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“Okay, thanks, man. I’ll have a look at this guy.”
As soon as Asher ends the call, I blurt out, “He has to be the guy Charlie’s mom dated the night she went missing. Charlie told me that when the police questioned her about her mom’s disappearance, they mentioned a man named Calvin something. She couldn’t remember the surname. It has to be him. He didn’t work at the office she just met him there.” I dig around in my purse for my phone, finding it, I quickly send a message to Drake asking him to look into Calvin Carmichael.
“Kenz—”
“Nope, don’t say anything. Let’s just get to the storage place and see if there’s anything else we can find to help nail these fuckers,” I say, tucking the letter and the flash drive, which has been digging into the palm of my hand this whole time and leaving a lovely indentation, into a small zip pocket inside my purse and nod at the road. I don’t want to talk. I don’t want to unpick anything we’ve just learned. I just want to get as much evidence as I can to take down these bastards that took my dad and brother and ruined our lives.
I can’t afford for everything we’ve learned today to knock me off focus. So, I need to detach myself from it all. For a little while. Tonight, when I lie in bed, everything will slam into me. If I let it, it could break me.
But I won’t let that happen because if I do, then the last six years will have all been for nothing.
Inside the car might be silent but inside my head there’s a riot going on. Despite trying not to pick things apart, I can do nothing else. The one thing I can’t stop thinking about is where Owen comes into all of this. When he turned up in Silverbell, I just thought he was stalking me, but now with his connection to Aria and what Ash already said about him being here not solely because of me, our whole relationship over the last two years is in question.
“How long has Aria and her father been in town?” I ask, as we pull off the highway into Virginia Beach.
“I’m not sure exactly, but I think it was probably around…”
“Six years ago, huh?” I fill in when he pauses, realizing where I was going with that question. I find my phone again, quickly doing a search on Preston Thomas. “You think it’s a coincidence that a man, a newly appointed congressman at that time, purchased a house in a small town where a big development was planned? One that according to this, he helped to make possible with the passing of a law that made it easier for large development companies like Titan Industries to cut through the red tape. There’s always a loophole, and it seems that Preston Thomas took full advantage.” He doesn’t answer. I wasn’t really expecting one. We both know the answer is more than likely a no. I go back to my phone and research a little more.
Asher pulls me from my research. “How did you meet?”
“Just in a bar. I was with Charlie.” My mind flicks back to that night, and I remember that he seemed to know a lot about me for someone I’d just met. “He was with another guy that Charlie was seeing, so when he knew things about me, I just assumed that they’d come from Charlie. Now though, I’m not so sure.” Ash is quiet and when I look over at him as he comes to a stop outside a large building, I see his brow is pulled down into a frown and his jaw is set, the muscle ticking away it’s clenched so tight.
Releasing my seatbelt, I clamber up on to my knees and climb into his lap. It’s a bit of a squeeze, but once I’m settled, I run a thumb from the tip of his nose to his hairline, smoothing out the frown. Then I grip his chin, giving it a little shake to loosen it up.
As his eyes find mine, there’s a hint of a smile there. “That’s better,” I tell him, tightening my grip, then nipping at his bottom lip. His hands immediately find my hips, holding me down as he grinds up into my core with a husky growl. The dark shadows in his eyes from moments ago turn heated.
“Damn! I can’t get enough of you. I want to be inside you every minute of every day, reminding you of who you belong to, Kenzie.” Every word is punctuated with a roll of his hips, and I let my eyes slip shut and head drop back, basking in the feel of him beneath me, hitting all the right fucking spots. “When I fuck you later, I’ll ask you who owns you, and you’ll scream out my name so loud the whole fucking town will hear it.”
Holy shit! I want that. I want that right here, right fucking now, but a tapping on the window has me crashing back to reality with a jolt that sees my head connecting with the roof of the car.
“Ow, shit!” I holler, as Ash winds down the window and reveals a security guard standing there with his arms folded across his chest.
“You wanna fuck, go someplace else, man. This is no fucking hook up spot,” he barks, taking in our positions and what was obviously about to go down.
“Sorry, man, but we’re here to go to our lock up. May I?” Ash asks, pointing to a key nestled in the drink holder. The guard nods, shining his flashlight inside the car as Ash picks up the key and dangles it between his thumb and forefinger showing the keychain with the company logo on it.
He grumbles about adults behaving like teens as he walks away, leaving both of us sniggering. Ash opens his door and I not so gracefully climb from his lap.
Inside is a maze of white walls and blue doors. It’s a little freaky. Ash leads the way to a room at the end of a corridor on the first floor, and when he stops outside, a sliver of anxiety ripples through me.
Dad’s things are behind that door. Things that he’s touched, things that meant something to him. I may have been living in the house the last couple of weeks but there is barely anything left of him there, only memories.
Asher looks to me like he knows before opening the door, and I nod to let him know it’s okay. As the door opens, I’m hit by an overwhelming scent, a scent that is all Archie Scott, my dad. My legs almost give out beneath me it’s so powerful. A slideshow of images from my childhood right up to the last time I saw him fly through my mind. Happy, sad, angry, it doesn’t matter because each and every one is a treasured moment, an impression—no, an indelible imprint on the soul left behind by a loved one.
I feel an arm wrap round me, but I push him off, telling him I’m fine and step forward. Most of the room is taken up by boxes, but there is a clothes rack with several pieces of my dad’s clothes, including his favorite coat. The closer I get the more potent the smell of my dad’s aftershave becomes. Reaching out a hand, I trail it through the clothes as I walk along the rail. I close my eyes and let the smell and all that is him surround me. For a second, it almost feels like he’s here in the room, and I swear I can feel fingers brushing over mine as I reach his coat.
“Dad?” I whisper, knowing it’s entirely ridiculous but unable to stop the words. Asher steps up behind me, wrapping his arms around me, and I swipe at my wet face.
“Feels like he’s here, doesn’t it?” I simply nod, my vocal cords strangled by emotion. “Yeah, happens to me sometimes at home. It’s the strangest feeling yet comforting. Nolan would get a huge kick out of freaking me out,” he says with a laugh. “Your dad too,” he adds, then kisses me on the top of the head. “Come on, the office stuff is over here.” He steers me away from the clothes and towards a pile of about six boxes in the far corner.
Thankfully, Asher and Jackson packed the files in alphabetical order and labeled the boxes accordingly. After locating the relevant box, Asher lifts it down and opens it. I flick through the folders until I find the Titan Industries file, but when I pull it out, it’s thin and feels a little light, too light. And when I open it, the reason becomes clear.
It’s empty.
ChapterTwenty-Two
“What the fuck!” exclaims Asher beside me, as I scramble to make sense of how it can be empty. My mind runs through all the possible scenarios. Did Dad move it before he died? Did someone else move it—take it? One name immediately comes to mind, Stu.
