Cold Shadow (Cold Country #2)(68)

"I'll be fine." God … he was so far from fine right now. His ass did hurt. He felt like he was ripped open. And that wasn't just his asshole. His whole … everything.

He went into the bathroom with a change of clothes. He wasn't officially on duty but he would dress the part.

He avoided looking in the mirror. He stepped under the shower and washed quickly. If Lonnie was missing, he was wasting valuable time. Time that he shouldn't take to wash the sex off him. He'd shivered under the cold tap and scrubbed everywhere.

Two minutes later, he stood in front of the mirror swishing mouthwash and securing his hair back out of his face. When this was over, he was cutting it off. All of it.

He stopped at the closet and pulled out the open gun safe. Quinn sat on the bed putting on a pair of combat boots. He looked like he was going to war. "You're not going," Nathan said flatly. "You're staying with Natalie. She's going to need you if this goes wrong."

"I'll dress the way I wish," he said. He looked so fucking good in black jeans and a skin-tight black t-shirt. His blond hair curling wildly around his face. His blue eyes so fucking cold.

Nathan hooked his gun holster to his belt and looked for his badge. He'd need it. Even if he wasn't on duty. Even if this wasn't official. God, please don't let it be official. Please let Lonnie be off on a bender or broke down or fucking hell, he'd kill the bastard for knocking his sister up if he wasn't already dead.

The tongue piercing hit the back of his teeth when he swore. He went to the dresser and twisted the little ball off the steel bar and slowly pulled it out. He left it lying beside Drew's metal and went downstairs.

Natalie wouldn't look his way when he entered the kitchen. She paced the room wringing her hands. They all carefully avoided the pile of coffee and pottery shards as if it didn't exist.



       
         
       
        

"A call came in that the alarm was going off at the plant. Lonnie drove out to check on everything. He said there wasn't an alarm. The weekend security guards hadn't called him. I don't know who called him. We talked when he was on his way back home. I asked him to stop and get some milk and ice cream. I can't keep a lot down. Dairy is about the only thing that doesn't make me vomit. He … he wouldn't have run off. He wouldn't. He teases me about the ice cream." She sounded as if she were repeating her story. Drew would make her repeat herself. He was just that anal when it came to questioning anyone about anything. Natalie didn't like to repeat herself. She was too much like Nathan in that respect.

Drew gave him a look when he walked in. Nathan knew the man was the Agent in Charge of this scene. He took the wall across from Quinn to lean against. "Was he driving the same truck he picked me up in this week?" Drew asked and Natalie nodded. She looked pale and frail and she had a tendency to lay one hand over her lower abdomen as if she were protecting … her unborn child from the knowledge that its father might not be in its life. "It's a company truck. It's easy to spot. Our logo is on the doors."

"Alonzo Ortiz." Nathan felt like he was waking up from a bad dream. He'd met the man a couple of times. Nice looking. Big guy. Had a smile for everyone. He kept the entire plant working like clockwork.

"Lonnie, Nathan, his name is Lonnie!" Natalie shouted as she turned on him. Her eyes filled with unshed tears. "I don't give a shit what you think. I loved him … love him. I don't care if he's … he's not beneath us. He's a good man. And-and-and … Oh, God, Nathan, find him. Please find him. Don't let him end up like those other men. Please, not my Lonnie." Natalie broke down then and stumbled across the room to him.

He caught her and hugged her to him, wrapping her in his arms. "I'm not judging, Nat. I was trying to place his face in my head. That's all. Oh, God, Nat. I would never judge you." He held her while she cried.

"Time, Nathan, we need to go," Drew said, closing the small notebook he must have miraculously pulled out of his ass. He looked from Nathan to Quinn.

Quinn held up his hands as if in surrender. "I know. I'm staying with Natalie. I get it. You don't have to flash a badge at me, Agent Walker."

Drew blinked as if Quinn's sudden cooperation wasn't what he expected. "Well, I was going to say take Natalie and drive around to some of the bars and other places he might go while Nathan and I go out to the plant and work our way back toward town. Call one of us if you find him or the truck or anyone who has seen him." 

Quinn blinked, opened his mouth to say something-most likely to argue-then he closed his mouth and nodded. "Okay. Yeah, we can do that. I just thought you'd want us to stay here."