I growled, biting out, “We’ll be there.” His smile was blinding. So was how fucking smug he was. “Sit with Aspen, could you? Some of her friends are heading home for the weekend. They won’t be there.”

I rolled my eyes. “Yeah, yeah.”

He took off, and my phone started buzzing in my pocket, so I pulled it out.

An unknown number flashed over the screen.

“Hello?”

A voice said from the other end, “This is Bren’s boss. I believe you have something of mine.”

He was waiting by his truck when I pulled into the parking lot.

I didn’t know why he asked to meet here, outside PubTown, but I went. I was figuring not meeting in his parking lot was better odds for me? Either way, I wouldn’t be alone for long. I called everyone, giving Bren the option if she wanted to come and hear what he had to say, or head to the soccer game to sit with Aspen.

She hesitated, and that told me so much.

I wasn’t totally surprised when she said, “I don’t trust Jordan and Zellman with Aspen.”

She hung up and the dread that’d been building since seeing her dad’s face pinned on this guy’s wall just doubled. Bren was choosing to step back, something Bren rarely did. The last time she did it willingly was the night she told me she wanted to be a normal high school senior for a night, not chasing after her drug-dealer ex.

Bren didn’t step back because she was a coward. She stepped back because of the unnecessary pain it’d bring, and I took a look, a good long look, at this guy as I parked and got out of my own vehicle.

He was leaning his shoulder against his ride, arms crossed over his chest, and he was in full bounty hunting apparel. Vest on. All their weapons they wore. His badge hanging around his neck. He had sunglasses on but flipped them up as I came around the back of my truck.