by Tina Folsom
“Uh-huh,” she said into the phone while she waved at one of the prostitutes, motioning to a door on the left. The door opened a second later and a transvestite stalked out, grinning from one ear to the other. She turned toward the open plan area and blew air kisses to the working officers.
“Get out of here, Veronica,” one of them called out to her. “Or I’ll book you myself.”
With a laugh, the transvestite sauntered to the door and left.
“Be right there, Ma’am.”
Lilo’s head snapped to the female police officer behind the counter, who’d spoken, and nodded gratefully.
A police officer in plain clothes came around the corner and approached the counter. “No worries, Mandy, I’ll take that.”
Lilo took a step closer to the counter, Blake by her side, and gave a faint smile.
“I’m Detective Donnelly. How can I help you?”
Encouraged by the man’s friendly demeanor, Lilo sighed with relief. “I’m here to report my friend missing. And also a break-in at her apartment.”
He reached for a clipboard and a pen. “Alright then. Your name, please.”
“Lieselotte Schroeder.”
“I’ll need to see ID.”
She rummaged for it in her bag, while the police detective addressed Blake. “And you, sir, are you with the lady?”
“Yes.”
“I’ll need to see your ID, too.”
Lilo handed her drivers license to Detective Donnelly.
He looked up. “You’re far from home, Miss Schroeder.”
“I flew out here, because I’m worried about my friend. Hannah Bergdorf. She’s missing.”
“Okay.” He reached for Blake’s ID and looked at it. “Thanks, Mr. Bond.”
Lilo whirled her head to Blake. His name was Bond? And he drove an Aston Martin? Really? She managed a glance at his ID. Indeed, it said Blake Bond. Not only did he look like Morgan West, he shared a last name with a fictional secret agent? If she wrote something like this in one of her books, nobody would believe her.
Too far-fetched, her editor would say.
Not believable, her critics would write.
“When did you last see your friend Miss Bergdorf?” the detective now asked.
“Over a year ago.”
He raised his eyebrows. “And you’re only now filing a missing person’s report?”
“She’s only been missing for three days. I flew out here as soon as I could to try to look for her. But she’s not in her apartment. Her dog is gone. And then this guy broke in and attacked me. He stole my phone, too. And then—”
“You were assaulted? And there’s a dog missing? And your phone was stolen?”
She nodded.
“So let me get this straight. We have a missing person, a missing dog, a burglary, an assault, and a stolen phone. Were there any witnesses to any of these alleged crimes?”
“Alleged?” She huffed. Did this man not believe her? But before she could say anything else, she felt Blake’s reassuring hand on her forearm.
“I witnessed the assault,” Blake said calmly. “I can give a description of the burglar who broke into Miss Bergdorf’s flat and attacked Miss Schroeder.”
She nodded, thankful for Blake’s presence, and added, “And I also think I know who might be behind Hannah’s disappearance.”
Both Officer Donnelly and Blake stared at her.
“You know?” Blake asked.
“Ronny, her loser boyfriend. I think she wanted to leave him.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about him earlier?”
She looked at Blake. “There wasn’t exactly time for that. I mean, between the break-in, the assault…”
“Miss Schroeder, can you elaborate on this Ronny? What’s his full name?” the police officer asked.
“I don’t know. Hannah never talked much about him. But from the few things she did tell me, I can tell what kind of person he is.” And that he wasn’t the kind of man who was good for a sweet and generous woman like Hannah, a woman who believed that everybody deserved help.
The police officer raised an eyebrow, but Lilo continued undeterred.
“He didn’t seem to have a regular job. And he was very possessive and jealous.” Something she abhorred in a man. It was a character trait that only led to trouble.
“Jealousy is not a crime, Miss Schroeder.”
“But it can lead to one. I’m telling you, you have to find Ronny. If anybody knows where Hannah is, it’s him.”
The police officer sighed. “Fine, Miss Schroeder. But let’s start with details about your friend, Miss Bergdorf.”
For the next few minutes, Lilo answered questions about Hannah’s appearance and habits, which the officer took down diligently.
“You wouldn’t have a photo of Miss Bergdorf, would you?”
“Not on me. I have some on my cell phone. But it’s gone.”
“Not to worry,” Blake interrupted. “Hannah works for the same company as I. I can get HR to send over a photo from her personnel file.”
Lilo gave Blake a grateful smile. It was lucky that he’d shown up—in more ways than one. Not only had he physically saved her, he was also here to support her in her search for Hannah. And right now she could use all the help she could get.
“Good,” Officer Donnelly said. “Now about the break-in and assault. Did you get a good look at the intruder?”
“I did. He was tall.”
“How tall?”
Lilo pointed to Blake. “About as tall as him.”
“Six foot two,” Blake offered.
“But heavier.”
Blake nodded. “About two-hundred-ten pounds.”
“Any identifying marks? Tattoos? Scars?”
Lilo shook her head. “None. He looked pretty average. Brown hair.”
“Brown eyes,” Blake continued. “Pretty ordinary.”
