It was one reason she wanted to be a foster parent. She dreamed of helping some of those kids who just needed a leg up so they could have an amazing life. With Rhys, the dream was closer to reality since her job’s hours weren’t as stable as his hours would be.
Taking a sip from her water, she gathered her thoughts. “Have you ever thought of either fostering or adopting?”
Rhys turned his head and beamed at her. “Yes. I know we’ve talked about having our own kids, but I really want to open our home as well . . . ” he went through the details, and Jo knew at that moment they were soulmates.
No one else understood why she wanted to foster kids. Yes, she still wanted to have children, but why couldn’t she do both? Not until they were settled at their new jobs of course, but it was nice to know they were on the same page in this as with so many other pieces.
She hoped when she finally broke down and told Rhys about Rian helping her on the new serial killer case, it wouldn’t break them. That was one area they had very different views on, how much to shelter Rian and how much to give him the unvarnished truth. She felt like Rian needed to be prepared and Rhys wanted to protect his little brother. Especially after the Skinned case. Rhys had become even more protective of his brother. They’d agreed to disagree, but with Rian’s involvement yesterday she might have crossed a line. She hoped it wasn’t a line Rhys would hold against her.
Just as she opened her mouth to fill Rhys in, Ian and Redden walked into the personal gym. She brought the elliptical to a stop and hopped down, unsure whether she should join them or stay near Rhys.
“Jo, you weren’t kidding, this place has everything,” Ian said.
Redden, who told Jo to call him Tom at which point she’d rolled her eyes and said Redden worked fine for her, stopped with Ian next to the sparring area. She was used to calling the man Redden and didn’t want to remember another name. Blair was easier to transition to Ian. She hadn’t known him that long and everyone but Jo called him Ian. Now he was Ian to her too.
“Hi, I’m Ian Blair, and this is Tom Redden,” Ian held his hand out to Joseph who took it and gave it a shake before doing the same to Redden’s hand.
“Joseph Smith.” Joseph’s gaze tangled with Jo’s but directed his question to the two men. “How do you know Rhys?”
“We don’t. We’re working with Jo on the Slenderman case—”
“I’m helping,” Rian all but shouted interrupting Ian.
“Helping?” Rhys’s voice was whisper soft as he jumped off the treadmill. “How’re you helping, Ri?”
Jo swallowed hard pushing the nerves creeping up the back of her throat down to her stomach again. Rhys came to stand in front of her, his tawny-colored eyes frosty. Silent accusations flew like jagged shards from his gaze and bored into her.
“Well, a lot of the pictures they had were people me and Evan knew—”
“Knew?” Rhys’s frown morphed into a scowl.
She was in trouble. How much? She didn’t know, but she saw Rhys’s warmth slowly drain away leaving a frozen wasteland the more Rian talked.
“Yeah, from Legends of Stone.”
Rhys swung away from her, and Jo could finally breathe. The anger at her involving Rian in this case poured from Rhys in waves. “Your online game?”
Rian’s grin broadened at having his brother’s entire attention. “Yes. She just needed names of people we’ve noticed who have gone silent. It was really easy.”
Joseph seemed to understand Rhys was about to lose it and slapped Rian on his shoulders. “Come on, my man. Let’s see what Marta made us for breakfast.” Joseph motioned for the two agents to come too.
It wasn’t until they heard the scrape of the upstairs door closing that Rhys unleashed his rage.
“I told you after getting shot I did not want your cases touching Rian—”
“Rhys, you know I wouldn’t pull him into anything dangerous. I always watch out for both of you.” Jo scrubbed a hand through her hair loosening her ponytail. “Do you want me to move the stuff from my office? We can use a conference room in the basement at the precinct, but it means longer hours for me.”
His fingers rubbed over his face and speared through his hair. “It’s just a list like he said, right?”
Jo remained silent unsure how much information to share right now. She wanted to lay it all out between them. No secrets. But she’d learned after many arguments with Rhys it was better to walk away and give each other a chance to cool off first. With how volatile this was, it might take a few days for him to calm down.
When he didn’t fill the silence, Jo took the easiest path. Her hope. To approach him when he wasn’t reliving his kidnapping on her last big case. The same one where Rian had almost been taken as well. “Yes.”
“And it’s just to help him feel like he’s contributing, not because this is wrapped around him, right?”
“At the moment it’s a bit of both—”
“Jesus, Jo. It’s Skinned all over again.”
“It’s not.” She saw he wasn’t listening to anything she said. Her defenses wanted to come up, but she forced them back.
