24. Chapter 24
Chapter 24
The best thing that ever happened to me is you.
“This is pretty interesting,” Berlin murmured, seemingly more to herself than Chance as he stepped into the living room where she was stretched out on one of the couches. In little shorts that showed off toned legs and a tiny tank top, she looked good enough to eat.
“What is?” He met her gaze when he wanted to drink in all the soft lines of her. They’d been back at the safe house for a few hours, and he felt like they were in a waiting pattern. Not that he wasn’t grateful for all their help, but he was starting to go stir-crazy.
She blinked and looked up at him. “What? Oh…nothing. I’ve just been going over all the incoming and outgoing calls to that guy Luis’s phone. His real name too. But he’s got some shady contacts… What’s that?”
“Food. You need to eat something.” He sat on the couch next to her, handed her a four-cheese grilled sandwich. “I’ve also got soup for you in the kitchen because I wasn’t sure you’d want to eat that in here.”
“You cooked for me?” There was a slightest accusatory note in her voice, even if she was smiling at him.
“It’s grilled cheese and tomato soup.”
“It’s my favorite comfort food.”
“I remember you saying that.”
“Oh right… Sometimes I forget how much I told you.”
He held out a hand and pulled her to her feet. “Come on. You can bring your laptop with you, but you still need to eat. You’ll feel better once you do.”
“Thank you for this.” The way she looked at him, as if he’d hung the moon… He could get used to that.
He shrugged. “It’s the least I can do. And for the record, if you need me to do more…I’m here. I can’t hack like you, but I’m decent enough with research.”
“There are actually some things you can look over. It’ll help speed things up.”
“Good,” he said as she sat and he started ladling soup into a bowl for her. “So what’s interesting about Luis’s phone records?”
“One pattern sticks out, but only because of the weird consistency of the calls. Every Sunday at five a.m., he gets a call that lasts for approximately twenty seconds. It could be nothing, but it’s so damn consistent.”
“Same number?”
“No, each one is a burner, which makes sense for guys doing illegal things. I’m now running all the burner numbers but doubt I’ll get anything.”
“Did you get anything on the images from the tattoo parlor?”
“The guy named Carlos is a ghost. I know I said everyone leaves a trail, but I’m coming up with nothing on him. Santi, aka Santiago Alonso, is a tattoo artist, from New Orleans, and started working at the shop two years ago. I can’t tell if he’s dirty or not or just working for assholes. Or maybe…I don’t know.”
He nudged her laptop out of the way as he sat next to her. “You’re incredible, and if anyone is going to find anything, it’s you.”
“Don’t put too much faith in me,” she muttered.
“Why not? You’re amazing.” And he had a feeling that she didn’t hear it enough. Anytime he complimented her, she didn’t seem to know how to react.
She gave him a jerky shrug, then averted her gaze as she focused on her soup.
He’d also realized last night, after the first time they’d gotten naked together, that she was a runner. It had been so damn clear in her body language that she was trying to “wham, bam, thank you ma’am” and run.
But he wasn’t having that. When he’d first met her in person, he’d had a fairly clear plan that he was going to ditch her help and do this on his own. Then he’d been determined to keep his distance.
After having a taste of her… Yeah, there was no going back. He was addicted and he wasn’t going to run from Berlin. Run after her maybe, but not run from her.
“If I can’t find him, I don’t want you to hate me,” she whispered, looking up with big, blue-green eyes that he could drown in.
Her words surprised him. Or more, the intensity behind them did.
Setting his spoon down, he reached for her free hand. “First, I could never hate you. You’ve gone out of your way to help me, a stranger—”
“You’re not a stranger,” she murmured.
“Fine, not a stranger. But you’re doing a lot more than anyone else would have done and…I’m incredibly grateful. And I’m going to keep calling you incredible, because you are.”
“You’re pretty incredible yourself.” Her cheeks flushed pink as she spoke.
And he realized she was talking about something totally different now. He grinned slightly. “You tried to run from me.”
“I didn’t run.” She picked up her spoon, ignoring his gaze again.
“You did. And for the record, if you try to run in the future, I’ll just follow.” She spent all her time taking care of all the people in her life and he was starting to realize that no one took care of her. That was changing—he wanted to be the one who took care of her now. Though if he came out and said that, it’d terrify her even more. Still, he wanted to make one thing clear: she could run, but she couldn’t hide.
She looked over at him with an expression he couldn’t begin to read. Which was fine, because he didn’t need a response. He just wanted her to know where he stood.
By her side.
***
“I’m gonna grab this,” Chance murmured, standing and stretching. He’d been looking over the file she’d sent him for the last hour, but paused when he saw Evander’s name on the caller ID. It wasn’t like Hot Shot to call so quickly after just calling less than a week ago.
Berlin gave him a distracted smile and nodded as she continued working.
“Hey, everything okay?” he asked as he headed up the stairs.
“Yeah, just checking in.”
“Checking in or checking up on me?”
Evan laughed lightly. “Both. What’s going on with your girl who’s not really your girl?”
“We’re making progress.”
“On what? Seriously, what’s this all about? You had me do a deep dive on someone I can barely get any information on and then I hear nothing from you.”
He eased the bedroom door shut behind him, sank onto the end of the bed. The room smelled like her, like them , and he inhaled deeply. “Enzo’s missing and she’s helping me find him.”
Evan was quiet for a long moment. “I thought you guys weren’t talking.”
“We weren’t. Then we started again and…Enzo’s involved in some bad stuff and my girl has resources I don’t.”
“Your girl, huh?”
“Shut up.”
“You sure you can trust her? You just met her.”
“I didn’t just meet her. We’ve been gaming together for years. I just…didn’t know she was a woman.”
“Wait, is this Moonlighter? The trash talk king?”
Chance snickered. “Yeah.”
“Trash talk queen, then. So, you sure you can trust her?”
“With my life, no questions asked.”
“Oh. Shit.”
“Yeah.” He scrubbed a hand over his face. “She’s brilliant. But I don’t know if it’s going to be enough—hey, oh shit, Enzo’s calling. I gotta go.” He ended the call without waiting for a response to switch over. “Hey, you okay? Where are you?”
“I’m fine. But I know I fell off communication and things were…rough between us. I didn’t want you to think I was ghosting you. I can’t talk long, but I just wanted to let you know I’m okay and I’ll be going offline again for a bit. And…I love you. I don’t think I ever said that enough, or at all, when we were kids. But you did a lot for us. For Ivy, for me. You kept it together when Mom went off the rails, and had way too much responsibility… Thank you.”
“Enzo—” But the line had gone dead. He cursed even as he dialed him back, but it went straight to voicemail. It went to voicemail again as he hurried down the stairs where he found Berlin already off the couch, her laptop tucked under her arm.
“Your brother called you,” she said before he could say a word. “I’ve been monitoring his phone from the moment you told me everything. And if I have, chances are the people he stole from have been too. I’ve found him—and we need to go now.”
Ice slid through his veins as the truth of her words hit him square in the chest. “We’ve got to go.”