Deadly Coincidence (Brantley Walker: Off the Books Book 4)

by Nicole Edwards

  He could’ve sworn someone mentioned Magnus had a girlfriend.

  Right. Uh-huh.

  “You can keep me anytime you’d like,” Magnus muttered.

  Before Trey could spin around and comment, the man was sauntering away. Trey was about to call him on it when he saw Reese walking toward them.

  Grinding his teeth together, Trey forced himself to punch in the code to unlock the door.

  After all, it gave him something to think about besides the fucking hard-on that damn man inspired.

  *

  Brantley stared at the space his brother had vacated, briefly wondering how long ago Trey had left. A minute? Ten? Considering how distracted he was, it could’ve been an hour that he’d sat staring into space, his brain twisting and turning the information he’d recently received.

  Oddly enough, he wished he could’ve spent that time thinking about Reese’s almost engagement but he hadn’t. No, he’d been too busy processing the email he’d received from Governor Greenwood.

  The email that informed him the task force would most likely be eliminated after the first of the year.

  Eliminated.

  Three months in, five cases closed, half a dozen more in the works, and they were going to be eliminated.

  Fucking politics.

  He’d read the email three times, remembered seeing something about budget cuts and fund allocation. Probably Greenwood’s way of overwhelming Brantley with information so he didn’t lock on to the fact that he’d created the team and eliminated it within a matter of months.

  And he’d relayed all that information in an email.

  A fucking email, not even a phone call.

  Oh, but the good news was, the governor would take his time in picking up the equipment they were in possession of, but unfortunately, their access to government databases would be relinquished immediately.

  Always a but.

  So basically, it sounded like they wouldn’t be looking to fill empty positions within the task force after the first of the year after all. Rather they’d be looking for jobs elsewhere.

  Brantley massaged the bridge of his nose, fully aware of the headache that was looming. It was going to be a bad one. He could feel it already.

  Two hours later, Brantley was still at his desk; however, he was no longer pretending to work. He’d given that shit up a while ago but hadn’t found the energy to stand up.

  “You comin’ down for dinner?”

  He peered up from his desk chair to see Reese standing in the doorway, his chest bare and a pair of black sweats hanging low on his hips. When he wore things like that—so casual, so very … male—it made Brantley wonder how he managed to go a second without running his hands over every long, lean inch of him. Even now, when his thoughts were muddled and the pain behind his eyes was growing more intense by the second, he wanted to touch and taste, explore and ravish.

  “Yeah,” he answered but didn’t move from where he sat.

  He wanted to get up, but the headache that had started two hours ago had taken root. In no time, it would be a full-blown migraine, and he would do anything to keep it from intensifying. This was the first one he’d had in two weeks, and it dispelled his theory that they were possibly going away for good. Ever since the incident that ended his career as a SEAL, he’d been battling them, and each and every time, he prayed that one would be his last.

  “You’ve got a headache,” Reese said softly, taking one step into the office.

  Brantley could see so much concern in those brown eyes, and it hit him somewhere in the center of his chest. It pissed him off that he’d spent the better part of the day sulking over the fact that Reese hadn’t told him he’d nearly gotten married at one point in his life. It was a stupid worry, he knew. Something he had no business harping on. There were a lot of things they didn’t know about each other, a lot of things they would eventually learn.

  Yet it still made his stomach twist into knots.

  Reese flipped off the overhead light, then pulled the cord to close the blinds. Even though the sun was still shining through, it helped. Some.

  “Come on,” Reese urged, moving over and holding out his hand. “I’ll get your medicine.”

  Because he knew the migraine was inevitable and it would be a hell of a lot easier to be in his bed in a completely dark room, Brantley nodded and put his hand in Reese’s.

  When he stood, Reese stepped in close, cupping his cheek with his free hand before pressing his lips gently to his. Brantley felt some of the tension ease from his shoulders even as the shift in position made his head throb more.

