Jonny's Redemption (Gemini Group Book 7) Riley Edwards (ebook reader screen .TXT) 📖

him, but because Chasin looked…unsure. Like he’d been kicked in the gut and winded.

“Is she okay?”

“No.”

“You wanna explain that?” Jonny asked, rounding his desk.

“Bobby called to tell me I needed to get home to see to Evie. Bobby shared part of her childhood with Evie and she didn’t take it well.” Chasin paused and his face twisted into a nasty grimace. “Evie’s been worried about Bobby for a long time. You know Bobby doesn’t share her past and that included not talking to Evie. I thought I was doing the right thing but I fucked up.”

“How’d you do that?”

“Back when Evie hired us, I ran a full background check on Bobby. Standard procedure, anyone close to the target gets investigated. I unsealed her juvenile record. That’s the part that might piss you off. I dug deep into everyone Evie had contact with. My fuck-up is two-fold. One, I should’ve warned my woman that when Bobby opened up it was gonna be ugly. But I couldn’t do that without her knowing I knew about her best friend’s past. Which would’ve meant breaking Bobby’s trust. A trust she didn’t know she’d given me but it was trust all the same. My second fuck-up was when Bobby told me she told Evie her dad had hit her. I lost my cool and let it slip that if he wasn’t already rotting in his miserable life I’d kill him. When she pressed me on how I knew, I told her truth and she freaked.”

Jonny didn’t give two fucks Chasin had looked into Bobby. It was the first place any good detective looked during an investigation. Seventy-five percent of the time the victim knew their assailant.

“What does freaked mean?”

“She begged me to believe she’d never hurt Evie. She was frantic in her pleading. Then she hung up on me without me being able to calm her down.”

“I have to get Bobby.” Jonny nabbed his keys off his desk and moving toward the door when Chasin stopped him.

“She was a wreck.”

“Then why are you stopping me?”

“Because what you’re walking into might not be pretty.”

“I know her father’s a motherfucker,” Jonny told him. “And since you looked into her, I also know her mom bailed and I know about her father’s abuse. You read the report. I’ve witnessed the damage. And there’s no might about it, Chasin, it won’t be pretty.”

With that, Jonny pushed past the man only to have Chasin on his heels down the hall, through reception, and down the stairs. They broke at the sidewalk. Jonny going to the street where he’d parked and Chasin going to the lot behind the building.

But as it turned out it was Jonny who followed behind Chasin all the way to the farm. Chasin stopped in front of his house and Jonny continued down the lane to where Bobby lived. He parked his truck and hurried to Bobby’s door. He knocked, impatiently waited, and when she didn’t answer he tried the knob. It twisted and he pushed in.

“Bobby?” he called out.

No lights were on and since the space was a converted shed he could see her living room, kitchen, dining area, and bed from where he stood. The only place he couldn’t see was inside the bathroom but the door was open and the light was off.

No Bobby.

He closed the door and walked across the barnyard. A path he’d taken hundreds of times. The buildings might have been repurposed but everything was the same. The old milking parlor where Jonny had spent a shit-ton of time helping Wayne Swagger with his cows, was now Evie’s recording studio. And the big metal shed that Bobby now lived in had once had a dirt floor and housed equipment. The only new thing was the huge firepit and kick-ass benches a friend of theirs had made that were placed around the pit. Other than that, the exterior remained the same.

Jonny was nearing the entrance to the studio when he noticed Bobby’s car was gone.

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket and dialed Bobby. Unsurprisingly, she didn’t answer. He disconnected and sent a text.

Where are you?

Just to be thorough, while he waited for Bobby’s reply he searched the studio.

No Bobby.

His phone beeped with a notification and his blood heated.

I can’t do this.

Jonny tapped out a new message.

Baby, please tell me where you are.

Her response was instant as if she’d been waiting for his reply.

I thought I could. But I can’t. It follows me wherever I go.

He wanted to ask her what followed her and he would as soon as she was sitting in front of him. What he wasn’t going to do was argue with her via text. He also wasn’t going to prolong finding her but he knew she wasn’t going to tell him. Which meant he’d find alternate means.

Are you safe?

Jonny was back in his truck driving down to Chasin’s when she finally answered.

You know how to gut a girl, Jonny Spencer.

He parked in front of Evie and Chasin’s and had his fingers moving over the screen explaining that wasn’t an answer when she texted back.

Yes.

Chasin had the front door open by the time Jonny made it to the porch.

“I was getting ready to call you,” Chasin said and stepped to the side to allow Jonny passage. “Evie said Bobby blew out of here about fifteen minutes ago.”

Fifteen minutes. Where could Bobby have driven in fifteen minutes? A place where she was safe? She obviously wasn’t driving if she was texting him. There was no chance Bobby was behind the wheel fiddling with her phone. He’d heard her get into heated debates about texting and driving. She was firmly in the ‘texting while driving should be a felony, not a ticket’ camp. So he was positive she’d stopped somewhere.

Jonny ignored the tingle of awareness he felt every time he entered Chasin’s house. A home that once belonged to Nixon’s father. The place held some of Jonny’s best memories but also one of his worst. Chasin had killed a