by Simply BWWM
Mr. Wittman nodded.
“I’m assuming anything that paints my son in a negative light will stay between you and me.”
“Of course,” Will said. “You’re hiring me to find him. Everything else is just noise.”
Mr. Wittman smiled.
“I’m glad we understand each other. I know that George wasn’t perfect, but I don’t want my son’s name dragged through the mud in the process. The search for a missing person can be,” he paused, searching for the word. “Invasive at times. If he is alive, I don’t want his dirty laundry aired for all to see. If he’s gone, I don’t want my son’s memory tarnished.”
He gestured at the envelope and slid a pen to Will.
“If you choose to accept my offer and sign the contract, what’s in the envelope is in addition to what’s outlined in the contract.”
“How much is in the envelope?”
“Fifty grand,” Mr. Wittman said. “That’s the startup bonus. Like I said, you’ll get the rest paid out as you go, and once you find him, you’ll get the remainder and the bonus.”
Will’s heart skipped inside his chest.
“I’ll need everything you have on the ex-girlfriend.”
“I have her name and some pertinent information, but not surprisingly, George erased all their pictures from his social media when she dumped him.”
“Have you tried recovering them from his computer?”
“I don’t want his computer searched if we can avoid that. Like I said, my son is entitled to his privacy.”
“Isn’t it standard procedure to look into lives of missing persons?”
“It is, which is one of the many reasons I decided to hire you instead.”
He nodded, looking at the envelope and wishing that he could be dishonest enough to just take the money and do what the man was asking. But he couldn’t, not without laying it all on the table.
“I’m just a guy with an outdoorsman vlog,” he said. “I’d love to help you. I just don’t see why you think I would be a good fit for this. I have no search and rescue experience. I’d basically be flying blind.”
But Mr. Wittman was already shaking his head.
“I know your credentials or lack of, as it were,” Mr. Wittman said. “Trust me when I say that a man like you is exactly who I need.”
Will sat in silence for a moment longer, then grabbed the pen before he could change his mind, signing the contract, which included a non-disclosure agreement.
“There, was that so bad?” Mr. Wittman said. “You can count the money before you leave if you like.”
“I don’t need to do that.”
The man nodded, the pleased smile planted on his face so practiced and perfect that it looked fake.
“You’ll receive your first installment in a week. I’ve divided it up by 12 weeks, but like I said, if you find him sooner, you’ll get paid the remainder.”
“If we don’t find him within twelve weeks or he’s found somewhere else?”
“You’ll get paid everything regardless of who finds him, and if you haven’t found him after twelve weeks, we’ll regroup.”
“Fair enough,” Will said, standing and taking Mr. Wittman’s outstretched hand. “I’ll let you know as soon as I find anything.”
“Thank you. Everything we know is in that file, so you’re on your own from here on out. And another thing. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, but I don’t want you hiring outside help on this.”
“Understood,” Will said.
“The fewer people involved, the easier it is to keep things private.”
“I completely understand.”
“Good,” Mr. Wittman said. “I knew you’d be the right man for the job. And thank you. I can’t tell you how much this means to me and my wife. George is all we have.”
Will nodded then left the room, knuckles white from gripping the envelope so tightly. When he got out to his car, he drove down the road and pulled into an empty parking lot. He opened the envelope and gasped when he saw the money. He counted the money quickly, still shocked that there was so much.
He put the money back into the envelope and stuck it in the center console, putting the car in gear and heading home. It was too late to start the search, but first thing in the morning, Will would be on the trail, starting with the trails that could be accessed from the trailhead in the picture.
It was a lot of ground to cover, so he needed to be well-rested. But first, he was going to find out everything he could about the ex-girlfriend, including any pictures of her on social media. He knew that wouldn’t be hard to come by, since everyone seemed to have a digital footprint nowadays. But with so little to go on, it might take some time to find out who she was. He certainly couldn’t tell much of anything from the picture of the two of them caught in the background of someone else’s selfie.
Then there was the file photo that Mr. Wittman had given him. It was a professional shot with the family, and Will knew from personal experience people could look wildly different in a photo studio than they did out on the trail. It was going to be hard get people to connect the tailor suited, clean-cut George with someone decked out in their finest hiking gear.
A picture of him in a more natural state would have been better, but Will had already accepted that this job was going to be a pain. Between trying to track George’s movements on well-traveled trails, to trying to find people who had been in the area around Labor Day, he was fighting an uphill battle. Finding George’s car in the parking lot made it more likely that he had actually been in the area, but Will hadn’t run into him, and truthfully didn’t know where to start. So, he would start with his followers and find a way to quietly ask around without calling attention to the Wittman family. Just because Will didn’t see the pair on the mountainside that week, didn’t mean someone else hadn’t. If George was on that mountain, Will was determined to find him.
