Chapter Fifteen Brad #2
“Copy that, Stone. I’ve got eyes on the west.”
“Kennedy, are you in position?” I glanced up at the haunted house, where he had a bird’s-eye view of more than half of the place.
“Brad, check your nine o’clock.” I caught his tone and turned and held my phone up as if I were reading something on the screen. I raised my eyes and saw Bree and Hayne.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I muttered. What the hell?
I wanted her home. Why was she at the friggin’ fair?
I’d been avoiding her calls all day. I knew she’d been wondering what I was keeping from her, and if I dared to try to explain that I wanted her to stay home, she’d fight me on it. “I don’t want her here.”
“Good luck telling her that.” Kennedy chuckled. “I guess Charley didn’t get your message to run interference.” I should have called him instead of texting.
Hayne motioned her toward a ring toss game, and I heard her laugh and clap as she tossed the ring and it landed over the neck of the bottle. She must have felt my eyes on her, because she suddenly turned and locked eyes with me.
I don’t want her here, I repeated in my head as she came closer. When she got near, I saw her face and realized she was pissed.
She looked pretty in her tight jeans, and the black shirt she wore was swooped low in the front. Then her perfume found my nose. It was the kind that turned off all rational thinking and . . . Stop.
“Are you purposely avoiding my calls now?” She narrowed her eyes at me.
“Sorry, it’s been a day.” I kept it vague.
She tucked her hands into her pockets. “I thought we were supposed to be partners.” When I didn’t respond, she studied me. “Are you all right? What aren’t you telling me?”
I searched the faces around us. Someone caught my attention, and I shifted my gaze there. Bree moved to stand next to me. She followed my line of sight.
“You seem on edge.”
“Yeah, it’s all good. I just have a lot on my mind.”
“Yeah.” She lightly chuckled. “I get that.”
I knew she did, and I felt some comfort in her answer. I glanced at Hayne, who kept his distance. “So, you and Hayne seem to be spending some time together.” I was digging. She knew it, and so did I.
She held up a finger to Hayne to let him know she’d be another moment. Then I could tell something caught her attention. “Why are Ellis and Adam over there?” She squinted in a different direction as my stomach tightened. “Are you working? Is that Cap?”
Shit. I needed to do damage control. I’d made a mistake in not including her.
“Hey, look at me.” I moved in front of her. “Don’t be pissed.”
“I can’t promise that.” She folded her arms and glared at me. Guilt burned in my gut.
“Look, I’m really sorry, Bree, but—”
“Oh my god. You’re here, right now, to get him!”
“Yes.”
She looked hurt, and I didn’t blame her. I already felt shitty about my decision to leave her out of it.
“Once again, I thought we were partners.”
“Look, I promise I’ll fill you in more later, but in short, we used Gumbo’s phone to contact him, and he chose this place to meet up.”
She pulled her chin in and pinched her brows together. She was really mad. “And you weren’t going to share that with me? Brad, I went with you, and we discovered that name together. I was brought in to help solve this case. Why am I being shut out now?”
“Keep your voice down.” The last thing we needed was to call attention to ourselves. “Look, I’m sorry, but—”
She raised her hands, then dropped them. “Who made the call to keep me off this?”
“Me.” I knew she wasn’t going to like that one. “Wait.” I stopped her from leaving. “Bree, you’re not even healed from your concussion. You haven’t had this kind of training, and I can’t risk this guy getting his hands on you.”
“That’s not your decision to make.”
“As lead detective, it is.”
“Everything okay here?” Hayne was suddenly by her side, and I had to push my frustration back.
“Yeah.” Bree dropped her hands. “Just give us one more minute.”
“Sure.” He gave me a strange look but held back.
“Look,” I said and gently took her hand, to pull her attention back to me, “please, I beg you to go home.”
“No.”
This woman was going to kill me. “Bree—”
“Bradley!” Sherry’s voice made my stomach drop. “What the hell? You couldn’t take me to the fair, but you took her?”
This was going south fast, and I didn’t know how much time I had left before this guy showed up.
“Why the hell would I take you to the fair, Sherry?” I was beyond finished with her.
Bree stepped in. “Sherry, you’re wrong. I’m not with Brad. I’m here with Hayne. I just walked in on this. He’s here for work, and I’m not involved.” I felt that dig, and it stung.
“You’re working?” Sherry seemed skeptical.
“It’s true,” Kennedy piped in over the radio, “and, Bradley, get in the game here, man. We need all eyes on this crowd.”
“Stay off the damn radio.” Cap sounded pissed. “This isn’t friggin’ As the World Turns.”
“Sorry, Cap.” As I spoke I pitched the bridge of my nose. “Sherry, please go, for your own safety.”
