Hunt and Prey (Kelsey's Burden Series Book 8) by Kaylie Hunter (novels to read for beginners txt) 📕

speedometer about ten over the limit on the inner-city highway, I felt more relaxed than I had in days.

Bones wasn’t quite as relaxed. His head swiveled in every direction. He’d finally stopped complaining about the top being down, but he wasn’t happy. What could I say? This was Florida. Sunshine over safety was the state’s slogan.

Wild Card drove behind us in his rental with Beast’s oversized head sticking out the front passenger window. From the rearview mirror, I could see Wild Card using exaggerated hand gestures as he conversed with Beast. I wondered if their conversation had to do with girls or food.

I glanced over at Bones. “How does Wild Card stay in a good mood all the time? Even when he’s mad, it’s short lived.”

“I wish I knew,” Bones said, looking over his shoulder behind us. “The man’s entertaining as shit until someone pushes him too far. Then he morphs into a scary mother-effer.”

“Mother-effer?”

Bones sighed as he leaned forward and selected a pair of shades from the cup holder. “I’m sick of doing push-ups. Decided I’d try to quit swearing.”

“And mother-effer passes as not being a swear word?”

“As long as Hattie’s not around.”

My phone rang as I slowed for a red light. I saw the display indicating Spence was calling and pressed the green phone button on the steering wheel. “Where are we meeting?”

“The diner on the corner of 9th and Paradise Avenue. I’m starving.”

“We already ate. And I’m not leaving Beast in the car. Order takeout and meet us at the park on the south corner.”

“That’ll work.” He disconnected.

I glanced over at Bones who was grinning. “What’s so funny?”

“Just remembering how I met Spence.”

“Was it in the military?”

“No. It was in a bar. Been friends ever since.”

I’d had plenty of conversations with strangers in bars but not once did any of those conversations result in a relationship lasting past dawn. “You going to share the rest of the story?”

“Nope.” Bones glanced over at me. I couldn’t see his eyes because of his sunglasses. “Light’s green.”

I floored the accelerator at the same time the stream of cars behind us started blaring their horns. That’s just how it was with Florida drivers. You had about one and a half seconds after a traffic light turned green to get through the intersection or you were the monster keeping everyone from moving forward. And if something unfortunate happened, like a flat tire, be prepared for a mega headache.

The aggressive horn pressing of Floridians probably had to do with the heat being unbearable when you were sitting still. Or maybe it was because no one wanted to waste their time driving when there were too many fun things to do. Either way, I’d adopted the habit without even meaning to after living in the state for less than a month.

I saw Wild Card shaking his head as he looked in his rearview mirror. A smile flashed as he pressed his brakes and stopped in the middle of the highway. Car horns blared. He laughed as he hit the gas to catch up with me.

I also laughed.

“Is he messing with the traffic?” Bones asked. He continued facing forward, watching the cars and nearby shops around us.

“Yeah. He must be bored.”

I turned right at the next light. Two blocks down, I turned into a city lot and parked. A public park with a few tables and benches sat adjacent to the lot. I spotted Spence wolfing down a container of food at one of the tables and started strolling his way. Beast saw him and barked twice before running ahead to greet him.

“He’s supposed to be on a leash, you know,” Spence said as he stopped eating long enough to give Beast a two-handed body rub. “State law.”

“He doesn’t like it,” I said as I sat across from him. “You got backgrounds for me?”

He slid two files toward me. “Colby Brown. Age fifty-two. Height six foot four. Weight two-hundred and fifty the last time he was arrested. And he’s been arrested nine times. Two of those arrests landed him in prison. The first stint was for two years. The second for six. Assault. Robbery. Extortion. Probably a shitload more crimes the cops could never pin on him.”

“What about employment records?”

“Both times he was on parole, he worked crap minimum-wage jobs to keep from going back to prison. And both times, the day after his parole period ended, he went off the grid.”

The information on Colby wasn’t all that helpful, but in police work most of the information gathered was just noise. The remaining nuggets were the reason a good detective kept digging. “What about Xander Hall?”

“Ghost. Doesn’t exist.”

“Damn. Back to square one.”

“Don’t be so quick to doubt my mad skills,” Spence said, grinning at me. “I went back and took another look at Evie. I backtracked to where she lived and worked in Atlanta. Spoke to former coworkers and her old landlord, that type of thing.”

“Quit talking yourself up and spill already,” Bones ordered.

Spence laughed. “You’re no fun,” he said to Bones before turning back to me. “I suckered her old boss into digging through their security footage. He found us a picture of Evie’s mystery man. It’s not great, but it’s better than nothing.” He slid a picture from a folder and handed it to me.

I stared at the image of a middle-aged man walking into a building. He had dark hair, either brown or black but the picture was black and white so I couldn’t tell. His skin tone was somewhere between cream and light brown, but I couldn’t make out any ethnic identifiers because of the large rimmed driving sunglasses. His suit was expensive. That’s it. A lean man, with dark hair, and expensive taste in clothes. “How does this help?”

“Hey!” Spence said, sounding