Chapter Two
Stace sat in the passenger seat of Shep’s truck while Griff followed behind them in her vehicle. She still wasn’t exactly sure how she’d been talked into that, other than the taste of Shep’s mouth had left her reeling. Since that kiss, it was all she could do to curb the sexual thoughts filling her mind. She wanted to crawl into his lap and ride him until they were both screaming with pleasure. It had taken all her control to keep her hands to herself while they’d been in his apartment, knowing one of the rooms he’d ducked into had a bed she imagined held the scent of his skin. Luckily, he packed quickly and chatted the whole time, asking her question after question that kept her mind occupied.
“Why use us?” Shep asked, interrupting her perusal.
“Hmm?” Her gaze snapped from the stretched denim covering his thighs up to his eyes, which flicked toward her before turning back to the road.
“You told me at my place that you find people. That’s your job. Then why come to us for help?”
“A friend of mine knows Jack through Gil Daniels. He told me to be smart and ask for help with this,” she admitted.
“You have a habit of not being smart?” Shep asked, and the only thing that saved him was he didn’t seem convinced that observation was true.
“I have a habit of going solo. I was reminded that, when we’re emotionally involved, we can overlook things that others would hit on.”
“Sounds like someone knows you well enough they’re comfortable giving you advice you might not like,” Shep continued.
“Yes.”
“No heat between the two of you?”
Ah, he’d told her he wasn’t dating anyone currently, but she hadn’t offered him the same information.
“More like a brother. Most of the guys from my military days are. At least, the ones I chose to keep in touch with. I know too much about them to ever date one of them,” she assured him.
“You didn’t keep in touch with Gil? You mentioned you knew him, but a mutual friend told you about Jack,” Shep said when she didn’t respond right away.
“No, Gil and I were never close. We worked well together. He commanded a tight unit, but I wasn’t with them for long. I was sent in to help finish a mission when they lost a member of their team. Everything was fresh then. I don’t think he could look at me without remembering who I’d replaced. I did my job, and when it was done, I moved on.” She shrugged. She hadn’t known Gil long, but in those types of situations, she’d learned the character of the man very quickly. Gil Daniels was a good one. “What about you? How did an Army Ranger end up with a bunch of Marines?”
“They got lucky,” he said with a grin that made her laugh.
“How have you managed to keep the women at bay?” she murmured as she stared at him.
“Never met the right one,” he answered quietly after short silence. Something in his eyes made her wonder if there’d been someone but for some reason, it hadn’t worked out between the two. What type of woman would make a man like Shep feel regret?
“I’m going to answer some emails for a bit,” she said, waving of her phone. She needed to stop thinking about Shep and get her mind back on her sister. Chloe had always come first with her, and she’d been missing for four weeks.
“Home first or the bar?” Shep asked a bit later, pulling her from the report she was reading.
“Up to you,” she said. She’d already been to the bar. Several times. “You’ve seen all the information I have from the Sheriff’s office. The trail’s cold. If I’d gotten back sooner, I would have had more to go on.”
“Don’t do that.” Shep reached over and squeezed her hand with his. “We’ll find something. No one disappears without a trace.”
Stace nodded, not pulling away when he kept his hand on hers. The truth was, she could use the comfort. It had been too long since she’d had anyone to lean on. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw Chloe, her infectious smile that always hinted at how mischievous she was. She sought fun the way Stace craved danger. Stace had been in her fair share of intense situations. Some while in the military but most since leaving and moving into the private sector. She knew what happened to women who were taken. She couldn’t imagine any of that happening to Chloe. Not her Chloe. And four weeks? That was a long time to be missing.
“Hey,” Shep said, drawing her attention, but when she looked up, he had his phone to his ear. “Why don’t you stop at the bar and see what you can find. See if any of the staff from the night Chloe went missing are working, feel them out. I’ll take Stace to the house and look at Chloe’s room, her computer and things.” He nodded as if Griff could see him. “Pizza sounds good. Whatever. See you later.”
“Whatever?” Stace asked when Shep disconnected the call.
He cleared his throat. “Pizza.”
“You said pizza followed by whatever .”
“It’s recovery food,” he muttered.
“Recovery?” She paused. “He thinks we’re going to the house to have sex?”
“He doesn’t. He was just being an ass. It’s his default.”
Stace snorted. She would have said Griff Daniel’s default was seduction. At least with women. There was just something about him. “He’s definitely different from his brother.”
“Both of his brothers,” Shep agreed. “Their baby sister, Katie, is the real gem, though. She’s married to Ben Marcum.”
“He works with Gil.” Stace had done her research, though admittedly, it had been easier to find information on a few of them. Some, mostly Jack Madigan’s employees, hadn’t been as easy.
“Yep. Great guy. Stick around long enough, and you’ll meet him.”
She wasn’t touching that comment. She was physically attracted to Shep, but a lot was going on. Her sister’s disappearance being the most important. She questioned why she’d given in to the impulse to kiss him and let him know she was interested in him. What was wrong with her? She was trying to distract herself from the panic setting in. That’s what was wrong. She might not know Shep, but he deserved to be appreciated and not used. She wasn’t sure she had anything to give at the moment.
“What are you doing?” She glanced around as he pulled over the car.
“This is where they found your sister’s car. Don’t tense up,” he ordered as she started to do just that. “Keep loose. Open mind. Let’s walk through what we heard on that tape.”
“She pulled over because she knew she’d been drugged,” Stace said.
“Smart girl,” Shep said then added. “Pulled over and called for help.”
“They thought she was drunk at first,” Stace continued. “I talked to the operator who took the call. She was apologetic. Said she thought Chloe was a drunk driver at first.”
“It happens,” Shep offered with a shrug. “Back to Chloe. She’s fumbling for the phone, slurring her words as the drug starts working. What does she focus on?”
