“Yeah?” Rocky, who’d just started to climb into his truck, popped his head back up.
“Nice shooting today!”
“Thanks.” The other man shot him a genuine smile. “You, too.”
With a parting nod, Brody opened his door and slid behind the wheel. Setting his phone on the center console, he closed himself inside and secured his seat belt. After firing up the engine, he slowly backed up the truck and waited as Rocky took the lead.
He honked as he passed by the house on his way out, knowing Christian was somewhere inside. Up ahead, Rocky sent him a wave as he turned right onto the two-lane highway that would take the other man home.
Brody lowered his window and stuck out his hand, returning the gesture as he turned his truck in the opposite direction. He tapped the large screen on his dashboard, using his truck’s hands-free system to return Megan’s call.
She answered on the first ring.
“Where are you right now?”
Her lack of greeting left him blinking with a smirk. “Wellhelloto you, too, Sis.”
“I’m serious, Brody.” She dropped to a harsh whisper. “Look, I don’t have a lot of time. Where are you right this second?”
His spine stiffened, the grip on the steering wheel tightening with worry. “I just left your place. Why? What’s the—”
“I need you to come to Ro’s.”
Ro’s?
Brody’s heart gave a hard thump, that grip of his growing to a near-crushing strength. “Megan, what’s wrong?”
“We’re fine, but—” There was a long pause and then, “Crap. I have to go. Just…get here as soon as you can.”
His sister ended the bizarre call before he could utter another sound.
“Call Megan,” Brody commanded his truck’s system, but it went straight to voice mail. “Damn it, Meg!”
He filled his lungs and tried to remain calm. His sister had told him she and Ro were okay, and after what Megan went through over the summer, he’d like to think she would’ve given him more details if she or Ro were in immediate danger.
So no, he didn’t think there was cause for concern as far as their physical well-being. But something wasn’t right. He knew his sister better than anyone and could tell when something was wrong.
Brody pushed the accelerator to the floor. Megan may have claimed she and Ro were okay, but she’d definitely sounded off. No, that wasn’t right.
She’d sounded…
Scared.
6
“So areyou going to tell him, or am I?”
Ro felt her eyes double in size as she shot Megan a wide,are you kidding melook.
She’d asked the other woman to come over in hopes her friend would help her find her mother’s earrings, and the paranoia still coursing through her would vanish. Instead her traitorous friend had apparently gone back on her word and called the verylastperson Ro wanted to see.
“Tell me what?” Brody demanded. Sliding that dark stare of his in Megan’s direction, his imposing form seemed to fill her home’s modest entryway. “What’s the big emergency? And why the hell did you turn off your phone after you called me?”
I knew it!
Narrowing her widened eyes into an aggravated glare, Ro looked to the source of her betrayal and said, “You swore you wouldn’t call him.”
Megan shrugged, not looking the least bit sorry as she reached out and shut the door behind her brother. She’d come over as soon as Ro had called, and the two women had been conducting a more thorough search for the missing items ever since.