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Someone tappedhim on the back once he entered the lobby and front desk area of the inn. “What’s got you scowling again, Lake?”
He turned. And there his second-favorite problem woman was. She had on the same children’s choir shirt he’d seen Zoey wear before. Her dark red-brown hair was in a high ponytail—but it still didn’t make her look any taller. “My woman has escaped.”
“Keeping her in your basement or something?” She shot him a challenging look. “What’s going on? This have anything to do with the OPJ case?”
OPJ stood for Opal Joy, a new designer drug that was extremely dangerous. Gunnar Erickson and the rest of the governor’s task force were working hard to find where it kept originating from. Recently, it had made its way over the Canadian border. Through this town here. Charlotte’s hometown. “That’s not why we are here. It’s personal. For that woman.”
“That matter Sydney called me about?” Charlotte was a smart woman. Nothing could stay hidden from her for long. She normally worked Forensics at Finley Creek. But she’d taken a hiatus to make an actual movie or something in her hometown with some big-time Hollywood director she had known for several years.
And Slater Davis.
Funny coincidence, that.
“Most likely. And Zo took off.” Her text hadn’t mitigated the irritation. But he did understand. “I think she’s afraid. And she’s afraid of what’s going to happen. And she doesn’t wantmeto see it specifically. Damn it.”
“It makes sense, though, I think. That’s Zo—used to doing things by herself, because she’s always had to before.” Charlotte started walking. Murdoch followed. She probably knew exactly where Zoey was. “She runs, you know. Even when she is standing still right in front of you. I can so…understand that.”
With Charlotte, things could go either way. She could be leading him right to Zoey. Or she could be leading him into a labyrinth with a hungry minotaur waiting. With Charlotte, a man just really couldn’t know. She was diabolical. She made a good sidekick for Zoey, though. He had always thought that.
He was damned worried. No denying that. “I don’t want her doing this alone. But it’s her choice. So what in the hell am I supposed to do?”
Charlotte surprised him by hugging him quickly. “By being you. I thinkyouare exactly the kind of guy, or friend, or whatever is happening between you two—no one can figure it out, by the way, but we are speculating—I think you are exactly what she needs. You…understand exactly where she’s at right now. How she feels.”
He knew what she meant. That moment he’d first looked at Celia after twenty years, his entire world had changed. He’d been so damned filled with emotion it had taken him a long time to figure out exactly how he felt about anything.
Guilt, mostly. He should have seen through his uncle, or put it together years ago that his uncle had sent him awaydeliberatelythat day, but teenage Murdoch just hadn’t. It had taken him a while to forgive himself, just a little. Sometimes, he still had to remind himself that his sister being abducted hadn’t been his fault.
It had been his uncle’s. Period.
Rebuilding his lost relationship with Celia had taken time and effort. And they had loved each other from the get-go. Zoey didn’t know these guys at all.
“I just don’t want them hurting her, Char. And it’s going to. This search in general already has.”
“It always will. My mother never told me about my father.” Charlotte led him to the elevator. Then they were inside. Headed to the bottom floor. “I found him through my Aunt Chantal’s genealogy research. And he terrified me when we first met.”
And their relationship was still a bit…fiery. But it was getting better.
“Someone from Blessed Reunions arrived a few minutes ago, although I’m not sure who. I was just told they were here—a car from the airport, I think. Zoey’s not alone, Murdoch. I don’t think she ever really has been. Helpinghersee that—that’s going to be your true mission. But…” She shot him her killer Charlotte smile. “You do have the rest of her girl posse on your side. We think you’re just the man to do it. You’re the only one I’ve ever seen her get fired up over, after all. Let’s get in there…and get your girl.”
Murdoch scooped her off her feet, just for the hell of it, and gave her a kiss on her forehead. “You are pretty kick-ass yourself, kid. No wonder McKellen is head over heels in love with you, you know. You are hard to resist. If it just wasn’t for Zoey stealing my heart so fast, I’d have already fought that man for you. Hand to hand, if I had to.”
“Please, that is one man I’d never let get his hands on me at all. Never going to happen.”
Murdoch had his opinions aboutthat.But he kept quiet. She and McKellen would figure it out eventually. Murdoch hoped.
He had a cool thousand riding on that in the current betting pool, after all.
It was just a matter of time until Daniel McKellen went toppling down.
It happened to all men like them eventually.
But now… “Time to go find my woman. She’s beenalonelong enough.”
67
There wasa sheen of sweat on Sydney’s forehead that hadn’t been there a minute ago. Pain in her eyes. Real pain. And she was shaking.
“Where? Why?” This man was used to being answered. Obeyed. Slater Davis was world-famous for his martial arts skills, not just his movies. And it was just Zoey and Sydney in here now. Real apprehension started. Not just nerves. This man was dangerous, and he was furious—at Sydney.
