Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 60360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 60360 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 302(@200wpm)___ 241(@250wpm)___ 201(@300wpm)
He opened his mouth to begin the dreaded let down. He’d had her once. That was enough. More than enough. He shouldn’t have needed it so badly the first time. Not when he’d just come off a road trip to Sioux Falls. It was in everyone’s best interest to go back to business as usual.
“Izzy—”
“I’m not getting anywhere with this,” she said suddenly, indicating the laptop. She turned her coffee mug in her hands. “You up for a really early breakfast?”
Caught off guard, he hesitated. “Yeah,” he told her. She grinned at him again and Caleb took a slow, deep breath.
Caleb watched, somewhat appreciatively he’d admit, as she wiggled out of her gym shorts. She had on cute little black underwear that looked like shorts themselves. They were lacy and he could see her creamy white skin through the dark fabric. He gripped his mug until his knuckles turned white. She slipped on a clean pair of jeans and closed the suitcase.
“I’ll let you drive,” she told him, glancing at him over her shoulder as she used a rubber band to tie up her loose hair. Caleb found himself disappointed. He liked it loose. “But only because I need to use the computer. Don’t get attached,” she said, handing him the keys.
Caleb took the keys from her hand and slipped them into his pocket. “Don’t worry,” he said, possibly a little too loudly. “Attachments aren’t a problem with me.”
Izzy closed the laptop and scooped it up off the table. She gave him another look. “I believe it,” she replied.
Chapter 20
After breakfast, instead of heading home, Izzy directed his driving. They left downtown, drove through the warehouse district and into a neighborhood that he was largely unfamiliar with. It was low-rent, lower than his own, at any rate. The houses were about the same size as his, but the yards consisted mostly of weeds and grass that hadn’t been mowed. Junker cars crowded cracked driveways and bed sheets stood in for curtains in most of the windows visible to the street.
Izzy had him pull over in front of a house with a barred front door and a chain link fence surrounding the property, but it wasn’t that house she was interested in. Instead, her gaze was settled on a dirty, white clapboard house that sat in the middle of the block, on the opposite side of the street. Caleb didn’t know who lived there, but the large Harley in the driveway gave him some indication.
“That’s the Paul place,” she told him. “The boys aren’t there. Jace? Hasn’t shown up in a few days. He hasn’t been staying in his room at the clubhouse, either. Even money says he’s with Jeter.”
“You know the cops could have the wrong border,” Caleb replied. “They could be headed north. Into Canada.”
She sighed. “I hope not, but you’re right. It’s a possibility.”
She looked at him sideways across the front seat of the Charger. “So,” she said. “Suspended cop.” There was a long pause as she surveyed him. “You’re pretty… flexible… on the law, then.”
Caleb stared at her. “I have no answer to that,” he said cautiously. His eyes flicked from Izzy to the house and back again.
She waited. Patiently. He scowled.
Finally he asked, “How old is this girl he kidnapped?”
“Sixteen. Got her whole life ahead of her.”
“If she’s still alive,” he countered.
“Big if,” she admitted.
“And you can do this?” he asked, glancing back at the house. “This is in your wheelhouse?”
She grinned, the effect of which was only slightly lessened by the possible consequences of what she was suggesting.
“I plead the fifth,” she replied. “Unless you agree.”
Caleb shook his head. “Uh huh,” he told her. “Doesn’t work that way. You lay it out for me, all of it, and I decide. You want me to trust you? You’ve got to trust me.”
She considered him for a moment, then said, “I can get inside in under a minute.” “He’ll never know. It’s not even the first place I’ve broken into since I came to town.”
He looked at her darkly. “Please say you didn’t break into my house.”
She laughed and warmth unfurled in his belly—and lower again—as he watched her eyes brighten.
“My trust issues don’t quite go that deep. I do what I have to do to get the job done. Never more than that. When it comes to the bad guys, Caleb, playing by the rules not only ties one hand behind your back, but it leaves you blind, too.” She leaned toward him a bit, not enough to be in his face but enough to let him know she was serious. “I. Catch. Bad. People,” she said quietly but firmly. There was an underlying ferocity that he had to admire. “And I don’t apologize for it.”
There wasn’t much to say to that. It wasn’t as though he couldn’t relate. He broke rules every day to put people away where they couldn’t hurt innocent victims anymore. How could he point a finger at her without pointing a few back at himself?