Total pages in book: 30
Estimated words: 27317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27317 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 137(@200wpm)___ 109(@250wpm)___ 91(@300wpm)
Eva smiled. “No, but I appreciate the offer.”
“Okay, then I’ll hit the road and leave you girls to do…whatever it is girls do.”
She chuckled and waved as she stepped back. “Drive safely.”
“I will. Thanks.” I waited until the door was shut and the alarm reset before loping out to my car. As I opened the driver’s side door, I pulled my phone from my pocket, then swung down into my seat and got settled.
My car purred to life when I hit the start button, and I waited for my phone to connect to the system. Before driving anywhere, I needed to make a call.
“Aiden,” my friend Ashby answered. “I hope you’re planning to save me from the mind-numbing boredom of cheating wives and husbands.”
I chuckled and shifted the car into reverse so I could back out onto the road. “You’re the one who decided to move out to the Hamptons permanently, Ash. You want more action? Go back to the city.” Ash was a former NYC cop turned private investigator. I didn’t have a clue what had prompted his move to this small beach town, but my prediction that he would tire of the humdrum had clearly been spot-on.
“Yeah, not going to happen, buddy. So what’s up? Or did you just call to make sure I haven’t died of boredom and been eaten by my dogs?”
I rolled my eyes as I navigated through the quaint downtown area near my house. “Since when did you become so fucking dramatic? Never mind. Well, you’ll be happy to know that I am calling to solicit your services.”
“Some wife I don’t know about cheating on you?” he asked, his tone brimming with fake suspicion.
“Funny,” I replied dryly.
“As long as that’s not it, I’m all ears. What can I do for you?”
I explained about the night before and meeting Bianca—leaving out the intimate details—and how she’d disappeared this morning. “I need you to find her for me.”
“I take it she’s more than a one-night stand?”
I growled at his suggestion, annoyed at even hearing our night together labeled that way. “What do you think?” Ash and I had been friends for twenty years, and he knew better than to make that assumption.
“I’m just saying…it happens.”
“When was the last time you had a one-nighter, Ash? Better yet, when was the last time you had a date?”
My friend chuckled. “Point made. Okay, tell me everything you know about her.”
Since I really didn’t know much, it didn’t take long to relay all the information. “She said that her house was in East Hampton, and she was visiting friends here. But since she wasn’t staying with my neighbors or part of the group borrowing my house, I’m going to hazard a guess that she lives here and was just being cagey about the details when we met on the beach.”
“Could be,” Ash responded noncommittally. “Anything else?”
“Just that she’s brilliant. Graduated from high school at fourteen and college at eighteen.”
“There can’t be that many women who fit that description around here. I’ll do some digging into the records of the local high schools and call you with an update in the next couple of days.”
“Thanks, Ash. I appreciate it.”
“Anytime.”
We hung up just as I hit the highway, so I opened up my car and let her fly. Usually, when I was out on the road like this, I could let go of my worries and just be. However, it didn’t matter how fast I was going. It wouldn’t be fast enough to outrun thoughts of Bianca.
5
Aiden
3 Months Later
“Aiden, you want to stop brooding over there and take a look at this contract?” Justice’s amused tone broke through the haze I’d lost myself in. I was letting Jed, a junior partner, handle a few meetings to test him out before offering to make him a full partner. He was extremely skilled and efficient, so I had let my mind wander.
“Sorry, I got lost in thought for a minute.”
“Bullshit. I know brooding when I see it, Bryant.”
I glared at Justice, and he grinned at me before quirking an eyebrow at Jed. “Excuse us, will you?”
No one said no to Justice Kendall unless they had a death wish or had earned the right. Especially when he used that tone. So the kid hastily gathered everything and hightailed it out of the room without so much as a glance at his boss or even a mumbled goodbye. I frowned as I watched him go. “Well, that’s disappointing,” I muttered. “I was on the verge of making him a full partner.”
Justice, who’d also been watching the sad display of a junior partner in one of the biggest law firms in New York running out the room with his tail between his legs, turned back to look at me.
“I’m usually an excellent judge of character, but even I didn’t see that coming. Can you imagine if another attorney spoke to him that way?”