Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62923 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 315(@200wpm)___ 252(@250wpm)___ 210(@300wpm)
Remi smiled; to him, she would always be rat girl.
“There’s Jeremy,” Ryder said as he guided Remi through the busy airport. They’d landed in Galveston less than twenty minutes ago and Jeremy had agreed to pick them up. He’d already spoken extensively with Kris Tatum.
As soon as they were within reaching distance, Jeremy grabbed Remi and pulled him in for a tight, squishy hug.
“Hey! That’s mine,” Ryder growled. “Hands off the prize.”
Jeremy laughed and released Remi. After hugging Ryder with the same exuberance, he said, “Let’s get to the car. We have a lot to talk about.”
“Kris is all right, though, right?” Remi asked as the three of them rushed through the throngs of travelers. “You didn’t lie to me, did you? Please tell me they really got to her in time.”
Jeremy’s car was illegally parked in front of the airport’s main entrance and he was in the process of getting himself a ticket when they walked through the electronic doors. “Hey! Police business,” he called out and showed the man his badge.
“Sorry, Detective Rowe,” the man said after looking closely at the badge. “I wasn’t aware of any police business in process at my airport.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “Just move the damn car and quit blocking traffic, man. You’re a headache for us all.”
“We’re on it,” Jeremy answered quickly as he shoved Ryder’s duffel into the trunk of his car while Ryder climbed into the front seat and Remi slid into the back. As soon as he had the car moving with the flow of traffic, he said, “Wow. Kris Tatum is a fireball. I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley.” Jeremy’s eyes met Remi’s blue gaze through the car’s mirror. “She told me to thank you, Remi. That damn farmer was telling any and everybody that would listen to him, Kris included, that a psychic helped find her before it was too late.”
When Ryder let out a string of curse words, Jeremy countered with, “It was the only fucking way I could get him to crawl his ass out of the bed and try to help Kris, Ry. Get mad at me all you want; I did what I had to do. If the ornery devil hadn’t been so determined to prove me wrong, he wouldn’t have even gotten up to turn his front porch light on.”
“I’m not mad at you, but we may have put Remi’s life in danger, Jeremy! If this man finds out how his murder attempts keep getting thwarted, he’s going to be out for blood. What if the psychic information falls into the wrong hands?”
Jeremy grimaced. “It’s already in the wrong hands, Ry. There were reporters outside the hospital this morning. Nobody knows any names, but the word psychic was being bantered around.” He held up his hand to Ryder and ordered, “Calm your ass down, though! We know the man’s name. Remi was right; Kris recognized his voice, even if she never saw his face. There’s a SWAT team headed to his house as we speak.” He looked at his watch. “If we’re lucky, the bastard is already either dead or cuffed and arrested. I’m hoping for dead. Who does that kind of shit to kids?”
Remi unfastened his seat belt and leaned forward, so that his chin rested on the back of Ryder’s seat. “You tell us, Jeremy; you said Kris identified him. Who’s the murdering jackass?”
“It’s illegal to ride in a moving car without your seatbelt fastened, Boy Wonder,” Ryder said.
Remi grinned. “It’s illegal for you to be so fucking sexy, too. Should I cuff you for that, lawbreaker?”
Ryder shook his head when Remi winked at him. He would never win another argument for the rest of his life. Turning to Jeremy, he asked, “Who’s our man?”
“Eric Joshua Peterman” Jeremy answered. “Ring any bells? Bet it does if you two looked at the yearbooks I faxed to the hotel.”
“The father of the boy who committed suicide?” Remi asked. “It looked like they were all super close. Why would he want Joshua’s friends dead?”
They pulled up to Cassie’s security gate and Jeremy, who’d visited with Ryder several times, punched in the security code. Minutes later, they were all three sitting in in the spacious living room. The cat-sitter had just left, and the ugly feline had already taken up residence on Ryder’s lap. Occasionally, it would hiss in the general direction of Remi. He responded by sticking his tongue out at the cat.
When the alarm system notified them that the sitter had exited through the security gate and the gates were safely locked again, Ryder turned to Remi and said, “Any word from the SWAT team?”
After checking his phone for the tenth time in the last twenty minutes, Jeremy shook his head to indicate no word had come through yet. “Nothing, but I’m not surprised. You know this shit takes time, Ry. If there’s a concern of anyone other than the perp being in danger, they’ll wait as long as they can to avoid a hostile, dangerous confrontation.”