Anna came up and tucked her arm through Sherry’s. I saw the nasty glare she threw Bree. “I think we’re done here. Come on, Sherry.” For once I was happy her friend Anna was there. I needed Sherry away from me.
“Kennedy.” I didn’t have to say more. He knew I wanted him to keep eyes on Sherry. It would be just like her to circle back.
“On it.”
I turned to Bree, but she held up her hand to speak first. “I know, you need to work on your case, and I need to get back to my night.” She moved past me, but I caught her arm discreetly.
“Just do me a favor, if you see anything off, just call me, don’t engage. If I’m right about who this is, he’ll try and kill you.”
“Apparently, so did Ford, but I handled myself well in that situation. Don’t you think?
” She was right. She’d been great, but this was different.
“All the more reason we need to get this guy tonight.” She then shook her head.
“Oh wait, sorry, not we. I’m not a part of this.
” She glared and pushed past me. “Have you asked yourself why he’d pick such a public place to meet?
Maybe he’s onto you too.” Her face spoke volumes as she looked around.
She was right. I had thought about that, but we needed confirmation that it was indeed him, and if it was, we were coming for him.
“Good luck on your case, Detective Stone.” The fact that she called me Detective Stone hit hard.
I took a deep, calming breath and tried to get my head back on the job.
Kennedy took a chance with Cap’s temper and used the radio again. “Yeah, she’s pissed, dude.”
“Can you blame her?” I radioed. “Sorry, Cap.”
“Possible suspect entering the north gate,” Ellis chimed in over the radio, and I snapped back into work mode. “Black hat, green jacket, jeans. Stand by for confirmation.”
“Kennedy.” I looked around. “Where’s Sherry?”
“Ferris wheel.”
I went over and ducked under the rope. “Hey, man.” I flashed my badge at the worker. “See those two women up there?”
He stepped back and leaned to look up. “Yeah, pink seat?” He pointed to the stripe on the bottom of the bucket seat.
“Yeah. Do me a favor and keep them on this ride until I get back.” I handed him a fifty. I couldn’t risk one of Sherry’s jealousy moments ruining everything.
“Sure thing, boss.”
“Kennedy, do you have eyes on Bree?”
“Coming up on your right.”
Hank appeared and blocked my view of where Bree was headed. “Bradley, finally taking some time off?” He smiled. “Nice to see you out enjoying yourself.”
I stepped back, then smiled warmly. “Hey, Hank. Not surprised to see you. I know you rarely miss a fair day.”
“True, Michelle and I never miss it.” He gave his wife a side hug.
“Nice to see you, Michelle.” I smiled again as my radio crackled in my ear. I fought to not react to it. I desperately wanted to know where Bree was.
Hank seemed to catch the moment and gave a quick wave. “Well, I’m sure you want to get back to your evening. I’m sure it’ll be more eventful than ours.” He huffed a laugh. “Us older folk are on our way to buy cotton candy so we can later regret it.”
“I hear the blue is the best.” I’d actually never tried that spun sugar coma, and I never planned to. “You two have a great night.” As I turned, I heard Kennedy let go of his breath over the earpiece.
“No one move until he hits his mark,” Cap spoke. “We need to be a hundred percent sure he’s our guy. There’s no goddamn way we’re gonna blow this case because someone else answered that text.”
“He’s walking, he’s walking,” Ellis whispered. “Okay, Stone, start heading that way. Bostwick and Stanley, you two go get into position.”
“On it.” My adrenaline spiked in anticipation. I had mixed feelings about the whole thing, but it was what it was.
“Kennedy?”
“Fun house.” I didn’t have to ask again. He knew I meant Bree.
The radio crackled again as I kept a steady pace toward the mark.
Cap’s excited voice broke over the radio.
“We got positive DNA off Maggie’s dress.
You were right, Stone! He got sloppy.” A part of me didn’t want to believe that it was him, yet here we were.
“Keep your eyes peeled. He’ll be jumpy, and he may not be working alone.
Everyone hold your positions and be ready. There’re a lot of people here.”
“Copy that, Cap,” I answered for all of us.
I’d convinced Cap to go with my suspicions even before the DNA results came back, but it was good to have it confirmed before we moved in.
I scanned every face as I moved toward a concession stand.
“Let’s also assume he’s carrying.” I paid for some popcorn and opened my phone like I was anyone else waiting for someone to get off a ride.
I popped the salty goodness into my mouth and kept my eyes on the crowd under the rim of my ball cap.
“Stone.” Kennedy’s voice alerted me something was wrong. “I have eyes on the suspect—he’s now entering the fun house.” Bree! I tossed the popcorn and raced off in that direction.
“Ellis and Adams, head that way,” Cap ordered.
Hayne felt me approach and rolled his eyes as I came up next to him.