Storm Gathering by Rene Gutteridge Read Free Book Online

teeth bore down like a clamp. “Come on!” Jerrings’s muscles shook, but he finally got the bar up. Mick helped him move it to the rack. “Good job.”
    Jerrings sat up, trying to catch his breath.
    “Kline!” Coach Rynde called.
    Mick looked up, and Rynde was pointing to the doorway of the weight room. He saw his brother standing there in full uniform. Mick rolled his eyes. He thought better of causing a scene by telling his brother off. He walked toward the doorway, shoulders back and eyes hard. “What do you want?” he said, still fifteen feet away.
    Aaron’s normally kind eyes were equally cold. “We need to talk outside.”
    “I need you to get out of here. I said I don’t want to see you again.”
    “This isn’t about us. You know a woman named Taylor Franks?”
    Mick shook his head but then stopped. Taylor. The woman he’d left the bar with? The woman whose apartment he’d woken up in? He stuffed his hands into the pockets of his sweats but couldn’t stuff the expression away that told Aaron everything he needed to know.
    “I don’t know her,” Mick said. “I met her. Once. Last night. At a bar.” He fought another urge to punch the judgmental look off Aaron’s face. “It’s none of your business!” Mick roared. “What are you doing now? Following me?”
    “You don’t know where she is?” Aaron guided him out into the hallway.
    “Where she is? No! She wasn’t even in the apartment when I woke up—”
    “You went to her apartment last night?” Aaron whispered harshly.
    “It’s not what you think. I don’t even remember half of it.”
    “What’s that supposed to mean?”
    “What do you think it means?”
    Aaron rubbed his face. “Brother, this is not a game. You better tell me what you know and tell me fast.”
    “Why?” Mick demanded.
    “Because Taylor Franks is missing, and your phone number, along with what I’m assuming are going to be your prints on a glass, is on the kitchen counter.”

    “This is absurd,” Mick grumbled as he rode across town in his brother’s cruiser.
    “You better take this seriously,” Aaron said, glancing at Mick, who was staring out the passenger’s window.
    “She took me to her apartment last night. We had a few drinks, talked. That’s it. I left this morning.” Mick’s fingernails scraped against the side of the door. He let out a huge sigh. “Nothing happened,” he said, looking at Aaron. “Despite what you think.”
    “I don’t know what to think,” Aaron said, slowing for a stoplight.
    “I just left my number there. I didn’t even talk to her this morning. She was already gone.”
    “You met her at a bar?”
    “Yes, Aaron. A bar. A big, bad, horrible, sinful bar.”
    Aaron glared at Mick while the car was stopped. “Shut up. Just stop that mouth from running, would you? A woman is missing and you were the last person to see her. Do you understand how serious this is?”
    “I understand that you would love nothing more than to see me go down.”
    “Not for this.” Aaron turned left and headed toward the apartment complex. He turned into the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”
    “Back at the bar, I guess.”
    “Which bar?”
    “Tony’s, I think.”
    “Back to old habits, eh?”
    “I was just unwinding,” Mick said, getting out of the car. Then he noticed the police cars and the forensics truck. “How do they know she’s missing?”
    “She didn’t show up for work yesterday. Coworker says she never does that.”
    “Maybe she’s out driving around.”
    “Her car’s still here. There was a screen cut and a window open in her apartment.”
    Mick glanced up at the third floor, where officers were moving in and out of the apartment.
    Aaron caught his arm. “You need to tell me right now exactly what happened. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me.”
    “Who says I need your help?”
    “Your pride is going to be your downfall.” Aaron tried to look him in the eyes, but Mick only stared at the ground,