“You are on retainer for her father.”

  Her hand clenched into a fist. I saw it before she caught herself and lowered it back to her side. Her head ducked, but her eyes remained on me. They were in slits. “That’s for special favoring. Not for us to look the other way on a case. We have to verify what Bailey is saying. Look, it won’t be hard. There will be things to be covered up if her death was faked. It’s easy if no one is looking. Once someone’s looking, there’ll be traces. We’ll catch the traces, but let us do our job.”

  My own eyes were narrowed, and I leaned into her space, saying quietly so she could hear just how clear my promise was, “Then work fast, because once you leave, I’m letting my girl go. If I find that anyone in your department is being paid by my grandfather, they will be taken down.”

  Her lips parted again. “Is that a threat?”

  One last skewering look before I straightened and started for Bailey. “It’s a promise.”

  She gave me another warning look but sighed and headed for her partner. Wilson and Bright left, and then it was just Bailey and me.

  Her eyes were wide and clear.

  I flinched. They were so clear.

  “I need my computer,” she said.

  I was already nodding and going for my keys. “We’ll go to your father’s office for this. He has the best technology.”

  She stood, but her hand touched my arm, pausing me. “You believe me?” Her gaze darted to the door. “They didn’t.”

  “I believe you.”

  My chest was tight. I wanted to pull her into my arms. Instead, I just cupped the side of her face, my thumb tracing her lips. “Let’s go and find your mom.”

  She blinked, startled, and then her mouth tugged up in a smile I hadn’t seen for months.

  Right there. That was worth everything.

  FORTY

  Bailey

  I felt awake.

  It’s not something someone can explain, because it wasn’t waking up from a sleep or a nightmare. It’s not the drowsy state, clambering out of bed, stumbling into the bathroom, and hoping you can hit the snooze button for another hour, then crawl back into bed. It’s not that type. It’s not even the type where suddenly the world is clearer, brighter, and you feel magic in the air. I was riding next to Kash in his car, because he needed to drive, because he needed to feel in control, and I was awake. That’s all I could think about.

  I felt the texture in his hand as he was holding mine. I felt the ridged grooves of his fingers. The roughness of his skin. The strength of his palm as it rested against mine.

  I felt the texture of the seats.

  I smelled the leather in the car. Heard the crispness from the cold in the air.

  But I felt a nagging sensation. It was zooming down my spine. It was coursing through my body.

  I was thirsty.

  I was ravenous.

  I wanted to dance.

  I wanted to laugh.

  But I wanted other things, too.

  I wanted Kash, and my finger skimmed down the side of his hand.

  He tightened his hold over mine, meeting my gaze through the side of his eyes, and I saw the answering desire there. He wanted me, too, but not yet.

  My heart was pounding.

  My legs were restless, starting to tap on the floor of his car.

  I was soon a bundled ball of nerves, barely able to contain myself.

  I was focused.

  We didn’t talk once during the ride.

  Not one time.

  Our hands never moved from one another.

  He pulled into the Chesapeake, and I hadn’t realized we were going to Peter’s personal office. I thought we’d be going to the Phoenix office. But Kash was right. This one held Peter’s best computers. This was the right place to be. But once we had parked and turned the engine off, once we should’ve gotten out and didn’t, I looked at him.

  He was already watching me.

  “This can’t come back on Peter.”

  Kash’s eyes darkened before he leaned down. His lips just an inch over mine, he said, “It won’t. I won’t let it.” Then his lips grazed mine, a soft nip, and he pulled away. It was a promise for later, probably much later.

  He got out on his side.

  I got out on mine.

  “What do you need?” he asked, as the door opened for us and one of the guards stepped outside.

  I was striding through the hallways, Kash having to keep up with me. “I need my headphones.” I was listing everything off. “I’ll use mine if you can grab them, or any with a thirty-six-inch cord. Coffee. Energy drinks. Snacks. I’ll take chips. Anything with sugar. Lots of sugar.” And what else?

