unlikely. It looks like she didn’t make it back to her car.”
Baz gasped, although Brantley was sure he’d realized that already.
“But Slade’s gonna check first,” he assured him.
If there were anything in her car that might give them a lead on where JJ was, they would’ve found it already since that was the first place Brantley had looked when he arrived on the scene half an hour ago. When they received Baz’s frantic call, it’d taken them ten minutes to get from the house to downtown Coyote Ridge—breaking more than a few traffic laws.
He could still hear the terror in Baz’s voice.
“What’s up? It’s supp—”
“Brantley.”
“Yeah?”
“Oh, Jesus God.”
“Baz? What’s wrong? Is JJ okay? The baby?”
“Fuck.”
“Baz, what happened?’
“She’s gone.”
“What do you mean gone?”
“She came to the bakery. Her car’s here. She’s not. I’ve looked everywhere. She’s … oh, God. She’s missing.”
“Stay put. We’ll be right there.”
If he never received another call like that for the rest of his life, it would be too soon.
Needless to say, Brantley’d hauled ass into town, Reese and Tesha with him.
And despite the side eye he was getting from JJ’s boyfriend/baby daddy, they hadn’t exactly been twiddling their thumbs for the past thirty minutes. Reese had already combed every inch of the area around the bakery and Jameson’s General Store in an effort to find something that might tell them where JJ had gone. While he worked, Brantley had stayed with Baz and sent a message on the group text thread, letting every member of the team know their presence was needed because the situation warranted all hands on deck.
Unfortunately, Reese hadn’t come up with anything in his search, but Brantley had managed to make contact with everyone. Now, it was a matter of waiting for the sheriff’s department to do their due diligence before Brantley and the team could get to work.
