She pulled the key out of her purse, sliding her fingers over the subtle ridges of paint that Ashley had layered on the surface.
“Bob Tindle called me today,” he said, following her into the house. “He’s worried about you.”
“He needs to worry less about me and more about Ashley.”
Elise headed for the fridge and took out a pitcher of water she’d put in this morning. She poured two glasses, handed one to Trent and started in on her own. She hadn’t had anything to drink out there today, and she hadn’t realized how thirsty she was until just now.
Trent watched her as she drank. “I went over the case with him. He’s not missing anything. He’s doing everything he can.”
The cold water pooled in her belly, making her shiver. “It’s not enough. If it was, Ashley would be safe at home right now.”
“Don’t make him the enemy here, Elise. Don’t alienate the men who have the most power to help your sister.”
Elise sank down on the purple couch, giving her weary feet a rest. She speared her fingers through her damp hair and rested her head in her hands. Flecks of colored paint stained the hardwood floor under her feet, blending with pencil shavings and plenty of dust.
Ashley wasn’t much of a housekeeper, and proof of her life was everywhere, reminding Elise how much was at stake.
Trent was right. She had to be nicer to Officer Tindle. Taking her anger out on him wasn’t going to bring Ashley home. “I’ll apologize to him again tomorrow, and this time I’ll actually sound like I mean it.”
“He’s a good man. I’m sure he understands how upset you are.”
Elise didn’t agree—how could he understand unless he’d been through what she was going through right now? But she kept her opinion to herself and sucked down more water.
Trent disappeared into the kitchen. She could hear him shutting cabinet doors. He came back with a bag of potato chips in his hand. He opened them and held them out to her. “You need salt. It looks like you lost quite a bit today.”
“Is that your way of saying how sweaty I look?”
One side of his mouth lifted in a teasing grin. “I don’t mind a sweaty woman, I just prefer to be the one to get her that way.”
Something soft and liquid shifted inside Elise, releasing even more of the tension that had built up inside her today. “Is that an offer?” she teased back.
His grin disappeared and his gaze darkened as he stared at her. “Under different circumstances, yes. But I won’t take advantage of you.”
“Because you’re a nice guy? Because Ashley is gone and I’m not thinking straight?”
“Exactly.”
Elise stood and looked right up at him, making sure he’d pay attention. “If I were to let something happen between us, it wouldn’t be because you took advantage. It would be the other way around. I’d be taking advantage of
you
, using you to bleed off some stress.”
His dark brows shot up in surprise, and there was more than a spark of interest glowing in his eyes.
“But I don’t have time for that now. I’ve got to get dressed and ready to go.”
“Where?”
“I’m going back to Sally’s to show off the picture I found today. I’m hoping someone will know who the guy is. So, if you don’t mind, please let yourself out so I can shower.”
She turned to leave, expecting him to do the same, but instead, he grabbed her arm, stopping her dead in her tracks.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “But I can’t let you do that.”
Was she out of her mind? What the hell was she thinking, deciding to go back to Sally’s with the picture of some stalker in hand? Didn’t she have any idea how dangerous that was?
“What do you mean you can’t let me?” she asked. Her voice was quiet, but the threat of violence running through her words was loud and clear.
“Bob told me about the photo. It’s too dangerous for you to go around asking questions.”
“Did I ask your opinion? Did I even ask you to come with me?” She jerked her arm away and thrust her chest out at him in defiance.
Trent was too much of a dog not to be distracted by the sight of her breasts on display. Even sweaty and disheveled, there was still something alluring about Elise. All he could think of was that if he ever got her in bed, she’d look just like that when he was done with her. Her skin would be glowing and dewy, pink from exertion. Her hair would be a mess. Her eyes would be shining and sleepy.
All the previous signs of sleepiness were gone now, though. In front of him stood a fiery, enraged woman who looked like she’d just as soon slug him in the mouth as kiss him.
“It’s too dangerous. Let Bob and his men do the questioning.”
“Like hell I will,” she snapped. “And if you can’t keep the macho urge to stick your nose into my business in check, then you can just go home and leave me the hell alone.”
“Excuse me?” he said, feeling his temper rising fast. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. He did. He’d been a cop long enough to see the myriad scum that walked the face of the planet. He wasn’t about to let her saunter into Sally’s and piss one off. “It was me sticking my nose into your business that got you into that morgue last night. If not for me and my connections, you’d still be in Chicago, wading through red tape. And even if you had managed to get in to view the body last night, who would have been there to help you get through that trauma? You were barely able to stand.”
She was silent, but her mouth was tight in anger.
“Do you think I wanted to see that woman’s corpse?” he demanded. “Do you think I enjoyed giving up a decent night’s sleep so I could wallow in the devastation some sick fuck caused? I did it because you needed me. I did it because you didn’t have anyone else. And I’m going to stop you from getting yourself hurt for the same reasons.”
“Leave,” was all she said. He knew she’d heard every word. He could see her struggling not to let the tears pooling in her eyes fall.
“No.”
“I’ll call the police.”
He waved toward the phone. “Be my guest. I know Bob will back me up in this. He doesn’t want two missing women on his turf.”
Her bravado disappeared and her whole body deflated, like the life had been sucked out of it. The tears she’d been trying to hold back fell. Her voice was weak, and the sound of defeat trembling through her words made Trent want to kick himself.
“I can’t stop,” she whispered. “I can’t sit around and wait. I have to keep moving, keep doing. If I don’t . . .” She trailed off and a sob shook her body.
Trent couldn’t take it anymore. He couldn’t stand to see her cry and do nothing, which probably made him a hypocrite for asking her to do just—nothing.
