“You have a place to stay?”
“We’re staying at the B and B.”RT grinned.“I think your brother wants to buy a farmhouse.”
Reese laughed.“Does he now?”
“He mentioned it last night.Said we should invest in a farmhouse and adopt a few dozen kids.”
“Sounds like my brother.”
“Look,” RT said softly, his tone serious.“I apologize for what went down.I had no idea Z was sending your team to New York.And I damn sure didn’t know it was to find Decker.He kept that part from me.”
“I take it Decker wasn’t missing?”
“Not so much missing, I don’t think.More like off the grid.Your brother was worried, and I think he suspected something was up.”
“How?”
“We’ve got quite a bit of information about Decker’s past.More than you do.We knew about the connection to Kylie.Same high school and all that.But I figured it was purely coincidence.”
Reese would’ve assumed that as well, but as Brantley would say, there’s no such thing as a coincidence.
“Again,” RT said.“I’m sorry.”
“Don’t apologize.”Reese met his gaze.“But I would appreciate you and Z helping us to figure this out.”
“We’re here until you don’t need us anymore.”
“Thanks.”He gestured toward the door.“I should go check on Brantley.”
RT nodded.“Let me know if I can help.”
Without a word to the team, Reese slipped out with Tesha, leaving them to discuss details.He knew that once they put their heads together, they would likely make sense of it all.He wasn’t sure it would result in a story for Simon to tell, but they would figure that out soon enough.
He hoped.
Rather than spend the next two hoursfretting over shit they couldn’t control, Brantley suggested they visit JJ.He needed some time to cool his heels, and this was the perfect way to do that.And because he wanted to spend some alone time with Reese, they left Tesha at home to rest.
“I’ll bet you a blowjob that there are at least a dozen vases in that room,” Brantley told Reese as they walked through the hospital toward JJ’s room.
Reese coughed.
“Your face is red.Does that embarrass you?”
“Behave,” Reese whispered as they passed one of the nurse’s stations.
“I am behaving.I haven’t dragged you into one of these storage closets yet, have I?”
A nurse looked up, grinning.
“Brantley,” Reese drawled.
Laughing, Brantley kept his mouth shut until they reached the door to JJ’s room.He knocked softly, not sure what state she would be in.After he left the meeting, he shot her a text to let her know they would be coming up to see her unless she didn’t want them to.Her response had been:Come.And bring a chocolate shake.
They’d brought both chocolate and strawberry in case she changed her mind before they got there.
“Come in,” JJ called from inside.
Brantley opened the door and gestured Reese in first.
