by Barb Han
“No. He could be anywhere,” he said.
“But he’s hurt. He has to have a limp or damaged shoulder after taking that fall.” Her observation was dead-on.
“That’s my guess too.”
“How did he get away so quickly? I mean, I definitely took a minute to regroup, but you were watching, aware,” she said.
“Your guess is as good as mine there. He had to have had help.”
“Which means he’s not working alone,” she stated.
“Afraid not.” It didn’t rule out Calum or his wife necessarily. They would have the resources to hire someone. If Dash had to guess, this guy was professional, a hired gun. There was no way an amateur could have taken that kind of fall and gotten back up. He had to have been wearing some type of specialized body armor.
“Is he a hit man?” she asked point-blank.
The question caught him off guard. It probably shouldn’t have. She was astute, and it was a reasonable assumption. “It’s possible.”
“Then we need to forget the wine and brew some coffee. We can’t stop until we figure out who is behind this.” She pursed her lips. “Any chance we can find a way to get your sister out on bail?”
“I highly doubt it,” he said. “The very fact her brother is a federal employee makes this whole situation more complicated. Any whiff of special treatment and my department will be under a microscope.”
Raina pursed her lips. “She’s in danger while she’s inside, isn’t she?”
“Yes. But she would be in danger out here too,” he pointed out.
“True. I can see that I am too.” She paused for a few beats. “I’ll take you up on your offer to stay at your place until we get to the bottom of this.”
“I think that’s wise.” There was some relief in her decision. But she was right about one thing: Layla had never been in more danger. If she died in prison, it could be made to look like a suicide. With Dash out of the way, there would be no one to take up her case. A cover-up could make this all go away. There was a handful of people who could pull off this scale of attack: someone who was very well off, someone who was connected to organized crime or someone who was known for her ruthlessness. Greed or revenge. Those were two powerful motivators.
Miguel needed to be brought up to speed.
* * *
RAINA GAVE HER statement to the cops while Dash updated his boss. He reclaimed the driver’s seat when it was all said and done.
“Are we still stopping by Stuart’s?” she asked, figuring plans had changed.
Dash glanced at the clock. “I want a background check on Calum and his wife. Miguel is working on one for Stuart too. We’re gathering everything we can find out about Talia. In the meantime, it’s getting late. Let’s swing by your place.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
The rest of the ride was spent in companionable silence. Raina was working through what had just happened and the frustration that came with seeing Layla locked behind bars and not being able to do anything about it. It was increasingly clear Layla had been set up.
There were the obvious people in their circle to consider. And then there was the outside chance the person who did this wasn’t connected to Layla at all. Or the firm. She needed to expand her scope. Despite this feeling very personal, hackers could be anywhere. The breach could have been random.
The crazy part about it was Layla was too smart to fall into the trap of clicking on a random link in her email or opening anything suspect. She had built custom firewalls and never kept virus-protection software on her system. She was too savvy to leave a back door on her computer the size of Texas. If she bought a new laptop, she immediately uninstalled all the bloatware and anything that could leave her system compromised.
A random hacker made less sense when she really thought about it but couldn’t be excluded. Good hackers might be hard to come by, but they were sneaky. The ones who got through were brilliant minds.
An internal job made sense from a motive point of view, but again, Layla was no slacker in the brains department. Getting her password would be more than tricky. Was Calum that smart? No. He had the means to hire people who were. Unless he used his time at her apartment to snoop around.
But why? Two million dollars was a lot of money, don’t get her wrong. But it wasn’t much to a person in his position. Her immediate thought was that he wanted to discredit her. Mission accomplished there.
Dash drove to the pier and then lined up for the ferry. “Is your car waiting on the other side?”
“No, I rode my bike.” And by bike, she meant the pedaling kind. She lived on Bainbridge Island in a garage apartment not far from the pier. The low-maintenance lifestyle was a no-brainer considering how much time she spent at the office. This way, she got to live somewhere she could have an incredible view without paying exorbitant prices. Plus, living there felt like she was on vacation on the weekends and away from the hustle and bustle of downtown Seattle. Yet Bainbridge Island was there, a short ferry ride away if she wanted to be around people.
Don’t even get her started on the food on the island, which rivaled that of Seattle’s. One of her favorite food haunts was in a gas station of all places. So a trip into town wasn’t necessary for an amazing meal.
“We can leave my bike there. It’ll be faster that way and it’s chained, so no one will take it.” There was very little theft on the island.
“Or better yet, I’ll strap it on top and we can park it at your place.”
“Sounds good to me.” She was eager to get back to his place, get settled and roll up her sleeves. The motorcycle had been a wake-up call for them both—one she intended to answer by pulling out all the stops. She was a decent hacker when she put her mind to it. And she was more determined than ever to trace this jerk. Everyone left a trail in the tech world. It was just a matter of finding it, and they would get their guy.
