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Most likely helped by his constant lack of underwear.
That was the thing about Theo—he could smolder even when he was looking around for clues about a secret Santa killer. Theo Perez dripped sex. With everything that man did, he exuded a kind of “fuck me raw” energy that drove me crazy. I’d never been with a man like him. Someone who kept me constantly on my toes, either with his hands sneaking underneath my briefs when standing in line or through the way his tongue moved across my body when we were naked and writhing in bed.
Or on the couch, or in the car, or in the bathroom at the mall. Anywhere and everywhere, Theo was always ready to ravage me.
Which was great, but I was always ravage-ready for him and his beer-can-sized cock.
Even now, looking at him made my blood run a little hotter, my briefs a little tighter.
“See anything?” he asked.
“I see a whole lot,” I said, looking him up and down.
Theo grinned and leaned in, kissing me, running his tongue under my upper lip. Part of me wanted him to throw me up against the wall and lock me in a cage made of his arms and lips.
The other part of me desperately wanted to win this game.
“What should I be looking out for?” I asked my favorite stud of a detective.
“Anything that looks off. I like to look for patterns and then figure out what breaks them.” His gaze turned down the long hallway. We passed a couple of rooms with closed doors, none of them opening when I turned the knob. An arched window at the end of the hall sprayed the maroon carpet in a colorful blast of light, the stained glass making a kaleidoscope of blues and greens and yellows on the ground.
“See, like this.” Theo stopped in front of a framed photo hanging on the wall, head cocked. “The wreaths suddenly stop and then continue after this photo. It’s the only one in this hall…”
“What is it?”
The black-and-white shot of an art deco building rang a faint bell, but I couldn’t quite place it. There was one section of the photo that was in color: a Santa standing in front of the building, a palm tree rising up next to him, strung up in Christmas lights.
“It’s a hotel in Miami Beach…”
“Miami? There’s no way this old-ass Victorian mansion had this hanging up before we got here.”
“Exactly.”
Theo reached for the frame and lifted it off the hook. Of course, it didn’t even occur to me that something might be hidden behind it.
“Ding, ding, ding,” Theo said, smiling that full-lipped smile of his, pearly white teeth on full display.
There was a note attached to the wall. I pulled it off, reading it out loud. “The Secret Santa Slayer is used to sand instead of snow.”
“So they are from Miami…”
“You guys found something?” It was Andrew, bouncing over with excitement. Declan was close behind him. I had met everyone during the big breakfast and felt like I was already part of the Stonewall Investigations family. It was easy to see the connections they all shared, the friendships and shared history between all of them.
“Yeah, but I don’t think you’re going to like it,” Theo said, eyes narrowed. I handed them the card, which they read and then looked at each other, eyebrows raised.
“Oh. Yeah,” Andrew said. “That’s sketch.”
“So it’s someone from your office?” Declan asked.
“I guess.” He rubbed a hand over his chin, thinking through the possibilities. Although I knew everyone by name, I still wasn’t entirely sure who worked in the New York branch and who was from the Miami one.
Well, besides Andrew and Deck…
Before I could ask the questions already forming in my head, a shrill shout tore through the hall, coming from around the bend. Theo started off in a run, the three of us close on his heels. We followed him into the room where the person was still shouting, dramatically, a hand over his eyes.
It was Sam Clark, his partner, Rocky Hudson, standing over him, looking slightly embarrassed. I was pretty sure they were both from Miami, which instantly sent my antenna up. I wasn’t a trained detective, but Rocky being alive and Sam being, well, not, made me wonder.
“Did you just get here?” Theo asked Rocky, who nodded.
“Yeah, we split it up for a few minutes, thought we’d cover more ground. Then I heard him yell.”
Sam gave a few more sporadic shouts from the floor, curling up into a ball, making me chuckle under my breath. His dramatics were exactly what Zane had asked for.
Soon the room filled with the other detectives, questions being tossed between everyone without any real answers being given. No one had seen who Sam was in the room with before he “died,” and Rocky was insistent on the fact that he was down the hall when it happened, with Holly saying she might have seen him but wasn’t entirely sure. At some point, Theo separated from the crowd and started to walk around the room, which was equally as festive as the rest of the house.
