“Or…” I held up my finger. “I can just ask my mother.”
“Your mother?”
I nodded.
“My mother.”
“Why would your mother know anything about Langston and why he’s drinking at a bar?” Hancock wondered, his eyes going to Leslie who looked just as confused as me.
“Because they go to church together.” I rolled my eyes. “And I’ll ask her tomorrow. Tonight is for catching up,” I smiled. “So, where are we going to eat?”
***
I made my way into Hancock’s bedroom, leaving the men to their discussion that I knew they were wanting to have without me there.
Neither man had been rude about it, nor had they flat out asked me to leave, but every time the discussion strayed toward Hannibal, both men would easily turn the conversation to something else entirely.
It didn’t take me long to realize what they were doing.
Though, I was sure they weren’t intentionally being rude about it.
I froze when I walked into Hancock’s bedroom and found Ruby, Hancock’s dog, sitting on the chest of drawers looking out the window.
The six-foot-tall chest of drawers that had nothing else around it that would enable her to get up there very easily.
“Ruby,” I called to his dog. “What are you doing up there?”
Rudy turned only her head and looked at me like I was interrupting something important.
Maybe I was. Maybe she had a routine, and I’d interrupted it by deigning to speak to her.
Deciding to leave her alone, I walked into the bathroom, did my business, washed my face and brushed my teeth, before heading back to the bedroom.
This time it was to find Ruby on the bed, staring at me the moment I came out the door.
“I’m glad you got down,” I told the dog. “That’s pretty dangerous for you to be up there like that. You could get hurt.”
Why was I talking to this dog like it was a human, you ask? Because she was exceptionally smart, and by smart, I mean smart.
I think she understands every single word I say.
And her eyes…those eyes of hers are beyond intelligent-looking.
It’s like the dog had a world of knowledge behind those beautiful pale baby blues.
“You sleeping with me, big girl?” I asked.
In answer, Ruby jumped off the bed, headed over to the door—which she opened with her paw—and immediately walked out.
Shaking my head and wondering if Hancock had gotten the lever door handles for that very purpose, I walked to the door and closed it, ignoring the way the voices carried from the hallway.
The moment I laid down in bed, my eyes closed, and I melted into the soft sheets.
I’d intended to read so I could talk to Hancock when he finished with his godfather, but the moment my eyes closed, I was dead to the world.
That was until two hours later when my eyes opened in the darkness, and I moaned aloud as pleasure started to course through my veins.Chapter 18I’d do anything with you, anywhere. Except fellatio in a police station. That’s probably frowned upon.
-Text from Sway to Hancock
Hancock
“I’ll talk to you in the morning,” I mumbled, running my hand through my hair as I made my way down the hallway.
I stepped over Ruby’s prone body, who didn’t even bother pretending like she wanted to move.
That was my dog, though.
Such an asshole.
Leslie’s words swirled in my brain.
Mole. Set up. Captured. Torture.
Those four words stood out. Those four words put a lot of extra stress on my plate, and I didn’t know what to do with the offer Leslie had made me before I’d left him.
You want to help? I have a way for you to help.
The door to my bedroom was slightly cracked, and I breathed a sigh of relief that it wasn’t closed.
I didn’t want to wake Sway up. I knew she wanted to know what we’d discussed, but right now I needed to think about what we’d discussed before I said it all aloud. As long as I didn’t voice it, maybe it wasn’t as serious as Leslie made it sound.
Which was stupid.
It was serious. Very serious.
Leslie wouldn’t have told me if he didn’t think that Hannibal was already gone.
Taken. Held hostage somewhere in a small town in Iraq. Another team is there getting him. I just don’t know what kind of shape we’re going to find him in once we’re finished collecting evidence to do this the correct way. The kidnappers’ specialty has been all over the news lately. If we’re lucky, they won’t decapitate him on national television like they have the last three captives.
I closed the door a little hard, and my eyes went to the bed where Sway stirred.
She was wearing one of my t-shirts. A bright blue Nike one that I’d gotten when I was playing college ball. It was very comfortable. One of those t-shirts that you slipped on after a long, hot day in the sun.