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Her sister wasn't at home.
Her car was here.
Her keys, purse, and phone were here.
Something bad had happened. Chloe could feel it in her bones.
She didn’t remember calling the cops.
She didn’t remember walking back downstairs to wait for them.
She didn’t remember the flashing lights and whirling sirens that announced their arrival.
All she knew was that her sister was in danger.
* * * * *
9:07 A.M.
He had known this was going to happen.
It had always been only a matter of time.
Detective Nickolas Sleigh, and his partner Detective Miller Chau, parked their departmental car outside the home of twenty-seven-year-old Emily Hadden. Not bothering to wait for Miller, Nick jumped out of the car the second it stopped moving and stalked up the path.
He wasnotin a good mood this morning, and it was all Agape Candella’s fault.
What was supposed to be a simple information-gathering exercise was quickly becoming complicated. He hadn’t expected Aggie to fall for him so quickly. And he certainly hadn’t expected to fall for her, which was as ridiculous as it was frustrating. He didn’t fall for women. Ever. He occasionally dated casually, mainly for the benefits of company when he was bored, and sex. But that was as far as it went, and healwaysmade sure that the woman understood from the beginning that things weren’t serious, and that he had no intention of things going anywhere.
But Aggie was different.
She had somehow managed to wiggle under his defenses with her genuine sweetness and openness.
Last night he had been sure that she was going to ask him to stay over, and he had spent pretty much the entire movie thinking of ways to gently rebuff her without hurting both her and his chances of getting information out of her.
Fortunately, after a little kissing she had sent him on his way.
Unfortunately, he kind of wished she hadn’t. Even though he knew it was a bad idea to sleep with her, he wanted to, almost more than he wanted to solve this case. In fact, he wanted to sleep with her so badly that it had filled his dreams. All night while he slept the two of them had made love over and over again.
And then he’d woken up.
Hence the bad mood.
It wasn't just about sex, it was knowing that when Aggie found out who he really was and why he deliberately crossed paths with her, then she was going to end things.
Apart from lying about his job, everything else he had told her was true. He had lost his parents in a car accident when he was two years old. He and his little brother had been placed with a foster family. Three years later his first foster father had died of a heart attack. They had gone to live with another family, and the couple had lost their fifteen-year-old son in a gang shooting. After that, he had decided that he couldn’t cope with any more loss and no longer permitted himself to form attachments. He had studied archery and martial arts, he was a perfect shot, he did want to go skydiving one day, and he had raced motorbikes. But it was that one lie that would be the cause of Aggie ending things, and there was nothing he could do about it.
“Hey, I get that you're in a bad mood today, and I have a pretty good idea why, but this is work so get it together.” Miller suddenly appeared beside him. “You used to be good at separating work from personal stuff. So good I didn’t even realize youhadany personal stuff.”
That earned his partner a glare. He and Miller had worked together for almost four years now and Nick liked the man. Miller kept things professional, they worked well together, they were in sync, they complemented each other, but they never veered into a non-work friendship, which was just fine from his point of view. He had met Miller’s wife and kids, and he liked them. The few occasions he had spent time with them were pleasant enough, but he wasn't in the market for friends. He liked to keep to himself—less chance of getting hurt that way.
Miller sighed. A sigh that very nearly sounded like a groan. “I asked you before we started this if you were going to be able to do it and you said you were. You better not mess this up, Nick, this case is as important to me as it is to you. Agape Candella is never going to forgive you,” he added quietly. “So, you better come to terms with that and get any ideas of developing a crush on her out of your head. Good morning, Officer.” Miller held out his hand as he approached the officer standing guard at Emily Hadden’s front door. “I'm Detective Chau, and this is my partner, Detective Sleigh. We’re looking for Chloe Hadden.”
“In the lounge room.” The officer pointed at a closed door on the left of the rectangular hallway.
Forcefully he shoved aside all thoughts of Aggie, his partner was right, she would never forgive him. He needed to keep thinking of her as nothing more than a tool to help him solve this case. Only he knew that would be impossible. As soon as her big blue eyes met his, all he would be thinking about was how much he wanted her. And forsomuch more than simply sex.
He followed his partner into a cluttered lounge room. To him the room looked messy, but really everything appeared to have its own space and stay in it, there was just too much stuff, the room was too full, it made him feel claustrophobic. A young blonde woman sat on a couch, swamped by a mass of decorative cushions that made him think of Aggie and her pillow-covered sofas. Emily Hadden’s younger sister, Chloe, sat with her head buried in her hands, and didn’t appear to have noticed them enter the room.