Chapter Eleven
Dash parked next to the detached-garage apartment. He hopped out of the SUV and brought the bike down from the rack on top of his vehicle. The homeowners gave Raina full use of the garage since there was a stairwell from inside leading to her apartment. They always parked on the opposite side of the house, giving Raina a decent amount of privacy and the feeling of seclusion.
His cell buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and checked the screen. “It’s Miguel. Go ahead on up and I’ll be there after I find out what he wants.”
Raina nodded and frowned. Her disappointment was a gut punch. The truth was that he’d use any excuse not to go inside her apartment. Although, he was certain a night spent having sex with Raina again would be a game changer, trumping every other in his life. Once hadn’t nearly been enough and he’d had to draw on all his self-control to walk away.
“Hey, Miguel. What’s up?” Dash had a low-key relationship with his boss outside of the office, where they could be less formal.
“After you briefed me on your chat with Layla’s boss, I called him. I was a hundred percent certain he was hiding something, so I asked for a meeting,” Miguel said.
“How’d that go over?”
“The guy was shaking in his shoes when I dropped by his office. After a little more digging and a lot more persuading, he admitted the investment bank may have been hacked a few days before the embezzlement,” Miguel stated.
“He was definitely covering for something or someone while I was there. I had all the vibes that he was about to crack before he made certain I was escorted out of the building.” Was this what Alec had been hiding? Was he involved?
“After his slip—there was no way he intended to give me that much information, by the way—so, after, he has me escorted out and then gives me the number of his attorney.”
“Innocent people rarely lawyer up so fast,” Dash pointed out.
“Your visit must have left him thinking about his own persona
l responsibility in this should it all go south.”
“Did you visit him in his office?” Dash asked.
“Yes, but then he asked to go for a walk.”
Interesting. Dash noted the change of venue. “He’s connected.”
“As in, organized crime?”
“Has pictures of crime bosses in his office along with celebrities and politicians,” Dash said.
“His background needs to be thoroughly vetted.” Miguel didn’t mess around.
“I couldn’t agree more.” Dash wanted everything, from where he went to grade school to his major in college. Miguel would deliver.
“The vice president of human resources, Linda Ramirez, is fully cooperating. She is having her team pull together a list of employees and their jobs. She’s willing to turn over the résumés of everyone at the firm.”
“I’m assuming you asked for anyone with a technical background first.” Dash knew Miguel would dot every i and cross every t.
“That’s right. We’ll start there. Not just with people who have technical jobs but everyone in the company with a tech degree,” Miguel said.
“Just so you know, Raina Andress is under my protection,” Dash said.
“She was on my list of people to circle back to,” Miguel admitted.
“Ask me anything you want to know. Or, I can bring her into the office,” Dash offered.
“Write up a report instead,” Miguel said. “Have it in my inbox before I go into the office tomorrow morning.”
“Will do, sir.”
The two finished their conversation and then ended the call. Dash stood in the gravel, looking up at what would be Raina’s bedroom window. He grabbed the bike and, on a heavy sigh, headed toward the garage.
He found a spot for the bike before shuffling up the stairs. The door to her apartment was left open, so he walked inside.
The place was Raina to a T. Most of the colors were neutral, the furniture was the kind he could sink into, and there was a pop of a vibrant shade of blue in every room. It was cozy, and there was a small patio off the master bedroom with views of the Sound. The island itself was lush with greenery everywhere he turned.
He’d thought about buying a place out here before settling downtown where the action was. Being here now, he wondered if he’d made a mistake. Or was it just this place that had him feeling like he was missing out on something?
The cozy one-bedroom apartment was the perfect weekend getaway.
“I’m in here.” Raina didn’t have to shout to be heard. He was trying to avoid a trip into her bedroom.
Thinking of her in bed didn’t help on the follow-through of pushing her away. His plan had worked, and he’d never been more disappointed. It was for the best the two of them didn’t try to follow through on the attraction simmering between them. For one, it would have jeopardized her relationship with Layla. His would survive but would Raina’s? Layla needed her best friend, and he was determined not to mess that up for her. He’d done enough damage not being there for his sister when he should have been, and the guilt was crushing.
When Dash had brought Layla to his place, he’d put her on a rigid routine. It might have gotten her on the right track in a whole lot of ways, but he’d never given her the chance to talk about how she felt after losing their parents. He was starting to learn how important talking was. Losing their parents had been hard on Dash as an adult. Layla was still a child, for all intents and purposes.
“I’m almost ready.” There was an uncertainty to Raina’s voice that led him to believe she was unsure why he was still in the living room instead of with her in the bedroom. Part of him wanted to walk right in there and plant the biggest kiss on her lips just to prove to them both the white-hot attraction that had been simmering between them could be managed. It might be a slow-burning fire but that didn’t mean it had to get out of hand. They were adults with plenty of self-control to draw from. Besides, willpower wasn’t normally something Dash grappled with. Not even when he was barely old enough to have hair on his chest did he lack resolve to command his impulses.
