Guardian Ranger (Shadow Agents #2)(9)

She took a deep breath and headed toward that cell. Jasper tensed and gritted, “Veronica.”

She kept walking and only stopped when she was a foot away from the bars. “Why?”

The injured man flinched.

“Why did you hit my car? Why did you try to take me?” They’d both had knives. Both had threatened her with them, but the blades had never sliced her skin.

Wyatt grabbed her arm. “You can’t do this.”

Um, she was doing this. Because she wasn’t a coward. These men wouldn’t make her cower in the dark. The night comes...

Wyatt tried to pull her toward him. “There are rules about questioning suspects. They have rights. You can’t just—”

“I have rights, too,” she snapped back at him as a sharp burst of anger filled her chest, driving right past the chilling fear that she’d known for the past few hours. “I think I have the right not to be stuffed in the back of a trunk on a Saturday night.”

“She does have that right,” Gunner murmured.

Her gaze cut to his. It almost looked as if he was about to smile.

“Do you want these bozos getting released on some technicality that a lawyer tosses up at us? Some B.S. about them not having counsel?” Wyatt’s tension had doubled.

As far as she knew, the men hadn’t asked for lawyers. They hadn’t asked for anything.

“I’ve got this,” Wyatt told her, voice deepening. “Let me do my job, okay? Trust me.”

But he hadn’t done his job before. When her brother had vanished, he’d done nothing.

She pulled away from him, stared once more at the men. Jasper wasn’t saying anything. He’d just come up to stand behind her. Silent. Strong.

When her brother hadn’t come back after a few weeks, she’d started digging. Pushing. Pushing as hard as she could as she dug into his life and the faint trail that he’d left behind.

Had someone tried to push back?

“Is this about Cale?” she asked softly.

She saw the injured man’s eyelids flicker.

Her heart seemed to stop. Then it raced, faster and faster with each second that ticked by. “Do you know where he is?” Veronica demanded, and she lunged for the bars.

Jasper grabbed her, wrapping his arms around her stomach and hauling her back against him.

The men in the cell were smirking now. The taller one, the one with dark brown hair, took a step toward her. “Don’t know your brother.”

Jasper’s hands squeezed her tighter.

Through numb lips, she managed to say, “I never said Cale was my brother.”

That made the smirk vanish. The guy’s eyes cut to Wyatt and blazed a wild blue. “We want a lawyer, now.”

“Tell me about my brother!” Veronica yelled back.

Jasper pulled her even closer against him. She could feel the rock-hard muscles of his abs against her back. His head lowered. “Easy,” he whispered in her ear.

Did it look as if she could take this easy? The guy had just admitted to knowing her brother. Random abduction? No way. No. Way.

Wyatt slammed his hand against the bars. “Veronica.”

Jasper growled. “Watch that tone, Sheriff.”

Wyatt shoved both of his hands into his hair. “They asked for a lawyer. We have to get them one.” He pointed to the deputy. “Go get Tanner Dempsey. He still occasionally practices some defense over in Dallas.”

As far as Veronica knew, Tanner Dempsey was the only lawyer within a two-hundred-mile radius. She’d thought he gave up law after he’d lost that last big case in Dallas, but maybe anyone with a law license would do right now.

When Jimmy rushed to the back of the station, and the back exit, Wyatt glanced at Veronica. Heaving a sigh, the sheriff waved toward his office. “Go cool down in there. When Tanner gets here—”

“It’s the middle of the night,” Veronica said, shaking her head. “There’s no telling how long it will take Tanner to get here.” Provided he was even in town.

A muscle flexed in Wyatt’s jaw. “They aren’t going anywhere,” he gritted. “And if you don’t want to go home, then at least get in my office. You can’t be near these prisoners.”

Now she was the one to glare at the men in that cell.

“Don’t worry,” Gunner’s rumbling voice promised, “I’ll find out exactly why these men tried to abduct you.”

Of course, she wanted to know why the men had targeted her, but right now her priority was finding Cale. “I just want my brother back.”

“This is a lead,” Jasper whispered in her ear. “Settle down. We can make this work for us.”

Settling down wasn’t exactly easy. Not after everything that had happened.

He led her toward the sheriff’s office. As they walked away, she saw Gunner taking out his phone and heading for the station’s front doors. “Where’s he going?” she asked. The prisoners were the other way. He wasn’t going to find out much by heading outside.

“He’ll be checking in with his superiors. Briefing them on what’s happening.”

Oh, right. Gunner had said that he was already working some abductions in the area.

Jasper shut the door behind them and exhaled on a hard breath. She rubbed her arms, feeling chilled as the air blew down on her from the vent overhead.