I grunted, my anger almost brimming over. Everything River was saying made me want to pummel him unconscious with my bare fists. I could just imagine how good it would feel to smash my fist into his vapid face.
Lucas turned to me, and he tensed. He could no doubt see my rage. “If you have a flashlight, Royce, you should grab it. It’s pitch-black out there.”
I grudgingly dragged my death glare from River. “Yeah.” I turned and went back to my car, grateful toget away from River for a minute. He didn’t seem to grasp the seriousness of the situation, which only made me angrier. How could he blithely take Max prisoner? How could he think that was okay?
I grabbed my flashlight and a pair of handcuffs I kept in the glove compartment. Once I had Max safely back, I’d need to arrest River and bring him back to town. I had no idea if he’d be cooperative or combative. I couldn’t begin to figure the guy out. I almost hoped he would fight me. Then maybe I’d have an excuse to use excessive force on the weasel.
When I returned to them, River was shining his flashlight around the yard, illuminating the cactus and shrubs. “If Maxwell had simply stayed in that room, he’d be perfectly safe right now. What good did running out into the desert at night do?”
Anger surged again. “For God’s sake, River, he was probably terrified. He probably still is.”
“I wasn’t going to do anything to him,” River mumbled. “I just wanted answers.”
Gritting my teeth, I said, “We’ll talk about all of that later. Right now, we need to find Max.”
Lucas shook his head, looking disgusted. “If anything happens to him out there, River, you’re screwed.”
River seemed to wilt under Lucas’s angry glare. “I just wanted to know what really happened with Lucinda,” he whimpered. “It’s not my fault he ran out into the desert.”
“You’d better not be blaming Max for this,” I growled. “Of course he wanted to escape you. You drugged and kidnapped him, River.”
Lucas said gruffly, “Nobody is blaming Maxwell.”
“You sure about that?”
River watched me, appearing demoralized. “It wasn’t supposed to go like this. I had everything under control.”
While I wanted to scream in River’s face that this was all his fault, instead, I forced myself to say, “Let’s focus. Show me the window he climbed out of.”
“Follow me,” River said in a dull voice.
We didn’t speak as we made our way around the corner of the house. There were old tires and rusted appliances scattered around the yard. The place resembled a dump more than a home. Lucas silently walked beside me, his face grim.
River stopped at a window toward the back of the home. “Here. This is the window he climbed out.”
I pointed the flashlight toward the ground, searching for footprints in the dirt. Luckily, the soil was soft and sandy, and I was able to pick out what I believed to be Max’s shoe prints. I followed them, keeping my flashlight trained on the ground.
“Should we go together or split up?” River asked.
I shot him an uneasy glance. “Maybe I should cuff you and put you in the back of my car. I don’t need you making a break for it when I’m distracted looking for Max.”
Looking insulted, River frowned. “I’m not going anywhere. If I was going to run for it, I’d have done that before you arrived.”
That was probably true, but maybe he just hadn’t thought of it. Or maybe he’d been waiting for Lucas so they could go together. “You’re responsible for him, Lucas. If he runs, you’re going to jail in his place.”
Lucas nodded. “That’s fine.”
“What? That’s not fair,” mumbled River. “Lucas hasn’t done anything wrong.”
“That’s the deal. Take it or leave it.”
River huffed. “Who knew you were such a Neanderthal, Sheriff?”
Ignoring him, I said, “We’ll spread out. We might have better luck that way.”
“We’ll go this way.” Lucas grabbed River’s arm. “Come on. Give Royce some space before he shoots you.”
River followed him, giving me a grumpy glance over his shoulder. He reminded me of a petulant child who resented his parents for putting him in a time-out. He didn’t seem to grasp how lucky he was I hadn’t snapped yet. He was fortunate Lucas was here too. I wasn’t sure I’d have been so well-behaved without Lucas around.
