“Your Gram is cool,” Keira noted. “One of my Grams is really shy, the other one is not very nice but Joe’s Aunt Theresa is totally awesome, a complete blast. When your Gram gets home, I should call Aunt Theresa and ask her to come down. They could have, like, a bake off or something.”

Layne’s eyes slid to Rocky to see she was smiling at the windscreen.

“I thought girls weren’t supposed to like to eat because they didn’t want to get fat,” Tripp stated, Layne rolled his eyes and Jasper exploded.

“Tripp, don’t be a dick!”

“What?” Tripp asked.

“Joe says skinny girls don’t do anything for him,” Keira put in, obviously not offended in the slightest. “He says for a woman to be a woman, she’s gotta have curves.”

“Joe’s right,” Layne muttered and Rocky’s hand shot out and she flicked his bicep with the backs of her knuckles.

“What’d you say, Dad?” Tripp asked.

“I said,” Layne said louder, “Joe is right.”

“Layne!” Rocky hissed.

“Baby, a woman without a great ass?” He shook his head.

The trio in the back laughed but he felt Rocky’s glare.

“Don’t know why you’re pissed, sweetcheeks,” Layne told her over their laughter. “That’s precisely how you got your nickname.”

“Layne!” Rocky repeated on a hiss.

“What was that, Dad?” Tripp asked.

Rocky’s head whipped around to look in the backseat. “Nothing, Tripp, your father is being tactless.”

“What’s tactless?” Tripp asked.

“Indiscreet,” Rocky answered.

“Indiscreet?” Tripp sounded confused.

“Rude” Rocky said, putting great stress on that one word and Layne chuckled.

“Dad’s never rude,” Jasper put in, “he’s just honest.”

“I think boys think rude is honest and girls think rude is rude,” Keira proposed.

“Exactly,” Rocky muttered, turning to face forward again.

Layne found himself rethinking his desire to give Rocky a daughter because by the time she reached Keira’s age, his boys would be gone and he’d be outnumbered and he was still rethinking this when his cell phone rang.

He pulled it out of his inside jacket pocket, looked at the display and saw it said, “Ryker Calling”. He flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Yo,” he answered.

“Alexis is gone,” Ryker growled in his ear and Layne’s neck muscles contracted.

“Come again?”

“Alexis. She’s gone. Lissa had a half day shift at the restaurant, got home at one and Alexis was gone. No note, no nothin’. She’s just gone.”

“I take it she didn’t have plans?” Layne asked.

“Yeah, her plans were to get her chores done, which means stayin’ at home, cleanin’ the house and then when her Mom got home, they were goin’ shoppin’ and to a movie.”

“She with a friend?”

“Negative. Lissa has called all her friends. No one has seen or heard from her.”

“Her chores done?” Layne asked.

“Who cares?” Ryker answered.

“We care, brother,” Layne said quietly. “We need to understand how long she’s been gone. Now, are her chores done and, if they are, what time does she normally get up and how long does it take her to clean the house?”

“Don’t know,” Ryker answered, “but the house is cleaned.”

“All right, talk to Lissa, let’s get a time line here,” Layne advised. “Once you talk to Lissa, you call Colt, I’ll call Devin but after you call Colt, you start knocking on doors. Did anyone see her leave? If they did, what time? Did she walk? Which direction? Was she with someone? Did she get in a car? If she got in a car, what kind of car was it? Did they see who was driving? Was anyone else in the car? Get a description. They probably didn’t get a plate but they might have seen if it was Indiana plates or something else. Did you get that?”

“Got it,” Ryker growled.

“You hear anything before I get there, report back,” Layne ordered, flipped his phone shut and opened it, scrolling down to Devin.

“Layne,” Rocky whispered and Layne felt the air in the car had changed from cheerful to tense.

“Tripp, on your phone, call Giselle, yeah?” Layne ordered, ignoring Rocky.

“Right, Dad,” Tripp replied.

He put his phone to his ear and heard Devin answer, “Miss me already?”

“Alexis McGraw is gone,” Layne told Devin and heard the hiss of Rocky taking in a breath. “She’s supposed to be shoppin’ with her mother but Lissa came home and she’s gone. No note. I’ve got Ryker started. I need to drop off Keira so I need you to get to him.”

“Copy that, out,” Devin said and disconnected.

“You can take me wherever you need to go, Mr. Layne. I can get Mom or Joe to come pick me up,” Keira offered quietly from the back. “I’ll call them now and they can meet me there.”

“That’d be good, honey,” Layne replied. “It’s thirty-four Easton Street.”

