CHAPTER 2
“Ireally fucking hate them,” came the heavily sighed murmur from the half-naked man that stumbled into her as he used his hold on her to steady her while Ashlyn did her best to ignore the tendrils of pleasure racing over her skin where he touched her.
There was something seriously wrong with her.
Then again, she’d always known that, Ashlyn absently thought as she took this opportunity to study him, taking in everything from the muscle clenching in his freshly shaved jaw as he glared at something over his shoulder to the admittedly impressive muscles that made up his torso. She definitely could have picked worse men to dream about, Ashlyn told herself, allowing herself one heartfelt sigh on behalf of women everywhere before she pulled her arms back in a move that dislodged his hold on her and then, just for the hell of it, she side-stepped him, placing her leg behind his and pushed, taking him by surprise and knocking him on his ass.
She ignored his pained grunt and focused on the reason that she was here.
“Detective Black?” Ashlyn said, ignoring the large man on the ground that was currently glaring at her, and Christ, she couldactuallyfeelhim glaring, and focused on the man standing in the doorway, looking amused as his cold gaze flickered between her and his brother.
When Shayne muttered something in another language that she couldn’t quite place, his brother’s lips twitched as he stepped aside and gestured for her to come in. With a nod of thanks, Ashlyn made her way inside the large Victorian home and quickly took in the large foyer, noting all the exits before focusing her attention on the framed pictures on the wall of Tristan and his wife as children up until now.
In every picture, Tristan Black was glaring, Ashlyn noted, feeling her lips twitch only to amend that observation to every picture butonewhen she spotted the picture of Tristan and his wife on what appeared to be their wedding day. The look on his face as he gazed into his wife’s eyes left absolutely no doubt in her mind that he was head over heels in love with his wife.
Then again, the way that he watched his wife as she made her way down the stairs to join them told Ashlyn everything that she needed to know. As she watched the woman who’d managed to bring Detective Tristan Black to his knees, Ashlyn found herself thinking about that moment a little over a month ago when the elevator doors at the hospital opened just as Marty released a heart-wrenching cry.
She’d never heard anything like it.
“Why don’t we talk in here?” Tristan suggested, absently gesturing towards the cozy living room to her right as he leaned down and kissed his wife, almost as though he couldn’t quite help himself.
Ashlyn glanced back at the front door in time to watch Shayne walk into the house and do a double-take when he saw her. She watched as his stunned expression turned confused while she made her way into the living room. By the time Ashlyn sat down in the oversized chair, she’d shifted into work modeand completely forgot about the incredibly handsome man that haunted her dreams.
“Julia Mason,” Ashlyn said, pulling a thick file from her bag and tossed it on the coffee table as soon as Tristan sat down on the couch with his wife.
“What about her?” Tristan asked, sending her a curious look while his wife frowned in confusion as she stared at Ashlyn, most likely trying to figure out why she looked so different than the last time that she saw her at the hospital.
“I was on a case when we met at the hospital and was undercover,” Ashlyn said, answering Marty’s unspoken question before focusing back on Tristan. “I’m looking for her.”
“That much I gathered from your emails,” Tristan said as the man that she was determined to ignore sat down in the chair across from her. “What I don’t understand is what you’re doing here when it’s not my case.”
“Because you requested her file and I’m curious why,” Ashlyn said, painfully aware of the large man watching her.
“Professional curiosity,” Tristan drawled as he leaned over to grab the file she’d tossed on the coffee table only to have his wife beat him to it.
“And the other files?” Ashlyn asked, still wondering what the connection between all the missing women was, considering they had nothing in common.
When she learned that a detective from New Hampshire was looking into her missing person case from Massachusetts a few months ago, she wondered why. She’d called in a few favors and found out that he was looking into similar cases from neighboring states. She started making phone calls, calling in more favors and was able to find out that he’d requested eighty-nine cases in total.
It took some time, but she was eventually able to get copies of all the files and started going through them in her free time onlyto end up even more confused when she didn’t find anything that linked them together. The women had absolutely nothing in common. Their ages ranged from sixteen to eighty-four. They were all different races, had different occupations, relationship statuses, religions, and economic backgrounds, and had gone missing over a thirty-year period. Out of the eighty-nine cases, two women had been found alive, nine women had been found dead, and seventy-eight women still remained missing.
When she couldn’t find a common denominator that connected all the women from the files, she started looking into each case, visiting their family and friends, and created timelines for their last twenty-four hours before they went missing. She also visited each site, looking for something, anything, that the police might have missed only to realize that it was time to talk to Detective Black and find out why he was looking into these cases.
Normally, she liked to be better prepared, have more answers than questions before she approached a detective that she’d never worked with before, but she’d reached a dead-end and no longer had a choice. Julia Mason went missing ten years ago and while the family had finally accepted the fact that their daughter was gone, they wanted a chance to bring her home and say goodbye.
“Also professional curiosity,” Tristan said as the large man that she was ignoring narrowed his eyes on her. “The question is, why are you looking into the other cases?”
“I’m guessing for the same reason that you are,” Ashlyn said, knowing better than to show her hand.
“And that is...”
“Because they’re all connected,” she said, watching as he slowly nodded.
“And you have no idea how,” Tristan drawled softly as his wife went through the thick file on her lap while the man that she was determined to ignore continued to glare at her.
“Which is why I’m here,” Ashlyn said, gesturing to the file on his wife’s lap. “The family wants to know what happened to their daughter.”
“They all do,” Tristan said as he considered her.
