But Not For Lust by BJ Bourg (comprehension books .txt) 📕

decided to set up shop at the police department and cook a jambalaya for lunch.”

The very mention of jambalaya made my stomach grumble, but I ignored the sensation. I stood near my truck and watched while the volunteer searchers piled out of their vehicles and began arming themselves with walking sticks, backpacks, and portable water bottles. Once they were ready, we formed a line and tackled the woods.

I remained to the very left of the line and Susan was directly to my right. I glanced at her occasionally and our eyes met a few times. She smiled each time she saw me and her face lit up. I reflected back to when we’d first started dating and how she had changed. Just recently, she had stopped braiding her hair in cornrows and tying then up in twin pigtails. Instead, she now preferred to let it hang or she would twist it back into a single ponytail.

“If someone grabs my hair during a fight,” she had declared the first time she’d decided to wear it down for work, “it’ll keep them in punching range and I’ll be able to beat their brains out.”

While I thought she was beautiful no matter how she wore her hair, I had to admit she looked damn sexy with her hair down. It was hard for me to tear my eyes away—

Suddenly, I stubbed my left foot on a stump and had to shoot my right foot violently forward to keep from falling on my face.

“Clint!” Susan called. “Are you okay?”

“I just tripped,” I mumbled, feeling embarrassed. Achilles glanced up and seemed to chuckle. I glared at him. “Shut up, boy! I see the way you look at Coco. You’ve got no right to judge me.”

Soon thereafter, we reached the shoulder of the road again. None of us had found any sign that Ty had ever been in these woods. While the man at the southern end of the line stood in place, we all filed past him and lined up facing the west. With a wave, I gave the go-ahead for everyone to continue searching.

The going was so much quicker now that I had multiplied myself by fifteen, and within the hour we were done. While that was the good news, the bad news was that we were no closer to finding Ty. Susan approached me as everyone else congregated under a clump of trees at the end of Camp Street.

“What if Nikia was mistaken?” she offered. “We could be doing all of this for nothing.”

I sighed, but nodded in agreement. It was certainly a possibility. “But we’ve got nothing else to go on,” I grumbled. “This was our first lead, and it makes sense, because he hasn’t been found on the east side.”

“Well, he’s not in these woods.”

I nodded and shot a thumb toward the east. “I’m worried he might’ve crossed Cypress Highway and hit that vast wasteland out there. If he did strike out in that direction, we’ll never find him—alive or dead.”

“Do you want to try looking?”

I considered her question. If Ty had walked along the highway—either toward the north or toward the south—before hitting the woods, we would definitely never find him. However, if he struck out due east from Camp Street, we might be able to get lucky, especially since we were covering an area 150 yards wide.

“Sure,” I finally said. “What else are we going to do? I’m out of leads and out of options, but I feel like I’ve got to do something.”

Susan nodded and approached our volunteers. After speaking to them briefly, everyone mounted up and drove their vehicles to Cypress Highway and parked in a line on the eastern shoulder. I found Melvin and waved for him to join me and Achilles on the outer edge of the group.

“Did you see any sign at all when we were walking through the woods?”

“Nah,” he said with a shake of the head. “The ground’s too dry. If he did snap a branch or crush a leaf here or there, it wasn’t in the areas I covered.”

“What are your thoughts?” I asked. “Where do you think he could be?”

“I think he’s dead,” he said flatly. “If he’d still be alive, he would’ve stumbled onto someone’s radar by now.”

“What if he’s lost in the woods?” I countered. “That could be why no one’s seen him.”

“I still think he’s dead.” Melvin rubbed his shaved head, causing his broad shoulders to stretch the fabric of his BDU shirt. “There’s no way Ty could survive in the woods for three days. Someone who’s thinking clearly might be able to hold it together and find a way out of the woods, but I think Ty would break out in a panic and get himself hurt.”

I sighed heavily, knowing he was right. The thought of Ty being dead had haunted me for most of the day, but I didn’t want to believe it could be possible. If he was dead, we might never know if his mom’s death was an accident or a homicide. On the other hand, if he was still alive, I didn’t know how he would go on without his mom there to care for him. It seemed he had already spun out of control. Of course, that had happened before—more than once—but his mom had always found a way to get him some help.

My phone rang right then and I lifted it to my ear. Before I could even say hello, I was cut off by a voice gushing with excitement.

“Clint, you are not going to believe this shit!”

  CHAPTER 30

“Wait a minute,” I said to Tracy Dinger as I shoved my hand over my ear so I could muffle out the sound of an eighteen-wheeler that was rumbling down Cypress Highway. “I didn’t hear what you said.”

“I said, You are not going