Chapter8
Lincoln sat in the office area of his room, laptop open, rubbing his tired eyes as he tried to ignore the clock on the bottom corner of the screen. He’d already tried to sleep, but every night it was a little harder to ignore the woman in the other room. After hiding out with her for a little over a week, he was starting to go stir-crazy. He needed to put some space in between them and give himself some time to cool off before he returned. Luckily, the construction crew had finished the cabin and all that was left was to get it furnished and stocked. Then he could hole up in his remote cabin in the woods, leaving Charity at the hotel where she was safe.
He shook his head and went back to work, touching up the last of his edits and trimming out a sixty second teaser video for Instagram. Finally done with edits, he loaded the video onto Instagram, tagging his location but leaving out the date.
Even knowing it was a little paranoid, he decided to err on the side of caution. It had been over three weeks since George’s death, and there was no reason for anyone to assume that the videos had been taken during that time. Even if he’d had more material to edit, he could have done it in a few days if he’d pushed himself.
Chuckling under his breath, he shook his head.
“She’s one hell of a distraction,” he thought, grinning ear to ear.
She was a huge distraction, but he wouldn’t give up the time they’d spent together for anything, even if he had spent most of the time fighting his attraction. Charity had no idea how sexy she was, and having her around the suite in her pretty bare feet, shorts, and form fitting t-shirts was almost more than he could handle. Charity could make a paper sack look good, and it took all the self-control he had not to flirt with her all day.
When the video finished loading, Lincoln double-checked it for typos and glitches, then set his phone down on the desk and shut down his laptop. It was almost morning, and he needed a bit more sleep before he left for the day. Now that he’d spent half the night working, he was finally starting to feel tired enough to rest.
He was about to close his phone when Will’s account po
pped up, and he cursed the algorithm that forced days’ old posts to the top of his feed simply because Will had been in the same place that Lincoln had.
The picture was innocuous enough, but when he read that caption, his breath caught.
Anyone who was in the Mount Rainier National Park the week of Labor Day and took pics, please send me a DM ASAP for a project.
Lincoln read it again and again, trying to explain away the feeling of dread that was building within him. It wasn’t like Will to ask his followers for pictures, and the timeline had Lincoln on edge. Was it possible that Will had heard about the reward for finding George and had decided to look near Mount Rainier? If so, why there of all places?
Cursing under his breath, he opened his web browser and groaned aloud. George’s car had been located and towed, though the short news story buried in the local section said that foul play wasn’t suspected. But there was no way it was a coincidence. He couldn’t prove it, but he was sure that Will was looking for anyone who might have photographed George accidentally. And if they had George in a picture, they likely had Charity, too.
He could feel the net closing in, but he tried to talk himself down. It wouldn’t do any good to panic. Charity was finally starting to relax. She was less jumpy, and it almost seemed like she was enjoying their time together. If he freaked her out now, she might start to feel trapped, and he didn’t want that.
Running his hands through his dark hair, he sighed.
It didn’t matter what he wanted to do, he didn’t have a choice. Charity needed to know there was a possibility that Will knew something, and it was only a matter of time before their phones would ring, demanding they come in for questioning.
He was still running through his options when he thought he heard a low moan from the other room. He paused, waiting until he heard it again. This time, the sound was unmistakable. Heart in his throat, he ran out of his own room and into the common area, skidding across the tiles toward her door just as an ear-splitting scream shattered the silence.
Lincoln burst through the door and was at her bedside in an instant, ready to fight whoever was hurting Charity.
But the dim light for the nightlight in the bathroom revealed that Charity was alone, tangled in the bedsheets, obviously trapped in a horrific nightmare.
She screamed again and his heart broke in two as he made his way to the bed, working her free from the sheet first, then gathering her into arms as he sat down on the edge of the bed. She fought as he held her, but he held tight, talking to her in soothing tones until her eyes fluttered open and she jumped.
“You were having a nightmare,” he said.
She shuddered, nodding her head and looking down at her hands.
“It was about him,” she said.
“If he hadn’t died, he would have killed you,” Lincoln began, but Charity stopped him.
“Not about his death. About life with him.” She shuddered again. “And about him turning up alive and showing up at my doorstep.”
“I understand. I’m sure that was terrifying, but you’re alright now.”
He set her down on the bed, but before he could stand, she reached out and grabbed his wrist.
“Don’t leave,” she said quietly. “Please.”
“Alright,” he said, sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Thank you.” She looked at him in the soft light, and he could just barely see her wrinkle her nose. “Why are you dressed?”
“I was working.”
“Couldn’t sleep?”
“No,” he said.
“I have a hard time sleeping, too.”
“I’m sure this is traumatic for you,” he offered. “A woman with a heart like yours feels compassion for even the worst of us—”
“That’s not what I mean,” she interrupted.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
He waited, giving her a moment as she straightened her back, sliding her bare arms around his neck then sighing.
