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“Where are you going with this?” Ryder asked, leaning forward on his elbows.
“Well ...” I glanced over my shoulder to Justin’s bedroom where he was fast asleep. “There’s only one thing that can make a calculated man like Astor Stone do something completely out of character.”
“And that is?”
“A woman.”
Ryder and Mack blankly considered me for a moment, then blinked in unison before they looked at each other.
“Holy shit,” Ryder said.
At the same time, Mack said, “I don’t think we even considered that.”
They gawked at me.
I grinned. “See? I’m helpful. You guys really need a woman on the team. Tell me, is Astor married?”
“No—I mean, I don’t think so.”
“You don’t think so? So, you don’t know?”
“I mean, he’s never spoken of a woman in the entire time that I’ve known him.”
“Does he wear a ring?”
Blank stares.
I laughed, shaking my head. “Wow. Men are so unobservant. How about pictures? In his office, or maybe on his screen saver?”
“No, but that doesn’t surprise me. He’s extremely private.”
“A man with an ego like Astor’s has a woman, or a few—trust me on this. Maybe a special someone that he keeps tucked away. Or maybe she’s walked back into his life, I don’t know.”
“We need to dig into this angle.” Mack began tapping his pen against the table. “Find out every woman he’s been involved with, then track where they’re at.”
“Also, look for children,” I said. “He might have one, illegitimate even.”
Mack nodded, then picked up his cell phone. “On it.”
As Mack disappeared into the other room, Ryder dipped his chin. “Nice work.”
“Thanks.”
“I mean with Justin too. You haven’t left his side.”
Feeling a flush on my cheeks, I looked away.
The entire team knew about my case. That I was born into a top-secret Russian militia group, that I was abused, and that I escaped. The one thing they didn’t know, however, was how madly and deeply I had fallen in love with their best friend.
“Also,” he said, “I wanted to let you know that my guy got back to me about that thing you asked me to do. He’s got several apartments he’ll rent for dirt cheap. He also—”
“She doesn’t need it.”
I whirled around to see Justin leaning against the door frame, his hair mussed, his eyes twinkling, his arm in a sling—and dear God, gray sweatpants covering his legs.
Grinning, Ryder stood. “Good to see you, man. How’re you doing?”
“Hungry.”
