He probably smelled to high heaven. He was too tired to care.
All Jake wanted was to file his paperwork, catch a damned shower somewhere—he wasn’t too particular about where that happened this morning—and reheat some of whatever Izzie had in the refrigerator.
Then he’d fall into his bed and sleep from six in the morning until about six p.m. He’d leave a note for his niece not to disturb him under threat of death. Twelve hours should about do it.
He had no idea where she was at the moment. After his paperwork, he’d text her. Make certain she wasn’t headed off somewhere first and needed him to be responsible for that cat she adored or something.
Jake did what he had to do, taking a few moments to speak with A. J.—Chuckie’s partner in the lab—about the evidence the two of them had been analyzing for him. There was a bright, flashy ring weighing down her left hand that hadn’t been there the last time he’d seen her. He couldn’t resist teasing her about it.
Apparently, Detective Callum had gotten around to popping the question the night before.
Finally.
Sean Callum and A. J.—otherwise known as Autumn—Evers had been stuck together underneath the heavy conference table when the tornado had destroyed the TSP. Jake had crawled his own way out in time to see a woman from search and rescue pulling A. J. free.
The ring hadn’t surprised Jake in the least. Anyone who had seen the two together knew they belonged together, years ago.
Callum joined them as she was handing over the last of the evidence reports. It was damned early for Callum to be in, but they were TSP. Time didn’t mean much on this job. “MacNamara, Marshall is looking for you. Sounds pretty serious.”
Jake tried not to wince. He wanted nothing more than a damned shower. That was going to have to wait. A summons from the chief of the Finley Creek TSP himself at six a.m. meant something seriously wrong had happened.
He mentally ran through the half-dozen pressing cases he still had yet to get to the files for. There was no way he could juggle another right now.
Jake suspected that was exactly what was about to happen.
“I’ll head up now. A. J., you ever decide to throw this ass over, you have my number. I’m so much nicer looking than he is.”
“Just as modest,” A. J. said, sending him a wickedly beautiful smile. “Both of you two are far too pretty for your own good. It’s going to get you into trouble one day. Especially you, as Sean has me to protect him now.”
Callum was a damned lucky man and far braver than Jake would ever be. Still, a woman like A. J. would almost be worth the risk. That’s what kind of woman he wanted some day. One who understood the TSP life. “Yeah, yeah, yeah. That’s what all the girls say. I’m going.”
The TSP was now operating out of an empty warehouse that had been donated by Barratt-Handley, two blocks from the original TSP location. It was Barratt’s attempt to foster goodwill after all the shit his father had been involved in. Shit that involved Elliot Marshall’s family, especially his younger sister-in-law. Jake knew her. She had once worked in the computer forensics department.
She and the chief’s wife and Barratt’s wife were good friends of Izzie.
Izzie.
Every instinct he had told him something was wrong. That it had to do with his niece. He couldn’t get Izzie out of his head today.
That was never a good sign. Usually when that happened, the kid was up to no good. Or trouble was finding her.
Marshall was waiting for Jake in the lobby when he finally found him. He had a somber expression on his face. It wasn’t all that unusual, but when Marshall said his name, Jake tensed.
Last time Marshall had looked at him like that Izzie had almost died. “What’s going on?’
“Izzie was at W4HAV the evening before last.”
Jake tensed even more. He’d just known it had to do with Izzie. “Where is she now?”
Marshall held up a hand. “She’s going to be fine, Jake. Bruised, and I believe she has at least one broken bone. A concussion. But she’ll recover fully. I saw her myself after it happened.”
“FCGH or County?’
“Hold up,” Marshall said, keeping pace with Jake as he headed toward the doors. If Marshall had more to say, he would damned well do it in the car. “She’s not at either hospital.”
That most likely meant she’d been discharged. She was probably with her buddies somewhere, getting coddled. Some of his tension lessened. Annie and Nikkie Jean would keep an eye on her. “What in the hell happened?”
“Abduction attempt. As far as we can tell. In the struggle, she was shoved hard to the concrete. The abductors got away while Allen Jacobson was tending to Izzie. He and Rafe Holden-Deane interrupted the attempt and chased off the attackers.”
His blood froze.
He’d always hated that expression, but it was the most accurate at the moment.
“Where is she right now?”
His gut told him it had to do with him and the handful of cases that only he and Dan and the chief knew about. There had been threats against all of them before.
Even against Izzie and against the chief’s wife. It had just made Jake more determined to find the bastards responsible.
Marshall held up a hand toward his own car and driver. That was one of the perks of the job for Marshall. An armed driver. “They smuggled her out of the hospital.”
“Who?” Jake fought the impatience. “Who are they? Why?”
“Just listen. They smuggled her out of the hospital that night. She has left the city. I don’t know where she’s been taken. We don’t know when she’ll get there or be back. The only ones that know about this are you and me, Rafe, Nikkie Jean, Jacobson, and Izzie. We’re going to keep it that way. Until we know exactly who is responsible. I’ve already sent Gabby and Brynna off with Brynna’s sister Mel. Just to be on the safe side.”
“Who is Izzie with?” He honestly didn’t give a damn at the moment about anyone else. His niece had been hurt. And he couldn’t get to her.
“In the car. We’ll discuss it more in private.”
Jake nodded. They both knew corruption was still rife within the TSP ranks. Statewide. He and Marshall and Dan were working to fix that. It was a damned dangerous task.
There had already been casualties. People Jake knew and respected.
They were in the car with the partition between them and the driver in place before Marshall gave him more details. “I know you don’t care for Jacobson, but he got her out of town quickly. He’s qualified to take care of her during her recovery. He was the best choice.”
“I don’t trust him. There is more to what’s going on with him than him just being an unlucky bastard right now. Hell, he could be the link to the hospital we’re looking for.”
Marshall told him the rest of the details. Jake didn’t have to like it, but it made sense. Jacobson had been the fastest choice.
“He’s fond of Nikkie Jean, Jake. I don’t think there’s anything he wouldn’t do for her. Jacobson was the quickest, safest option to get Izzie to safety. Nikkie Jean was insisting Izzie go home with her. With the kids there…well, that wasn’t going to happen. I honestly don’t think he’s involved in what’s going on. Rafe trusts him, and has said so rather vocally. Told me he’d trust Jacobson with Jillian’s life in a heartbeat. That’s the highest praise he could get.”
Jake had to agree on her not having gone to the Alvaros’. That was not something Izzie would have wanted. She’d never put those kids in danger. Not even for a heartbeat.
“That frees you up to go hunting now.”
It was time to go hunting, all right. That was exactly what Jake was going to do. This…this had made things all the more personal. “So where are we headed now?”
“W4HAV. I want to see where it happened. See if there’s anything the evidence teams may have missed yesterday in the rain.” Marshall sent him a significant look. “I’m taking a personal interest in this case. My wife was inside W4HAV with my sister-in-law and my brother’s baby when this happened. They’d decided to stay inside and wait out the storm because of my sister-in-law’s fear of storms. Had they not…I don’t take that lightly.”
Of course, he didn’t. His wife and his brother’s family were all the family Marshall had in the world. Elliot was going to be hunting the devil now.
Jake would be right there at his side.
No one messed with Jake’s family. No one.