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“To ensure he was dead. My guess is Hank saw him, the killer fired a non-lethal shot, and then finished him off. He made sure with a head shot and either the recoil from the shot transferred this pine needle—at least I think it’s pine, but something evergreen in any case—or the assassin may have leaned down to ensure Hank was dead and lost it then. But my best guess is it came from the killer and not Hank.”
She walked over and handed it to him. Damon nodded. “It’s pine. Are you sure it was anaccidentaltransfer?”
“Do you think it came from Hank?”
“No. Could it have been left deliberately?”
“Do you know where it’s from?” she asked.
“Know? Not for sure, but knowing Frannie, or her father for that matter, it was left for me or the cops to find. In either case, it was left for me, so I’d know where to come looking.”
“You know where they are from a pine needle?”
“Again, nothing is for certain, but the closest coniferous forest to Charleston is the Francis Marion National Forest. It was named after the Revolutionary War hero and is less than an hour away from Charleston.”
“Funny, the Acostas didn’t strike me as the camping type.”
For the first time since she’d knocked him to the ground, Damon chuckled. “You are quite right. Frannie’s idea of ‘roughing it’ is anything less than a five-star resort. The family has a ‘cabin’ nearby, and I put ‘cabin’ in quotes. It may have a split log exterior and open beams in the ceiling, but that’s about the only ‘cabin’ bits the mansion has. It is quite extravagant and completely out of place, but everyone knows to whom it belongs and is suitably impressed and intimidated.”
Miley nodded. “She expected you to find him, which leads me back to you not being the intended target.” She paused, letting that sink in.
“You are probably right. The clue was left intentionally. We had numerous arguments over that ‘cabin.’ I hated the thing. It was ostentatious as hell and was one of the first red flags I had about her.”
“My guess is her plan was for me to end up dead. If she believed you had any feelings for me, even if they were no more than the protective tendencies and instincts of a Dom, she’d have to know you’d come looking for her. She has to know your background and that you wouldn’t let her kill people close to you without looking to retaliate.”
“That would be my guess. The place will be well guarded, and she’ll be looking to take me alive.”
Miley walked out onto the patio, scanning the area. When he joined her, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her into his body, there was no resistance. She simply leaned back, resting her head on his shoulder. He’d never felt closer to anyone in his entire life. Even sex with Miley didn’t compare to the softness of her yielding.
Standing close to her, he breathed in the night, the ocean and the unique scent of Miley herself.
“We need to wait for Seth to get here in the morning. He’ll be able to get us additional information about the cabin. I don’t suppose there’s a snowball’s chance in hell that we could put you on a plane for Chicago or London…”
“You would suppose correctly,” he interrupted her, expecting an argument.
Instead, there was none, and Miley shrugged. “Yeah. I didn’t think that would fly. You do know that’s another reason we could never work.”
Damon wasn’t sure how to take that. On one hand, he didn’t believe anything of the sort. They could make it work and he was determined to get his way. On the other hand, the fact that she’d been thinking about it made it feel like a step in the right direction.
“God, I can almost hear the gears turning in that Machiavellian mind of yours,” she said without rancor before starting to pull away.
He tightened his arms around her, and again she capitulated and leaned back against him. Leaning his head against hers, he knew he was right about them. Nothing had ever felt as right as holding Miley. Nothing.
“I keep thinking Hank should never have died, but then I know you’re right. Neither you, nor I, nor the team is responsible. The only ones responsible are Frannie, her father, and their goons. I’ve never handled collateral damage well. There was a firefight when I was with a commando unit in the Middle East. We hit an Al Qaeda safe house. It was supposed to be a storehouse for their arms and money. No women; no children. It was fairly isolated, and I ordered a drone hit before my unit and I went in to finish them off. Our intel was shit. They were holding the families of several of the outlying villagers—women and children. They were all killed when the drone hit. It shouldn’t have happened…”
“I understand,” she said softly. “You can intellectualize and know it wasn’t your fault, but if you gave the order or pulled the trigger, it never truly leaves you.”
Damon hugged her close. She did know what it was like. She truly understood—not just intellectually, but emotionally.
“We need to shut Frannie and her father down. They need to be made to pay for what they did tonight. And for the record, I’m going with you. I’m the client and I’m the Dom and I will have my way in this.”
He could actually feel her smile—the way the corners of her mouth lifted along his neck.
“You’re going to be a real pain in my ass, aren’t you?” she asked with amusement.
“I would think the time you spent over my knee earlier today would have left you with no doubt about that.”
She shook her head gently. “God, I am going to be in so much trouble with you.”
