Free Eternal Nights by Patti O'Shea

little finger.”
    “If anyone would know that, it’s you.” Brody’s grin broadened. “She had you wound there first.”
    “No, she had my father there first. I held out for a full day.” Alex stopped fighting the smile. “Your wife is dangerous. You know that, right?”
    “By the time I figured it out, it was way too late.” But Brody didn’t sound as if he minded. “What’s up, Colonel?” he asked, sobering. “You didn’t come here to talk about Ravyn.”
    Before he could answer, the door opened and his sister came in. She ignored him, which told Alex she was still angry. This was the biggest drawback to his relationship with Stacey. Ravyn and Stace were best friends and he usually took the heat on both fronts when he was in the doghouse with one of them.
    “Time for bed, Cam,” Ravyn said.
    With perfect diction, his nephew replied, “Oh, shit.”
    Alex felt his face heat. This was not good.
    Ravyn scooped up her son before turning and glaring. “Damon,” she growled, voice low.
    “Don’t look at me, sweet pea.” Brody held up both hands. “I’m innocent.”
    “Alex!” Ravyn stormed across the floor without jostling Cam even a bit. “Can’t you control your mouth for five minutes?”
    He considered telling her the same thing he’d told her husband—that if he were surrounded by soldiers it was merely a matter of time before the boy heard hard language—but when he saw the sparks jumping in his stepsister’s eyes, he decided not to argue. If he used that as a defense, she’d clean his clock. “Sorry.”
    “Sorry,” she muttered. “As if that’s going to erase the word from his vocabulary. Thanks a lot.” And with one last glower, Ravyn left, closing the door sharply behind her.
    “You gave me up damn fast,” Alex complained.
    “Colonel, there was no way in he—heck I was taking the heat for your mistake, not when I sleep with her.” Alex frowned, but Brody ignored it. “Look at it this way, Ravyn isn’t half as mad as Stacey. You’ll be facing much worse when you go home.”
    “Don’t remind me.” Stacey was slow to anger, but once her temper was ignited, it smoldered. He decided not to think about it until he had to. “I need to ask you a few questions.”
    Brody sobered. “Is this about the murder? I don’t know anything, but I hope you find the son of a bitch soon.”
    “So do I.” Alex rubbed his forehead for a second—fatigue was catching up with him. “I’ve put my best soldiers on the investigation—they haven’t come up with much yet. But Hunter isn’t who I wanted to ask you about.”
    “Who is?”
    “Wyatt Montgomery.”
    “You think he’s responsible? Not a chance in hell.”
    Alex was tempted to remind Brody about his language, but it wasn’t worth it. “No, I don’t think he killed Hunter, but he’s missing. You know the kid, if he’d finally scored with the woman he’d been chasing for four months, would he go AWOL?”
    “No.”
    Closing his eyes for a second, Alex took a deep breath before he pinned Brody with a hard look. “I need you to think about this carefully.”
    “It doesn’t matter how long I think about it, Montgomery is levelheaded and responsible. He’d never go AWOL. Sorry if that’s not what you wanted to hear, but you asked for my opinion. If you want your own ideas parroted back at you, there are plenty of ass-kissers around. Go find one of them.”
    Brody was right. “Shit,” Alex said quietly. “This means I have two missing officers to find.”
    “Hunter and Montgomery went through Spec Ops school together—they were buddies.”
    “You’re suggesting that Montgomery’s disappearance might be linked to Hunter’s death? I’m considering that. Especially with one of the pieces of information I was given today.”
    Hell, it had to be tied together. Montgomery asks Hunter to watch over Thomas. Hunter gets his throat slit and Thomas and Montgomery go missing. It had to center on the girl—on whatever had her