Total pages in book: 83
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 78631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 393(@200wpm)___ 315(@250wpm)___ 262(@300wpm)
“Interesting.” Charli arched a brow. “Is Jasper cute?”
“I don’t know. It’s an online group.”
Charli waved a dismissive hand. “Details. Was he flirty?”
“More friendly than flirty, but that’s the way I want it. I’m steering clear of romance.”
“Maybe you should flirt with him. Jasper might be just what you need to get over Nash once and for all.”
“I wish.” Haisley wasn’t convinced that was possible.
Before she’d left LA, she’d been so certain she was finally over that man. But after one amazing, toe-curling New Year’s Eve kiss, he’d destroyed that hope.
Charli’s expression softened. “You deserve happiness. And who knows, maybe your online mystery guy will help you find some.”
“Maybe.” Haisley shrugged. “Or maybe there’s no such thing as happily ever after, at least for someone like me.”
“Someone like you? You mean someone awesome? You’re more lovable than you know. The right guy will come along.”
“Sure.” She told Charli what she wanted to hear. “Now, tell me all the gossip around town I’ve missed…”
As their conversation drifted to lighter topics, Haisley fought encroaching sadness.
No man had ever gotten to her the way Nash did. She didn’t think another ever would. Living almost two thousand miles from him had been painful enough. Living around the corner from him, so to speak, was bound to be agony. What would happen when he finally lost interest in her and focused on someone else? What if, heaven forbid, he got married, and she had to see the happy couple around town?
It would crush her.
Why hadn’t she seen heartbreak coming when she’d started hardcore flirting back with him all those months ago? Why hadn’t she foreseen how totally falling for him would break her heart?
CHAPTER SEVEN
On Sunday afternoon, Nash stretched out on his battered leather couch, nursing a cold beer as the Packers-Vikings game flickered across his TV screen. Despite the fact nearly forty-eight hours had passed since New Year’s Eve, his thoughts kept drifting back to the scorching kiss he’d laid on Haisley. Even mass amounts of tequila couldn’t dim the memory of her soft curves molded against his body, those sinful lips under his as he devoured her for the first time in two agonizing years.
His blood ran hot, despite the lingering chill of the winter morning. Then again, the gorgeous redhead had always set him on fire. From the moment he’d met her, Haisley’s saucy aloofness had ignited him. During their year together, his instant and burning need to give her pleasure had become a never-ending urge to make her his.
The shrill ring of his cellphone shattered his reverie. Nash frowned at the familiar number flashing across the display and braced himself. “Hey, boss. Happy New Year.”
“Yep. Same to you.” Hunter Edgington was a former SEAL, and, as usual, the man’s gruff tone signaled that he had no patience for pleasantries. “We’ve got a new job, and you’re up.”
So much for a lazy afternoon indulging in fantasies about Haisley naked in his bed as his lips blazed kisses across her skin, down to focus on her sweet, dripping pussy. Nash sat up straighter. “What’s the op?”
“Heard anything about young women going missing from that new mall?”
Holy shit. Someone had hired EM Security to look into this case? And Hunter was assigning him? After Nash had agreed to study it with Haisley? Talk about ironic…
If his hunch was right, Nash understood why Hunter had prefaced his new assignment with that question. The disappearances had barely made a blip in the local press. In the last couple of days, he’d looked. All he’d found were a few vague bulletins quickly buried in the local news cycle.
“Not nearly as much as I should be. I’m smelling a cover-up.” Like someone rich and powerful was working overtime to keep a tight lid on the whole sordid mess.
Hunter grunted in grim agreement. “That’s my read, too. After the most recent disappearance, the mall’s developer, George Benedict, hired EM Security to get to the bottom of the incidents. I think we’re his out with the press and law enforcement so he can claim he’s doing ‘everything possible’ to stop the abductions.”
Nash frowned. He didn’t know much about the wealthy local real estate mogul, just whispers—mostly that Benedict was a blowhard whose sole concerns were making money and preserving his interests. Dealing with him and his BS wasn’t something Nash was looking forward to, but business was business.
“Know if he’s done anything to stop the abductions prior to hiring us?”
“From what I can gather, the minimum for optics. He upgraded the tech some and hired a few new guards. That kind of shit. Nothing actually likely to stop the kidnappings.”
Hunter was rarely wrong, and Nash agreed with his boss’s assessment. “Think Benedict has anything to do with these disappearances?”
“Anything is possible.”
“We doing recon on him, too, or just running a straightforward op?” Nash scrubbed a hand over his stubbled jaw.