“Get dressed, will you? That much temptation shouldn’t be allowed first thing in the mornin’.” Reese was only partially teasing. A naked Brantley was almost impossible to resist. So much so that Reese had learned it was a wasted effort to try.
“Fine,” Brantley grumbled and left him to make breakfast.
He returned a few minutes later wearing his usual cargo pants and T-shirt.
“Your mom texted a little while ago,” Reese told him. “To remind us we’re havin’ dinner at their house tonight.”
“She textedyouand not me?”
Reese laughed, glancing at Brantley over his shoulder. “She knows I’ll promptly respond.”
“Hey.Irespond. It just takes me a little while.”
“Three days?” According to Iris, that was Brantley’s average response time.
In all fairness, they did have a lot going on. Not only were they dealing with the final wedding details, they had cases they were trying to focus on. Earlier this week, the San Marcos police department reached out to see if they could assist with a ten-year-old cold case. Declining to assist was not something they were prone to do, so Reese had taken Slade with him to discuss the case with the original detective assigned to find the fifteen-year-old girl who went missing from a movie theater.
In the end, they’d agreed to take it on, and that was when Reese realized their team was too small to handle the workload.
“Did you give any thought to our conversation the other day?” he asked Brantley as he cracked four eggs into a bowl and then proceeded to whisk them with a fork.
Brantley poured coffee into a mug. “And which conversation might that be? I’ve slept sincethe other day.”
“Hirin’ another team of investigators.”
Brantley carried his mug around to the other side of the island and took a seat on one of the stools. “You want two teams who’ll focus on the cold cases.”
“Correct.” It seemed like a logical solution.
When they worked on urgent cases, they tended to take the entire team with them to assist. That was necessary if the person had been missing for less than 72 hours. It bettered their chances of finding them, and they had a perfect track record for current cases. But for them to accommodate, they had to drop everything they were working on to be present and accounted for. Hence, the reason he wanted to expand.
After their last couple of cases—JJ’s kidnapping and Uncle Toby’s disappearance—it had become apparent that six was a good number. Especially when that was comprised of their current team members.
Atticus James, Slade Elliott, and Evan Vaughn were good at their jobs and had a lot of experience between them. Atticus and Slade were former bounty hunters, which gave them the unique skill of finding people who didn’t want to be found. And Evan was a former homicide detective who’d worked for years hunting a serial killer. Once they hired a partner for Atticus, they would have a solid team to work on active cases.
And then there was Sebastian Buchanan—known to everyone as Baz—who currently held the title of organizer. They could always call on him when they needed assistance.
That left Charlotte Miller and Jay Hernandez, both of whom preferred to stay close to home because of family obligations. They didn’t balk when asked to travel, but it would be easier for them if they could control their schedule better. Unfortunately, asking them to manage the majority of cold cases wasn’t an option. Sure, they had Holly Switzer, who’d gone from being JJ’s assistant to their newest investigator in a very short time. As well as a top-notch analyst like Rebecca Richter. But even with their help, it was too much work. Which was why Reese wanted to hire two more. Maybe even four more. Only he didn’t want to be the one responsible for doing it.
“Did you talk to Z?” Brantley asked.
“Briefly.” He poured the eggs into the hot skillet, using a spatula to move them around.
“And?”
“He told me to prove the need for more people,” he answered, grabbing bacon slices and placing them in a separate skillet to fry.
“Can you?”
“Considering we’ve closed eight cold cases in the past twelve months, I think it’s a no-brainer. The police departments pay for our services.”
And they were charging a relatively hefty fee at this point. Considering their close rate was so high, it only made sense.
Reese put the eggs on their plates while the bacon popped and crackled.
“True.” Brantley took a sip of coffee. “Do you have anyone in mind?”
That was the hard part. “No.”
