“Don’t be.”Atticus looked at him, his green eyes glowing in the light from the dashboard.
Archer held his stare, unable to look away.He wanted to kiss this man so badly.Hell, he would settle for putting his arms around him and holding him.But that wasn’t the deal they’d made.As his partner, Atticus was off limits, and Archer had agreed to abide by the rules.
Forcing himself to look away first, Archer took a step back.“Brantley’ll be here soon.I figure the police might want to talk to us.If they don’t, we’ll head back.”
“Yeah.”Atticus exhaled heavily.“I didn’t realize you got the license plate.”
“It’s a thing I do without realizing it,” he admitted.
“What do you mean?”
“I just see details.”
“Like a photographic memory?”
“I don’t know, maybe.I just notice things and I remember them.For a while, at least.Not indefinitely.”
“If I asked you about that license plate number next week, would you have remembered it?”
“Probably not.”
“Interesting.”
“How so?”
Atticus shrugged.“I just find it cool, that’s all.”
Archer grinned.At least he’d gotten Atticus’s mind off what he’d seen in that field.
Atticus turned to get out of the truck.“I think I need to walk around for a minute.”
Moving out of his way, Archer took the other Dr.Pepper from where he’d set it on the truck’s bed rail.He opened it and took a long drink, watching as Atticus walked a few yards away and then back.
It really sucked that he was such a stickler for rules because the urge to grab Atticus and kiss him was damn near too powerful to resist.
But resist he did.
Nearly three hours later, Brantley stood atthe road, watching as investigators blocked off the area as a crime scene.Because Allison Bogart worked for the FBI, they’d come in and taken over.Probably for the best, since he wasn’t sure that some of the local cops weren’t on Calloway’s payroll.
“What happens next?”Reese asked Kieran, who was remaining back, looking as though someone had ripped his guts out.
Kieran shrugged.“I’ve been benched until they can investigate.”
Seemed redundant to him, but Brantley figured that was par for the course when it came to the government.
Kieran slowly turned, facing Brantley.“I want to find this fucker.”
“You just said you were benched.”
“But you’re not.”
Brantley watched him, not sure how much he wanted to reveal to a man who’d kept a pertinent detail from his own fucking family.The fact that Kieran had been protecting Kylie didn’t matter when he could’ve easily told her family that she was alive, and they could’ve stepped up to help her.Instead, he’d taken it upon himself to decide what was best for everyone.
“Look, I get you don’t agree with what I did.But it’s done.I thought it was the best thing.You don’t know him, Brantley.”Kieran thrust a hand in the direction of the body.“He’s capable of worse than that.”
Brantley figured as much.Martin Calloway was working his own agenda.He wasn’t above using anyone and everyone to get what he wanted.The problem was, they didn’t know what he wanted.Censorious’s manifesto was one thing.But this … killing an FBI agent so heinously after blackmailing her and her family for years … it seemed like overkill.
No pun intended.