  Without another word, Reese led the way downstairs, through the kitchen, grabbing a bottle of water on the way to their bedroom. By the time he got there, Brantley had no choice but to ease down on the bed and close his eyes. The nausea always hit him when he walked, and the throbbing had increased tenfold in such a short distance.

  He heard the click of the lamp when Reese turned it off, followed by the sound of the medicine cabinet in the bathroom opening, closing, then footsteps coming his way.

  “Here,” Reese whispered as something pressed against Brantley’s lips.

  He opened his mouth, took the pill, and accepted the water Reese helped him with.

  “You want me to undress you?”

  Brantley nodded, wishing like hell Reese would ask that question when he was well enough to come up with a quip to lighten the mood.

  Unfortunately, that wasn’t going to happen now.

  When Brantley woke up, the pain was like a knife in his skull. The instant he was conscious, the nausea hit him like a freight train.

  He groaned and managed to roll out of bed, stumble to the bathroom. His knees hit the tile floor with a thud, seconds before he heaved. This was the worst part. Wasn’t the blinding headache enough? Vomiting only made it worse. A vicious cycle that he found himself in as he fought to breathe in slow and steady, willing the pain away enough to get him back to the bed.

  Several agonizingly long seconds later, he stumbled to the sink to rinse his mouth out. The action took effort, but he managed. It wasn’t until he returned to the bedroom that he realized Reese wasn’t there. The clock on the nightstand read 0128.

  He paused long enough to look at the door, considered going to find him, but gave up the ghost when his stomach pitched again.

  The headache had to go before he—

  “Let me help you.”

  Reese.

  A foreign sense of relief swept over him as he crawled back into the bed. “I thought you were gone.”

  “Went to get this.”

  Brantley’s eyes were closed, so he couldn’t see what Reese was referring to. Then there was something cold against the side of his neck, and Reese’s hand was curling beneath his head, lifting it and adjusting the pillow so he could tuck the cold can at the base of his skull.

  Never had he considered using a cold can to alleviate the pain until Reese. Oddly enough, the home remedy did help. Some.

  When he felt the mattress dip, he reached for Reese, sliding his hand over Reese’s knee and exhaling slowly.

  “Sleep,” Reese urged.

  The last thing he remembered before he drifted off was how good Reese’s fingers felt as they massaged his temples.

  Chapter Three

  Thursday, December 24, 2020

  The following morning, Reese was up before the sun. He managed to extricate himself from the bed without waking Brantley, hoping to give him a couple more hours of uninterrupted sleep. The migraine had proven to be brutal, which was par for the course, and Reese knew Brantley hadn’t slept soundly because of it.

  “You ready, girl?” Reese asked when he got to the living room to find Tesha curled up in her bed. “Wanna go for a run?”

  That got her attention, and instantly Tesha was up, her entire body wagging with excitement.

  She did love her morning exercise.

  “All right. Lemme grab my shoes.”

  It only
took a moment to pull on his shoes, tie them, get Tesha harnessed, and then they were out the door. The air was thick with humidity, dulling the chill that would’ve otherwise been there. Reese yanked his hood over his head, then took a minute to stretch.

  This morning he opted to forgo music. There were some days he needed the motivation, others when he preferred only the sound of his breathing. It allowed him to blank his mind, forcing away all thoughts, all worries. They would be there when he was finished.

  “Come on, girl. Let’s do this,” he said, taking off from the porch, Tesha trotting along beside him.

  For now, this was what he needed.

  Two hours later, Reese was sitting, laptop and coffee in front of him, at one of the empty desks in the barn, skimming through his emails when the door opened and Brantley strolled in. The tension lines in his face had eased and his eyes were clear.

  “Headache gone?”

  “Finally.” Brantley stopped, pinned Reese with a skeptical glare. “Why exactly are you here? You do know it’s Christmas Eve, right?”

  “I do know that, yes. But you were sleepin’ and I needed somethin’ to do. Plus…” Reese nodded his chin in the direction of the second floor.

  “I won’t bother to ask why she’s here,” Brantley grumbled.

  Reese hadn’t either. Last time he’d questioned JJ about why she was at work when she should’ve been enjoying her personal time, she’d nearly taken his head off.

