“Nothin’.”
“Brantley.”
With a bottle of water in hand, Brantley stood tall and sighed.“I talked to Travis.”
Well, that pretty much said it all.“And?”
“And he wants us to work with Simon to find Meredith Prescott.”
“I assume you didn’t tell him about their conspiracy theory.”
“No.And I’d like to keep that under wraps until there’s even an ounce of truth to it.”
“I agree.”Reese turned around as Brantley joined him.“I emailed the team, told them we’d meet at HQ tomorrow afternoon to discuss a case.I asked them all to be there.”
“Good.I’d like to get their input.”Brantley took a swallow of water.“I talked to Baz.JJ’s sleepin’ and the babies are doin’ good.No names yet.”
“I’m sure she’ll come up with something soon enough.”
“If not, we’ll just call ’em Baz and JJ junior.”
“I’m sure that’ll go over well.”Reese grabbed the remote and turned on the television.“I talked to Z and got Archer’s paperwork started.He said he’d fast-track it.”
“You also tell Z that we can’t afford for Archer to spend a month in Dallas?”
“I did.Considering his background, Z agreed it wasn’t necessary.I’ll be interested in watchin’ him in the simulations, though.”
“We got another trainin’ session comin’ up soon, huh?”
“End of next week if all goes well.”
Reese waited when Brantley went silent.He could tell there was still something on his mind.
Unfortunately, Brantley being Brantley, he didn’t cough it up easily.
“All right.Let’s hear it.We talked about JJ and the babies, Travis, the case, and Archer comin’ on board.I can tell somethin’ else is botherin’ you.What is it?”
“Besides me lookin’ forward to watchin’ Jason Statham kick some serious ass?”
“Yes.”Reese chuckled.“Besides that.”
“Besides me wantin’ to get you naked so I can do dirty things to you?”
A chill—the good kind—danced down Reese’s spine.“Besides that.”
Brantley passed the water bottle over.Reese set it on the end table.
“I’d like to find a way to keep Simon close while this all plays out.”
Reese frowned.“Why?”
“For starters, I’d like to control the information he gets.”
“That defeats the purpose of his podcast.”
“Ask me if I care,” Brantley grumbled.“This is my family we’re talkin’ about.Travis is my cousin.So is Braydon.The last damn thing I wanna do is dig up somethin’ that might cause them more pain.Remember, Jessie’s gonna have to go through it all again if Simon chooses to rehash what happened.”
Reese considered those words carefully.Brantley wasn’t wrong.And Reese understood the need to protect family.They were, after all, Reese’s family now, too.