  I felt electrocuted. I was so energized.

  I glanced down at my outfit. I was wearing a dress. I couldn’t hack in a dress.

  “Clothes,” I remarked.

  “Clothes?”

  I pushed open our bedroom door. “I’ll change, but can you grab my headphones and the rest?”

  He nodded. “Your father’s office…”

  I was already in the closet, tugging my shirt off. “I know where his office is.”

  He came to the door, his voice closer. “No, you don’t.”

  I paused, hearing a tone in his voice I’d never heard before. The shirt was off and I let it hang from my hand. “What?”

  He was taking me in, his eyes almost black. “The office he uses for what you’re about to do is not in the office you’re thinking about.”

  My lips parted.

  My dad hacked?

  I flushed. Of course my dad hacked, but … Peter hacked?

  “He still hacks?”

  Kash grinned at me, a slow tug from the corner of his mouth upward. “He hasn’t in a while, no, but you get it from someone, you know.”

  Another flush. This one I felt on the back of my neck. I knew that, but hearing he still did—it got my stomach doing all sorts of somersaults.

  “His office is downstairs. The wine wall in the bar.”

  “Yeah?”

  “It’s behind there.”

  My eyes were like an owl’s and my mouth was hanging open. “Right.” I snapped it shut. My hands went to my pants. “I’ll finish. Let’s meet in the basement.”

  The other side of his mouth curved up, and he came over. A finger under my chin. He tipped me up and he bent down. He said, as he always did, right before touching his lips to mine, “It’s nice to have you back.”

  A shiver went through my whole body, but I was grinning. It was a good shiver. I replied back, my lips moving against his. “It’s nice to be back.”

  He groaned before lifting his head. “I’ll meet you in the basement.”

  I grabbed a tank, sweats, and put my feet in some fuzzy slippers. I left the hair and makeup how it was, and at the last second, grabbed my own bag. It housed my laptop, and the headphones were already in there. I found Kash waiting at the bar. He had a few items there, but when he saw me scoping them out, he said, “I’ll get you started, then get the rest.”

  Right. That was smarter.

  He went over to the wall, removed one of the bottles, and pushed in the wine bottle holder. He stepped back and the entire wall shifted outward, then glided to the side.

  There was a hallway behind it.

  Kash walked in, put his hand on a scanner, and another door opened.

  I was in hacker nerddom love.

  Beyond was everything I could’ve wanted in life—except for, you know, Kash. But everything else, hell yes. I went inside.

  Kash touched my shoulder, indicating a side door. It had a red EXIT sign over it, and it looked just like the exit doors at a movie theater. “Bathroom is through there.”

  Right. Exit meant “bathroom.” Got it.

  “I’ll be back with your other items.”

  But then I was thinking again, and I rounded as Kash was leaving. “Wait. What about everyone else?”

  Kash held his phone up. “I will send everyone away, don’t worry.”

  “And you…”

  “I’ll be right here.” He nodded to a couch in the corner. “I can work just as well as you.”

  I liked that. I liked that a lot.

  “What about Matt?”

  “He is going to be told to take his friends on a three-day trip.” He smirked at me. “He will get the jet.”

  I laughed as he left, and I repeated to myself. “He got the jet.”

  I focused on the computers and sat down.

  First things first, I had to hack into my dad’s personal computer, and then his system. Again.

  FORTY-ONE

  Bailey

  I had two objectives with where I started. One, the location, and two, the players.

  I did what the FBI said they were already looking at, but I was going to do it better. I wasn’t going to wait and get permission from local store cameras. Yep. I hacked ’em. All of ’em. I didn’t feel one iota of guilt. Some of these systems were so easy that I was almost doing them a favor. If they realized they’d been hacked, they would get a better system.

  But that wasn’t a justification, because I didn’t feel guilty.

  Within an hour, I had two photos of my mother. Two.

