Chapter 2
“Ireally fucking hate them,” came the heavily sighed murmur from the half-naked man that stumbled into her as he used his hold on her to steady her while Ashlyn did her best to ignore the tendrils of pleasure racing over her skin where he touched her.
There was something seriously wrong with her.
Then again, she’d always known that, Ashlyn absently thought as she took this opportunity to study him, taking in everything from the muscle clenching in his freshly shaved jaw as he glared at something over his shoulder to the admittedly impressive muscles that made up his torso.
She definitely could have picked worse men to dream about, Ashlyn told herself, allowing herself one heartfelt sigh on behalf of women everywhere before she pulled her arms back in a move that dislodged his hold on her and then, just for the hell of it, she side-stepped him, placing her leg behind his and pushed, taking him by surprise and knocking him on his ass.
She ignored his pained grunt and focused on the reason that she was here.
“Detective Black?” Ashlyn said, ignoring the large man on the ground that was currently glaring at her, and Christ, she could actually feel him glaring, and focused on the man standing in the doorway, looking amused as his cold gaze flickered between her and his brother.
When Shayne muttered something in another language that she couldn’t quite place, his brother’s lips twitched as he stepped aside and gestured for her to come in.
With a nod of thanks, Ashlyn made her way inside the large Victorian home and quickly took in the large foyer, noting all the exits before focusing her attention on the framed pictures on the wall of Tristan and his wife as children up until now.
In every picture, Tristan Black was glaring, Ashlyn noted, feeling her lips twitch only to amend that observation to every picture but one when she spotted the picture of Tristan and his wife on what appeared to be their wedding day.
The look on his face as he gazed into his wife’s eyes left absolutely no doubt in her mind that he was head over heels in love with his wife.
Then again, the way that he watched his wife as she made her way down the stairs to join them told Ashlyn everything that she needed to know.
As she watched the woman who’d managed to bring Detective Tristan Black to his knees, Ashlyn found herself thinking about that moment a little over a month ago when the elevator doors at the hospital opened just as Marty released a heart-wrenching cry.
She’d never heard anything like it.
“Why don’t we talk in here?” Tristan suggested, absently gesturing towards the cozy living room to her right as he leaned down and kissed his wife, almost as though he couldn’t quite help himself.
Ashlyn glanced back at the front door in time to watch Shayne walk into the house and do a double-take when he saw her.
She watched as his stunned expression turned confused while she made her way into the living room.
By the time Ashlyn sat down in the oversized chair, she’d shifted into work mode and completely forgot about the incredibly handsome man that haunted her dreams.
“Julia Mason,” Ashlyn said, pulling a thick file from her bag and tossed it on the coffee table as soon as Tristan sat down on the couch with his wife.
“What about her?” Tristan asked, sending her a curious look while his wife frowned in confusion as she stared at Ashlyn, most likely trying to figure out why she looked so different than the last time that she saw her at the hospital.
“I was on a case when we met at the hospital and was undercover,” Ashlyn said, answering Marty’s unspoken question before focusing back on Tristan. “I’m looking for her.”
“That much I gathered from your emails,” Tristan said as the man that she was determined to ignore sat down in the chair across from her. “What I don’t understand is what you’re doing here when it’s not my case.”
“Because you requested her file and I’m curious why,” Ashlyn said, painfully aware of the large man watching her.
“Professional curiosity,” Tristan drawled as he leaned over to grab the file she’d tossed on the coffee table only to have his wife beat him to it.
“And the other files?” Ashlyn asked, still wondering what the connection between all the missing women was, considering they had nothing in common.
When she learned that a detective from New Hampshire was looking into her missing person case from Massachusetts a few months ago, she wondered why.
She’d called in a few favors and found out that he was looking into similar cases from neighboring states.
She started making phone calls, calling in more favors and was able to find out that he’d requested eighty-nine cases in total.
It took some time, but she was eventually able to get copies of all the files and started going through them in her free time only to end up even more confused when she didn’t find anything that linked them together.
The women had absolutely nothing in common.
Their ages ranged from sixteen to eighty-four.
They were all different races, had different occupations, relationship statuses, religions, and economic backgrounds, and had gone missing over a thirty-year period.
Out of the eighty-nine cases, two women had been found alive, nine women had been found dead, and seventy-eight women still remained missing.
When she couldn’t find a common denominator that connected all the women from the files, she started looking into each case, visiting their family and friends, and created timelines for their last twenty-four hours before they went missing.
She also visited each site, looking for something, anything, that the police might have missed only to realize that it was time to talk to Detective Black and find out why he was looking into these cases.
Normally, she liked to be better prepared, have more answers than questions before she approached a detective that she’d never worked with before, but she’d reached a dead-end and no longer had a choice.
