Ethan laughed. “I’m not surprised and congratulations.”

  Their hamburgers arrived and they began to chow down. Adam and Tori had a lot of work ahead of them this afternoon, first of all, questioning Phyllis. But he was anxious to spend the evening with Sierra and enjoy their time together.

  Later, they would set Kinney up to speak to Dover at the jail.

  “By the way, Kinney wants to cooperate this time, afraid they’re going to come after him again,” Adam said.

  Tori said, “How are things going for you so far, Sierra?”

  “Oh, good. With working part-time starting Wednesday, I’m back to teaching art classes on Thursday and I’m moving my things to Adam’s home until we decide what we want to do.”

  Tori smiled. “Moving? Now that’s when the real fun begins.”

  “Yeah, what a job.”

  After lunch, they said goodbye to Ethan, and Sierra returned to the office. Tori and Adam went into the interrogation room to question Phyllis. She sat stiffly in a chair behind the table, and this time, Tori took over. They had to feel out who would be the best at getting the truth out of their suspects—and if it didn’t work with Tori, Adam would take her place. He realized that having a female partner in this business could be a real boon. Some might be more comfortable talking to a woman, others, the opposite.

  “Tell us who planned the kidnapping of the young girl.” Tori placed the sketch drawn of Phyllis based on the girl’s description on the table.

  “I have an alibi for that day,” Phyllis said. “You have the wrong person.”

  “An alibi? Okay, so where were you and who witnessed you weren’t anywhere in the vicinity of the Chinese restaurant where you allegedly stole the car and at the strip mall where you grabbed the girl, then tied her up at Ms. Redding’s home?”

  “At home with a male friend.”

  “He’s in jail. I mean, you have matching tattoos, so I was thinking you meant Dover.” Tori frowned at her. “Oh, sorry, you mean the new guy you’re with.”

  Phyllis’s eyes narrowed. “I’m not with him. We’re just friends.”

  “Name?” Tori had her pen poised to write the name down in her notebook. When Phyllis didn’t answer her, Tori said, “No name, no alibi. That’s how this works.”

  “Victor Freemont. He’s a bartender and he’s home during the day.”

  “So he’s up late at night.”

  “Right.”

  “And sleeping during the day, like around the time you allegedly were stealing a car and kidnapping a girl.”

  “No, he was awake then. I was with him. We were having lunch.”

  “What did you have for lunch?”

  “How do I know. Tuna fish sandwiches, I guess.”

  “Can anyone else verify you were with him then? Dover, maybe?”

  Phyllis’s eyes widened, then she frowned at Tori. “He’s in jail. What a stupid thing to say.”

  “Right. He’s in jail, but wouldn’t he know you’re with this Victor character now? Maybe you mentioned it to Dover?”

  Phyllis chewed on her bottom lip. “He wouldn’t know what I’m doing on a daily basis unless I told him. And why would I tell him I made tuna fish sandwiches for Victor and me?”

  “Would he care?”

  Phyllis glowered at her, her arms folded across her waist, her chin tilted up, her look superior.

  Adam took that as a yes. But he knew she wasn’t having lunch with Victor when Sierra’s car was stolen and the girl kidnapped. Now they knew she was seeing Victor for sure and Dover didn’t know about it. Adam was thinking Kinney might drop that little bombshell on Dover when he went to speak to him and hopefully get him to confess on tape to some of the crimes he had done.

  Tori brought out some photos of video surveillance in the area. “You were seen driving here and then here. Then you drove out into the country to get rid of the stolen car. But there’s a car following you too. That car is registered to…Victor Freemont. Your new boyfriend. I wonder what Dover will think of you stealing boats and selling them and having a new boyfriend.”

  Phyllis looked panicked, her arms tightening against her waist, her hands clenched into fists.

  Then Tori pulled out a plastic bagged wig from an evidence box. “From Victor’s grandmother’s house.”