  One was of her in the backseat. Okay, it was more an image of a woman in the backseat of the SUV. But I knew it was her, so I was counting it as one of them. The second one was pure luck. Kash came over once to refill my coffee and he pointed it out. “Reflection.”

  One word. That was it.

  Mind blown.

  I completely forgot about reflections, and then I was cursing myself because I had to backtrack over all the work I had already went through.

  I found one, but it wasn’t enough. She was blurry. Too many shadows. It was just a glimmer, a hint of who was inside that SUV. I recognized her. I knew that was my mother, but no one else would, and that’s why I was doing this. I had to find proof. I had to ramp up the fight for her.

  Four blocks around the club and I was able to find the SUV’s trail. Then I just kept doing that. Over and over and over again. I worked every single system in a four-block radius, mapping out the SUV’s path until they hit the interstate. After that, it was the street cams, and thank goodness, they were so much easier. I panned out, and once the SUV stopped showing up, I rerouted back to the last exits, from where I lost them to where I last saw them. It took me twenty minutes to find them, because the first turn did have a camera but the second turn didn’t. It wasn’t working. So after that, I had to redo all the same work I’d already done. I panned out in a four-block radius until, an hour later, I found them.

  After that, it was hit and miss.

  And slow. So much slower.

  They were getting into suburb territory. The street cams were more sparse, with a few on the major streets. I hit those first. Hacking in. Scanning. Not finding anything. So I had to go back, again. I took each street, in every single way they could’ve gone.

  Chicago suburbs had a lot of streets.

  Four hours.

  Four freaking hours.

  I was getting a headache, and I didn’t want to count how many personal systems I had hacked, because by then some of the guilt was trickling in. Some. Not a lot. I reminded myself who I was looking for—Chrissy Fucking Hayes.

  My focus grew firm again. Crystal clear.

  I was back on it.

  I was being Kash with his business deals. Ruthless and calculating.

  It was another two hours later when I got a hit, and I cried out, because I couldn’t help it.

  “You found her?”

  Oh. That’s right. Kash had no idea what I was doing.

  I shook my head. “I’m still trailing the SUV.”

  He came to stand next to me. “Give me the license plate number. I have another team on standby. They can help you.”

  Another team?

  I frowned up at him. “What? Who?”

  He was scanning the video feeds I had up on the screen and, distracted, he replied, “I have two teams working for me. One does computer stuff like this.”

  My mouth dropped. “You’re telling me this now?”

  “Yeah.” He glanced down, back to the screen, and did a double take back to me. His eyes narrowed. “What? What’s wrong?”

  “Who’s doing the computer stuff? Do you know them personally? Do you trust them? Why haven’t you told me any of this?”

  He took a step back, straightening up. Both his eyebrows arched up. “Uh.” He shook his head, his eyes blinking a few times. “I—I didn’t know you wanted to know this stuff.”

  “Of course I do! Why wouldn’t I?”

  His mouth opened, hung there, then closed. He lifted up a shoulder. “I don’t know. You were adamant about only doing grad school—”

  I shoved back my chair, and my hand flew out. “That was last semester! Things were different last semester.”

  “Uh. Yeah…” He frowned, then scowled, then just looked confused. He raked his hand through his hair, and when it fell to the side, he did it again. His whole palm ran down over his face. “I’m sorry. When was I supposed to fill you in on all this?”

  “From the beginning.” I huffed that out.

  “The beginning?”

  “Yeah. The beginning.”

  “You were in counseling, trying to process the second kidnapping attempt…”

  He was muddling things for me, and I shook both my hands in the air. “Stop trying to rationalize things.”

  He bit out a laugh. “It’s called rationalizing things.”

  “Oh!” Now my eyebrows went up and both my hands were in the air, palms turned toward him. I leaned back. “Now I’m being irrational?”

  “What?” His mouth hung open again. “Wait. What?” He was shaking his head. “I’m lost here.”