Julia Mason went missing ten years ago and while the family had finally accepted the fact that their daughter was gone, they wanted a chance to bring her home and say goodbye.
“Also professional curiosity,” Tristan said as the large man that she was ignoring narrowed his eyes on her. “The question is, why are you looking into the other cases?”
“I’m guessing for the same reason that you are,” Ashlyn said, knowing better than to show her hand.
“And that is...”
“Because they’re all connected,” she said, watching as he slowly nodded.
“And you have no idea how,” Tristan drawled softly as his wife went through the thick file on her lap while the man that she was determined to ignore continued to glare at her.
“Which is why I’m here,” Ashlyn said, gesturing to the file on his wife’s lap. “The family wants to know what happened to their daughter.”
“They all do,” Tristan said as he considered her.
“And they deserve to find out,” Ashlyn said, keeping her gaze locked with his, knowing better than to look away first.
“And you’re hoping that I tell you everything that I know,” Tristan drawled, the assessing gaze never leaving her while he debated whether or not to help her. Given what she’d been told about him, she knew that he would have absolutely no problem telling her to go to hell.
“It would make this easier,” Ashlyn said, watching as he slowly nodded.
“It’s not my job to make this easier for you, Miss Cambridge.”
“You’re right,” Ashlyn said, reaching into her bag and pulled out a memory stick and held it up, “but I can make your job easier.”
“I’m on medical leave. My job couldn’t possibly get any easier,” Tristan drawled while Ashlyn sat there, absently twirling the memory stick between her fingers even as she couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else was disturbed by that glare currently aimed in her direction.
“True, but as a newly married man with a baby on the way, I’m sure that your time would be better spent elsewhere, especially since you went back on duty a week ago,” Ashlyn pointed out, making his lips twitch before adding, “Unofficially.”
“Been looking into me?” Tristan asked, sounding amused.
“Wanted to know what to expect,” Ashlyn said, shrugging it off.
“And what did you find?”
“Besides the fact that you’re an asshole?” she asked, watching as his wife’s lips pulled up into a smile.
“Besides that,” Tristan said, waving it off as though it was a given.
For a moment, she considered telling him everything that she’d learned about him, but after meeting his biological mother, she didn’t think it was a good idea to mention the woman that gave him up when he was six years old, mostly because just thinking about her pissed Ashlyn off.
When she’d questioned her about her firstborn son, she’d acted like she had no idea what Ashlyn was talking about until she eventually admitted that he was a mistake, one that she was more than happy to forget about.
That, of course, led to relief when she realized that Ashlyn was a private investigator.
She’d begged Ashlyn to take on her precious baby boy’s case for free, along with a sob story about her husband dying that she no doubt used every chance she got to save her son’s ass.
Every time Ashlyn tried to bring the conversation back to Tristan, she kept bringing the conversation back to her precious son, doing her best to convince Ashlyn that he was innocent.
He wasn’t.
In fact, he was right where he needed to be as far as Ashlyn was concerned and just to make sure that he stayed in prison, she shared everything that she found out about the woman’s precious son with the investigating detective.
“You worked on your associates degree while you finished high school, which allowed you to graduate from college with a degree in criminal justice and psychology, early. You graduated at the top of your class from the police academy. You scored high on your detective’s exam, securing a position early and quickly rose through the ranks to lead detective. ”
“You’ve been awarded two medals of valor, been shot once, and you have a history of pissing people off.
You also have the highest complaints of any officer in the district, with most people using the term “Asshole” to describe you and according to an anger management group that made me promise not to tell you about their new location and meeting time, you very well might be a direct descendent of the Devil,” Ashlyn said with a heartfelt sigh that had Detective Black’s lips twitching again.
“Then, there’s that video of you that went viral a few months ago...” Ashlyn said, letting her words trail off as she watched his eyes narrow dangerously on her. She had to admit that video made her day, the censored and uncensored versions.
“He was very happy to see me that day,” Marty said with a wistful sigh that had her husband turning that glare on her while Ashlyn sneaked a glance to her right and-
Yup, Shayne was still glaring at her.
“We talked about the staring,” Ashlyn reminded him as she continued absently twirling the memory stick in her hand only to go still when she felt something cold brush against her skin seconds before she was hit with a wave of cold dread.
Just as quickly as it started, it was over, leaving her sitting there, struggling to suppress a shudder only to feel a burst of cold air rush over her, sending goosebumps racing down her spine.
Another gust of cold air had her releasing a shaky breath only to leave her frowning as she watched everyone in the room suddenly go still.
She watched as the men shared a discreet look, Tristan subtly shaking his head while Shayne sat there, looking furious before their gazes as one returned to her only to shift to the right, drawing her attention and-
“I’ll tell you everything that I know on one condition.”
“And what’s that?” Ashlyn murmured absently as she glanced over her shoulder and-
“That you work with my brother.”