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"Is Ian with you now?" Nik asked.
"He's here. Should I turn on the speakerphone?" Kira asked.
"Yes." Nik had to grit his teeth on the word. "Pulling in one of the members of the Elite Ops backup team wasn't easy for him.
"I'm here, Nik." Ian spoke a second later.
"All I saw was a black sedan, no plates," Nik stated. "I put at least two rounds in the vehicle. I need you to check for vehicle repairs. I could have heard glass shatter, so there's a chance I got the front or back window."
"I have it," Ian promised. "How are you doing with the investigation?" Nik sat down heavily on the side of the bed. "It keeps leading back to Maddix," he admitted. "I'd thought he was smart enough not to try to use me. I could have been wrong."
"Everything I've found on Mikayla points to a very honest, forthright woman," Kira stated through the line. "She doesn't even finagle on her taxes. But if Maddix did this, then there's not even a hint of evidence that I've been able to find. Usually, the least you can get is a solid rumor."
Nik rubbed at the back of his neck. "It's not going to be easy to break his alibi," Nik admitted. "I'm following every lead I can find, but as I said, those leads are going back to Maddix. I'm heading back to Gina Foreman's tomorrow. In the meantime, Kira, see if you can find a financial trail for Eddie Foreman and Maddix Nelson that coincides somewhere other than Foreman's salary. After I meet with Gina, I've got to find a line in to Reed Holbrook. The man's avoiding me, and he ties in here somewhere." There was a brief moment of silence.
"How does Reed Holbrook fit into this?" Ian asked.
"Do you know him?" Nik questioned softly.
"I know him," Ian answered.
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"Mikayla and I found Reed's office, cell, and home numbers in Eddie Foreman's private office. There was also a witness who saw Reed and Eddie Foreman talking the day Eddie died. There are a lot of threads moving here, Ian; I need to track down as many as possible."
"I'll get you a meeting with Reed," Ian promised. "If he's involved with this, we'll figure it out."
"That's what I need, thanks."
"I'll get started on the financials," Kira promised. "It may take a few days, though."
"Get it as quickly as possible," Nik asked. "This needs to be finished, Kira. I've been here too long already."
He hadn't been here long enough. He didn't believe any amount of time with Mikayla would ever be enough. Leaving her would tear his soul from his chest, but better that, he told himself, than losing all he was to her and having her taken from him. He disconnected the call moments later and moved back to Mikayla's bedroom. Laying the cell phone on the bedside table, he stared down at her, watching as the fragile light of the moon spilled through the small seam of the curtains to the bed and the woman.
If ever she looked like a fairy, then she did now. The moonlight loved her flesh, caressed it, bathed it in gold.
He was fucking waxing poetic, something else he'd never done in his life, that he had never done with any other woman.
Shedding the cotton pants, he moved back into the bed beside her, his lips quirking as she moved against him, a sleeping little groan falling from her lips as he pulled her against his chest once again.
Her head fell back to his shoulder, her hand to his chest, as he held her to him. He hadn't slept with a woman in over ten years. He'd fucked them. Enjoyed them. But not until Mikayla had he needed one in the bed beside him.
Not until one had penetrated that part of himself that he held in reserve. Even his wife hadn't managed that. Not until Mikayla had Nik felt his heart slipping from his grasp with no idea how to protect it.
Only with Mikayla.
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Chapter 19
"Are we going to be questioning Maddix Nelson anytime soon?" Mikayla asked as Nik sat at the kitchen table the next morning on the laptop.
"Not today."
The answer surprised her. Normally he didn't answer her when it came to certain questions. Maddix Nelson was one of those questions.
"What are we doing today then?" she asked as she poured more coffee, and waited for Nik's reply.