  “Well, that makes two of us.” I crossed my arms over my chest, one more huff coming from me. I was all heated. My blood was rolling, but damn. I should’ve known. So I told him that. “You should’ve told me.”

  “One, I think I actually did. Two, when? You went from only focusing on grad school, trying to bury yourself in your schoolwork, to then mourning your mother and trying to process witnessing her murder!”

  I flinched.

  “Okay!” My hands flung up in the air and I sat down, whipping my chair back around to the computer screen. “I got it. I was a mess.”

  He was quiet behind me.

  I didn’t care. Or I was telling myself I didn’t care?

  I went back to work, pulling up another security system, until I realized that there was a camera at the intersection, smack above the stoplights. I’d missed that one, so I started working to get into that one, too.

  “What just happened here?” He sounded so cautious.

  I let out a sigh, getting in and then getting the angle. I clicked over the time period, fast-forwarding and waiting for a big black blob. “We had a little tiff.”

  “We did?”

  I wasn’t doing this.

  I flicked my eyes upward, still speeding through until the time frame when the vehicle should’ve gone past. I slowed the time. “It’s a couple thing.”

  He sat in the chair beside me, rolling it to face me squarely. “We did a ‘couple’ thing?”

  I paused, my hand on the mouse, and glanced sideways. “Yeah.”

  His eyes were intense, fastened to me. “That’s an okay thing?”

  “Yeah.” I frowned. “Isn’t it?”

  He frowned at that question and leaned back in the chair. His hand came up, raking over his head before he let it fall to the desk. “I have no idea. I just don’t want to upset you, and you seem to be doing good, with all…” He wavered, his hand gesturing to the computer. “You’re doing your thing, and you seem good. You’re good, right?” His brows furrowed together and he leaned forward slowly. “Are you good?”

  He was nervous.

  I blinked a few times when I registered that.

  I’d never seen Kash nervous. Kashton Colello. The great and intimidating and sexy Kashton Colello, who could kill if he needed to. The billionaire boyfriend who was menacing, protective, and dangerous.

  He was still talking. No. He was rambling, his hand going over his face again.

  I noted how tight his shoulders were, and then I started grinning.

  All the mess, all the dysfunction and crisis in our lives, and in the midst of me breaking the law, of him assisting me breaking the law, we were doing a normal couple thing.

  He noticed my smile and stopped talking. “What? What’s wrong now?”

  “Nothing.”

  He nodded, his shoulders loosening.

  “Just…”

  His shoulders tightened back up.

  “This is nice.”

  His eyebrows shot up once again. “This is nice?” He waved a hand between him and me. “Us? Right now?” He included the computer screen. “Committing felonies? That’s fun?”

  I hid a grin, going back to work. “No. This as in you and me in the same room, and being normal.” I thought about it. “Kinda. Sorta.” Okay … “Not really. But you know what I mean.”

  He expelled a ragged breath. His hand thumped down on his armchair and he lounged back. “I haven’t got the first clue about what you’re talking about. I’m just,” he hesitated, choosing his words, “I just don’t want to lose you.”

  My breath stopped in my chest. It held there.

  He was looking down, shaking his head. “I was so fucking scared.” His voice grew thick. Hoarse. “I thought I would lose you. From the kidnapping attempt, to when Victoria ripped into you, to after you lost your mom. I didn’t think…” He lifted his head, and there was no wall there. No mask. He was more naked with me than when we made love. “I don’t think I’ve breathed until now, and I had no idea.” Another layer slid away, and he was hurting. The pain was raw and pulsating.

  I went to him. His face tightened in agony and I was there. I was in his lap, and my hands were cradling both sides of his face. “I love you.”

  He drew in a breath. “Are you sure?”

  God.

  He was so raw right now.

  “I’m sure.”

  He moved his head, up and down, just slightly. My forehead went down to rest against his, and he closed his eyes. “My grandfather, I didn’t deal with him when I was young—”