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Yeah, she was definitely lying. But if he pretended to go along with it, maybe she’d relax enough to let down her guard—and then he could work on finding out the truth. So for now, he just nodded and watched as she continued to fidget, smoothing a hand down the front of her pink button-down shirt, then crossing her arms. The movement only served to highlight her excellent rack.
“I answered your question,” she said, clearly trying to sound confident and in charge. “You know who I am. Now, who the hell are you?”
He thought about making up a name, but in the end went with the real thing. Easier to keep track of the lies that way. “Scotty. I’m an old friend of your aunt’s.”
The way they were talking made it sound as if he and Natalie were far older than Hayley, though all three of them were probably within a few years of one another. He guessed Hayley to be around twenty-four, maybe twenty-five tops, to his twenty-six. But then, he’d been planning to call Natalie his aunt, too. It wasn’t an impossible story—just an unlikely one.
“Huh.” She snorted. “No accounting for taste, I suppose.”
“Yep.” He couldn’t help but grin at her snark. Women had always thrown themselves at him like moths at a bug zapper. Part of it was the way he looked, but he also had plenty of experience in turning on the charm. He never had trouble getting attention and interest from pretty much any woman who caught his eye. But Hayley seemed completely unimpressed by him. That made her a challenge, and he’d always been a sucker for challenges. “So.” He hiked his chin toward the sink. “You doing a little cooking?”
She looked him up and down slowly, seeming to weigh her answer. Scotty forced himself to stay relaxed and casual, even as he wanted to tense up, anticipating her answer.
Finally, she spoke again. “Actually, I was doing a little digging. My aunt seems to have vanished. You wouldn’t happen to know where she is, would you?”
2
“Idon’t, no,” the blond hunk said, “but I was wondering the same thing. It’s why I came here.”
Hayley stared at him, trying to decide whether to believe him. What was he really after? She couldn’t know for sure—and she couldn’t let herself be swayed into trusting him just because he was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.
From the top of his slightly overgrown buzz cut to the tips of his black, military-issued combat boots, the guy was just her type—all lean muscle and leashed power wrapped up in a package of cover-boy perfection.
But like hell was she going to let herself get distracted. There was too much at stake. Cracking this case could be her shot at the big leagues, her chance to prove herself as more than just a desk jockey. Maybe she could even win the team leader position she’d set her heart on. Working at the FBI had always been her dream, but it wasn’t enough to just have the badge. She wanted to be out in the field, working cases directly.
Though, admittedly, her first attempt at fieldwork wasn’t exactly off to a stellar start. This guy had managed to disarm her without blinking an eye, and he seemed utterly unimpressed with her attempt at intimidation. She should’ve gone for her grandfather’s antique Swiss Army knife tucked securely in her back pocket, but he’d surprised her and she’d grabbed for the closest thing at hand.Rookie move.But it wasn’t too late to save the situation. He seemed to have bought her lie about being Natalie’s niece. Now she just needed him to get out of her way and let her do the searching she’d come here for.
“Sounds like we both want the same thing,” she said. “So you’ve got no reason to stop me from trying to see if I can find any clues as to where she could have gone, right?”
He hesitated, and for a moment she doubted he would ever move. Finally, he sighed. “Right.”
Ignoring the weight of his icy blue stare prickling the tiny hairs on the nape of her neck, she stepped around him and headed down the short hall, back into the master suite. She could feel his eyes on her back. Taking slow, deep breaths, she reminded herself to act normally. Whatever this guy was doing here, she didn’t want to arouse his suspicions.
In the bedroom, she noticed that the nightstand drawer was hanging open, and she immediately began rummaging through it. She needed to work quickly, before her boss figured out that she wasn’t out researching at the Library of Congress the way she’d said she would be. She’d come here on a hunch after reading through some of the reports into the death of Nick Matthews, a case she’d been assigned to catalog and index into the FBIs cybersecurity system. Something about it felt wrong to her—like it needed more investigation. Hayley had a feeling that Natalie Matthews’s disappearance and her husband’s death were linked. If she could find answers no one else had, the new team leader slot was as good as hers. So, here she was, bending the rules slightly to see if her hunch paid off.
“No problems with personal boundaries, I see,” Scotty said.
His tone dripped with sarcasm. Hayley glanced over at where he was slouched against the doorframe and stifled a grin. She always appreciated dry humor. Still, he sounded like he was questioning her role here, and she couldn’t let that happen. She needed this guy to believe that she was a concerned relative, not someone nosing around where she wasn’t supposed to be. “Like I said, I’m trying to find out what happened to my aunt. If she’s in trouble, I have to help her. The police have given up, and there’s no one else.”
“Help, huh? Don’t know how much help you’ll be, looking through what Natalie keeps in there.”
Hayley wanted to defend herself…but he kind of had a point. The nightstand seemed to hold nothing more interesting than some hair ties, a pack of tissues, and a bag of cough drops. Not exactly a smoking gun.
Next thing she knew, he was crouching beside her. The heat of his body penetrated through her jeans, and she closed her eyes against the pleasant buzz caused by his nearness.Crap.She needed to stop this. Seriously. Guys like him didn’t go for gals like her. Not really. She’d learned that the hard way.
Her ex-boyfriend’s words echoed through her head, as hurtful as they’d been eighteen months ago:Dumb it down, Hayley. No one loves the smart girl.
“I got this,” she insisted. “Go look somewhere else.”
“You’re not the only one who can help.” He flashed her a crooked smile, and her knees wobbled. “Two sets of hands are better than one, right?”
Hayley’s gaze dropped, and in her mind, all she could see was his long, tapered, tanned fingers caressing her skin, teasing her…
No.
She turned away and searched for any electronics that might hold useful information. Natalie’s phone was probably with Natalie, wherever she was—or she might have discarded the device, knowing that it could be used to track her location. But maybe there was something else with information. A laptop. A tablet or e-reader. A smart home device with audio recordings around the time of Natalie’s disappearance. Hell, even a fitness monitor could be useful, especially if it tracked Natalie’s movements prior to when she went missing. Patterns in places she visited could be useful. If Hayley could just find a device of some kind, she knew she could get information from it. As a cybersecurity analyst, her days were focused on processing data and solving complex coding puzzles. But before she could start finding answers, she needed to get her hands on something she could use.
If Superstud McSpy over there would get the hell out of her way, maybe she’d have her chance.
