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He stared into her eyes for a moment, and he burst out laughing. It was a full belly laugh. "I'm rude."
He laughed a bit more and if her hands weren't tied together, she'd have placed them on her hips for sure.
The door opened and someone stepped inside. "You brought her here?"
24
Myles looked at the information they'd collected when Tate's phone rang.
"Yeah." Tate's eyes slid to his. "Fantastic. Can you send it to me?"
He signaled to Myles and his stomach twisted slightly as he neared Tate. Stepping behind the counter, Tate pointed to the screen on his computer.
"Got it," he said into his phone.
Laying his phone down he opened an email and clicked on the video link. It took a few seconds to load; then the front of Shianne's boutique filled the screen.
"This is the video from yesterday. When you see the young woman's car pull in, let me know."
"Okay."
His eyes glued to the monitor; he watched the front of the boutique. Part of him wanted to scream at the length of time it was taking to comb through all this video. He now had a new appreciation for families they served and their impatience with the system. And their system was much simpler than police systems. Police had to adhere to too many laws and rules. GHOST didn't.
Finally, he saw the car slowly drive past. "That's it." The time stamp on the video was before eight in the morning. She drove passed again a few moments later. Miles swallowed to wet his throat. Just looking at this woman casing the place made his stomach twist. Finally, she pulled into the lot and walked up to the door. Shianne opened the door and smiled. Stepping back, she let the woman inside. It was before opening time. He knew she'd been there getting orders packed up. Her system was crap, and it took her far longer than it should to package up her orders. He'd fix that for her.
A few minutes later, Myles' truck pulled into the lot. He walked to the door and entered.
"What was the conversation when you went in Myles?"
"She was asking about the teal Fenty." He pointed to a rack. "Shianne held it up for her and the woman said she could never afford a dress that cost that much. Shianne was confused and the woman looked at me and asked if I was a cop. Then she left."
"So, she didn't continue with her order because she thought you were law enforcement?"
"I don't really know why, but she left and said she'd be back later."
"Okay. Was it then you had Shianne take the video down?"
"No, it was later in the day. When the woman came back. I asked Shianne to explain what happened and that's when she showed me her video. I told her what Fenty meant on the street. She was confused. Her brain doesn't work like that. She's beautifully naive to the criminal mind."
Tate stared at him for a few seconds, then a grin spread across his face. "You love her."
Myles stood taller and thought about Tate's words. He'd suspected that he loved her a while ago. He didn't bother to acknowledge it because it seemed preposterous. They hadn't dated or anything at that time. They'd flirted outrageously for months. Actually, more like a couple of years. Their flirting had gotten more and more intense in the past couple of months though. And, if he were being honest, he looked forward to it.
He simply shrugged. "I don't know."
Tate chuckled. "Yeah. I remember the feeling. Fear. Indecision."
"It's not that. It's..." He didn't know what it was. He took a deep breath. "What I know right now more than anything else, is I need her. I need to have Shianne Brown in my life."
Tate chuckled and worked on his computer a moment. "Need. Want. It all equals love."
Myles' head felt light, things swirled around in front of him, and he gripped the counter to keep from falling over.
Tate announced, "Okay. Rafe is running the plates right now for us. We should have a bit more information in a few minutes."
"Thanks."
He bent slowly and picked up some boxes that had fallen on the floor. He saw the stack of orders still in need of packing and decided to call Maya and Addy and see if they'd come in and help him get these orders packed up. He could do that much for Shianne. At least until he could go in and save her.
