Page 11 of Shadows Redeemed
Parker glanced around, pressing his lips together as he gave a slow bob of his head. “All right, so what do you think we do now? Should we go talk to the Broussards? See if we can rattle their cage?”
She arched an eyebrow, a ghost of a smirk playing at her lips. “You think getting in their faces is really the best approach? Didn’t you kind of try that already?”
“I guess not.” He sighed, running a hand through his hair. “I just hate not knowing where he is. What if that’s his blood?”
She scoffed. “Your brother’s a mangy cat with nine lives. I’m sure he’s going to turn up somewhere. The question now is where and when.” She pointed to her car. “Now we get with my team and see what they’ve discovered. Blaze should have looked through street cams by now.”
He gave a curt nod, allowing her to take the lead back to the car. As she strode ahead, he couldn’t resist letting his gaze trail over the curves of her body. The confident sway of her hips, the tantalizing slope of her waist…
Grimacing, he jerked his gaze away from her. He was getting far too distracted, and at the worst possible time. They needed to stay focused—heneeded to stay focused—if they were going to have any hope of finding his brother before it was too late.
Still, as they made their way back to the car, he couldn’t shake the image of Sage’s tousled crimson hair and beguiling eyes. His brother truly was a fool to have let a woman like her slip through his grasp. If she had been his…
A shiver rippled through him at the implication of that thought. He cared immensely for Jacob, but his loyalty to his own flesh and blood warred with the growing… infatuation?… he felt for Sage.
He needed to tread extremely carefully. Getting too invested where Sage was concerned might upend everything, including his quest to locate his missing brother.
As they reached the car, he resolved to keep a tighter rein on his wandering thoughts and impulses. No matter how alluring Sage was, he had to remain focused on the mission, on saving his brother.
At least, that’s what he told himself as he opened the passenger door for her, catching a whiff of her intoxicating floral scent, which damn near made his knees buckle.
This was going to be harder than he thought.
CHAPTER SEVEN
SAGE TOOK A DEEP breath as she pulled into her mother’s driveway, the familiar rose bushes lining the path to the front door bringing a wave of nostalgia crashing over her. It seemed like this trip was nothing but walks down memory lane, and not all of them good. But this one… This one she cherished.
Parker got out of the passenger side, giving her a questioning look. “You sure about this?” His brow furrowed with concern as he looked over at her. “They’re not really fans of my family.”
She managed a nod, forcing a tight smile. “It’ll be fine. They’re my family.” That they were her family was why she just lied to him. If she were honest with herself, she had no idea how it would go bringing him with her. When she broke up with Jacob, and her brothers—all four of them—found out why she broke up with him, they all wanted to hunt him down and kill the man. Once they found out why she was back in New Orleans, they might very well want to do the same thing to Parker for dragging her back into his brother’s nightmare.
The wooden door swung open before they could even knock, and Sage was instantly engulfed in her mother’s embrace. Kim Silver was a force of nature, her graying blond curls framing a face still youthful despite her sixty-three years.
“My girl, it’s been way too long.” Her mother planted a kiss on Sage’s cheek before pulling back and holding her out at arm’s length to get a better look at her daughter. “You’re too thin. Have you been eating enough? I don’t think you have. I can tell.” She waggled a finger at her, her eyes narrow slits. “Well, we can fix that soon enough.”
Sage laughed, the familiar motherly fretting warming her heart. “Too thin? You and I both know that’s a lie” She smiled over at her mother, touching her mom’s upper arm gently. “I’m fine. Promise.”
Her mother cut her gaze over Sage’s shoulder, landing on Parker as if just noticing him. Her eyes narrowed slightly as she sized him up, and Sage saw the man shift his weight from foot to foot, obviously uncomfortable under her mother’s scrutiny. “I see you have company.” She gave a slight dip of her head as she stepped away from Sage, clasping her hands in front of her. “Parker.”
A redness colored his cheeks. “Hello, Mrs. Silver. It’s good to see you again. I hope you’ve been well.”
“Fine. We’re all fine here.” She turned her gaze back to her daughter, her face an unreadable mask. “Does he have something to do with the case you’re here on? Do I even want to know?”
“Probably not, and yes, he does. He actually called for my help.” She looked inside the house, hoping to switch subjects. “You said something about food, right?”
“Nice try.” Her mother glared at Parker once more, and then waved them both inside. “But I’ll let it pass. For now.”
As they entered the living room, raised voices drifted in from the kitchen, the unmistakable sound of Sage’s brothers bickering over something. She should have known her mother would have called them all in for her visit. A wide grin spread across her face as the memories came flooding back of living in that house withfour older brothers as interrogators, instigators, and bullies. None of her boyfriends throughout high school had stood a chance, but she had all the right connections as she went though school.
The living room looked just as it had for years—the woolen knit blankets she used to burrow under on cold days, the mismatched bookshelves crammed with worn novels and dusty photo albums, the scruffy recliner that had been her father’s favorite seat before he died still sitting in the same spot. Her mother always said it was so he could visit her and watch the game shows. Sage’s breath hitched at the pang of loss that came with that last thought.
As if sensing her emotional tug, her mother reached out and gave her a comforting squeeze. “You ready for that food?”
She took a deep breath, nodding as tears sprang to her eyes. She swallowed hard against the lump in her throat as she nodded. “Definitely. I’ve missed your home cooking.”
The noises from the kitchen grew louder until four towering figures came barreling into the room, laughing and shoving each other in that way only siblings could. She laughed as she watched them, her tormentors growing up. “You know, with the way you four act, it’s no wonder you can’t find a woman to stick it out with you.”
“Sagebrush!” Levi, the eldest of her siblings, darted across the living room, scooping her up in a rib-crushing hug, her feet leaving the floor. “When did you get here?”