If he didn’t prove that fact to himself right now, he would regret it. Besides, he and Raina were about to spend twenty-four seven together, in close quarters, for the foreseeable future. Walking into the next room and planting a kiss on those thick cherry lips of hers would be doing them both a favor. Clearing the elephant in the room, so to speak.
So that’s exactly what he did. He walked right into the bedroom, straight up to her, and took her wrists in his hands.
He locked gazes with her, searching for permission to move forward or a rebuke that would make him take a step back to reevaluate.
Those sky-blue eyes of hers glittered with something that looked a lot like need. He took it as a sign to move forward. That, and the fact that her tongue darted across her bottom lip like she was about to welcome him home. The silky trail her tongue left behind mesmerized him for a few seconds.
And then he tugged her toward him, locked on to her gaze and brought those gorgeous lips of hers to meet his. The split-second moan of pleasure she gave was enough to tell him he was moving in the right direction.
He loved the feeling of her lips moving against his. He let go of her wrists to bring his hands up to the soft skin of her cheeks. He framed her face with his hands and tilted her head to the right for better access.
His pulse pounded and his breath quickened.
She parted her lips for him as she brought her hands up to his shoulders, digging her nails into him as though to ground herself.
A groan escaped before he could reel it in when he let his tongue dart inside her mouth. She had a mix of coffee and peppermint on her tongue. Those weren’t two flavors he would normally put together, but they worked wonders on her, driving him to a whole new level of desire.
An ache formed in his chest. He’d never gone from zero to a hundred-and-ten-miles-an-hour before, usually preferring a long, slow buildup. With Raina, everything was different. He’d thought about that sexy pout of her lips more than he wanted to acknowledge since the last time they’d been together.
It was probably just two broken people finding a way to fit together that drew him to her on a soul-deep level. Dash didn’t normally do soul-deep with anyone. He preferred ‘at a distance’ when it came to emotional connections.
She teased his tongue inside her mouth, and the temptation to pick her up and take two steps to the bed was a physical force.
He denied it. This time. The kisses they’d shared before ranked at the top of his list, but these were somehow better. He wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with the old saying about absence making the heart grow fonder, but he wondered if the same axiom worked for sexual desire too. Because right now, he was committed, with the full knowledge this decision would come back to bite him.
* * *
THE IMAGE OF Layla in the awful jumpsuit was the equivalent of a bucket of ice being thrown over Raina’s head. She pulled back from Dash, hating that their lips were no longer touching. As far as kisses went, she’d never experienced anything that came close to a Dash kiss.
What was that saying about forbidden fruit? It must apply here, and she finally understood the depths to which it could go. Because she’d gotten lost in in a matter of seconds.
There was so much heat and passion in the kiss they were both left trying to catch their breath. He leaned in and rested his forehead on hers.
“Damn,” was all he managed to say in between heated breaths and was exactly the same word she was thinking.
Damn is about right. The next word that came to mind was damned, which brought her to cursed. Their relationship was cursed. It had stopped even before it got started despite the best night of her life followed by the worst morning after.
They couldn’t afford to take their focus off the investigation while Layla sat in prison. In
fact, it was probably the near-death experience that had them grasping at life with both hands. She’d read about that phenomenon. There was an article about baby booms after towns were hit with a catastrophic event. People needed proof that life would go on at the most primal level.
So she’d blame biology for the temporary lapse in judgment.
“That can’t happen again, Dash.” She didn’t say that her heart couldn’t take it, but it was true.
“I know.” There was a lot of sadness and resignation in his voice.
“As long as we’re both clear on that point,” she said.
He nodded against her forehead.
“Then, after this, we have to stop.” She tilted her head and captured his bottom lip in between her teeth. She sucked and then tugged.
His reaction was instantaneous. He looped his arms around her waist, pressing her body flush with his, and lifted her off her feet.
His tongue drove inside her mouth, causing her pulse to shoot through the roof and desire to temporarily weaken her knees.
He kissed her so thoroughly that when he set her back down, she couldn’t hold her own weight. She finally understood what people referred to when they mentioned a bone-melting kiss. She’d mistakenly believed no one could make her bones feel like butter before Dash. And kissing him a second time around was proving even more potent.
She wanted nothing more than to live in this moment, to freeze time and stay here for just a little while longer. Rationalizations floated across her mind that tried to justify giving in to the power and masculinity that was Dashiell West. But she recognized them for what they were. Excuses.
Raina wanted nothing more than to strip down bare in front of Dash and spend the next couple of days exploring each other.
They didn’t have time. And it was a bad idea for so many reasons beyond that.
He pulled back. He searched her eyes, and it was as though an entire conversation happened between them in those few seconds without a word needing to be spoken. They both wanted this to happen more than they wanted air.