He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tight. Her breasts felt soft and perfect against his ribs, but he did his best to ignore the feeling. He stroked her limp curls, and she let him. There was no fight left in her.
“It’s going to be okay,” he told her, praying it wasn’t a lie. “They’ll find this guy. They’ll find Ashley.” Hopefully alive. “You’ve done all you can.”
“No. I haven’t.” She sniffed and looked up at him. Her gray-green eyes were bright and filled with desperation. “I understand that asking questions is dangerous. I don’t care. I’m the only person she’s got left. I can’t sit back and do nothing, even if the only things left to do are the dangerous ones.”
“You don’t have the training to deal with this kind of thing. What if you make it worse? What if you find this guy, but he gets away? He’ll know the police are on his trail and it might make it even harder to find Ashley.” He might even skip town, leaving her locked up somewhere to die of starvation, but Trent couldn’t bring himself to say that to Elise. It was too horrible for her to think about and would only make her more desperate.
“I’ll be careful,” she said.
“You don’t know how to be careful.”
“No, but you do.”
Damn it. He’d hoped she wouldn’t ask this of him. Helping her duck a bunch of red tape was one thing, but she wanted more than that. She wanted him to hit the streets with her, to work the lead she’d found today.
Trent wasn’t equipped to do an investigation anymore. He was rusty, out of practice. He didn’t even own a gun. After what he’d done to John and Tyler, he couldn’t even stand to have one in his home. If he ran into trouble, he’d be hard-pressed to deal with it.
And if he went after the guy in the photo, he was definitely going to run into trouble. There was no question in his mind that this guy was responsible for Ashley’s disappearance. Whoever he was, he had the upper hand. No one knew who he was, where he lived, or what he wanted.
If they were lucky, he was keeping Ashley for sex and would let her go once he was bored with her. She’d be traumatized, but she’d live. If that’s not why he took her, then the options swiftly got bleaker after that. He’d had her for four days now. A lot could happen in four days.
Trent didn’t want to get involved any more than he already had. He didn’t want to step back in that world where people depended on him, trusted him to help keep them safe. He liked it too much. He knew that if he got another taste of that—if he felt that thrill again, that sense of purpose—he might never recover once he went back to his real life. And he had to go back. He couldn’t be a cop again. He swore he’d never again pick up a gun—never again risk shooting someone he cared about. Never again kill another kid because he had no choice.
So where did that leave him?
He either had to risk losing all the progress he’d made over the past two years of getting on with his life, or he had to look into Elise’s hopeful eyes and tell her he couldn’t help. If he did that, he didn’t trust for a second that she wouldn’t go out on her own and try to do the job herself.
If he didn’t keep her in sight, there was no telling what she might do.
In the end, there really wasn’t any choice to make. He had to protect Elise from herself.
“Okay. We’ll go to Sally’s and see what we can dig up, but you have to promise me that if we don’t find out who this guy is, you’ll accept it. We don’t even know that the guy she left the bar with is the same guy as the one in the photo.”
“I never even considered that, but you’re right. Maybe she came home from the bar, and he was waiting for her here.”
“Stop right there,” said Trent. “Going down that path is not going to do anything but scare you. Let’s take this one step at a time. We’ll go back to Sally’s, ask around, and then we’ll go back to my place.”
“Your place?”
“This guy might already know you’re living here. It’s not safe for you to stay here alone anymore.”
Elise nodded. “I can get a hotel room.”
He liked the idea of having her in his home too much to let the opportunity slip by. “You’d be safer with me. Besides, I want to make sure you’re not doing anything stu—desperate.”
She gave him a weak smile. “What? Don’t you trust me?”
“Not an inch. Pick out what you need to bring with you, and I’ll help you pack. You can get dressed at my place.”
Ashley heard Gary coming down the hall, and every muscle in her body tensed. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been here, but it had to have been days. Without any clocks or external light source, she couldn’t really tell.
At first, she’d thought he was a perfect gentleman, but it hadn’t taken her long to realize how wrong she’d been. She’d woken up with that devastating hangover, wanting nothing more than to go home, but Gary insisted on taking care of her.
It hadn’t been until after the grogginess wore off that Ashley realized two things. First, that had not been any normal hangover. She’d been drugged. And second, Gary was not what he seemed.
He told her he wanted to keep her all to himself, just for the weekend, and proceeded to turn on the charm.
Stupidly, Ashley had fallen for it and ignored her instincts that something was off. Right up to the point when he’d told her good night and locked her up again without sleeping with her.
As soon as he’d come back hours later, she’d demanded that he let her go. When that didn’t work, she lashed out at him physically, raking the skin of his arm with her fingernails. The change from nice Gary to demonic, frothing-at-the-mouth Gary had been instantaneous and scary as hell. He’d locked her back in this room and hadn’t come back for her since.
The room wasn’t bad. She had a comfortable bed, a bathroom stocked with all the toiletries she needed to keep herself clean and groomed, fresh clothes in a tiny closet, and a small area where she could sketch with the supplies he’d left for her. The room’s colors were a bit drab for her tastes, but everything matched. There was even a print of an English garden on the wall over the bed—the only splash of color that wasn’t some form of beige.
If it hadn’t been a prison, it would have been a nice place to stay.
But it was a prison. And she wasn’t alone. She could hear pitiful moans of pain and desolate weeping coming through the walls. There was another woman here.
Gary’s steps paused outside her door.
Ashley stood up and forced herself to appear calm. She didn’t want to do anything to set him off again. She’d spent hours going over every inch of her room, looking for a way out, and found nothing. If she was going to get out of here, it was going to be through him.