Page 25 of Justified Fear

“That feels like forever.”

“Where’s Hammer?”

“He had a meeting, and he is not important.”

Ryan chuckled.“Can we tell him that?”

“No.What I found is very important, and it has to do with Keely.”

“We know about her father.I texted you that,” Kap said.

“No.Well, yeah, that’s cool and all, but once you sent me that, I found all kinds of stuff on our girl.Thank God everyone decided to pay attention to my text because I don’t have it in me to do this twice.”

Their team seemed to converge all at once.

“Everyone shut up and sit down,” Charity said.

“Ohhh, pregnancy has made you grumpy,” Drew Franklin said as he strode into the room.He mainly helped out Elle in the morgue, but he also filled in for Charity at times.Ryan understood that he had worked in the field a time or two.

Charity opened her mouth to probably destroy him, but he handed her a candy bar.

“Your sugar is low.”

“You are a prince among men.Your wife is lucky.”

Drew’s wife, Cat, was on Team Alpha.Charity tore into the candy bar.

“No.I did it because I got a text from your husband.Do you want me to tell the team about this?”

She nodded as she chewed her food.

“Have a seat, everyone.Let’s get started.”

He told Maya to go lie down.She trotted over to her bed in his office, and he took his seat to the right of Kap.Seth sat on his left, then Rami and Nikki sat on the other side of the “U.”

Drew grabbed the clicker.“So, once you let us know who her parents were—how they hid it so well, I have no idea?—”

“Rmamph,” Charity said.

Drew nodded as if he understood.“Yeah, rich people.It’s easy to hide connections.Anyway, we gathered a lot of information about the family once we discovered who they were.Odd that she didn’t tell us right off.”

Ryan blinked.“What the hell does that mean?”

He sensed Seth studying him, but Ryan didn’t look over at his captain.

“Why hide it?”

“I know that Ryan is getting ready to tear you a new asshole, Drew, so I’ll answer,” Kap said.

Drew blinked, apparently realizing he had pissed off Ryan.

“The Templetons are really just normal people.Seriously.”

Ryan nodded while not taking his gaze from Drew.

“Oh, I agree.Just Charity and I wondered why they were that way.Her mother comes from a well-connected family.Riki was a football star, but for years, they have done everything in their power to shun a connection with their daughter.”

He opened his mouth to yell at Drew, but he felt Kap’s knee hit his.