Sheriff Daddy (Montana Daddies Book 10) by Laylah Roberts (good book club books txt) 📗

Kiesha whimpered. “Do you think that spiders like cookies?”

“Where’s the sheriff?”

Ed frowned as the deep voice reverberated through the building. He didn’t have time to deal with anything else right now. He was too busy trying to track down the missing women. They’d been gone over twelve hours now and there was no sign of them.

Jimmy had gone through the footage and found video of a big guy dressed all in black with a hood over his head hiding himself in the back of the truck. There had been just one shot of his face, but it was enough to identify him.

Saber Mason.

This asshole had been after Marisol. And Georgie and Kiesha had gotten caught up in it.

Where were they?

What was happening to them?

If they were hurt in any way . . .

“I demand to speak to him. I want to know where my sister is and he better have some answers considering it seems she’s been living with him!”

Sister? Shit! But he hadn’t called her brothers yet. He still had August’s number. He should have called. Had been gearing himself up for it.

“Um, Ed?” Jace appeared at his door.

“I heard, send them through.”

A tall, well-built man dressed in a suit stepped into the office. He was followed by five other men. They all formed a wall in front of him. All of them big. All of them well-dressed. And all of them frowning.

“I’m Sheriff Ed Granger,” he said. He didn’t stand. He hadn’t slept all night. And he wasn’t playing some sort of posturing game. “I take it that you’re Georgie’s brothers.”

“Georgie?” a female voice asked from behind them. “August, Sebastian, move.”

A thin woman dressed in a green skirt with matching blazer stepped forward. Her hair was swept back into a bun. Her face was largely unlined and perfectly made-up. It was like looking at an older Georgina. But without the life in her eyes. The smile. The cheekiness.

This was her mother.

“You’re Mrs. James.” It wasn’t a question.

“I am. Who are you to call my daughter, Georgie? How well do you know her? Why has she been staying with you?”

“Is that really what you think is important right now?”

She sucked in an outraged breath. Ed could care less if he’d pissed her off.

“It’s not,” one of the men said. His gaze pierced Ed. “What is important is why squirt hasn’t answered any of our calls in the last twenty-four hours.”

“Do not call her that,” Mrs. James said.

“Not important, Mother,” said the man she’d shot an angry look at before. “I’m Gareth. Georgina said she was staying here. But she promised that she would check in once a day with me. Now she’s not answering calls. And then when we got here, we asked some questions and found out that she’s fucking missing. Oh, and that she’s been living with you.”

All of her brothers scowled down at him.

“Language,” Mrs. James said primly.

All the men shot her a look.

“Georgie has been kidnapped,” Ed confirmed. “Along with two other women.”

“Kidnapped!” Mrs. James screeched. “How can she do this to me again? It was hard enough on me to deal with this the first time. What are people going to say? This is why I never wanted her to become an FBI agent. Because she is always getting herself in trouble.”

“Is that really what you are concerned about?” Ed asked, standing. He was aware his voice had a dark edge to it.

But he didn’t give a fuck. His woman was missing. Two other women under his protection were missing. And this bitch was concerned about herself?

“We barely kept all of that nonsense out of the press last time,” her mother continued on. “What am I going to do?”

“What you’re going to do is sit down, shut up, and stop annoying me.”

Mrs. James just stared at him. Then her face went hard. “I’ll have your job for that, sheriff.”

He grinned. “Like to see you try, Catherine.”

“That’s Mrs. James to you.”

“That’s very formal considering I’m going to marry your daughter.”

“Over my dead body would she marry an uncouth, inconsiderate, likely poorly educated sheriff.”

Oh. This cow.

“What happened?” Gareth demanded. “When did she go missing?”

“Last evening. By a gang member called Saber Mason.”

All of the men looked devastated at the news. Something inside him relaxed to know that at least her brothers cared about her. Even if her mother was a selfish bitch.

“I’m Marcus. I run a private detective firm. I’ll get my guys onto this if you can give me all the information you have about my sister.”

He could refuse. But he wouldn’t. Unlike her mother, he knew this wasn’t about him and his ego. It was about finding his woman.

“Appreciate it.”

“Marcus!” Mrs. James snapped. “Aren’t you going to defend me? This man was rude to me.”

“That’s because you’re being a selfish bitch,” another of Georgie’s brothers drawled.

Mrs. James turned to him. “August, how dare you! I’m still your mother and you will not swear at me like that.” Her arm came back and she slapped him.

Holy. Shit.

August just stared down at her passively, which made Ed wonder if it was the first time she’d slapped him.

“I could arrest her for that if you like,” Ed said calmly.

The bitch gasped. If she thought he wouldn’t, then she needed to think again because he would love nothing more.

“Not worth the paperwork,” August told him.

“I think it’s time you left,” the man to her right said. “You’re not helping, Mother.”

“I have every right to be here, Sebastian,” she told him haughtily. “I’m going to need to get hold of our PR firm, in case the press gets wind of this. It could be detrimental to the firm’s shares.”

“I will handle all of that,” Sebastian said coldly.

“Well, we need to hire people to find her. It’s obvious this incompetent sheriff can’t find her. He couldn’t even keep her safe.”

Ed just glared at her, although he felt the words hit him in the gut. He hadn’t kept her safe. Any of them