  “Did you get breakfast?” he asked Brantley.

  “Bagel.” The frown on his face told Reese he wasn’t enthused with his morning nourishment.

  Usually Reese cooked something for them after their morning run. But since he’d been solo this morning, he’d settled for overnight oats and a bowl of fruit. Not to mention, there were times when strong smells would unsettle Brantley’s stomach, and Reese had been wanting to avoid that, too.

  “Please tell me there’s coffee.” Brantley started toward the small kitchenette they used mainly for their daily java.

  “It’s fresh,” he said, his words punctuated by the sound of the dog door slapping closed, followed by, “Tesha!”

  Reese looked up, saw JJ snarling from her second-floor loft, her shout still echoing in the wide-open space.

  “Dadgum dog!”

  If Reese didn’t know better, he would think Tesha had it out for JJ.

  Now that he thought about it, maybe it was Tesha paying JJ back for her overreaction to Reese’s simple questions, like why are you working on your day off?

  Reese grinned. Tesha was proving to be a loyal dog.

  “Where’s my shoe?” JJ demanded before hobbling down the stairs.

  “Why were your shoes off in the first place?” Brantley asked when he stepped into view, glancing from JJ to Reese, then back again, the look on his face priceless. He clearly could not fathom how JJ could possibly be wandering around without her shoes on.

  Then again, their team leader wasn’t known for his ability to relax and chill. Being a retired Navy SEAL, Brantley Walker had one main setting: intense. If he was out of bed, he generally had shoes on, along with all of his clothes—which consisted mostly of cargo pants and T-shirts these days. And on occasion, he’d pair some Levi’s or Wranglers with those T-shirts. Those rare times Brantley wandered around barefoot usually meant he was either suffering from a headache or urging Tesha to go outside to do her business or he scented bacon and couldn’t wait long enough to throw on clothes before he chowed down.

  It was in those rare moments when Brantley was caught unawares that Reese found him ridiculously hot. More so than usual.

  To his credit, Brantley did run the governor’s task force, a group developed for the sole purpose of finding missing persons within the state of Texas, like a well-oiled machine. And unlike many bosses, Brantley wouldn’t take full responsibility for the good the team had done. When it came to praise, he insisted it was a joint effort.

  On the other hand, Brantley had no qualms taking the heat when they’d done something wrong. Reese figured that was something ingrained in him during his time in the Teams. Brantley was used to being held accountable for his own actions as well as those he led.

  As far as Reese was concerned, Brantley was a damn fine leader. He was also a damn fine man in general, which was likely the very reason he’d fallen in love with the man and was now co-habbing with him, sharing the same bed every night.

  “Damn it, Tavoularis. Your dog’s a menace,” JJ declared.

  “I don’t have a problem with her,” Reese replied with a wink. “But you might check the yard.”

  “If she chewed it, you’re buyin’ me a new pair,” she bit out, limping with one shoe on toward the door.

  He heard Brantley say, “Three … two…”

  Reese was laughing when JJ came to an abrupt halt, the door opening from the outside. Before she could go after the four-legged shoe thief, the blond detective she’d been avoiding since Thanksgiving appeared. Reese’s laughter died off as he watched the encounter as though it was a locomotive barreling down the tracks, seconds away from hitting an oncoming train and resulting in a fiery blaze. One of these days, those two freight trains would collide. It was inevitable.

  Sebastian Buchanan lifted a hand, JJ’s shoe dangling from one finger. “Missin’ somethin’?”

  Good news was, the shoe didn’t appear damaged.

  JJ yanked it off his hand and spun around. Her glare was directed at Reese, but he knew her frustration wasn’t for him. Ever since she’d stood Baz up for Thanksgiving dinner with his parents and realized Baz was completely unaffected—her assessment, not Reese’s—by her disappearing act, she’d been in a tizzy. Four weeks and counting.

  As far as Reese was concerned, Baz was doing a damn fine job pretending he wasn’t affected. However, Reese saw the way the man watched JJ, so much longing in his eyes. He was most certainly bothered by the current state of their relationship, he just wasn’t bothering to say or do anything about it.

