Chapter One
Saturday, October 1, 2022
It took only a few minutes toget from his house to the diner.With each passing minute, Brantley Walker’s guts twisted more and more.
Maybe he jumped the gun on this.
Maybe he should sit on the information for a little while.Process it before passing it along.
Or rather, before he altered a man’s entire existence.
“No,” he said aloud, refusing to back out.Travis deserved to know.Hell, heneededto know, and, as Travis’s cousin and friend, it was Brantley’s responsibility to deliver it.
Consequences be damned.
By the time he pulled into the diner’s parking lot, his heart was racing.Funny that.He’d walked into battle, faced off with the enemy on numerous occasions, without the amount of anxiety that was coursing through his system right now.Hell, most of the time those guys were armed with AKs, some with rocket launchers, yet he wasn’t sure he’d sweated them as much as he was sweating this meeting with his cousin.
Here he was, hovering on the brink of a panic attack simply because he was having a sit-down with Travis.
His former SEAL team would have a field day with the jokes if they could see him now.
The frantic heartbeat didn’t let up from the parking lot to the door, or during the brief trek through the minimally occupied restaurant that smelled of bacon, maple syrup, and coffee.It was still early on a Saturday, and he assumed most people were sleeping in.
He probably should’ve done that.
Brantley spotted Travis sitting at the back, his steel-blue gaze locked on him as he approached.He imagined he could see the questions simmering in Travis’s brain, and every one of them was reflected in the man’s hard stare.
“Hey,” he managed, although he was pretty sure the single word came out as a croak.“Thanks for meeting me.”
“You said it was important.”
Travis was just as curt and unfriendly as ever.At one point, Brantley was positive his cousin hadn’t been quite so surly.Perhaps he was never the bubbly sort, but he hadn’t always shot daggers from his eyeballs the way he was now.
Which didn’t make this any easier, even if Brantley understood the man’s never-ending bad mood.
Sliding into the booth, Brantley exhaled heavily.
“Where’s Reese?”Travis asked.
“At home.I told him I needed to do this alone.”
That was something else he’d second-guessed during the drive in.Probably should’ve brought backup.For some dumbass reason, he thought this would be easier.For the record, it wasn’t.
Travis frowned, his gaze shifting to the aisle.
Brantley felt the waitress approach, but he held up a hand to wave her off before she could dive into pleasantries.He wanted to get this over with, not drag it out with unnecessary chit-chat and food.
Trying to hold it together until they were alone again, Brantley used the silence to put his thoughts in order.He stared at the table, envisioning the best way to say this.Unfortunately, it felt like a waste of time and energy.Even if he pondered it for a year, it wouldn’t matter.There was no good way.
“What did you need to tell me?”Travis asked, his tone as disinterested as his countenance.“I’ve got things to do today.”
Don’t we all.
Brantley lifted his gaze, meeting Travis’s.“As you know, we’re lookin’ into the circumstances of Meredith’s disappearance.I’ve assigned Archer and Atticus to lead the investigation.”
Thinking Travis might have something to say about that, he paused, gave him a minute.
Clearly he was wrong.Travis’s expression remained impassive, his eyes hard and cold, and yeah, there was a hint of impatience glimmering in there, too.
