He tipped his head in an acknowledging nod. “Okay. I have a badge that will work if she doesn’t look close. I’ll play cop. Tell her I need to talk to her down at the station. If she declines to get quietly into my car, I’ll bring her anyway. I have handcuffs. My car has a trunk, and it’s old enough to not have that inside release. In other words, I’ll do what it takes, Bree. If I find her in time, I’ll bring her to you. Period.”

My mouth was dry. I swallowed anyway, looking at his arms, his shoulders. If this man wanted to put me in a trunk, he could, with little trouble, and I was tall and fit. Lexie looked to be a tiny thing. I forgot sometimes how strong men were, because on television, hundred-pound actresses fended off huge men with well-placed kicks, and because no man had ever laid harsh hands on me. Trey at fifty could still pick me up and swing me around, easily, while I laughed and kissed him. Sometimes, when I was feeling playful and romantic, I’d start wrestling him in bed. He’d let me pin him; he liked the way my hair tumbled in a tent around his face. I never once thought about how, if he wanted to, Trey could flip me and hold me down. He could hurt me. I’d be helpless. Those thoughts belonged to my mom. I never had to think of that. It was not a thing he’d ever do.

I couldn’t fully imagine Marshall grabbing me either, pushing and folding and quelling me. He wouldn’t. He was Marshall, so tied to Betsy in my mind that I sometimes forgot he had his own body. But he did, and it was tall and ropy with muscle. My soft-spoken friend rode around inside a beast that could twist my body into any shape, if he chose to, and my body could not stop his.

I understood this, but I was not afraid. His body was my beast tonight. He would unleash it and let it do things that were wrong and frightening and illegal. For me. To save my son.

“Thank you.” My voice trembled. My words were woefully inadequate.

He rolled past that with typical Marshall pragmatism, saying, “Get everything you can from Trey. Not just what happened. Any facts or locations or objects he associates with Lexie Pine.”

I nodded. It was hard to keep my gaze on his face. I wanted to keep looking at his shoulders, his arms, these weapons being sent into the world on my behalf. “I’ll tell you anything he says that could help. He’ll be home soon. I need to go in.” I did, but I had to ask him, one more time, “Can you really find her?”