***
In order to send the image, Reese had to pull up Brantley’s text message app. He’d had every intention of sending the picture to his phone so he could shoot it over to Z. He hadn’t planned on opening the app to find it was on an ongoing message thread between Brantley and Cyrus.
It was a huge invasion of privacy to read the conversation on the screen, but he found himself doing just that. What that said about him, he didn’t know. Nor was he sure he wanted to know.
Evidently, Brantley and Cyrus were spending quite a bit of time together. The last message had been from Cyrus, letting Brantley know he would be stopping by. That had been last night a little after ten. The response from Brantley was what he continued to stare at, his mind whirling.
Door’ll be unlocked. No talking tonight, Cyrus. Your mouth’s gonna be plenty busy.
His breath caught as an image of Brantley and Cyrus flashed in his mind. But it wasn’t heat that inundated him. No, Reese would have to say his immediate reaction bordered on jealousy. For some fucking reason, he didn’t like the idea of Cyrus paying late-night visits to Brantley.
Of course, that made absolutely no sense. Brantley could do whatever the hell he pleased. Reese didn’t have any claims to the man. Hell, he was straight, for fuck’s sake. Why the hell should he care that Brantley was getting it on with another man?
“You okay?”
Tearing his eyes from the screen, Reese glanced out the window to see they were about to exit the toll road.
“Yeah. Sorry.”
He cut his eyes to Brantley, noticed the man was watching him, a frown marring his forehead.
“Took a minute to save the image so I could forward it,” he lied even as he did just that. A second later, he texted the picture to himself, noticing Brantley hadn’t deleted their text thread, which had grown longer over the last month or so. Not a huge consolation, considering.
After passing back Brantley’s phone, Reese pulled out his own. He sent a quick message to Z, informing his brother of what he needed, then put his phone away. He stared out the window, trying to erase the image of Brantley and Cyrus from his brain.
It wasn’t working.
In fact, that foreign sensation continued to intensify. Jealousy, anger, he couldn’t really tell the difference. Or maybe it was simply frustration over the fact that his wires had gotten crossed somewhere along the way. There was no way he was thinking about Brantley as anything more than a friend. No way the mere thought of Brantley and another man would bother him. It wasn’t like he wanted the guy.
You sure about that?
With a heavy exhale, he tried to remember what they were doing. The more pressing matter of a missing girl.
“What’s on your mind, Reese?”
The sound of Brantley’s voice surprised him, making him flinch.
“Hey, now,” Brantley said softly as he reached over, touched Reese’s arm.
The warmth of his hand drew Reese’s attention, had him staring at the that big hand curling around his wrist as it offered a reassuring squeeze.
“We’re gonna find her. Bring her home safely.”
Brantley had misunderstood Reese’s response. Thank God for small favors.
He was still staring at Brantley’s hand on his arm, wondering why the fuck he didn’t pull away. There was nothing sexual about the touch, but the man’s mouth could’ve been on him for all the heat that slammed through him.
Not that he wanted that.
He didn’t.
What the fuck?
“I know. We’ll find her,” he echoed.
Brantley’s hand disappeared and Reese instantly felt the absence of his touch.
By the time they arrived at Travis’s fifteen minutes later, Reese had managed to get himself under control. He chalked up his reaction to the shocking events of the day. Finding out Travis’s daughter was missing had taken its toll on him, and it was his inability to do anything to fix it that had him seeking solace where there shouldn’t be any.
However, his reaction hadn’t gone unnoticed by Brantley. The man was watching him closely, as though he was worried he would go postal at any given moment.
“JJ was able to get this image from the security cameras at the capitol,” Brantley said to Travis and Gage.
He went on to explain the way the cameras had been taken offline, then brought back up. How JJ had compared a before and after to identify the three vehicles that had left the premises during that time. It was actually a pretty simple yet brilliant way of making the deduction. Reese was impressed. Mainly because no one else had thought of it.
“Do you recognize her?” Brantley asked.
Travis stared at the image on the phone screen for long seconds. “No. I don’t.”
He passed it over to Gage, who gave it the same assessing review before shaking his head