“I know that this isn’t the time or place for this,” she began. “But if I don’t say anything, I know I’ll regret it the rest of my life. I’m tired of living with regrets, so I’m just going to come out and say it. Lincoln, I want you. I’ve wanted you since that day, but I tried to explain it away as adrenaline or something else. I didn’t want to admit that I could watch a man die and then turn around and just keep living my life as if nothing had happened.”
“Survivor’s guilt,” he offered.
“I guess. It’s really hard to think that something good can come out of that nightmare. I tried avoiding it, ignored the dreams, and I didn’t contact you until I had no choice, but it—”
“Ignored what dreams?”
She ducked her head, tilting her face down and biting her lip in embarrassment. Her expression tugged at his heart even more.
Does she have any idea how sweet she is? Lincoln wondered. But he knew she didn’t, not right now. George had extinguished that light inside of her, and it was going to take a lot of work and the love of a man strong enough to love an even stronger woman to make that happen. Lincoln knew in that moment that he’d wanted to be that man for some time.
“Sex dreams,” she finally said.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Wow,” he said. “I never would have guessed that.”
“I’m full of surprises,” she teased.
“I can agree with that. So, what exactly did you dream about?”
Her voice was low when she put her arms around his neck again, looking into his eyes in the low light and smiling seductively.
“You were sitting like this,” she began. “And I slid onto your lap like this.”
When she moved to straddle him, he sucked in a deep breath. His hand went to her hip and he felt the bare skin beneath the hem of her jersey-style nightshirt.
“You’re not wearing any panties,” he said, almost choking on the words as he struggled to control his need.
His erection pressed painfully against his zipper, but Charity made no move to get up.
“You said that in my dream, too,” she said with a sweet little laugh that tugged at his heartstrings. “With almost that exact look on your face, too.”
“I’m sure you know why,” he said, his voice slightly strangled by a need that was quickly overpowering him. “And if you don’t want to do this, now would be a good time to show a guy some mercy.”
She surprised him, kissing him roughly instead of moving from his lap. He leaned into the kiss, sliding his hands up to cup her round ass.
“What if I don’t want to stop,” she whispered, her hot mouth inches from his ear.
“Whatever you decide, I’m onboard. You’re in control here.”
She was grinding against him when he spoke, but as soon as the words hit her, she stopped.
“Did I say something wrong?” he asked.
“No,” she said, kissing him again. “You said everything right.”
He nearly groaned in anguish when she slid off his lap, but before he could react, her hand was on his zipper, undoing his pants and pushing them down when he stood. Her eyes were hungry when she took him into her hands for a moment, then pushed him onto the bed.
He was reeling when he clumsily asked about protection, but she just shook her head.
“You can’t get me pregnant,” she reassured him, then slid onto his shaft, the raging heat of her body almost more than he could handle.
He held her while she moved against him, hands on her hips, falling into her rhythm as if the intimacy between them was the most natural thing that either had experienced. She was breathing hard, the excitement and adrenaline from her earlier nightmare driving her arousal to the breaking point.
Lincoln pulled the shirt over her head and let it fall to the floor, capturing one taut nipple in his mouth. She moaned, hips moving faster, her orgasm looming. He could feel her body tensing and shuddering around him, and he knew that she was maddeningly close to
climax.
He switched to the other nipple, sucking harder this time until she let out a little cry of delight. Digging his fingers into the soft flesh of her bottom, he quickened her thrusts until he could feel his own pleasure building.
When Charity suddenly paused and stiffened, he knew she’d reached the pinnacle. His hands went to her breasts, squeezing the hot flesh and stroking her nipples with his thumbs until she called out to him.
He let go then, filling her with his own need while she fell apart in his arms.
When she collapsed against him he rolled them both until he was on his back in the bed and she was sprawled across his chest, and he was still inside her.
She trembled, heart racing, gasping for breath.
“That was amazing,” she said when she could finally talk.
“Better than your dreams?” he teased.
“A million times better.”
“That’s a good starting point.”
“Starting point?” she gasped.
He laughed.
“You didn’t think we were done, did you?”
“I guess not,” she said, her expression already changing as her body geared up for more.
“Good,” he said, rolling so she was under him and kissing her when a giggle escaped her lips. “Because I’m just getting started.”
***
Across town, Will clicked through the hundreds of photos he’d been sent over the past few days, but he was coming up empty. He was exhausted, his legs sore from hiking hours each day, only to come up empty and return home defeated.
He sighed, running one hand over his face and trying his best to stay awake. All these photos and not one picture that he could definitively say was George. His father had no idea what he could have been wearing that day, and the heavily edited studio picture looked more like a wax figure than a real human being.
And then, there was the photo of the ex-girlfriend. Even with her full name, it had taken him some time to find her online, and her social media presence was almost nil. He had found her website, leading him to the Instagram post full of pictures of her work and a handful of selfies. Charity was in her mid-twenties, just a couple years younger than Will, yet she had the social media presence of someone twice her age.
