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And again, just like that, he got me. I sighed. “Diesel.”
“Please, sweetness.”
“Fine!” I huffed. “Fine. Then Maverick can tell me all about this Simone girl I’ve been seeing around here and why she’s such a b—” My eyes darted to Leo, who was fiddling with the pizza box, and I changed my word mid-syllable. “—bad person.”
Diesel grinned, even as Maverick’s face dropped.
“Deal.”
***
That night back at home, when I returned to the kitchen from putting Leo in his bed, Diesel snagged my wrist and tugged me down on his lap. “You good?”
Too good, especially sitting on his lap. “I’m good, Diesel.
“I took a little longer out today than I’d hoped, I had to follow up on one of those poor dead girls and it took a while. Sorry for keeping you waiting so long.”
“It’s fine,” I reassured him. “Maverick is nice, and I got to foist a bored Leo on him while I worked and finished a bunch more of my novel. It was okay, you don’t have to worry about me.”
“I’m not worried, just inquiring. Just making sure you’re happy here.”
“I am,” I assured him. For as long as it lasts. “You?”
He nodded. “I’m the happiest I’ve been in a long time. It’s nice coming home to you and Leo. So fucking nice, I could get used to this,” he growled, and his grip tightened around me. “How’s the new plot coming along?”
I frowned. “What do you know about the plot?”
“You left the manuscript on the nightstand.” He flashed a grin. “You have a twisted mind in there, don’t you?”
A blush rose up my body and pride filled my chest at his unintended compliment. “Thank you.”
“So?”
“It’s all right,” I answered honestly. “It’s just an idea right now, and it’s outside my usual series, but it feels right.” Why was I telling him all of this? More importantly, why was he asking? “Any news about the girl found at your club?”
“No,” he sighed, and his shoulders drooped in disappointment. “We managed to identify them, but nothing else. Poor kids, they were all underage.”
I held him close in a gesture that was soothing rather than erotic because he seemed as if he needed it. “You’ll get to the bottom of it,” I said softly, and kissed his cheek.
His jaw clenched but his expression was soft as he studied my face. “Thanks for that, sweetness.” He took a sip of beer, his blue gaze never leaving my face. “I told the guys today about Stacy and they were all torn up about it. We’re looking into what happened to her, officially now—so if you think of anything, I want to know. Even if it seems unimportant or not related, it could be.”
I nodded, shocked to hear the bikers felt anything about Stacy’s disappearance. Maybe she was right, and they were nice guys. Good guys who were just misunderstood.
“I just thought of something, it’s not related to Stacy, but it might be to those girls. There’s an app that teenagers use to talk to people online, but the messages disappear almost immediately,” I blurted out. “There’s something unimportant and unrelated.” I felt my lips quirk in a smile, but Diesel frowned and scratched his chin, actually considering my words.
“Like Snapchat?”
I nodded. “Similar, but this is marketed towards teenagers, and a new one crops up every few months to keep parents behind the trend.”
“How do you know about this?”
“Book research. My previous book was about something similar, and I learned about all the ways technology has made it easier for predators.”
“Huh,” he said flatly, bit out, and reached into his pocket for his phone.
“Are you… Do you really think this might be important?” I asked, incredulous. I’d only really said it as a half-joke, I hadn’t actually thought he would take it seriously.
Diesel shrugged as he scrolled his contacts for a second. “The girls were all definitely underage, sounds like the kind of thing they’d be into. Maybe Slate can find a way to trace the numbers their messages were coming from and see if there’s a common link, if any? Who knows, it’ll probably pan into nothing, but it doesn’t hurt to look into it, along with everything else.”
