Resolution (Trackers #3)

Prologue

RAVEN

I woke to the sound of my phone ringing on the bedside table. When I opened my eyes, I was greeted with darkness and I frowned, rolling away from Miguel who grunted.

“Who’s calling at—”

I felt him stretch and sit up. I couldn’t help my sleepy smile as I heard him mutter.

“…fucking five o’clock in the fucking morning?”

I snorted, reaching for my phone, feeling the coolness in the air as the down comforter pulled away. Glancing at the screen, I blinked a couple of times as I tried to focus on the caller ID. I frowned and rolled back to my spot beside Miguel. “It’s Cassidy Ryan.” I quickly swiped the screen. “Cass?”

“Raven. I’m sorry to disturb you so early.”

I glanced over at Miguel as I put the call on speaker, scooting up against my pillow as he did the same. I rubbed my hand over my face to wipe away the sleepiness. “It’s…fine, Cassidy. Miguel’s here. What’s up?”

“Mike and I were scheduled midnight to eight and we’re just getting ready to leave the scene of a homicide.” He sighed. “I’m calling because we found your names written on the back of the victim’s business card…at least we think it’s his business card. It’s a little hard to read. From what I can tell, the name on the card matches the name on his driver’s license.”

I turned to look at Miguel, feeling dread coursing through me as my eyes widened.

“Who is it, Cassidy?” Miguel asked.

“Dave…Dave Reynolds,” Cassidy replied. “Do you know him?”

Miguel frowned. “I’m not sure but the name sounds familiar.”

My stomach turned over as I met Miguel’s gaze. “It’s the investigator.”

“Makes sense,” Cassidy said. “The card says he works for Aston, Summerfield, and Billings.”

I nodded, knowing that he couldn’t see me, but Miguel could. He reached for the bedside table lamp, switching it on.

“Yeah,” I replied blinking at the bright light which suddenly lit up the room.

“Remind me of the details,” said Cass.

“That’s where Gregory Aston is a partner. He’s Tawny Flores’ attorney. She inherited her late husband’s estate and when Aston inventoried a safe at her house and learned an expensive pigeon’s blood ruby was missing, he hired us to find it.”

“This ruby is the one those rogue CIA operatives were looking for…the one they threatened you two over?”

Cassidy and Mike had been brought in at the last minute to assist the ATF and FBI with the takedown of Mendez, Cassanova, and Bishop, three of the rogue operatives who’d promised Miguel and I retribution if we didn’t hand over the ruby to them as soon as we found it. Though it had been almost a month since they’d been arrested and taken away by the CIA, I still felt guilty as hell about not bringing in our detective friends at the very beginning of our search, or at the very least, cluing them into the threats we’d received.

“Yeah, that’s the one, Cassidy.”

“Okay, and you two are still working on the recovery, right?” he asked.

“We are,” Miguel said, leaning toward the phone. “I mean, we haven’t been successful in finding it, obviously. We’ve kind of run out of leads and our assistant, Judy, who’s our skip tracer, hasn’t been able to find a thing even though she’s running down everything she can about the rogue cell of operatives.”

I nodded to Miguel before holding up the phone. “And she’s pretty pissed that she shares a last name with one of the fuckers, even though Mendez is a common enough name in Southern California.” I winced, realizing I was rambling as Miguel rolled his eyes at me. “Sorry, Cassidy. You said you have a dead body.”

“Yes, and if Mike and I are right, that means you two might tie-in to this whole mess somehow. This guy’s been dead…a while.”

I could hear the disgust in our friend’s voice, picturing the shudder which was probably coursing through his big frame. I glanced at Miguel with wide eyes. “We should meet you guys. Do you want us to come there?”

“Not here, Raven. We’re in a dilapidated, vacant building downtown. It’s not pretty and not safe,” Cassidy said to my utter relief. “We’ve finished up at the scene and the body is headed to the county medical examiner’s office. The coroner was on the scene, and she says this guy’s been dead at least a month.”

I covered my face with one hand. “Oh, shit.”

“We’ll meet you somewhere else then,” Miguel said, taking the phone out of my hand. “Would that be okay?”

“Well, that’s why I was calling,” Cassidy said. “I’m hoping you two can help with our homicide investigation. Like I said, the scene is pretty gruesome. You guys really don’t want to see this body. How about we meet you for breakfast somewhere?”

I blew out a relieved breath as I glanced at the clock then back at Miguel. The very last thing I wanted to wake up to was a request to go look at a moldering body that’d been dead for weeks. “Okay, give us an hour or so. Where would you like to meet, Cassidy?”

“How about we meet at Mel’s Drive-in?”

I glanced at Miguel who nodded. “That’d be fine, Cass,” he said. “Is the one in Santa Monica okay? The one here in Hollywood isn’t as good.”

Cassidy chuckled. “That’s fine with us. Closer to our office where we’ll be heading after breakfast anyway. How about we say six-thirty?”

“That works. See you then, Cass.” I hung up and set the phone back on the bedside table, glancing at Miguel. “If Dave Reynolds is dead, I suppose it explains why he didn’t return any of my messages.”

Miguel nodded, thinning his lips. “I’d say that’s accurate.”

I inclined my head absently before I caught the scent of my own sweat. I lifted my arm to sniff my pit. “Shit, I need a shower.”

He smiled before reaching for me and we fell back onto the bed in each other’s arms. “I love the way you smell,” he said against my lips.

My lips twitched. “Of course, you do. You fucked me last night and I smell like your come.”

He kissed me softly, holding me against his big body. I groaned as I felt his erection pressing urgently into my thigh. Kissing him back, I wanted nothing more than to give in to my body’s urges now that I had him right where I wanted him. I reluctantly pulled back from the kiss and looked into his eyes, worry suddenly rushing back as I thought of the conversation with Cassidy.

“We need to get into the shower if we’re going to meet them on time.”

He groaned, dropping his forehead and resting it against mine. “Damn…it!”

I slapped his ass before letting him go and rolling away. “Come on…up with you.” I slid to the floor, standing naked beside the bed as I held out my hand. “Come on.”

He pulled the comforter down, showing me his rampant erection as he slowly pumped it up and down. He grinned. “I am up…clearly.”

My mouth began to water but I dutifully tore my gaze away, dropping my hand, and turning to go.

“Wait. Where are you going? You can’t leave me like this,” he whined.

I grinned to myself, walking to the bathroom as I called over my shoulder, “We’re gonna be late!” I heard his grunt and words of protest as I turned on the water, sobering as my thoughts turned to the dead investigator. His murder had to tie in to our case; I just didn’t know how. But I also knew that whatever it was, it couldn’t be good.