“Yeah.”
“Okay,” Brantley said without hesitation.
Luca seemed surprised by that.
“We don’t really have anyone to spare, so you’ll have to lead the charge.We’re headin’ up to Dallas.”
“Who’s we?”Luca inquired.
“Atticus, Archer, and Simon are goin’ with us.”
“How long?”
“Quick trip.Don’t know when we’ll be back,” Brantley explained.“If you need someone to help, reach out to Slade.”
Nodding, Luca exhaled.“Thanks, boss.”
“Let me know how it goes.”
“Yeah.Okay.”
With that, Luca was out the door, laptop tucked under his arm.
Brantley grinned.“Well that was easy.”
Reese turned to look at him.When he did, he caught a glimpse of the monitor showing the parking area near the house.
“This may not be,” he muttered, jerking his chin in the direction of the screen.
“Shit,” Brantley grunted.“What the hell are they doin’ here?”
Brantley wasn’t surprised to see Travis.Aftertheir conversation earlier, it made sense that he had gone home and grabbed reinforcements—namely, his husband.
Then again, he’d been banking on Travis being Travis and keeping the information to himself.If there was anyone who could shut out the entire world and carry the full weight of whatever burden he was dealing with, it was Travis.
Not this time, apparently.
And of course, they decided to drop in without calling first.
Nope.Not at all surprised.
While Travis likely had a legitimate reason for showing up without warning, Brantley didn’t have time to soothe his ruffled feathers or explain why or how they were doing what they were doing.He preferred to get on the road so he could get this conversation with Max out of the way.And since Travis and the mob boss exchanged pleasantries and phone calls often, he didn’t care to enlighten his cousin about his plans.
If he thought he could’ve gotten away with sneaking out the back, he would have.Unfortunately, there was nowhere to go, so he stayed rooted to the floor, waiting for Travis and Gage to come in.
“I can tell ’em you’re not here, boss,” Atticus joked as he pushed the door open.“I guess we should’ve catered in breakfast.”
Gage walked in first, his gaze sliding throughout the space.He looked as though he was admiring the decor, but Brantley figured he’d already accounted for every single soul in the place.Those he could see, anyway.
“Hey,” Gage greeted when his eyes stopped on Brantley.“Sorry to drop in like this.”
“Not a problem,” Brantley lied.“We were just gettin’ ready to head outta town.What’s up?”
Gage looked at Travis, then back to Brantley.“Travis told me you’re workin’ on a case involving Censorious.I’d like to see what information you have.”
Brantley narrowed his gaze, stalling so he could come up with an excuse.He did not want to share that information with anyone, least of all Travis and Gage.Not until they could narrow the scope and flesh out the details.
“Look,” Gage said, clearly catching onto his tactic.“I know you’re workin’ this thing like it’s hot.Maybe it is.But I might have some information that’ll help.”
