Chapter 28
I said goodbye to my mom and grandma this morning and then fell back into bed.
Now I feel like the love child of a zombie and a half-crumbled mummy. No puns intended. But I’m sure I’ll come to after a while.
God, I miss caffeine.
I stumble back to my room and grab my phone off my nightstand.
Six missed calls. Three texts from Ava. One from Enzo.
They have more information.
Yesterday was a short break from thinking about what I discovered at the Tarmigans. Is Ingram lying about having pulled over Andy? Or is Andy lying about his whereabouts in Echo Valley?
And there’s still the possibility that Ingram never thought I would even find Andy.
After all, I didn’t; GhostEye did.
I can’t shake the feeling Ingram was trying to throw me off. But why? To save face?
I scroll down through the missed messages, and there’s one from Anton, too.
Mom and Grams are safe and checked-in.
He is the. Best.
And I can’t believe he’s mine.
But today, it’s back to work.
Ava asked me to come by the ranch offices today to discuss the new developments. I text Anton.
Me
I’m heading to the ranch offices in twenty.
Anton
I’ll be back from the airport soon, too. See you there, honey.
This time, I know he means honey in a whole different way.
I dress in record time. It’s freezing outside, there’s a winter bite in the air, but I barely feel it as I hurry down the porch steps and cut across the gravel path toward the offices.
My mind spins faster than my feet. Today feels pivotal—for the case and for everything else, too.
I press my palm to my belly. We’re so lucky, baby girl.
As I walk through the ranch, I wonder if I’ll ever stop marveling at what the Mendez brothers have built here.
It’s not only a charming place but a beautiful concept, and being a part of it, being welcome here on this family’s land, behind their gate, in their own sanctuary, is a privilege and a joy.
They all have homes here, bar Gabriel, who seems to have given his to Anton and happily lives with Lara in a little apartment above the bookstore for now.
I’m not surprised, I suppose. Lara always said life was too short to clean, so I never saw her settling anywhere with too much square footage, and Gabriel seems like a man with one simple need. My best friend.
The six gorgeous Spanish-style houses here are more than just places to live.
They’re a place to breathe. There are acres and acres of rolling hills, pastures filled with shiny thoroughbreds.
There’s something so secure, sacred, special about the way the hills frame this place, the amount of love and blood and sweat and maybe even Mendez tears that went into creating this ranch.
They’re self-made men, and I respect that. I’ve always romanticized the idea of grit.
And then it hits me…it’s a wonderful place to raise a child.
For some reason, now that I know our baby is a girl, it’s easier to visualize her in the flesh, as a child running around these pastures. Riding a horse. Building a fort with her talented dad. Climbing trees. Things I never did as a kid.
I never saw myself living outside of a city, but now, because of her, I can.
Each step deeper into small-town territory has me convinced I want the safety it offers. It’s comforting to know every nook and cranny of the place you live in.
Which makes me think of the case again…
If Zoe was murdered, why didn’t anyone notice something suspicious in town around the time of Zoe’s accident? There must be a dozen Nosy Nancys that would have reported details Ingram could have followed up on.
I rub my hands together and walk faster through the brisk air.
I need fewer questions and more answers today.
I walk up the stairs to get to the GhostEye offices and push through the door.
Ava and Enzo look up from their monitors the moment I enter. Enzo offers a nod and a thin-lipped smile, but his eyebrows are so deeply furrowed over those cute glasses of his, he’s clearly in the middle of something.
Ava’s red hair is piled into a messy bun, her honey-colored eyes much more alert than I feel this morning.
“Sorry we blew up your phone,” she says.
“No, I’m sorry I missed the calls.”
I was up late, under threat of being spanked with a wooden spoon.
“Do you want tea?” she asks.
I nod, rubbing my chilled hands together. “I’ll get it.”
Ava is back to typing. “I’m pulling up the details for us to discuss. We found a lot. I wish Rio were here today…”
“Why?” I’m surprised he has anything to add that Enzo and Ava don’t have.
Does he want to ask me if I pulled the other case up yet?
“He’s really interested in this. Not entirely sure why, but it seems personal. You know him.” She hooks her thumb toward Enzo. “If you think this one is a grumpy closed book, Rio has been working on that for three minutes longer, so he has the edge.”
Enzo glances up and cocks his eyebrow, apparently not appreciating that his twin is better by three minutes at anything than he is.
I finish making an herbal tea for myself and pour a cup of coffee for Anton, who should be here any minute.
