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“Don’t get your hopes up,” I retorted. “She didn’t know anything else except that he was married.”
“Of course she didn’t,” Max mumbled.
“Where do you want to go from here?” Zach asked.
Max pondered. “Best we put our heads together. See which cops match the description given by…” He shook his head in clear bewilderment. “I can’t believe I’m saying this—Hannah. Once we’ve narrowed down the list, we’ll split the pile and investigate each one individually, track their movements and see what their lives show us. We need to learn every detail about their day-to-day lives. Are they married? If so, are they happy? Anything that relates to what Hannah told you.”
“Ten-four,” Zach responded.
Max leaned forward to Zach, intense. “I’ll leave it to you to grab the files, since there’s no reason for me to enter the file room. But make yourself scarce, we don’t want anyone to hear of this before we know who is involved.”
Zach nodded and glanced at me. “You up for a little adventure?”
“Hell no!”
* * * * *
A quarter of an hour later, Zach held a piece of paper with ten names on the note—all men within the department who matched Hannah’s description. As I’d done numerous times before, I refused to take part, but once again my refusal had been overlooked. Even now, as Zach proceeded down the hall of the police station, he ignored the death stare that I burned into the back of his head. Kipp merely chuckled beside me.
At the end of the hall, Zach stopped at a door on the right with Records written on the fogged glass in gold letters. He placed the bag he carried over his head and draped the strap across his body and took a quick look around before he swiped a card on the keypad. After the red light blinked green, the door opened and he stepped through while I hurried in behind.
“This will give us an extra few minutes in case anyone comes.” He locked the door. “We need to be quick here.”
“We-e don’t need to do anything.” I scanned the room filled with file cabinets. “You need to stop talking and get moving.”
“That’s my girl,” Kipp said.
My girl? His claim sent trickles of happiness right down to my soul. I tried my best to push the reaction away, but failed miserably.
“Sorry to break it to ya, but it’s we here.” Zach nudged my arm to grab my focus. “You need to help me.”
History had proved I had little chance of saying no to the men around me, so why draw it out? “Okay, let’s just get this over with as soon as possible. What exactly am I looking for?”
“Names,” both men responded.
I snorted. “Yes, s
mart-asses, I know that. What names?”
“Start with Shawn Edward, Todd Evans and Joey Fisher.” Zach moved toward the first row of cabinets on the left. “I’ll start with last names that begin with A to D.”
I approached the third row of cabinets, which had the letter E written on a sign above it. Once I reached the first cabinet, I glanced down the rows until I found the letters “Ed”. I grabbed the handle on the cabinet and pulled. It didn’t open.
“How do I do this?” I asked Kipp, who happened to be standing all too close to me.
“Say something dirty to it, maybe it’ll magically open for you.”
I slid my gaze over to Kipp to find amused eyes. Yes, he meant it as a joke, but nothing about this was funny. My heart raced from his deep, smooth tone and butterflies played havoc with my stomach. My mind said no—my body said hell yes.
My reaction to his presence extinguished all heat from my body because it hadn’t been lust I experienced, not even remotely close. It was far deeper and far more intense.
This couldn’t continue. Time to stop this once and for all. Having my heart broken after he vanished didn’t interest me in the least. “I’d appreciate if you would stop talking to me like that. It makes me uncomfortable.”
“Uncomfortable is good.” Kipp grinned.
“No.” I put a little oomph into my words. “It’s creepy.”
His heated gaze declared he wasn’t through with me. “The lock is just on the side of the cabinet there. Press it in and open at the same time.”