Ordinary? Lilo clamped her hand over Blake’s forearm. “Brown eyes? You didn’t see?”
Blake’s forehead furrowed. “See what?”
“His eyes were red. As if he had an infection like—”
“You mean like conjunctivitis?” the officer interrupted.
She looked straight at him. “No. It wasn’t the white part of the eye that was red; his irises were.”
“I’ve never heard of an illness like that,” Blake threw in, making her turn to him. “Maybe it was just a reflection.”
“That’s what I thought at first, too, but there wasn’t a lot of light in the living room that could have reflected off his eyes.”
The officer cleared his throat, making her look back at him. “So it was pretty dark then, Miss? I’m surprised you were able to describe the man as well as you did.” He made a note on his form. “Well, let’s talk about anything that’s missing. Your phone, right?”
She wanted to protest, but what if she’d seen wrong? She couldn’t swear to it. Maybe it had been a reflection after all, or fear had made her see things that weren’t there. After all, he’d been attacking her, and her only thought had been to save herself.
Her mind had played a trick on her.
7
Half an hour later, Blake guided Lilo back to the car.
Donnelly had done his job well. He’d taken down the report and pretended to give the case his utmost attention, when Blake knew all too well that Donnelly would shred the report the minute they left the police station.
Crimes involving vampires were dealt with by Scanguards. That was the deal they had with the city. Only a few people in the city government knew about this arrangement: the police chief and several police officers, who were spread around the various precincts, so they could alert Scanguards when a vampire-related crime crossed their desks.
While Lilo had gotten dressed, Blake had quickly alerted Donnelly by text message that they were coming and told him to pretend that they didn’t know each other. All had gone as planned.
When Blake opened the car door, Lilo turned to him. “C
an you recommend a hotel? Nothing too expensive, but in a safe area.”
“You won’t need a hotel. You’re staying with me. I thought I made that clear earlier.” He was sure he’d told her that she was coming with him. Why else would he have made her pack her suitcase?
“I can just as easily stay in a hotel. I really don’t want to be a burden. And you don’t know me.”
“You’re a friend of Hannah’s. That’s all I need to know. Besides, if we want to find Hannah, we need to work together.”
She gave a hesitant nod, then eased into the passenger seat. He got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. He was pulling out of the parking lot and into traffic, when Lilo shifted in her seat.
“You’ve gotta turn around. We didn’t give the police Hannah’s computer and tablet,” she suddenly said. She pushed a lock of her blond hair behind her ear. “I don’t know how I could have forgotten that.”
He glanced at her for a brief moment. “The police will sit on her computer for days before they get an IT expert on it and get into Hannah’s email. We don’t have that kind of time.”
“But what are you gonna do with it? I told you it’s password-protected. And I already tried a few passwords without success.”
“I’ll get the company’s IT department on it. They’ll be able to crack it.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, but before he could dial Thomas’s number, the phone rang. “Speak of the devil.” He pressed accept, then hit the speaker button. “Hey Thomas, you’re on speaker. I’m in the car with Lilo, the owner of the cell phone I had you trace. Anything new?”
“It pinged off a tower at the airport earlier in the evening,” Thomas replied. “But nothing since.”
“That must have been when I got off the plane and checked my messages,” Lilo said.
Blake nodded. “Makes sense. Thomas, keep monitoring it.”
“I sent a text message to it and called the number, too, but it’s going straight to voicemail. Sorry, it’s a dead end for now.”
Before Thomas could disconnect the call, Blake stopped him. “Another thing: can you come over to my house and look at a laptop and tablet? They’re password-protected. I need to know what’s on them.”
“Now?”
“The sooner the better.”
“Sorry, I’m going into a meeting in a minute.” There was some mumbling, as if Thomas was holding his hand over the mouthpiece. “Okay, Eddie just volunteered. He’ll be there shortly.”
“Thanks, Thomas.”
“You bet.”
A click on the line, and Thomas was gone.
“Your colleague has a meeting at midnight? Who works those kind of hours?”
Hearing a hint of suspicion in Lilo’s voice, Blake met her look and smiled warmly, hoping to dispel all her doubts with his charm. “Security is a twenty-four-seven business.”
Slowly, she nodded. “I guess I knew that already.” She took a breath. “Your colleague didn’t even ask what all this was about. You didn’t tell him that we’re trying to find Hannah.”
“I don’t have to. He knows when I ask him for help, it’s because it’s important. That’s how the company works. We don’t question our colleagues’ requests. It goes both ways.”
“That requires a lot of trust,” she mused.
“In our business, trust is everything. Sometimes our lives depend on it.”
“You mean when you’re protecting somebody as a bodyguard?”
“Some assignments can be dangerous, but we’re trained well.” It also helped that as a vampire he had a few secret weapons up his sleeve. Better than any fictional British spy.
But it was time to stop Lilo from asking any more questions. “So what do you do in Nebraska, Lilo?”
“I’m a writer.” She turned to look out the window. “What neighborhood is this?”
Blake suppressed a chuckle. It appeared he wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to answer questions about his work. “We’re driving through Pacific Heights.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of it. Pretty.”
