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“And Carmichael’s son?” I ask, getting to my feet and heading inside for another beer. As I go, I put Tripp on speaker and flip to the pictures he sent me earlier of Calvin Carmichael.
“Liam Carmichael, lived in Wilmington, Delaware, nothing unusual, then about eight years ago he just disappeared. Nothing online, no bank accounts, nothing. It’s like he’s vanished.”
“You think he’s dead,” I ask, unscrewing the lid on my beer and taking a mouthful while scrolling through the photos and absently thinking about the fact this Liam Carmichael lives—lived—in Wilmington, the same place Drake mentioned Aria and her dad were recently.
“No idea, man. Seems strange that I can’t trace him, not even through tax records. My guess is he’s either dead or dropped off the grid and doesn’t want to be found.” I can picture Tripp’s shrug.
“Okay, thanks, man,” I say, then end the call and stare at the picture of the man on the screen in front of me.
The picture shows Carmichael next to another guy, who I suspect is security given his stance. The woman beside him is wearing a full-length silver dress, her bare back on full display with her body turned towards Carmichael as it is, but her head is turned toward the camera giving a clear view of her face. Aria Thomas looks younger in this picture, and I wonder where Tripp dug it up from. You can see that Carmichael and Aria are familiar with each other, which isn’t a surprise if what Tripp said about him and Preston being old friends is true.
I close out the pictures and finish my beer as I lock up. In my room, I switch on the small lamp on my bedside table and strip out of my clothes, then send a message to Kenzie. After taking a pee and brushing my teeth, I still haven’t had a reply from her, so I climb into bed, switching off the lamp.
With my hands behind my head, I lay and look up at the ceiling, sleep evading me. When I close my eyes, all I can see is Kenzie lying in her own bed, touching herself… And fuck, now I’m hard. I’m pissed she’s not in this bed where she should be. I had plans. I ignore my throbbing dick as best I can and finally fall asleep sometime around midnight only to be woken a couple of hours later by a clatter outside.
Climbing from my bed, I patter over to the small window that overlooks the drive and peek between the slats of the blind. The street is quiet, but as my eyes scan back to the drive and the front of the house, I see a shadow disappear towards the back gate. A moment later I listen for the creak of the gate as it opens. I slip some sweatpants on before grabbing my gun from the bedside table, then climb down the stairs, keeping close to the walls when I reach the bottom.
Footsteps shuffling reaches me, and I duck back into the alcove between the kitchen and lounge just before a dark figure steps into view. Slowly passing by me, I step out behind them, gun raised and pointed at their head as the sweet smell of cherries reaches me.
A step closer brings my front to her back, and I feel the hitch in her breath as she gasps.
“Ash?” she breathes out, as I tuck the gun into the waistband of my sweatpants.
“Are you insane, Kenz?” I question, leaning into her further, my mouth brushing against her ear. “I could have shot you.”
“And there was me thinking you were pleased to see me,” she whispers, her voice laced with arousal.
Placing my hands on her hips, I bite her earlobe before trailing kisses down the side of her neck, over her pulse, which thrums like that of a scared animal.
“Oh, I’m pleased to see you.” I roll my hips, knowing she’ll feel just how pleased I am to see her. “What the hell are you doing here? And sneaking into the house like a fucking intruder. Haven’t you heard of a phone?”
“Maybe if you answered yours, I wouldn’t have to sneak about,” she sasses back at me, spinning in my arms. I frown in concern, surprised that I didn’t hear my phone and wonder if I put it on silent by mistake. “I just needed to see you,” she assures me, seeing the look of concern on my face. “Don’t get too excited. I need to show you something before that happens,” she adds, seeing my eyes spark at the thought of fucking her. I feign disappointment, then lead her to the stairs to my room, stepping aside to let her go first.
“It’s going to happen,” I mutter, following her up the stairs. She stops at the top, and I realize she’s never been in my room before. It’s nothing special, just somewhere to sleep. I touch her lower back as I step past her and flick on the small lamp, bathing the room in a soft glow. Picking up my phone, I see four missed calls from Kenz and one from Jackson.
“Shit. I missed a call from Jackson too.” I call him back, but it goes to voicemail. Kenz walks over and sits on the edge of the bed while I send him a quick message, apologizing and telling him to call me. “So, what’s going on?”
She tells me about her conversation with Stu and how he’s working with this Jonathan guy and that they are meeting in the morning. Then she asks me if I have a laptop.
“Yeah, give me a second.” I run downstairs to the office, which I rarely use anymore, and grab my laptop, switching it on as I head back to my room. I take a seat beside her with one leg tucked under me and a foot on the floor.
“How did you even get in?” I ask, looking up at her when she doesn’t answer. She’s looking at the tribal tattoo that covers my right shoulder and part of my bicep while biting her bottom lip, and damn if that doesn’t have my dick waking up again. “Kenz?”
“Oh…er, sorry. I used the key under the mat,” she says casually, briefly looking at me before her eyes drop to the ink covering my left pec.
I reach out a hand, placing a finger beneath her chin. The touch has her eyes snapping up to mine. “What key?” I ask, with a chuckle.
She seems to shake off whatever trance she was in, and says, “Nolan used to keep a key under the mat by the back door. I didn’t even know if it would still be there.”
Now it’s my turn to laugh. “He takes after your mother. She still—”
“Keeps one under the pot out front, yes, I know,” she says with a smirk. Her eyes flick back over my ink for a second, then she points to the laptop, which has now loaded. “May I?” she asks, pointing to it.
I pass it over to her, and she pulls a flash drive from her pocket, plugging it into the laptop.
“I found this in the safe in my dad’s office. No Titan file though, but my mom has been in there recently. That doesn’t mean they weren’t there. But this is better than any file.”
She seems excited by whatever is on here, and I watch as she navigates through all the files contained in drive, picking out the one she wants to show me. Clicking on it, the screen fills with a schematic but added to it are a dozen or more red rings with small notes beside them. As Kenz zooms in I begin to see exactly what this is.