  Despite the fact he was being stubborn, Reese couldn’t help but like the former APD detective, known by his friends as simply Baz. And the reasons had nothing to do with how well he was handling JJ or how forgiving he was being for her freaking out about the fact they had been in a relationship at the time. The guy was good at what he did, and they’d come to depend on him as an integral part of the team.

  Baz stepped into the barn, grinned at JJ’s back, then made his way over to his desk.

  “You payin’ Tesha to do that?” Brantley asked when the detective dropped a fast-food bag down beside his keyboard and pulled his chair out.

  Baz’s eyes lit up. “No, but that’s a great idea. Maybe I’ll get your trainer to teach her to steal them.”

  Reese smiled at the thought of his sweet Tesha becoming a shoe thief.

  Baz glanced between them, grinned wide, and said, “Mornin’,” as though greeting them for the first time since he walked in the door.

  “Why’re you here?” Brantley said in lieu of a simple hello.

  “Nice to see you, too, boss.”

  “It’s Christmas Eve.”

  “That it is,” Baz agreed. “My question to you: why’re you here?”

  “That is a question.”

  Reese laughed. When these two got going, they could banter back and forth like the best of them. And they worked well together, a combination that Reese admired in the workplace. He liked that they were laid-back when they could be and nose to the grindstone when it mattered.

  Of course, today wasn’t a grindstone day, and honestly, he had no idea why any of them were here, aside from the fact it was familiar. Like Brantley said, it was Christmas Eve, and they should’ve all been at their respective homes, enjoying a day off, time with family or whatnot. Then again, they were family in a sense, so getting together whether for work or for play usually resulted in a good time.

  Baz obviously realized Brantley was still waiting for an answer and would continue to wait no matter the b
anter leading up to it, because rather than sit in his chair, he perched on the edge of his desk.

  “Figured I’d spend a coupla hours here, then head over to my mother’s.”

  “Doin’ Christmas at her place this time?”

  Baz shook his head, sipped from a travel mug he’d brought with him. “Dinner’ll be at my dad’s, like always. My mother’ll be there, too. I spend Christmas Eve with her. It’s tradition. She’ll make a homemade pizza. We’ll watch a movie. Usually It’s a Wonderful Life but this year I think she’s going with Elf.” He grinned. “Before you ask, I have no clue what that says about her mental state.”

  “Y’all are close,” Reese acknowledged.

  “We are, yeah.” He took another sip from his mug. “What about y’all? What’s the plan for your first Christmas Eve together?”

  “Just chillin’,” Brantley answered, glancing over at Reese. “Maybe we’ll watch a movie.”

  Reese chuckled. “Yeah? You think you can sit still that long?”

  “No one said anything about sittin’ or bein’ still.”

  Realizing what kind of movie he was referring to, Reese felt his face heat, the tips of his ears all but catching fire.

  Baz laughed, obviously understanding and thankfully changing the subject. “And tomorrow? Y’all’ve got the fam thing goin’?”

  “Yep.” Brantley turned his attention back to Baz. “Big breakfast at my folks’ place, then we’ll head up to Dallas for dinner.”

  “Sounds like a full day,” Baz mused.

  That it would be. And oddly enough, Reese found he was looking forward to it. While he had dreaded Thanksgiving, not knowing what to expect at his first meal with Brantley’s family, he now knew he had nothing to worry about. Being with Brantley’s branch of the family tree was much like the time he spent with Curtis and Lorrie and their wild and rambunctious crew. Seemed with the Walkers, no matter which group, it was about getting together, laughing, joking, and enjoying one another’s company.

  And while he knew they’d have a good time, he was definitely eager to see his mother, to spend some time with Z and Jensyn. His brother and sister would be joining them for the festivities, as would Z’s husband RT. Also in attendance would be Reese’s mother’s long-term boyfriend, who Reese was no longer leery of but still a bit uncomfortable around due to the fact he didn’t really know the guy.