“He would.”

“And not you. He wouldn’t hurt you.”

“I’m not to you what I was before.”

“He still loves you and he knows I do too so he would never—”

“He needs money and he’s desperate and he’ll do anything he has to do to make sure one person is all right. Stu. Now you fucking call him, Shandra, and get me back my boy.”

“I’ll call him, Johnny. Right now.”

He didn’t thank her and he didn’t say goodbye.

He disconnected, checked his mirrors, pulled back on the road and drove to Izzy’s.

“You’ll get him?”

“I’ll get him.”

“You’ll bring him back?”

“I’ll bring him back.”

“You’ll bring him home?”

“I’ll bring him home, spätzchen.”

Eliza had hold on him almost like her sister except her hands were gripping his head right behind his ears and her body was pressed tight to his.

Her face was pale. Her eyes were haunted. And her hold was so hard, if she had it in her, she’d crush his head.

He’d had to tell her. He’d had no choice. When this was over, that was something he couldn’t keep from her and still keep her. So while Margot and Deanna saw to Addie in the kitchen, he’d taken her aside and told her. It was up to her if she shared.

But Eliza, like Toby and Dave, both he’d shared it with before she got home, knew he suspected Shandra’s brother.

That did not rock her or make her look at him with revulsion.

It made her visibly fill with hope.

But even if she could get past it, when he found Stu and beat him bloody, he’d still get another few licks in just for Johnny having to tell his woman his ex’s brother kidnapped their boy.

She yanked his head down so his forehead collided with hers.

Staring him in the eye, hers burning, she forced out a guttural, “Go.”

Then she released him.

He bent in quick to touch her mouth with his and he turned.

His eyes slicing through Toby, Dave and Charlie, who had arrived five minutes earlier, all of them standing close to Johnny and Izzy in her front hall, he growled, “Let’s roll.”

They followed him out of Izzy’s front door, across the porch and down the steps.

“Charlie, you’re with me. Dave, you’re with Toby,” Johnny ordered.

“We can spread out, cover more area if we all take our own trucks,” Toby returned.

He stopped and looked at his brother. “You know him. Before he went bad, you were friends with him. You know his hangouts, his friends, the women he’s been with, they don’t. You cover the ones east and north. We’ll cover the ones south and west. You run out of options, you call me and I’ll give you more. Ben’s out with a bud, he’s heading to that hunting cabin Shandra’s dad had. But this way, we get in a situation, it’s better two men against one than one man alone against whatever he’s got going on in his head. Be smart. Let Dave drive. You navigate. Now roll out.”

What he didn’t say was that it was also better that they found him. God only knew what Stu Bray would do if cornered by cops, and Johnny didn’t want Brooks anywhere near that situation. He was already having severe difficulty dealing with the situation as it stood. Stu trapped and desperate and Brooks with him, Johnny couldn’t even allow himself to contemplate.

Toby took a beat before he nodded then sprinted toward Dave’s truck, a truck Dave was already in and had running.

Johnny turned to Charlie. “You drive.”

“Gotcha,” Charlie grunted, not hiding he was keeping his shit together by a thread and that thread was unravelling.

They jogged to Charlie’s truck and both of them angled in.

Charlie was kicking up dust and gravel when he asked, “South or west first?”

“South,” Johnny told him. “Toby fill you in on who we’re looking for?”

“Yep.”

“Right. There’s a dive bar down south Stu hung out at.”

“He’d take a kidnapped baby to a dive bar?”

“He banged the owner on and off. She lives over it and he’d take Brooks there.”

“Right.”

Charlie peeled down Izzy’s drive.

When they made it down the lane to the road, he turned south.

“Jesus Christ, seriously?”

Her name was Sharlane. She still owned the dive bar. And as Johnny had thought practically every time he’d seen her, she’d be very pretty if she wasn’t so obviously hard as nails.

“Would I joke about that shit?” Johnny growled.

“The cops came by before you but they didn’t say why. Fucking hell.” She ended that on a mutter.

“Sharlane, his mom has known he’s been missing now for nearly two hours. If you got anything on Stu—” Johnny said.

She whipped out her phone. “Give me your number. I see him, I’ll call you, Johnny.”

“I walk out of here, I can trust that?” Johnny asked.

She pinned him with a look. “Left me high and dry with a bun in the oven, an abortion bill to pay and did it stealing seventy-three bucks from my wallet. He’s not gonna come back here. But if he’s stupid enough to do that, I’ll give him a place to hide out. Then my first call will be you. You’ll have five minutes, Johnny. Because my second call will be the cops.”

Right.

He could trust that.

And Johnny wondered briefly if Stu knocking up Sharlane was the reason he’d knocked over a bank three years ago.

If it was, he’d have taken her with him, not Shandra, or at least have left her some cash to cover the medical bills.

So Johnny figured he was doing what Stu did.

Fucked-up shit that was just about Stu.

He gave her his number and then said, “Obliged, Sharlane.”

“It goes down, it’ll be my pleasure, Johnny.”

Johnny gave Charlie a look and they headed out.

“He was seeing a single mother who worked at the bank in Bellevue,” Johnny told him when they were in the truck. He didn’t tell him the part about Stu seeing her to get intel on how to rob her bank. “Let’s head there.”

“Jesus, how many stupid bitches did this jackass bang?” Charlie asked, pulling out of the parking lot.

“We’ll just say it could be long night,” Johnny said as answer.

“We got a problem,” Charlie stated.

Johnny looked his way. “A bigger problem than Brooks missing?”

“No, but see, we actually find that jackass before the cops do, ain’t no way I’ll keep my hands off him and ain’t no way you’ll keep your hands off him. I think this same situation is happening in Dave’s truck. Dave’s an old guy but I figure he can haul out a can of some whoop ass, anyone harms anyone that you boys got in your hearts. Plus, he’s a dad. He cares about Brooks and Addie and he feels her pain. So we gotta make a pact and hope to Christ they’re making one in Dave’s truck too. But the way Toby is with that boy, I’m thinking there’s no prayer of that happening. But we can’t think on that. We gotta have a plan. So if I get there first, you gotta stop me from murdering him. If you do, I’ll stop you.”

“Don’t wade in too soon,” Johnny replied.

“Oh, I won’t,” Charlie promised.

They drove.