“This all you have for me?”I glanced incredulously at the file spread open before me and then up at Detective Gutierrez, who sat on the other side of his desk, looking unimpressed by all the material my private investigator had assembled on Finley.Was he fucking serious? What the hell more did he want? I’d done all the investigative work for him.“It’s proof that he faked his own death!” I answered as if that should be enough. “What else do you need?”Gutierrez shrugged. “Pseudocide isn’t a crime. The guy’s an adult; he can check himself off the grid if he wants to.”I sniffed. “So you don’t think there’s any misconduct afoot here?”“Oh, I’m sure there’s been plenty of misconduct happening all over this, Mr. Carmichael. It’s as suspicious as hell. I figure it was damn near impossible for this guy to do what he did without breaking some law or another. But what laws are we talking about? Do you have any idea?”“Plenty,” I said dryly, unable to stop glaring at him.I couldn’t b
Something felt off.It wasn’t the fact that Lana had been particularly disgruntled when she’d come home from work this evening either. That happy little nugget had actually been pretty awesome. It told me Hayden had most likely succeeded in not letting her sabotage Kaitlynn’s and his brother’s portfolio presentation earlier that day.And things didn’t feel off because Papá had messaged me, saying he’d pick up Miguel from school. That was just another awesome detail. I think he was really going to pull himself out of this slump he’d been in since becoming an amputee.I guess I could blame my antsy, restless anxiety on my failure to find any proof to doom Lana. I really wanted to help Hayden with his investigation on his mother. But I hadn’t found anything on any other day I’d worked there, and I hadn’t experienced this lacking something that left me feeling so desolate and unfulfilled now. So that probably wasn’t the source either.I glanced out the window as I put away the last pla
Reluctantly tearing my mouth from Gabby’s, I peeled one of her hands from the front of my shirt, where she was holding me tight, and I jerked my gloves off before taking her fingers again to squeeze them warmly.Because seriously, if I let her keep kissing me the way she was, we’d never make it home.“Let’s go back to my place,” I said.Her eyes glittered with awareness, and the color in her cheeks heightened as she nodded eagerly. Jesus, she wanted me. She really wanted me. My body stirred and jeans grew tight.I began to forget about our original mission for the evening and all the evidence we had collected on our phones as I towed her down the hall toward the exit, pausing once at a trash receptacle to dispose of our gloves. Nothing seemed as important as getting inside this woman.Once we reached my car, I stopped completely, turning toward her before I opened her door. After kissing her hair, I pressed my brow to hers and simply breathed her in, enjoying this moment of simply
When we finally made our way to my room, Gabby curled into me on the cool mattress and tucked her face under my chin before she stroked her hand up and down my arm.I banded an arm around her shoulders, holding her close, and kissed her hair.This was nice.I’d never felt this complete and satisfied before, as if I was a piece of a puzzle who’d just found its misplaced half.Gabby gave a contented sigh and glanced up at me, smiling lazily. I knew we should probably finish going through everything we’d found at Lana’s earlier. Or I should decide what to do about the Isaac-Brick situation. But for the life of me, I couldn’t muster a single care about any of that shit. I just wanted to keep lying here, looking at Gabriella.“I missed you today,” she murmured, walking her fingers up my bare chest.My eyebrows lifted. “You missed me?”“Yeah, you know, after work,” she went on. “I know getting picked up by you and driven home two days in a row doesn’t in any way qualify as a routine,
When I opened my eyes the next morning, I found myself staring at a stranger.As I blinked at him, trying to figure out if he was real or not, he grinned pleasantly. “Well, hello there, gorgeous.”“Oh my God!” I shrieked.He was definitely real.Lurching upright, only for the sheet that had been covering me to slip down, I gasped out another yelp and scrambled to catch it before I showed off all my bits.Who the hell was this guy?Once I had the covers firmly tucked up under my armpits and had shoved dark locks out of my face, I focused on the man who hadn’t moved a muscle, except maybe to widen his devilish, handsome grin as he watched me fumble about.Waving his fingers, he added, “Good morning to you too.”I glanced around the room. Hayden was nowhere to be found, but this guy had no qualms about being in his room apparently.“Who’re you?” I said, coming back around to blink at him.“What a coincidence.” With a delighted chuckle, he plopped onto the bed beside me, still fu
“Strange fact,” Hayden panted, slipping his hand over my hair as I began to climb off him, my legs as weak as jelly and heart still racing with a mixture of fear and panic.Because I loved him, I realized. Holy shit, I loved this aggravating pain in the ass. Dazed, I licked my dry lips and mumbled, “What’s that?” hoping he couldn’t tell what I was feeling.“I didn’t much like walking in the door to find my brother in bed with you,” he answered casually, seemingly unaware of the crisis that was happening inside me.But fuck me, I loved a man who drove me crazy, who had insane family issues, who could piss me off like no one else. And, holy hell, I think I liked loving someone who was so messed up.I lifted my face to peer into his eyes. At the moment, he didn’t seem too upset about seeing Brick and me stretched out on the bed together. But he’d also just come so hard he might’ve broken all the blood vessels in his medulla oblongata, preventing him from experiencing anger ever again.
We’d had it. We’d had the proof I’m sure we needed to put Lana away. It was in our very grasp. And we’d lost it.The blow hit Hayden the hardest.He took me directly home after we left Lana’s apartment, and he didn’t say a word the entire way there. When he parked at the curb, he just stared ahead, out the windshield, and methodically tapped his fingers against the steering wheel, his mind a million miles away.“You want to come in?” I asked softly, thinking I sounded like a clingy, insecure girlfriend, but not even caring. I wanted to help him so bad; I just didn’t know how.He glanced at me shortly. “No. Not today.”“Hayden,” I started on a sigh. “Don’t let this get to you. It was just one little setback. We can—”“I know.” He finally sent me the ghost of a smile, as if he was at least grateful for my attempt to cheer him up. “Don’t worry. It’s fine.”But it wasn’t. Not to him. And I didn’t know what to say to make it better.Seeing my concern, he tipped his head towards my b
I felt sick to my stomach.After the big reveal, where I’d gathered my brother, stepsister, Ezra, and a couple lawyers into a room and told them about Lana being a murderer, about how she’d changed the will, and how Kaitlynn actually owned half the company alongside Nash, they had each eventually gone their separate ways to absorb the shock of the news.I hadn’t been able to tell Brick about his true paternity though. That would have to wait for another time. I just didn’t have it in me to report any more shocking news today.It had been a tense enough scene earlier between Ezra’s lawyers and the ones I’d called in to support Kaitlynn. She looked so blindsided and overwhelmed. I had an awful, sinking feeling I’d handled it all wrong.Telling them my suspicions about Lana and the secret investigation I was conducting on her hadn’t seemed necessary at the time. But now that it was all out in the open, I felt like a shithead for not divulging any of it sooner.Sitting on my couch in