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“Why would it do that?”
“I don’t know.” Look at that mouth, those lips, the incredible force of—she closed her eyes. “You distract me. When I’m supposed to be concentrating—”
“We’re messing with serious forces here, no screwing around.”
Mila was proof of that. “Okay, I’ll be serious and follow the rules.”
He kissed the top of her head and let his lips linger there. “There might be some time for screwing around.” Swaying back, he met her eye. “I’m still a guy, remember that.”
“How could I forget?”
“Let me see this.”
Putting a few inches of space between them, he scraped up her notes. The distance felt wrong, but with Ford in the vicinity, they couldn’t take chances.
“I couldn’t find commonality in where they were last seen. Stephanie told Mila she was going to meet Bryan. He said she never showed up.”
“We have to find Bryan.”
“Yeah, that would be incredible, if he’s willing to help. He reached out to Mila, or someone did, that was who she was running to in the street when…”
The accident happened. Except it wasn’t an accident. No one believed the hit and run was a coincidence.
“Why did she want to meet him?”
“Why wouldn’t she? Mila wants answers. This guy is either the real thing or responsible. She’s desperate to get justice for her friend, to understand. If she missed something, some clue—”
“This will eat her up if she lets it.” That relied on her friend waking up. “It’s dangerous. This Mila should’ve known better than—”
“There’s something else,” she said, attracting his attention. “You said I shouldn’t keep anything from you so…”
“So?” he prompted. “Genny, the more I know, the more I can help. And this is not like you and Mila. If something happens to you, there won’t be any coming back from it, not for me.”
“Because Ford would take you apart?”
“Because I’d destroy the person who hurt you, their network, and then I’d destroy myself. I’m not proud of it, Genny, but this was my world for a long time. I know how things work.”
“It’s not that I’m hiding from you. This is just… The woman Mila and I were investigating, Yvonne Ingham. We don’t know for sure if her disappearance is connected to the other abductions. We assumed she was because her details match the victim profile but… I saw her.”
His brow descended. “Saw her where? Yesterday?”
“No.” Parting her lips to draw in a breath, she rested against the countertop. “At Hustle. Friday when we were in with Vex. Yvonne Ingham was in the room. I recognized her from her pictures online.”
“Are you sure?” he asked. She nodded. “You think she’s the next victim? The next woman who’ll turn up dead?”
“Maybe.” The quiver in her throat was more than just fear. “This is the closest we’ve been to saving someone, to stopping this before someone else gets hurt.” She scooped a hand into her hair. “I feel like I’m chasing in circles. I’ve barely investigated one death before someone else goes missing. Maybe this is the way—maybe I’ll be this way forever and I won’t—”
“You will,” he said, taking her arm to straighten her up. “Genny, you know you can do this. I know you can. Go with your gut.”
“Why did I get into this? It’s so much pressure and I… I’m letting them down.”
“You’re the only one listening.” His conviction didn’t waver. “And I’ve got you, baby. You’ve got this. Start at the beginning. You won’t find Yvonne if you don’t figure out how the women were chosen, how they were taken. No one saw anything? No one heard a scream? No one—”
“The cab,” she murmured, making a connection. “Oh my God.” Grabbing for her notes, she spread them out, checking one page and then another. “All of them were last seen going somewhere else, from the street… in a cab.”
“All of them?”
“Stephanie was leaving the apartment. Mila didn’t mention a cab, but neither of them had a car.” And they couldn’t ask Mila until she woke up. “I have to call the hospital.”
