Don’t go all paranoid, Corbett. Anthony felt he had to give that mental admonition to himself, simply because he couldn’t compartmentalize this moment. The two people who meant the most in the world to him felt threatened. He’d already slipped into warrior mode.
Anthony held the door and kept watching as they entered ahead of him.
“It was probably nothing,” Toby said. Clearly, once inside, that sense of being watched had ended, and his partner was second-guessing himself.
“I might have been reacting to your tension,” Mary said to Toby.
Inside the roadhouse he gave a nod to the chief bouncer, Braeden Carter, who was occupying a stool close to the door. Bailey Benedict tilted her head toward the back, which meant there was family in the house.
I think there’s always family in the house, one way or another since most of the staff here are named Benedict.
“Maybe.” Anthony didn’t say another word in response to Toby’s doubt. He led the way to the back, where he saw an assemblage of Benedicts, Kendalls, and even some Jessops. Maybe he needed to take a minute and settle down. Maybe it really had been nothing. Except in the months he’d been getting to know the man, Toby had never shown himself to be jumpy.
Anthony waited until Toby slid in on the backbench, and Mary got in beside him. Then he looked over and met Adam Kendall’s gaze.
“What happened?” Adam Kendall looked exactly like what he was—a good cop who’d looked at another good cop and gotten a psychic whiff of …something.
“Toby thought someone was watching us in the parking lot, and I did, too, for a moment, but we might have been mistaken.” Mary let those words roll of her tongue, and in that moment, Anthony realized how incredibly perceptive Mary Kendall really was.
She’d agreed with Toby when he’d second-guessed himself but hadn’t believed what she’d said, not one bit. Mary had felt someone watching, and she said just exactly the right words in exactly the right way to pique Adam’s interest.
“Have a seat.” Adam nodded to Anthony. “Marc and I are going out the back to stretch our legs. And while we’re out there, we’ll just have a little look around.”
Anthony knew that Marc Jessop had spent some years working for one of the government’s three-letter agencies. Marc flashed a quick grin. Clearly this was something the two men—cousins and likely friends since birth—had done before.
Normally, Anthony would have insisted on going along. In this instance, he ceded the moment to the official lawman at hand. He took his seat, picked up Mary’s hand, and kissed it.
“You think this is a sleepy little town until you get here,” Toby said. “And then you find out it’s not.” He huffed out a breath. “Should I get ready an apology for taking everyone down a rabbit hole for when Adam and Marc get back?”
“Big brother won’t expect one, even if it does prove to have been rabbit hole,” Jake Kendall said.
“Boy howdy, Adam takes his job seriously.” Ginny Kendall nodded. “And I don’t think anyone would have it any other way.”
“Well, except for that one time.” Matt Benedict maneuvered his wife, Kelsey just a bit closer. Anthony didn’t see Steven, so he figured Kelsey’s other husband, Matt’s brother Steven, was at home with the kids.
He thought that single date nights, where one dad stayed back, was a hell of a good idea. He put his attention on Matt, because he wasn’t certain which time Adam’s deputy been referring to.
“Which time was that?” Toby asked.
“That time he did a Tarzan through a plate glass window to rescue a kidnapped Chloe Rhodes and ended up getting rescued himself by Chloe, when she shot her captor as he was about to shoot Adam.”
“I don’t even want to think about that time,” Ginny said. And she shivered for good measure.
Jake put his arm around his wife and gave her a hug.
“That sounds like a story I have to hear,” Mary said.
“It was what you might call a watershed moment,” Jake said. “One of those moments you think is going to unfold one way and mean one thing, and then it turns out to be more far-reaching than you ever could have imagined.”
Anthony reached for a copy of the menu that was on the table and handed it to Mary. He split his attention, keeping it half on his woman and half on the back door.
Bailey Benedict arrived and set glasses down, including one each where Marc and Adam had been sitting. Anthony had quickly perused the menu and knew what he wanted, so he was ready to give his order when she turned her attention to him after taking Mary’s and Toby’s requests.
Bailey smiled, nodded, and then gave a little squeak when her husband, Chance, slipped his arms around her from behind.
Once they’d properly greeted their wife, along with giving her their orders, Chance and Logan sat facing them, one table to the left. They looked around then turned to Jake.
“Where’d the two alphas go? Another recon mission?”
Jake grinned and then looked over at Toby. “See? No apologies will be needed.”
Anthony was at the point of wondering if he should go out himself and look around. Nearly twenty minutes had passed since Adam and Marc Jessop had headed outside. Neither Jeremy and April, both of whom belonged to Marc, nor Jake and Ginny showed any signs of concern.
Fortunately, their food arrived with a side order of a possible update in the form of Adam and Marc.
“It’s a nice night out,” Adam said. The man looked energized, and Anthony realized why with his next sentence.
“Your voyeur drives a late model Ford, but we couldn’t see the plate.” Adam rubbed his hands together and then grinned. “But we have no doubt whatsoever that he or she was there and watching you. Now as to who he or she is, what they want, we have no idea at this moment. Tomorrow
