“Where is she?”

Alex was ready to launch himself across the desk and grab Nate by the throat, he wanted answers so badly.

Nate eyed him coolly. “I don’t think you’re in any position to be asking questions, my friend.”

A sharp retort was on the tip of his tongue, but Alex forced himself to rein it in. Being an asshole wouldn’t help things. Not with this guy.

Rage and worry still collided inside of him, but he did his best to try to calm down.

“Did she tell you where she was going?” he finally managed to ask.

But Nate was ready with a question of his own. “What happened at her house? And why is this the first I’m hearing about it?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you should ask Cam.”

Nate glared at Alex. “You should probably think about talking. Sharing what you know. Otherwise I can take you in for some more formal questioning. Maybe to Bentley?”

Alex stiffened.

Nate noticed his reaction because his expression softened slightly. “Let’s work together here, alright? You tell me what you know.”

“That doesn’t sound like working together. That sounds like me giving you what you want and me ending up with jack shit.”

“I’ll tell you what you need to know.”

Alex shook his head. That was an evasive non-answer if ever he’d heard one.

“Who were the guys who showed up at her house?” Nate asked. “Anyone you know?”

“No.” It was the truth. He didn’t know Marco or his friend.

“They…associates of anyone you know?”

Alex answered grudgingly. “Yeah.”

Nate’s fist pounded the desk. “Dammit.”

Alex was instantly on alert. “She went to Bentley, didn’t she?”

Nate didn’t respond. His brow was furrowed, and Alex could tell he was running through things in his head.

“Is she in Bentley?” he asked again.

Nate picked up his phone. He waited a minute, then barked, “With what?”

A few seconds later, he tossed the phone on his desk.

“What the fuck was that?” Alex asked.

“That,” Nate said pointedly, “was Cam.”

Alex reached for the phone but Nate grabbed it.

“Call her back,” Alex demanded.

“She’s not gonna pick up.” Nate told him. “She’s in the middle of something.”

“In the middle of what?”

“I don’t know,” Nate muttered. “But she’s not in any danger.”

“How do you know?” Alex was livid. “You can tell if she’s in danger from a five-second conversation with her?”

“Yes,” Nate said simply. “I would have heard it in her voice. She would have said something that would have triggered warning bells. All she sounded was pissed off that I was interrupting her.”

But Alex wasn’t buying it. “If she’s in Bentley, she’s not safe. At least two people know what she looks like. Where she lives. They probably know her name. They definitely know what kind of car she drives.” It was his turn to pound his fist on the desk. “We have to go after her.”

“We don’t have to do anything,” Nate said.

Alex thought once again about strangling the man sitting across from him. He could probably take him.

And then he remembered his ribs.

“Did she say where she was going?” he asked instead. “When you talked to her earlier?”

Nate hesitated. “Yeah.”

Alex practically jumped across the desk. “Where?”

“She wanted the name of a former officer.”

“Travis.” Alex squeezed his eyes shut. Of course she would seize on that piece of information. “Shit.”

“What?” Nate’s voice was sharp. “Tell me.”

“She’s digging, “ Alex said. “She won’t stop with him.”

“What kind of information does this guy have?” A muscle in Nate’s temple pulsed. “Is he dangerous?”

Alex shook his head. The problem as he saw it was that Travis had a lot of information to give. Alex just didn’t know how much he’d be willing to share. More importantly, he didn’t know where Travis’s info would take her.

“He resigned last year. Harassment charges.” Alex looked Nate in the eye. “Trumped-up charges.”

Nate’s expression was impassive. “You sure about that?”

“Positive.”

Nate had pulled his keyboard toward him and was pounding the keys. Alex knew he was already searching on his own. “What does he have to do with you?”

“We were friends,” Alex said. “Well, as much as I could have friends in the position I was in.”

Nate shot him a look. “Undercover, you mean?”

Alex nodded.

“Go on.”

Alex didn’t want to go on. He wanted to get the fuck out of that office and go find Cam.

“The guy who set me up? He set Travis up, too.”

Nate’s fingers stilled. “Your buddy ever file a complaint?”

Alex’s laugh was harsh. “Who is there to complain to? You have a superior making allegations against you, fabricating evidence, and either other officers are willingly lying or they’re turning a blind eye so they don’t wind up in the crosshairs.”

Alex couldn’t tell whether or not Nate believed him.

He didn’t really care.

Right now, he needed to find Cam.

He braced both hands on the desk and got to his feet. “We need to go.”

“We?”

Nate really seemed to have a hang-up with that word.

“Yeah, we,” Alex retorted.

“You should stay here,” Nate said. He pulled open a desk drawer, and Alex watched as he stowed his wallet and a pair of keys in his pants pocket.

“Like hell I’m staying here,” Alex growled.

Nate gave him a pointed look. “If what you and Cam have told me is true, you going back to Bentley is a recipe for disaster. You and I both know that.”

“I don’t care.”

“Well, I do. We need you alive.”

Alex’s lips twisted into a scowl.

“Let us handle it,” Nate told him.

He stepped out from behind his desk, grabbed his jacket, and headed for the door.

Alex blocked his path. “I’m coming with you.”

Nate’s hand instinctively moved to the gun in his holster. It was strapped low to his side, hidden by the coat he’d shrugged into.

“Cam is my responsibility,” Alex said. He swallowed against the lump forming in his throat. “More than you know.”

Nate eyed him. “She’s family to me.”

Alex nodded. This was something he understood. Not because he felt the same way toward his fellow officers on the Bentley force—he didn’t—but because he knew what a surrogate family felt like. He’d had his own throughout the years. The gangs growing up, then Bev and Paul.

“We have a history,” Alex said. “I have to come. Even if it kills me.”