  Phyllis’s eyes widened. Adam figured she was immediately thinking about all the stuff they had at the house that could be used as evidence. If it had been him, he would have certainly been considering that.

  “This is the wig you wore to Ms. Redding’s house, and hair fibers in her car and in her house place you in both the vehicle and her house. Your hair fibers were also inside the wig. Even the kidnapped victim had a couple of the wig’s hairs on her,” Tori said.

  Phyllis chewed on her lip. “Kinney told you about Victor’s grandmother’s house, didn’t he?”

  Adam shook his head. “It’s a matter of public record.”

  Phyllis let out her breath and pulled her hair back off her shoulders, then released it, narrowing her eyes at Adam. “Dover will kill me if he knows I’ve been with Victor since he was incarcerated.”

  “You don’t think he already knows?” Adam asked.

  Her eyes grew big again.

  “Maybe that’s why Dover sent you on the mission to steal Ms. Redding’s car, kidnap a girl, and break into Ms. Redding’s house. You’ve never done anything like that before, right? And he knew you would get caught. And when you didn’t get caught soon enough, he had Victor pay some teens to slash Ms. Redding’s tires. Who would get hurt by this if you got caught? Whose idea was it to kill Ms. Redding’s dog for revenge when she doesn’t even own one?” Adam asked.

  Phyllis started to say, “She has one and she lied—”

  “It’s Dover’s payback for a perceived wrong. I get it. But who is going to pay the price? Dover? You? For his vendetta? And you’re with Victor now, so why should you care about some revenge issues Dover has? Ms. Redding did you a favor when she helped put Dover away so you could be with Victor, right? And this is a great way for Dover to kill two birds with one stone. He told you that you and Victor had to do the job and make sure Burt had the gun and threatened the kidnapped victim with it, correct? That way, it sounded like he was setting up Burt.

  “But in truth, he was setting up the lot of you. How hard do you think it would be for Dover to figure out that you and Victor have been together since the time Dover was incarcerated?” Wise up, Adam wanted to say to her.

  Phyllis shifted in her chair.

  “Not once have you visited Dover in prison. No visits to the jail before he was tried. No letters or postcards, care packages sent to him, nothing. You don’t think he would get suspicious? Especially since Burt Barnes is the only one bothering to visit him. You don’t think Dover would ask him what was up with you? Do you think Burt would be loyal to you or to Dover?” Adam asked.

  Her eyes narrowed.

  He raised his brows. “Then we have the sale of the stolen boat to a Mr. Rivers.”

  “I don’t know anything about that.”

  He folded his arms. “You were driving the other boat while your cohorts took possession of the boat you tried to sell. Then we have the case of you and your cohorts trying to kill Kinney, one of your fellow associates in crime, since he was trying to go legit.”

  Her jaw dropped, then she gathered her composure. “There is no way I can be implicated in that.”

  Adam just smiled at her.

  “I didn’t have anything to do with Ollie trying to kill Kinney,” Phyllis added.

  “You were in the car following Kinney. Victor was driving,” Adam said.

  She didn’t say anything to that. Then she let out her breath. “I want a lawyer.”

  “Sure thing,” Adam said. “You’re going to need one.” He wondered then if she had been the other passenger in the car that Kinney didn’t identify.

  Adam and Tori left the interrogation room, and one of the officers took Phyllis to jail.

  “How did it go?” Sierra asked.

  “Great. But let me tell you, once Adam is on a roll, there’s no stopping him,” Tori said.

  Adam felt his face warm a bit. “Sorry, Tori. I meant to let you deal with her the whole time.”

  Tori laughed. “I don’t have an ego. Any way we can get anything out of them works for me. She knows we have her over a barrel. You were brilliant in coming up with the idea that Dover already knew about her affair with Victor. I didn’t even consider that she hadn’t been visiting him in jail. She’ll be thinking it over as far as the business with Dover setting her and the others up. Hmm, he might even be pissed he was in jail and they all got off without spending any time there.”