Ava’s already opening windows on her screen, her bun bobbing as she leans forward. “Okay,” she says, “Enzo and I pulled everything you sent last night. There’s a lot to cover. So—”
“Wait.”
The word leaves me before I think it through. Ava pauses, brows lifting.
I set both mugs down. “I want to wait for Anton.”
Ava studies me for half a second, then beams. “Sure,” she says. “It’s up to you.”
I wrap my hands around my tea. I’ve never been someone who waits. Waiting has always felt like inaction.
But now?
Now it feels like a step toward everything that will make my life better. Partnership.
I trust Anton’s assessments. His instincts. And more than that, I trust he wants this case over as much as I do. I don’t want him to miss a single detail anymore because he could potentially catch something I miss.
Footsteps sound on the stairs a minute later. Anton walks in, hair wind-mussed, bright blue eyes finding mine instantly. A softening crosses his face when he sees the two mugs.
“Morning,” he says, and the tone is normal, but the way his gaze sears through me, it’s like he’s ready to take me back to bed.
“Your coffee’s here.” I smile demurely and push it into the spot next to me at the conference table.
He shrugs off his Carhartt jacket and places it on the back of the chair, his hand squeezing my shoulder as he sits down. A shiver skates down my spine and right back between my legs.
Ava doesn’t notice a thing as she finishes typing something on her screen. “Okay,” she says, now clicking her mouse. “Let’s get into what we found. Starting with the Andy Tarmigan angle.”
I sit up straighter. “Go.”
Ava pulls up a window full of logs, then turns to us to explain what’s on her screen. “First off,” she says, “we looked into Andy’s insistence that he wasn’t near the quarry on the day Zoe died and tried to find him an alibi so we can rule him out.”
“Was he at home?” I ask.
“We’ve confirmed that,” she says, “Andy was logged into a porn site at the time of Zoe’s incident.”
A porn site?
So many questions flood my mind, and none of them have to do with Andy’s desire.
Enzo and Ava are hackers by nature—unstoppable when pointed at a problem—and I don’t have a warrant for any of this. “How did you get that information?”
I probably shouldn’t ask.
But I need to start thinking about due process.
Enzo catches my concern instantly. “It’s all above board.
GhostEye provides cybersecurity and fraud protection for several major adult-content platforms. They’re high-risk targets for identity theft, minors trying to bypass age-checks, and, unfortunately, sex-trafficking patterns.
We’re contracted to secure their systems and flag anything that crosses into criminal territory. ”
He tips his head toward Ava. “That gives us legal access to authentication logs—timestamps, IP data, verification pings. Nothing invasive. The fact that his account hit one of our security queues was luck…” He quirks an eyebrow and tips his head toward his fiancée. “Wasn’t it, Scottie?”
Ava nods her head innocently, and I can’t read the situation between these two. But GhostEye has legal access to these logs; that’s all I need to know.
Ava explains. “The platform records every login by time and IP. His login from the night Zoe died came from Mount Hamilton.”
“Okay…” I let the information settle.
I guess many civilians don’t realize their digital footprint can be an alibi. Then again, given Andy’s past, maybe he doesn’t want people to think he has a sexual appetite anymore.
But we need to lock this down airtight if I can scratch Andy off. “You’re sure he was in Mount Hamilton? He could have logged in from anywhere with data. Right?”
“You’re right to ask.” Enzo takes off his glasses and combs his fingers through his hair. “Because, for example, he could use a VPN or Tor for anonymity. But we tracked usage patterns on this site, as well, so we’re solid on location.”
It takes me a second to follow, but they cross-checked it. But then I have another thought.
“What about if someone else logged in using his credentials?” I ask.
Just then, Anton’s hand lands on my thigh, and he squeezes it. Heat flickers through me.
I glance over to him, and his features say he’s impressed, proud. I smile at him knowingly; he’s the mentor who told me to never stop asking questions until there are truly none left to ask.
Maybe the nice thing I can do for Anton one day is play student-teacher in the bedroom.
I offer Anton a smile, but hurry back to business. I can’t get distracted by six-foot-five sexy men today. Today is dedicated to Zoe Marshall.
As if reading Anton’s pride, Ava compliments me. “You should come work for GhostEye…”
My cheeks heat because though she’s younger than I am, she’s world-class at what she does, and I’m just a minnow. It’s a hell of a vote of confidence coming from her.
I laugh lightly. “One case at a time…”