“What do you write?”
She shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. “Mysteries.”
“You mean murder mysteries?”
“Not necessarily. Not every book is about a murder. I write about all kinds of crimes. Or rather solving crimes.”
He made a mental note of that. If Lilo wrote crime fiction she had to be smart, and he’d have to stay on his toes to make sure she didn’t discover his secrets. It would only complicate things.
“So who’s your protagonist? A female detective?”
“A bounty hunter.”
That response made him toss her a quick look. “Seriously?”
“Why?”
“Well, you’ve got stiff competition in that genre. Few are as good as Maxim Holt. He’s got that market cornered.”
“You’ve read the Morgan West bounty hunter series?”
Blake nodded. “Just finished Anatomy of a Bounty.” And he would have finished it earlier, if he didn’t have to look after thirteen hybrids, who couldn’t shut up for even one minute.
“So he’s the best, you say?”
Crap! He should have just kept his mouth shut. No writer liked to hear somebody rave about another author’s books. “Maybe if I read one of yours for comparison…”
“No, no. That’s fine. Honestly.” She yawned.
Great, now he was boring her to sleep! Way to treat a woman he was attracted to. Yeah, exactly: he was attracted to Lilo. Despite the fact that his mind was working overtime to come up with ideas on how to find Hannah, his body was occupied with other things. Things he had no business imagining.
“We’re almost there,” he said quickly and turned into the next street.
He pulled into the fourth driveway on his right and drove up to the garage of the two-story Edwardian house that stood on an extra-wide city lot. As he came to a stop, he lowered the window, then reached through it to the electronic reader that was built into the wall that ran along the property line. This part of the driveway was covered so that during daytime it was safe to open the window of the car without being exposed to direct sunlight. In addition, the scanner could be moved closer to the car window by a remote control which was built into his car’s steering wheel. And since there was a tall concrete wall on the driver’s side, no sunlight could enter the car from that direction.
Blake placed his thumb on the scanner. A moment later, the garage door started to lift.
“You have a high-security, government-style entry system for your home?” Lilo asked incredulously.
He met her wary gaze. “It’s very practical. At least I can’t lose my keys.”
“Unless you lose your thumb,” she answered in a deadpan manner.
“If that happens I’ve got bigger problems than not being able to get into my house.”
He put the car back in gear and drove into the garage, parking next to his black-out SUV. Behind him, the garage door lowered again, shutting out the outside world.
“Come, we’ll get you settled.”
He got out of the car and opened the trunk. Lilo was already next to him and reaching for her suitcase. But he’d reached for it at the same time. Their hands touched, and he felt a charge go through him. He could explain it away as static electricity, but he would be lying to himself. This wasn’t electricity; it was chemistry. The kind that could instantaneously combust if he wasn’t careful.
With a gasp, Lilo withdrew her hand, and he tightened his grip around the handle. He didn’t look at her when he said, “Why don’t you take Hannah’s computer and tablet?”
“Yeah, sure.” Her voice trembled as much as her hands as she grabbed the small bag with the electronics and moved away from the car.
“Listen, Lilo…”
She stopped walking, but didn’t turn around.
Maybe it had been a bad idea to bring her here. Perhaps he should have brought her to a hotel. “You don’t need to be afraid of me.”
Silence greeted him. Then a sigh. She turned slowly and lifted her eyes to look at him. “You saved me from that intruder. You took me to the police like I asked you to. The policeman knows who you are.”
Shock coursed through him. Had she somehow guessed that he and Donnelly knew each other?
“I mean, he took down the details of your drivers license. And there were cameras in the police station. If something happened to me, they would come looking for you.” She shook her head. “No, I’m not afraid of you.”
“Then why are you shaking?”
“I’m shaking because I’ve never been in a situation like this. I’m scared.”
Slowly he walked toward her, set the suitcase on the floor, and gently drew her into his arms. She didn’t protest, and for a long while he simply held her, feeling her body’s warmth caress him. The brave woman who’d fought against her attacker and verbally sparred with him earlier tonight, now felt fragile and vulnerable. And with it, his protector instinct surged.
He ran his hand over her hair. “Everything will be fine.”
“Thank you,” she murmured into his chest, and the vibrations of her voice made his entire body tingle and awaken a desire he knew he couldn’t act upon.
With regret, he released her from his embrace. “Let’s get you settled. You need to rest.”
8
She hadn’t told him the entire truth.
Yes, she was scared for her friend, but the reason she’d been shaking was because she was scared of her reaction to Blake. She’d never felt this kind of intense physical attraction to any man, particularly not to one she knew nothing about. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for her to be drawn to Blake like a moth to the light, especially considering her trust issues.
As she followed him up the stairs into the house, she couldn’t help but admire his strong legs and flexing butt muscles. Damn, he filled out a pair of pants like nobody she’d ever seen. He was the epitome of strength and power. And he had a soft side, one she hadn’t expected. His embrace had been comforting and gentle. And just about as platonic as it could be. Which drove home another reality: the first man she was interested in since her last relationship two years ago, wasn’t interested in her.