  “That’s certainly a possibility. Here he’s the one who’s in charge and he got caught.”

  Sierra smiled. “All because of me.”

  Chapter 28

  After they were finished with work, Adam and Sierra said good night to Tori and then headed out to their own vehicles. “You know, when I mated you, I never dreamed how much better everything would be. Not just with being mated to you but enjoying my time off. It didn’t bother me about having to go into work before. Now I want to spend the time with you instead. You make it really worthwhile.”

  “Same here with me. I hope I don’t keep you from solving your cases though.”

  “We can still discuss them and try to come up with solutions when we’re having fun.” He walked her to her car. “I’m glad you had your tires fixed.” He checked her car over to make sure it looked all right.

  “When you were in with Phyllis interrogating her, the police caught the three teens involved in slashing my tires.”

  “That’s good news.”

  “They said some guy by the name of DM paid them, but the description I got from them matched Victor Freemont as the one who handed them the money.”

  “Good. I hope they learned their lesson.”

  “They’ve done some minor thefts prior to this, one of the officers said, so I don’t know if this will help deter them or not. What do you want to do about dinner tonight?” Sierra was thinking in terms of something quick and easy to make.

  “I’m taking you out on a date.”

  She was surprised that Adam wanted to take her out for dinner. She thought they would end up in bed first before they even came up with an idea for the meal.

  She smiled. “Sure, I would love to.” She really would. Though it was a toss-up. Dinner at home and making love for dessert or having dinner out and ice cream to follow, then making love at home? “Where did you want to go?”

  “Your choice. Somewhere special,” he said.

  She had to remind herself she had all the time in the world to enjoy being alone with Adam and this was something he really wanted to do with her. And she wanted it too.

  She pulled out her phone and looked for restaurants. “Okay, how about a Spanish restaurant? Greek? Or German, for something different?”

  “Let’s go to the Spanish restaurant and we can save the other restaurants for another night.”

  “That sounds good. We can get some ice cream afterward.”

  Adam smiled. “Sure, at your favorite ice cream place?”

  “Absolutely.”

  Adam made reservations at the Spanish restaurant and then they drove to his house and dropped off her car. Then in his Hummer, they took a drive through the housing development where Carver’s place was, looking for a home that they might want to check into further.

  “Oh, this is fun.” She began taking house numbers down for homes for sale and the name of the Realtor who had listed them.

  Then when it was time, he drove them to the restaurant for an early dinner. Once they arrived, they were seated right away. Spanish songs played overhead, and pictures of the coastal regions of Spain were hanging on the plastered walls that revealed old brick for an old-world appearance. Because of the early dinner hour, the restaurant wasn’t busy yet, which was nice.

  Sierra ordered seafood paella, while Adam got the steak paella. It wasn’t long before their server brought them bread, water, and salads. They were just finishing their salads when the dinners arrived. Hers was shrimp, clams, mussels, and sausage on Spanish rice. She loved eating here because she could take home half her meal, normally, and eat it for lunch the next day. Adam’s main course consisted of steak and shrimp and peas on a bed of rice.

  “Remember to save room for dessert,” she said.

  He gave her an interested smile.

  She smiled back. “I mean ice cream.”

  Adam smiled at her before he buttered his bread.

  Sierra took a sip of her white wine. She truly thought the world of him. “This is a lovely date.”

  “I love you, you know?” Adam took a bite of his steak.

  “I love you right back.” Sierra ate some of her shrimp on top of some rice. “How’s your steak paella?”

  “Divine, but so is the company.”

  They finished their meals, paid for dinner, and headed to the ice cream shop, ditching their suit jackets in the Hummer.

  “Are you getting the same thing as you got before?” he asked her.

  She shook her head. “This time, it’s coffee ice cream and hot fudge topping. I like to do something different every once in a while. What about you?”

  “I think I’ll have chocolate with butterscotch on top. Try some variety.”

