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“There was a small room where he could have kept her if he’d hidden out here, but I didn’t see any proof that Jewel had been there.”

“So we might have barked up the wrong tree,” Carrie murmured.

Finn turned away as he struggled with his own doubts. He’d been so sure that this was the place. They’d shown up two minutes ago to an empty house.

No Kross.

No Jewel.

“Even if Kross had been here,” Finn murmured harshly, “he could be anywhere by now. We don’t even know if he still has Jewel, if she’s alive…” His throat closed up.

“What’s this?”

Finn turned and saw Carrie kneeling on the ground. She picked up a small object. He lifted his flashlight and trained it on her so he could identify the tube. “It’s…”

“Lip gloss!” Carrie shot to her feet, an excited tremble in her voice. “She was here.”

“How do you know that?”

“Last year, Jewel came to see me at the club. We had a heart-to-heart and I gave her this lip gloss.” Carrie held it up. “She never goes anywhere without it.”

Sirens chirped in the distance.

Finn cursed. “The cops.”

“Let’s go.” Carrie stuffed the lip gloss into her jeans pocket and ran to the door. They slipped out and dashed to the car seconds before a police vehicle skidded to the curb.

Finn hunkered down in his seat, watching from the side mirror as two cops jumped out and banged on Kross’s front door.

“That was close,” Carrie whispered.

Finn nodded and tapped the bluetooth headpiece in his ear. “Nolan, you copy?”

“I’m analyzing the photos you took with your phone now. Given the groceries on the counter and the dishes drying in the rack, someone was definitely living there, but I’ll need to see more to determine if that person was Kross.”

“Jewel was there,” Carrie said confidently.

Nolan paused. “What does she mean by that?”

“I’ll explain later.” He tapped out of the call and swung toward Carrie. “I’ll take you back to Sweet Treats.”

“So we can make a new plan?”

Finn remained silent.

“I guess you’re not the talkative type.” Carrie rolled her eyes. “Okay. What do you plan to do if we”—Finn slanted her a look and she amended—“when we face off with Kross?”

“I’ll do what’s necessary.”

Carrie frowned. “No, see, the answer I was looking for was not that vague.” She squirmed. “You don’t plan on actually killing him do you?”

He’d dreamed of nothing else for years. “Do you have any idea the damage Kross has done?”

“To be honest, I can’t really wrap my head around it, but we can’t just kill him. He’s still a person.”

“He has Jewel.”

“So he deserves to die?”

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