Really? So this was what? Atticus pawning them off on each other? Or was Carson getting to him?
Carson stepped closer. “The diner. Tonight. Say six o’clock? My treat.”
Slade stared at him, too shocked to respond.
“Talk to Atticus,” Carson added. “Then let me know.”
No sooner were those words out of Carson’s mouth when Slade’s phone buzzed in his pocket.
“Talk to you later?” Carson said, his expression still strangely serious.
“Yeah,” he agreed. He could commit to that much. One way or the other, he would let Carson know his answer. But first, he intended to talk to Atticus and figure out what the man was up to.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Good morning.”
Reese looked up from his computer screen as Evan walked into his office. “Is it still?”
Evan looked at his watch and smirked. “For a few more hours, yeah.”
“Feels like I’ve been awake for a whole day,” he said, leaning back in his chair and gesturing toward the guest chair across from his desk.
Evan moved into the room, going for the empty chair across from Reese’s desk.
For the past week, this had become par for the course. Members of the task force had started coming to the house to discuss the active case they were working on. Technically, it wasn’t officially their case. Reese had told Z they were leaving it to the sheriff’s department to handle, but they’d taken it upon themselves to start looking for Molly and Sonny in the hopes of finding them so that Sheriff Endsley could arrest them for kidnapping. So far, no luck.
“What’s up?” Reese asked.
“Thought I’d check in. See if anything came up over the weekend.”
Reese shook his head. “I was under the impression everyone took the weekend off.”
“They did,” Evan said, propping his ankle on his knee. “But I know you and Brantley. You two never stop.”
Reese smirked. Normally, that was true. They’d been going headfirst since they started the task force two years ago. At least until recently. Sometimes, the universe throws out obstacles that force you to slow down and look at the bigger picture. Reese had been doing that, and surprisingly, Brantley wasn’t pushing back too much, so they were enjoying their downtime together.
“How’s JJ?” Evan asked.
“Good. Brantley talked to her last night. She’s goin’ to the doctor this mornin’. Routine, she swears.”
“That’s good.”
Yes, it was. Although JJ swore she felt fine, they’d kept her to part-time hours last week just to be safe. And that was only because she couldn’t get in to see the doctor. If and when her doctor told her to take it easy, she could work from home. According to Baz, she was having nightmares nearly every night, and she wasn’t getting enough sleep, but JJ was insisting she was fine. They would all breathe easier when the doctor confirmed that.
“Any updates from last week?” Reese prompted. “Baz said the two of you went by the hospital to talk to the chief of staff?”
Evan didn’t respond immediately, merely frowned in confusion.
“On Thursday?” Reese said, hoping to jog his memory. “Somethin’ about gettin’ a call with possible information.”
Evan continued to stare blankly.
There was an itch on the back of Reese’s neck, so he sat forward. “Evan? Did you go to the psych hospital with Baz last week?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