  “That sounds good. I’ll have to try that the next time,” Sierra said.

  At the ice cream shop, they ordered their sundaes, then took them to a booth and sat down. Adam said, “I thought we could call a Realtor to have him or her show us some homes this weekend.”

  “Oh, yeah, I would love to do that. I loved some of the ones they have up for sale next to Forest Park, if we can find one we both love that is for sale and affordable.”

  “All right, that’s what we’ll aim for. Something close to Carver’s place, if we can get one, and we’ll help watch over his place and vice versa.”

  “When we sell both of our homes, we should be able to afford it,” Sierra said.

  “That’s what I figured. We could put them both on the market at the same time, and if we sold one, we would be able to purchase the new house with the proceeds. My house is free and clear. What about yours?”

  “Yeah, mine too. With as many years as we live, I save lots and have investments, and I sold my home in Killeen to purchase this one. So we should be good.” She took a scoop of her ice cream.

  “Better than good. I’ve always liked the idea of living next to the park. It makes you feel as though you have a lot of acreage, even if it’s not yours. And we could run anytime we wanted to after the park closed for the night.”

  “I would have dumped Richard sooner if you had lived in a house backed up to Forest Park and if I’d known you had such a gorgeous boat.”

  Adam laughed.

  It wasn’t long before they were heading home for a second course of dessert—even better than the first.

  * * *

  At home, Adam and Sierra headed for the bedroom, pulling off their shoes as they hurried, and once there, they tackled each other to the bed, falling onto it and laughing. But then they were kissing and sitting up. He pulled her onto his lap so she was facing him. They were tugging at their clothes—him trying to unbutton his shirt, her unfastening her pants—and then she tackled his belt and zipper.

  Once he had unbuttoned his shirt, she moved her mouth from his and kissed his chest, then licked his nipples and nibbled. “You are so hot and sexy,” she whispered against his chest before she kissed his mouth again.

  “Like you are.” He kissed her lips and speared her mouth, their tongues dancing in heated passion.

  “Hmm,” she murmured, skimming her thumbs over his nipples, and he was quickly unbuttoning her blouse, then pulling it off her shoulders. He tackled her bra next, trying to unhook it.

  He struggled with it and she thought of reaching behind her and unfastening it, but she was too busy running her hands over his hard chest, loving the feel of his exquisite muscles. Then the bra came undone and he was pulling it down her arms and tossing it aside. She felt so naked, her breasts free until he cupped them and massaged, then kissed her mouth again, but he wasn’t letting go of her breasts. She loved the way he eagerly touched her and made her want for more.

  Their hearts were beating wildly and their kisses building up steam. Her blood was on fire as he massaged her breasts. He uplifted her, made her feel glorious and wet and needy. She rubbed her mons against his cock, wanting him seated inside her now.

  He released her breasts and was struggling to get his shirt off the rest of the way. She began to pull his shirt off while pressing sweet kisses all over his warm, broad shoulders. His fingers curled through her hair, and she felt all tingly between her legs. She looked into his green eyes filled with love and lust and was sure hers looked the same.

  She tugged his shirt off the rest of the way and tossed it aside and sighed deeply.

  His hands on her arms, he pulled her to the side, unseating her from his lap. Once she was on her back, he kissed each budded nipple, licked them, then blew on the wetness, making them tingle, and she arched against him, wanting more.

  He cupped her mound covered by her slacks and then drew his finger through the crease between her feminine lips. Desperately, she wanted him inside her, and she yanked at his pants to jerk them down his hips. Smiling wolfishly, he moved his hands down her back, slipping them beneath her slacks and panties, and gently squeezed her buttocks.

  She couldn’t get his pants any lower with the way he was lying half on her so she grabbed her own pants and began to slide them over her hips. He quickly pulled his hands out of her panties to help her and drew her pants down her legs. Then he hurried to yank off his own pants the rest of the way.