17. Antonio
Chapter 17
Antonio
I t was the middle of the damn night and I was wide awake, staring at the blades on the ceiling fan as they gently tore through the air with their hypnotic whooshing sound, making a mockery of my inability to sleep. And all of it, my sleepless nights, my anger, and even my guilt, was Elka’s fault.
Elka and her lies.
And the look on her face when I entered her for the first time. The first fucking time! I still couldn’t believe it. That look had been equal parts anguish and desire, and completely unforgettable. Hot as hell. But right on the heels of that had come another look: tear-filled blue eyes as she kicked my sorry ass out of her house. Not that I didn’t deserve it. I did. That and a whole lot more. I was pretty sure this would get me a special seat right in front of the fires of hell.
What in the hell was I thinking, entering her so roughly? But I knew that was exactly the problem. I hadn’t been thinking. Not clearly or else I would have taken my time the way I wanted to, instead of trying to punish her for making me want her when I knew I shouldn’t. Because her body might be innocent, but she definitely wasn’t. Still, I couldn’t sleep because I screwed up and I needed to make it right. Somehow.
Because there was no way on god’s green earth she would let me within touching distance of her now.
The first thing I needed to do was figure her out. Make sense of why a twenty-four-year-old woman from a well-to-do family would simply up and leave. With her brother’s life insurance money. It had to be something nefarious, if not out-right illegal. She didn’t kill him; he’d died of natural causes from a lifelong illness, but everything else was suspicious.
Really fucking suspicious.
When it became clear that my conscious wouldn’t let me get any sleep, I took a hot shower to get me going, got dressed, and made my way into the office. The dirty little secret of law enforcement was the never-ending piles of paperwork, and since I didn’t have anything else to do, now was as good a time as any. But it turned out that paperwork wasn’t all that time consuming when you needed it as a distraction, which sent me in search of another one. This time my sights were set on my favorite distraction.
Elka Nyland.
I went digging into her background. Hers and her family’s. I found nothing to confirm my suspicions. But nothing to ease them either. Miles and Clara Nyland appeared to be good people with no criminal history, plenty of money, and two perfect children. I hadn’t been able to find even a whisper of scandal that could explain Elka’s sudden disappearance. Nothing made sense.
“Still hunting?”
I looked up at the sound of Tyson’s voice and frowned. “What are you doing here so early?”
“It’s nine o’clock. How long have you been here?” Ty stepped inside my office and shut the door, a scowl darkening his face. “Well?”
“Couldn’t sleep so I came in early, but I didn’t clock in so you’re off the hook, sheriff.”
“You know that’s not what I’m asking, deputy.”
I knew I was on dangerous ground. Ty was one of my closest friends but when he used his sheriff’s voice, there would be hell to pay. “I couldn’t sleep so I came in to catch up on paperwork. Did that, but it was still early, so I kept on doing my job.” No matter my own personal feelings about what Elka might or might not be up to, the PI had given us a reason to dig. Period.
“And has all this digging produced anything? At all?” Arms crossed, Ty wore a smug know-it-all grin.
“Nothing concrete.”
“Nothing, period,” he confirmed, and I nodded. “You could just ask her, you know.”
“Tried that,” I admitted sheepishly, hoping like hell Ty couldn’t see the guilt written all over my face. “Went horribly. As horribly as it possibly could have gone? Double it. No, triple it.” Without a hint of hesitation, I told him about our night. My surprise and how hurt Elka seemed by the whole damn evening. “So now I’m trying like hell to confirm my suspicions.”
Ty stood with a whistle and a shake of his head. “If you’re looking for something that will tell you that you weren’t wrong for being an asshole to her, I don’t think you’ll find it.”
I didn’t want to hear that even if I couldn’t deny it. Entirely. “You don’t find the insurance thing even a little suspicious?”
“On its own, no. You ever think that maybe the family used her college money to take care of the sick brother and this was their way of paying her back?”
Shit, I hadn’t thought of that. “But running away from her parents?”
“You lived in New Orleans for years. Were you running away?”
I growled. “No, I was living my life.”
He flashed another of those smug damn smiles and smacked the side of the door. “Give Elka some space, man. No one is making a legal complaint against her, so what does it matter? You and I both know you can’t legally claim a life insurance policy if you aren’t the beneficiary.”
I don’t know how long I sat behind my desk and stared at the ugly green door that offered up a hint of privacy from the hub of activity on the other side of it, but Ty had given me a lot to think about.
Which only pissed me off even more. Ty had come up with two plausible explanations without any effort, meanwhile I was stuck trying to prove my own theory. It went against everything I ever learned as an investigator. More proof of just how much she was in my head.
Maybe Ty was right about one thing. I needed distance.