“Talk to me,” Brantley urged after motioning the waitress to bring him coffee.
Steel-blue eyes lifted, not a hint of emotion reflected in them. “Nothin’ to talk about. He got his thrill, now he’s moved on.”
Well, hell.
A smirk formed on Trey’s face. “Don’t worry about me, little brother. I’m a big boy. I’m resilient.”
Yes, he certainly was. The man had made it through one bad relationship already, divorce and all.
“So why’d you bring me here?”
“Coffee and food,” Brantley said. “Then we’ll chat.”
“You’re such a hard-ass.” This time Trey’s smile was genuine.
They ordered breakfast, chatted about the mundane: changes taking place at the barn, who was bringing what pie to Thanksgiving dinner, the last movies they’d seen. Brantley filled him in on Reese meeting the folks for the first time.
“I assume he’s havin’ Thanksgiving with his family?”
“Nope. He’ll be hangin’ with us.”
“Is that right?” There was a mischievous gleam in his brother’s eyes.
“Fair warnin’, Reese isn’t nearly as easygoin’ as he seems. You fuck with him, you can expect him to come at you hard.”
“Yeah? You know this from experience?”
“He’s no pushover.”
Trey took a sip of his coffee, kept his gaze pinned on Brantley. He knew Trey would attempt to do something, and he considered warning Reese but figured it would be more interesting to watch it play out.
“All right, so why’m I here? I know you didn’t invite me so we could chat like a couple of gossipy girls.”
“I want to offer you a job,” he said, getting right to the point. “On the task force.”
Trey looked shocked as he slowly set his cup on the table. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. Seriously.”
That surprised expression turned to skepticism. “You talk to your boss about this yet? Get his approval?”
“Don’t need to.”
Brantley knew what his brother was worried about. In Trey’s younger years, he’d had a few brushes with the law, nothing too harsh, but those incidents had left Trey with a bad taste in his mouth when it came to cops. It was the very reason he’d abandoned his goal of going to the police academy.
“Yeah, well, you might wanna do that before you go and get my hopes up.”
Leaning in, Brantley lowered his voice. “I’m the boss. The governor has no say in who I do or do not hire. You want in, you’re in.”
“Why me?”
Brantley leaned back, grinned. “Is this where you want me to kiss your ass and shower you with praise, big brother?”
Trey rolled his eyes, leaning back when the waitress delivered their food.
“You need someone to sweep the floor? Keep an eye on the place overnight?”
To be fair, Brantley hadn’t expected this to be easy. Anyone who knew Trey well understood he was a complicated person beneath all that good-boy joviality he portrayed. He’d been betrayed and hurt by those who weren’t his family and he didn’t trust easily.
“You’d come on board as a team leader,” Brantley explained, keeping all emotion out of his tone. “For now, I’m establishing three teams, each with its own leader who’ll build their team, run it, and report to me. In turn, I’ll be reportin’ to the governor, keepin’ him apprised of our progress. Our objective is to tackle the cold cases we’ve got, see if we can bring some closure to the families. It’ll involve frequent travel across the state, but I’ll do what I can to distribute the workload so everyone has equal time to work in and around the area.”
The good news was, Trey was listening.
“Right now, Baz is my only team leader. He doesn’t have a team yet, but he’s workin’ on it.”
“What about you and Reese?”
“We’ll be workin’ cases, too. Mostly current ones. When we do have an active case, it might require one or more teams to come in and assist.”
“How many would be on my team?”
“I suggest you hire two. One you’ll partner with out in the field, the other to assist from here. JJ will be manning the office and she’s hirin’ a couple of people to assist on the cyber front. She and her team will be available to all who need her.”
Trey continued to stare, so Brantley kept going, “You’ll be required to maintain your license to carry. You’ll need to be armed at all times. There are a couple of additional trainin’ courses we’ve got to take, as well. All of us. Those are comin’. There is no dress code, but you do have to wear clothes.”
That earned him a smile.
“The need to expand this team was a sudden one,” Brantley admitted. “And the first person I wanted to bring on board was you, Trey.”
“Insurance and benefits?”
“Through the state, yes.”
Trey’s eyebrows lifted as though he was impressed.
“I’d like you to meet with Reese so you can get an idea of what his vision for the team is as well. It’s the real deal,” Brantley assured him. “And it’s time we hit the ground runnin’. What do you say?”
