AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He sounded a little less annoyed now that I’d gone along with the plan. Maybe getting down to work distracted him from how pissed off he was that I was working alongside him. I had to admit there was something satisfying about taking concrete action.
“We don’t want to stay here any longer than necessary,” Dexter reminded us.
Logan nodded. “Why don’t you and I check the basement? Slade and Madelyn, head upstairs and split up to check the bedrooms and whatever else is up there. We’ll cover more ground that way.” He was all firm efficiency now, with an authoritative air that confirmed he was the unofficial leader of the group.
I slunk up the stairs, the back of my neck prickling with both anxiety and eagerness. What if I found the crucial clue? The longer we spent in the house, the less it felt like an intrusion and the more like some kind of detective game.
The first room at the top of the stairs was a bedroom. I scanned it as I heard Slade come up the stairs after me and head down the second-floor hallway. This room might have once belonged to one of the kids Dexter had mentioned, but it appeared to have been redone as a guestroom. The plain dresser and bedframe showed no signs of personality, and nothing hung on the walls with their leaf-print wallpaper.
I tugged open the drawers on the dresser and checked the closet, only confirming my suspicions. There was nothing stashed away here except for a couple of baggies of lavender potpourri. A shoe box under the bed got me briefly excited, but it only held… a pair of shoes.
The next room over must have been the master bedroom. It felt infinitely more lived in. The dark, rustic furniture set held a scattering of possessions, from a change bowl with a stick of lip balm and a couple of hair clips on the dresser to a few books stacked haphazardly on the bedside table.
I checked all of the drawers, shifting the contents as little as possible and tucking them back as I’d found them. None of the clothes or other belongings looked at all out of the ordinary for a woman who was my mom’s age or older. As I finished my perusal of the last piece of furniture, an uncomfortable weight settled in my gut. I sat gingerly on the edge of the bed, grappling with it.
I’d thought we were justified in coming in here, that we’d find something that’d point to the criminal who’d invadedmylife. But she seemed to be a totally normal woman. I couldn’t shake the growing sense that we weren’t accomplishing anything other than violating her privacy unnecessarily. We didn’t belong in here any more than she’d belong in our homes.
Slade poked his head through the doorway. “Anything in here?”
I shook my head, my throat too tight for me to speak. Slade took in my expression and slipped into the room, a softer smile playing with his lips. “Aww, don’t look depressed about it. Here, I can cheer you up.”
He swung into a swift spin on his prosthetic leg, turning the movement into a brief jig of a dance and dipping into a deep bow at the end. I couldn’t suppress a snort of laughter despite my dwindling spirits, but as he glanced up with a grin, my uneasiness wrapped around me again.
Slade sank down onto the bed next to me and grasped my hand. “Okay, looks like I’d better get serious. What’s bothering you?”
I grimaced. “I just feel really weird having broken in here and poking around in all her stuff, and we haven’t even found anything to connect her to my car or the box.”
“Hey, first time jitters totally make sense.” He squeezed my hand. “And sometimes leads don’t take us anywhere. We have to follow them, though, because we never know which oneswillpay off. It’s a little trial and error. We haven’t done any harm here, right?”
“We haven’t,” I had to agree. And his words made me feel better for another reason. “It’s a lot like medical research that way. We have to test every possible hypothesis to make sure we get to the right—or the best—answer.” Framing it that way in my head soothed my discomfort a little.
Slade chuckled. “Only a brainiac would compare breaking and entering to science.” But he made the remark sound like a compliment rather than a criticism.
I couldn’t resist teasing him right back. “I don’t think you’re in any position to be callingmea brainiac, Mr. ‘I know a hundred languages.’”
Slade winked at me. “It’s cool to know languages. It’s nerdy to know science. I’m proud of not being a nerdy brainiac.”
I elbowed him. “Just a cool one, huh? We’ll see how cool you think I am when I come up with the cure for cancer or something.”
“Oh, I already think you’re very cool.” He raised my hand and pressed his lips to my knuckles, his dark eyes sparkling at me. “You know, Logan and Dex are still searching around downstairs. I can think of other ways I could distract you from your guilty conscience.”
A blush warmed my cheeks. “Like what?” I had to ask.
He simply smirked and tilted my hand so he could kiss my palm. His fingers tightened around mine as he brought his lips to the underside of my wrist, where the contact provoked a tingle that had me swallowing a gasp.
He charted a path up my arm, every kiss tender and deliberate, leaving plenty of opportunity for me to pull away if I wasn’t into it. But with each brush of his mouth, more desire unfurled low in my belly, washing away my concerns just like he’d promised. Heat coursed up my arm and through the rest of my body.
How far was he going to take this?
But even as the giddiness of that question raced through me, something in me hesitated. My feelings about Logan were a mess. And I had a date with Beckett tonight. Should I be this into another guy touching me like this? How could my feelings be so fickle?
Slade reached my shoulder and pecked the peak. My pulse hiccupped as he scooted closer and dipped his head toward my neck, but every particle in my body was screaming to let him continue.
Why shouldn’t I? I hadn’t made any commitments to anyone, so I wasn’t betraying anyone. And God, this felt good. Other than a couple of disastrous first dates in my first year of college, I hadn’t kissedanyonein two years. I had some time to make up for, right?
My head tilted to the side of its own accord, offering Slade better access. He hummed approvingly and brought his lips to the side of my neck, nipping the skin lightly before pressing a more emphatic kiss there.
I bit my own lips against a whimper. Heat coiled between my legs into a deepening ache.