Stace closed her eyes and heard every moment of that call in her head. Heard the underlying fear in her sister’s voice as she struggled to tell what was going on. “She saw lights behind her. A vehicle pulled up.”
“Stop,” he said. “You’re going with what you know happened. I want you to focus on her. You know her better than anyone. What did she do when she saw the lights?”
“She passed out,” she began angrily, but he shook his head and put a finger to her lips.
“What did she hear?” he asked.
Stace took a deep breath and tried to relax her body. It was hard to think of her sister in the moment before she was taken. Had she been aware enough to be afraid?
“The lock clicked open. She knew someone was there, and it wasn’t from her call. Two voices, masculine, speaking about drugging her. One took her. The other searched her vehicle and shut off her phone off when he found it.”
“Her car was here when the first responder arrived,” Shep said. “Doors locked. Phone in the driver’s seat. Purse and schoolbag still on the passenger seat. They took nothing but her.”
“And?” She needed to know what he was getting at.
“According to her file, Chloe was well liked. No angry ex. No known enemies.”
“Everyone loves Chloe. She’s the sweetest person you’ll ever meet,” Stace agreed.
“Then either she caught the wrong person’s attention or someone came looking for her. Do you have any enemies we should know about? Anyone who might take your sister to send you a message?”
She stared at him for a full minute. “No. My life is fully separate from hers. Only one person knows what I do because he sets up everything for me.”
“You trust him?”
“Without reservation,” Stace replied immediately. She didn’t need to think about it. “He wouldn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes. If he’d known, if he’d even suspected anything, Chloe would have been well protected while I was gone.”
Shep nodded, but she saw more questions in his gaze. “How long do you have before your next job?”
“My last one was just that. My last one. I’m done.”
Shep nodded then pulled back onto the road and headed toward Stace’s house. She rolled around everything in her head while he drove. She figured he was sorting through his thoughts, as well. She wasn’t sure whether he’d share what he was thinking or not.
Stace decided she’d share a little about the dynamic between her and Chloe. “My sister is twelve years younger than me. We’re not as close as I’d like.”
“Twelve years is a lot,” Shep agreed. “You would have left home while she was still a young girl.”
“I did. Then our parents died in a car wreck while I was serving my last year in the Marines. I came home long enough to set things in order, then I left her in the care of her best friend’s family while I finished my year. When I came home, we moved into the farmhouse.”
“How old were you both?” Shep asked.
“I was twenty-six,” Stace said. “Chloe was fourteen.”
“Her parents had just been killed, and her sister came home only long enough to pawn her off on someone else,” Shep mused. “I can see how that wouldn’t help you be close.”
“Nah.” Stace shook her head and smiled. “Chloe had a mad case of hero worship of me back then. Thought it was the bomb that I was in the Marines, bragged about it to all her friends. She was a good kid, smart. She was the one who approached me with the idea of living with Nicole and her family while I finished out my tour.”
“You weren’t going to?” Shep asked.
“I would have requested a discharge. I didn’t want to leave her,” Stace admitted. “She told me I had to.”
“Smart girl.”
“Incredible,” Stace agreed. “And, yeah, she probably could have easily kept secrets from me. I know she suspected I traveled for reasons other than being multilingual.”
“How many languages do you speak?”
“Twelve though only six fluently and one is a dead language.”
“Impressive. Handy, too, I’d assume.”
“I have an affinity for languages,” Stace confessed. “I always have.” She saw more questions in his gaze and marveled at his ability to push them aside.
“Are Nicole and Chloe still close friends?” he asked.
“Yeah, they still hang out all the time. They’re both in school together.”
“Have you talked to Nicole since you got back?”
“Yes. They’d had plans the day after Chloe was taken. Nicole became worried when she didn’t show and wouldn’t answer her phone.
“I think maybe after we do a thorough look through of your sister’s stuff, we should set up a time to talk to Nicole again. See if she’s thought of anything else since you last spoke,” Shep said as he pulled up before the house. “Wow. Gorgeous house. Big.”
“Thank you. It’s hard to be here without her,” Stace admitted. The house was too quiet, too empty. It seemed to settle on her shoulders like a mantle of guilt for all the times she hadn’t been around. Everywhere she looked, she saw signs of her sister. The hard truth was, it was more Chloe’s house than it would ever be Stace’s.
“I can’t imagine,” Shep said, reaching to take her hand and give it a squeeze. The man really was gorgeous with all his shaggy blond hair and bright blue eyes. Whatever he saw on her face had him tugging her against his chest. “Have you ever had anyone take care of you?”
She shook her head. Not in a long, long time. She had no one. She was the rock. Always.
“Let me help you, Stace. Let me share my strength. Let me be here for you when you need a shoulder. I won’t let you down,” he vowed.
“Kiss me,” she begged, needing the connection. “I need—”
He leaned in and claimed her mouth, cutting off her words as he licked inside. Shep kissed with his whole body. His mouth possessed hers while his hands stroked over her skin, pressing her closer until she was flush against him. He cupped her ass in his hands and rubbed her against the erection filling his jeans. Her nipples were hard points against his chest. When he finally eased back, he ran his lips along her jaw and to her neck where he nipped her softly.
“I want you. You want me.” There was a wicked twinkle in his eyes when he met her gaze again. “But don’t think I won’t make you work for it.”
She laughed with genuine surprise. Shep grinned and took her hand, linking his fingers with hers.
“Come on. Show me where to put my stuff,” Shep said.
Stace led him inside and fought the urge to take him to her bedroom. Donovan Shepard was more than a casual hookup. The fact she knew that, understood it even with all that was going on with her sister, terrified her. It was the wrong time, but Shep was seeming more and more like the right man.