CHAPTER 11
Luke
Only the steady beat of my fingers drumming the steering wheel filled the silence in my truck cab as I waited on Mina.
I wasn’t sure what possessed me to ask her out yesterday. All day, I’d been on edge about this “date.” We hadn’t called it that, but from the lust burning in her eyes last night that she tried to conceal, and the answering need still coursing through my veins, that’s exactly what it was. A date.
Maybe it was the ambiguity around our evening plans that had me walking a tightrope.
Or it could just be the woman.
Mina had the potential to be more than just someone to go out with and have some fun in the bedroom. She was older, for one thing. I knew that didn’t always mean a woman wanted a relationship, but she didn’t strike me as the bed-hopping type.
And to be honest, I didn’t want a woman like that. I wasn’t a dumb college student anymore and hadn’t been for several years. I had a career—a good one—and I was ready for more. It was too soon to tell if Mina could be the woman who would be by my side when we were old and gray, but I could definitely see her in that role.
Time would tell.
Soon enough, Mina pulled into the library parking lot and a space across from my truck. When her door cracked open and one slender leg emerged, bare from mid-thigh down thanks to her shorts, my heart rate kicked up, thumping in my chest. She wasn’t a tall woman, but she had long, shapely legs.
Suddenly, I wanted to see her in a short skirt and a killer pair of heels.
Shoving the vision of her strutting around in black stilettos from my mind, I got out of my truck.
Catching sight of me, Mina smiled and waved.
I lifted a hand. “Hey.”
“I hope you haven’t been waiting long. It took me longer to get away than I planned.”
“You’re fine. I’ve only been here about five minutes.”
“Good. So, where are we going to eat? I’m starving.”
“How does pizza sound?”
Her chin bobbed once. “I like pizza.”
I tipped my head toward my truck. “Hop in, then. There’s a great place not too far from here. They sell it by the slice, so we won’t have to wait long.”
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” She hurried around me toward the car. “I haven’t eaten since lunch, and that was just a sandwich.”
“You were that busy?” I asked as we got in the truck.
“Yeah. It’s tourist season.” She buckled up.
I did the same and started the engine, then pulled out of the space I’d backed into. She wasn’t wrong about that. Even here in Juneau, there were more people than usual. It was great for the businesses that relied on tourist revenue, but it would be nice when things weren’t quite so crowded again.
“But I don’t want to talk about crazy tourists.” She waved a hand before settling it into her lap. “I have news.”
“Oh?” Chancing a quick glance her way, I quirked an eyebrow.
“Claire stopped in for coffee this morning. She quizzed Ozzie last night and wrangled some more information out of him. Apparently, the woman was wearing a shirt with shoulder pads and stirrup pants. That narrows our search to women who went missing in the eighties and early nineties.”
“That’s a manageable list.” That cut the number of names down to just a handful.
“I know. Although I’m not sure why we’re still looking. Ozzie undoubtedly has the same information.” She bit the corner of her lip and glanced out the window.
“I’m sure he does, but maybe we can help him narrow it down some. I know with a murder investigation, it’ll be all hands on deck, but the department is still small. It can’t hurt to have a couple extra sets of eyes.” I turned the corner.