“Okay,” she whispered and he heard her digging through her purse.

“Hey Giselle, what’s up?” Tripp said into his phone and Layne held his breath. “Oh, cool. Yeah, we got Gram off okay…” he went on and Layne let his breath go.

Rocky’s hand came to his knee and squeezed, he covered hers with his and squeezed back. Then he drove carefully with precious cargo, the whole time his foot itching to press down the accelerator.

* * *

The minute they got to Lissa’s house, doors opened, all of them on his truck and the front door of the house. Ryker prowled out first, followed by Devin, Colt, Sully and Merry, Lissa coming out last to stand on the little stoop. She didn’t look good; she looked terrified out of her mind.

Rocky hustled Keira to Lissa; Layne, Jasper and Tripp went to the men, Jasper stopping a few feet away. He was on his phone, Layne didn’t know why and he was focused on the matter at hand so he didn’t pay attention.

“Around noon,” Ryker stated before Layne even stopped. “A silver BMW. That bitch was behind the wheel.”

Towers.

Fuck.

“Who saw?” Layne asked.

“Neighbor across the street. Bitch is nosy as hell, ugly too, but, swear, bro, her info helps, I’ll fuckin’ kiss her,” Ryker answered. “Said she didn’t think anything of it because Lexie walked right up to the car, seemed excited to see her, got in and they went.”

“No one else in the car?” Layne asked.

“Nope,” Ryker answered.

Layne’s eyes slid through the group. “What else we got?”

“Not much, man,” Colt muttered, his eyes on Ryker, his body alert for Ryker to blow. “Lissa’s been calling Alexis’s friends. No one knows about any plans. This is a sneak attack.”

Layne’s phone rang, he pulled it out, saw the display said, “Dave Calling”, he flipped it open and put it to his ear.

“Dave, I’m in the middle of –”

“Somethin’s goin’ down,” Dave cut him off. “I’m on duty at your office, listenin’ to Rutledge. He just had a conversation with someone, tellin’ them it’s too hot, he was freaked, though he didn’t provide details. Whoever it was, they didn’t listen. Now I got silence and I’m watchin’ his car move. Looks like he may be headin’ out of the ‘burg.”

Devin had planted the bugs and then Layne had planted a tracking device on Rutledge’s car. Even though things had cooled down to the point they were ice cold, both were still monitored in the office twenty-four seven.

“Where?” Layne asked.

“He’s on Green and looks to me he’s on his way to 74,” Dave answered.

“Right, two hours ago, Alexis McGraw got in a car with Nicolette Towers,” Layne told him.

“Shit!” Dave hissed.

“Keep an eye on him,” Layne ordered. “Got some of the boys here, we’ll get someone on his ass.”

“Right, out,” Dave said and disconnected.

Layne flipped his phone shut and looked at Merry. “Was anyone sitting on Rutledge?”

“The investigation is ongoing but wrapping up since we don’t have enough. Just shitty police work so he’s not gonna get a good performance evaluation but it looks like he’s gonna be cleared. He didn’t bolt which looked good for him. Cap rescinded the unit on his tail,” Merry explained.

“You need to call it in, he’s headed to Indy, looks to hit 74. He needs to pick up a tail on his way. He just had a conversation with someone, tryin’ to convince them it’s too hot then he took off,” Layne told them and Sully had his phone out before Layne was done speaking.

Sully stepped away and Layne heard Jasper’s phone ringing behind him. He turned and swept his son with a glance to see Jasper was still hanging back, body partially turned away, eyes to the ground, focus intense.

Before he could ascertain what Jasper was doing, he sensed Ryker was on the move and he turned to see Ryker heading toward his bike.

“Ryker,” Layne called, moving behind him.

“I’m headed to I-74,” Ryker grunted.

“Ryker,” Layne put a hand on his big arm but Ryker shook it off and kept moving.

“Call me, you got info on where he’s goin’,” Ryker swung a leg over his bike, settling as he put his key to the ignition.

Layne’s hand shot out and he yanked the keys from his friend.

Ryker’s head turned to Layne and he had that scary look on his face.

“Not a bright idea, bro,” he growled.

“Not a bright idea to get on your bike, pissed and lookin’ to do damage. We can hope nothin’s happened yet. It does, it doesn’t, Alexis and Lissa are gonna need you right here, not have to find their time to visit you and talk to you through glass,” Layne returned.

“She has my girl,” Ryker growled.

“I know and it isn’t helpin’ matters, us spendin’ time havin’ this conversation. Get off your bike,” Layne ordered.

Ryker glared at him.