“I can’t see how since he’s locked up.” Jason’s face was twisted into a knot of concern.
Nicole wrung her hands on her lap. “Could Lunceford be involved in Henry’s disappearance somehow?”
Sawyer hated hearing the dread in her voice as she grasped at straws.
“I don’t know. Maybe,” Jason answered. “I just don’t see what reason these two would have to join forces. To what end?”
“Revenge,” Dylan answered. “Niklaus hates Destiny and its citizens for killing his son. Kip hates the Knights and has a horrible fascination for his ex-wife, Megan, their new love. They’re both seeking the same thing. To destroy us.”
“What else do you have for me?” Nicole asked, the harsh tone he’d heard from her back in her voice.
“This is all I have for now,” Alexei said. “I am not through with my diggings though.”
“Well get a bigger shovel then. I agreed to your plan because I thought it would help me find my friend. It didn’t. My friend is still missing. I’m no closer to finding Henry than I was yesterday when Sheriff Wolfe put my other friend in cuffs and locked him up in a cell.” Nicole turned to Jason and glared at him. “Don’t you think it’s time to release Jaris?”
“Okay. I’ll get him.” Jason got up and headed out his door. The jail was part of this building but sat in the back through another door to the right of the sheriff’s office. Six cells. Sawyer had spent a night in one of them a year after his parents’ deaths. He’d downed half a bottle of tequila and then gotten into a fight with some guys from Clover.
When Jason returned with Jaris, Nicole jumped up and put her arms around him, filling Sawyer with a big dose of the green-eyed monster. Sure she’d said she wasn’t interested, but what about her old partner? How did he feel about her?
Nicole stepped back. “I’m so sorry, Jaris. This is all my fault.”
“Why? You didn’t put me in a cell.” He pointed to Jason. “He did. Nicky, you’ve got to stop beating yourself up about everything. Sometimes shit just happens.”
Sawyer’s instincts backed down his resentment of Jaris. Her old partner clearly looked at Nicole as a little sister more than anything romantically. Also, Jaris wasn’t trying to pull her into him in another embrace, to make all the other dick-swinging guys in the office know she was his. Of course, that was what Sawyer wanted to do right about now. Pull Nicole into his lap away from Jaris no matter his seemingly good intentions. Sawyer didn’t, of course, knowing Nicole’s current state. He had to keep his cool. Winning her heart had been the easiest part. The difficult part would be to earn her trust. Sawyer looked at Reed, who was calm on the outside but clearly a wreck on the inside. “Difficult” didn’t even begin to describe the task in front of him.
“I’m going to Chicago to find Henry,” she said.
“Not without me and Sawyer, you don’t,” Reed growled.
Nicole addressed Dylan, Alexei, and Jason. “Gentlemen, do you mind giving us a moment?”
The three left the room.
Nicole sighed. “I think it would best for us to part friends, don’t you?”
“Hell no, I don’t.” Reed stepped up to her. “What’s wrong, Chicago?”
God, how dense could his brother be? He wanted to scream at him. If Reed didn’t wake up right now and tell her what was holding him back, they were going to lose Nicole, the woman of their dreams.
She turned to Jaris. “Will you help me find Henry?”
The cop nodded and a new wave of jealousy blasted Sawyer’s insides. “Do you mind if we get some breakfast first, Nicky? I’m starving. The sheriff told me about the diner a block away from here. Blue’s, I think he called it. I’d love some bacon and eggs.”
“Sounds great.” Nicole’s walls were obviously up and intact again.
“We need to have Dylan set up a detail fi
rst,” Reed said.
“I’ve already told you I’m done here. No detail. No bodyguards. No one. Jaris isn’t just a cop as it turns out. I was right. I’m also right about Henry. He’s in trouble. I know it in my bones. Jaris is FBI. Counting me, that makes two law enforcement officers that can take care of any mobster who might show up at our breakfast.” She shook her head and closed her eyes tight. “But no one is coming. I’ve wasted time here in Destiny when I should’ve already been looking for Henry.”
“Like it or not, Chicago, we are going with you to Illinois if that’s where you’re going.” Reed might be coming around but was it too late? Still, Sawyer wasn’t about to give up on having a life with Nicole and apparently neither was his brother.
“I’m so grateful to you both. Thank you for everything.” She blinked several times but not a single tear fell.
Knowing she was shoving her emotions down crushed Sawyer. It wasn’t just that he wanted her—God, knew he did. It was that she needed them. And he and Reed needed her, too.
There wasn’t a day that Sawyer didn’t think about his parents. Grief was part of him, too, but he’d learned long ago how to live through it and embrace life. His brother hadn’t. All Reed’s bravado and lustiness was just another kind of defense to keep himself locked away from the world. When Nicole had arrived he saw something in his brother he’d never seen before. Hope. But the woman who’d wrapped herself around their hearts had her own suffering. She didn’t see her own value. Value? Fuck, she was priceless, a precious light that chased away the darkness inside his lonely world. In his heart, Sawyer knew that she was the only one for him and Reed.