“That’s a bit of an exaggeration.” Colt pulled leftover pizza from the fridge and put it in the microwave. Yeah, he really did know her—and food was the way to her heart. “She put herself through college and was brave enough to reach out to her sibling and father, having no idea how they’d react to the news of her existence. She’s not like us, but she’s not a puppy.”
“Well she’s not answering her phone either. I called her and texted her earlier to check in and she said she was going on a date. A date!” After she’d been attacked in what Skye didn’t think was a simple mugging gone wrong. All the details were too strange and she did not like strange.
Her husband leaned against the counter and folded his massive arms over his chest. “And that’s a problem why?”
“If she’s dating, we need to check out any potential men.”
“You sound worse than Brooks.”
“I wonder if he knows about her date.” Skye pulled her phone out of her pocket but Colt—sneaky man—snatched it from her hand with panther-like reflexes.
“No,” he simply said.
“I wasn’t going to call him.”
“Yes, but you were going to text him and probably his father.”
She shrugged, not denying it. They both needed to know what had happened and lock Hadley down. At least until they could figure out what was going on.
Colt glanced down at his own phone as the microwave dinged. “Gage has something.”
After grabbing her plate, Colt shoved both his phone and hers into his pocket and they headed back down the hallway.
“Really? You couldn’t grab me anything?” Gage asked as they stepped inside, his gaze landing on Skye’s plate.
“Fine, have mine.” Skye set it on the desk next to him but he just eyed it with disdain and turned back to the computer.
“Pineapple does not belong on pizza,” he muttered, pulling up a couple different screens. “What I’ve found isn’t great. The power outage was localized to a very small portion of the college for a very short amount of time—right when Hadley was being attacked.”
Tension rippled down Skye’s spine. Nope. Not good at all.
“And the security feeds were erased as well, though if we break into the offsite company we could get them—if they haven’t been corrupted.”
“So we’ve got nothing basically.” Other than something that smelled like shit.
“I didn’t say that…” Gage pulled up another screen that showed a car pulling out of an entrance on the other side of the college. Four-door, generic-looking sedan, tinted windows and… It shifted to another screen and the front image of the driver was clear enough.
Not great. Man wearing a ball cap with a full-on beard was driving. Hands were gloved, which wasn’t that strange even with it being March. Winter was still clinging on because Mother Nature was in a bitchy mood this year. “And, I got this too,” he continued. Another screen showed the back of the car but the license plate was impossible to read because of mud smeared all over it.
Skye cursed again. “Damn it.”
“Come on, be patient.” Gage shook his head without looking at her.
Even Colt nudged her with his hip as he fought a grin.
“Fine.” But she knew what he was doing. Gage liked to show off his computer skills—which she really couldn’t blame him, considering how impressive they were. But still, if he had information on one of the men who’d been there last night she wanted to know right now.
“Say it,” Gage said without looking up.
“Say what?”
“How awesome I am. Then I’ll show you what I found.”
“How about I refrain from punching you in the throat? And then you show me what you found.”
Laughing, he said, “Fair enough.”
A new screen popped up with a grainy feed showing a…marina, she thought. “Where is this? What is this?”
“Since you’re being impatient, I skipped over all the other feeds I followed and I’m cutting right to the end. This guy is the only man resembling the description that Hadley gave you for the man who tossed her attacker in that trunk. Using what CCTVs and other video feeds I could hack into, I managed to track this guy—the vehicle, actually—to a local marina. And this is what I found. Keep watching.”
Skye watched as the man parked, got out, and bent over his trunk for a few minutes. From the angle of the video, it was impossible to see what he was doing inside. When he stood back up, he lifted a huge bag—looked like a military-issue sea duffel—and hoisted it up. Then he made his way to a dock and from there it looked as if he got into a boat. But the angle was too far off to tell. “Anything else?”
“Nope. Other than the fact that the guy hasn’t returned to the vehicle.”
“Think there was a body in that bag?” Skye asked, even though she’d already come to that conclusion.
“Offshore is certainly a good way to dispose of a body, especially if it’s weighted down,” Colt said.
“Want to go check out the car?” she asked.
He nodded. “I love our Friday date nights.”
Snorting, she clapped Gage on the shoulder once. “Thanks, man. That’s incredible work. You know you can go home, right? It’s freaking late.”
He just shrugged. “Yeah…I’ll get out of here soon but I’ll keep an eye on the feeds through my phone. Buzz me if you need backup.”
“Will do,” Colt said, and grabbed her hand as he headed to the door.
*
As she sat on the couch with Axel, Hadley felt nervous for a multitude of reasons. The dinner he’d cooked was great, but she’d only eaten about half of what she normally would have because of the butterflies in her stomach.
Everything about him was different than the boys she’d dated in college. Everything was different about him, period. Despite his youthful appearance, his eyes told a different story. He looked almost haunted, and apparently she was a sucker for that because he was drawing her in like a moth to a flame or any other bad analogy she could think of.
“So which one do you think?” he asked, nodding at the screen where he scrolled through the newer movies available to rent.
When he’d asked if she wanted to stay longer and watch a movie she’d readily agreed. Because spending time with him was no hardship. The thought of going back to her little home or even the ranch alone wasn’t appealing.
“The action one,” she said because the thought of watching anything with a ton of sex in it with him made her squirm.
When he slid his arm around her shoulders, she leaned into him. She inhaled that spicy scent and swore it went straight to her head, making her a little dizzy. She’d only had one glass of wine so she couldn’t blame her reaction on that at all. Not that she would. She was in charge of her own body and right now the last thing she wanted to do was watch a movie.
But she’d never made the first move or put any sort of moves on a man. She wasn’t a virgin, but she also wasn’t swimming in experience. And he made her nervous on so many levels. She was pretty sure he was attracted to her, but he was hard to read.
Somehow, from the time the opening credits started to before the characters had uttered a word of dialogue, she found herself tugged into his lap as he slid his fingers through her hair, cupping the back of her head. Oh, yes please.
Normally she pulled it up so that it was out of her way but she was glad she’d left her hair down tonight because she loved the sensation of him running his fingers through it. Everything about him was larger than life. Sexy, dominating and toe-curling. That was Axel.
Leaning forward slowly, he gently brushed his lips over hers, the sensation sending little pings of pleasure out to all her nerve endings. His lips were softer than she’d imagined and she wanted more than gentle right now. Her entire body felt as if she was coming apart at the seams with the need for…something more than this.
She wanted to straddle him, but she wasn’t that bold. If anything, she felt out of her depth with him. Instead, she squeezed her legs together, hopefully subtly, as he nipped at her bottom lip. The effort did nothing to ease the growing ache between her legs. Apparently he had all the time in the world because he was taking his time kissing her, savoring it.