Jo knew that. She and Sullivan had discussed it at length before applying for the job. None of Jo’s team had liked the prospects being floated to their captain. To protect their department, Jo and Sullivan had stepped up.
Hours later they sat around several tables in the back. It was just her team, Ian, Redden, and Rhys everyone else had long since gone home. Inevitably the talk devolved to Lucy.
“Still no sign of her?” she asked Ian and Redden.
Ian and Karma were leaning against each other. Abe had left before the pool games were over, he claimed it was to help cover their shift with Brown and Jones tomorrow, but she’d seen how he’d looked at Karma. He wanted her as much as Karma wanted him. After her honeymoon, Jo would see about forcing them past their stubbornness to see what was right in front of them.
“No.” Ian sighed. “I’m due in Ireland next week for a new case.”
“Same. We’ve tapped every resource we have,” Redden rubbed his face. “She’s gone.”
Jo’s shoulders slumped in defeat. It looked as if none of the victims’ families would find closure.
~ ~ ~
They were due to leave for Huntsville in another two hours to begin prepping for the wedding. Rhys looked at the woman who had become the center of his world. Brown hair covered her face, one arm clutched him tightly, and her face was buried in his shoulder.
It took him time to untangle himself from her grasp and slip from the bed. Tiptoeing to the walk-in closet, he dug into a box he’d tucked behind his hanging clothes and hurried back to Jo’s sleeping form.
Pressing a kiss to her neck, he slowly roused her from the first deep sleep she’d had in weeks. He hated doing it, but he was out of time. Jo had been so focused on finding Lucy and then throwing herself into their wedding plans she hadn’t stopped to breathe. He refused to slow her down; instead, he wanted her to deal with the perp that got away the best way she could. Or come to terms with losing Lucy.
“Jo?” he whispered, gently shaking her shoulder.
“Humph.” Her arm tried to snake around his waist, but she came up against the box. “What?”
She dragged the sheet to her chest as she pushed her hair from her eyes. The blue chips of ice warmed when they landed on him. He loved looking into their depths. His friends had cautioned him to make sure her heart was open to him. To them, she seemed cold, distant, and harsh. Though his friends William and David appreciated her protective streak when getting rid of Cristal, who was now neck deep in lawsuits and various hearings. He cherished her shielding their family and friends from danger.
None realized the barriers Jo erected protected her tender heart from the nightmares her job brought to her. With him, she was warm and caring. Sometimes brash, but her prickly defenses weren’t armed for him. He saw the soft cuddly Jo and loved her for it.
“Rhys? What time is it?” Her sleep raspy voice sent a shiver through him.
Looking at the clock, he groaned. They didn’t have time for another round if they wanted to eat with Rian and Evan. “We need to leave in a few hours.”
“Why the hell didn’t you wake me up sooner?” She tried to slide out of bed, but he stopped her with a hand on her hip.
“We’ve got enough time to clean up and eat with the boys. But first, I want to give you the gift I bought for our wedding day.”
Bright blue eyes widened. “You got me a gift? It really is a thing? Because Karma wasn’t sure—”
“Maybe not a thing for others but I wanted—”
She was out of the bed and racing to the closet before he could finish, appearing seconds later with a small box in her hands. “I have something too. I didn’t buy it, but—”
“Okay, how about we exchange them together?”
“No, umm. Like I said I didn’t buy it, but I planned to take it with us and give it to you before the wedding, but now—”
He pressed a kiss to her lips to stop her rambling. It happened whenever she became flustered or nervous with him. No one else saw this side of her. His porcupine never lowered her guard enough to be vulnerable except with him. “Open mine first. Then I’ll look at what you have.”
She nodded and took the box. The lid easily came off to show another black box nestled in it. She clicked it open and gasped. “You bought it? For me?”
“You’ve been going on and on about it. You can’t use it as your backup piece, but I thought for the gun you put in the nightstand you can use this instead of the .38 you have now.”
Her fingers trembled as she traced over the Lady Hawk 2.0. It was the gun of her dreams.
“I didn’t think you’d like the rose gold, but I liked it, so I had everything else designed in black with only a few accents.”
She squealed, dropped the unloaded gun on the bed, and leaped in his lap. “I love it. Thank you.”
“Well, you can’t test it until we get back. But I couldn’t carry it with us on our honeymoon.”
His voice was silenced when she claimed his lips and tried to push him back to the bed. Gripping her waist, he stopped her. “Wait. What about my present?”
“Oh.” She twisted around and pushed the box into his hand. “You know the office you gave me was your dad’s outer office, right?”
Rhys nodded. He had struggled with letting go of the space. It helped that Jo had not changed much just added a few of her own pieces to it.
“Well, I wanted to keep that large file cabinet he had
