Chapter 7
Chapter
Seven
VES
“Oh, it’s like that, huh?” I playfully scowl as Cali splashes me, my girl giggling and squealing as I start to chase her. “You better be ready for the consequences then, kiddo.”
She screeches and laughs as I get closer, rushing to hide behind Arlo, and I can’t help but chuckle in return.
“You think he’s going to be able to save you?”
“Help me, Arlo! The big daddy sea monster is after me!”
Her nanny grins as he puffs out his bare chest, the little drops of water glistening in the moonlight as he widens his arms and tries to create a barrier between us. “I’ll protect you, Princess Calista!”
I’m sure he doesn’t think I’m going to do anything now that my daughter has dragged him into her game, but he’s wrong.
I keep moving forward, picking up my pace as my feet dig into the sand, pushing against the thigh high water until Arlo is within range and as soon as he is, I snatch him up by the waist and hoist him over my shoulder.
I grin at his surprised gasp as I start backing up, Cali’s eyes widen before she starts running toward us. “I’ll save you, Arlo!”
“Never!” I shout. I don’t have to move very fast to outrun her in the water, and my daughter is a great swimmer, but I quickly get to where the waves hit just under my pecs and just as she starts treading water, I raise my free hand in the air and proclaim, “I’ll defeat your army once and for all!
” before falling backward and taking Arlo into the warm water with me.
We both pop up a few seconds later, Cali giggling like crazy as she swims toward us, Arlo laughing a little freer as he watches her but it softens and he blushes like crazy as soon as he looks at me.
If this was any other scenario, and I was any other man, I could easily mistake this entire interaction as familial.
Something about Arlo has had my defenses slipping, and I have a feeling that each weekend he brings Cali out to me, it’ll get a little harder to keep them firmly in place.
Being around him is easy.
Easy and natural.
It was for Cali from the very beginning.
She’s been comfortable with Arlo from day one and I’ve seen her affection and adoration for him grow tenfold since then.
Watching their relationship evolve from nanny and client to what I could almost call parent and child has done things to me I wasn’t expecting. Or prepared for.
He’s still young, so young at times, but Arlo is what my mother calls an old soul and that comes through more often than not, and I think it’s why he’s fallen in step with my daughter so easily.
I think that’s why it’s safe to say Cali loves him, even if she dances around the words when we talk one on one, and I know that’s why I’ve softened to him the way I have.
Seeing someone genuinely care for my little girl, really care for her the way he does, reminds me of the only void in our life, and how I secretly would love to see it filled.
I won’t even admit it to myself most of the time, but having a partner like him, someone as sweet and thoughtful, as beautiful and caring as Arlo, helping me raise my daughter, and who could love me the way I desperately need and long to reciprocate is something I crave.
But it’s something I know won’t happen, either.
I’ve been down that road before and while it brought me Calista, it almost destroyed both of us, and I won’t ever let something like that happen again.
Moments like these allow room for doubt, though.
Which is why I break Arlo’s stare and start heading back toward the beach.
“Fifteen more minutes,” I grunt as I push my hair out of my face. “Then we head back to the hotel for dinner and bed.”
“Thirty!” Cali shouts before I hear another splash.
“Twenty.” I turn and face them, and I can’t help but smile as Arlo lifts my little girl and tosses her into the water. “It’s late.”
“Twenty-five!” she squeals as she comes up for air and starts doggy-paddling right back to him. “Please, Daddy! Then I promise, I’ll go right to bed when we get back and I won’t complain about what we end up eating!”
With an amused sigh, I shake my head in defeat. “Twenty-five, and not a second more.”
I watch them play for a few moments then turn and head to our towels, plopping down on one at the exact second my phone beeps.
Butler
DB in San Clemente. Same MO. Check it out ASAP.
I roll my eyes and toss my phone back on the towel then scrub my hands over my face.
Looks like he’s going to let me wear my big boy FBI pants now.
I guarantee the only fucking reason he’s putting me on this is because I’m here.
If I wasn’t on site, if I was back in LA or on another stop in my tour, he’d just email me the file and make me try to figure shit out without physically seeing the fresh scene.
I’d have to wing it even though this is the first time The Orphan has killed anyone since I’ve been assigned this deep dive bullshit.
The fact that I’m currently in the same city is a bit of a game changer.
With an annoyed huff, I grab my phone and start searching news sites to see if the story has hit the press yet, pleased to find it hasn’t before I pull up the police department and make the call.
One that lasts all of two minutes since the chief basically begged for my help.
Apparently this is a little more brutal than what they’re used to in San Clemente.
The cop called to the scene passed out as soon as he found the body, and two of their CSI threw up once they arrived.
They’re going to need a lot more than me and my shitty attitude if their seasoned professionals are dropping like flies.
Then again, I’m not about to share this with anyone at the local office.
Butler wants The Orphan to be my case, even if it’s just so I don’t solve it and finally retire? So be it. I’ll call in the only two people from my office I trust to help me process the evidence—which is exactly what I’m doing—and I’ll prove that fucker wrong.
Not before Cali’s last twenty-five minutes are up, though.
I won’t go back on our deal, not even for a serial killer.
The local police are all over it, the victim will keep at the coroner’s office if they get that far, they’re holding the scene for me and since I need to get my people out here, it won’t matter how long it takes.
I’ll let my daughter play, get her back to the hotel and tucked in for bed, then I’ll head out.
That gives Walker and Chandler enough time to get their shit together and meet me at the scene.
Firing off a couple more texts, I start running through my mental checklist, going over the immediate tasks I have to complete, like extending our stay at the hotel, when something hard bounces off my shins and lands at my feet.
I look up just in time to see a dog skid to a stop in front of me, cocking its head to the side briefly before it lowers its chin and takes the frisbee between its teeth then pauses and stares at me.
“Hi…” I say softly as I set my phone down. This dog looks familiar, and almost like it's waiting for me to do something. “Uh… you can have that. Go ahead.”
The dog lifts the toy off the ground, still staring at me but not in a menacing way. No, if anything, it’s like this pooch has the same sense of deja vu going on and it's trying to figure out how we know each other the same way I am.
“He’s not bothering you, is he?”
Pulling my eyes from the dog, I turn and look up, way up, into one of the most beautiful faces I have ever seen, and just blink.
The giant stranger gives me a lopsided grin as he looks me up and down. “Rufus. Is he bothering you?”
I shake my head slowly.
This guy is extremely good looking, with all the tattoos and muscles, the long blond hair and loose fitting shorts hanging low on his hips, and he definitely knows it. Just like he knows I appreciate the way he looks, too.
“Do I know you from somewhere?”
I arch a brow but don’t respond.
It just dawned on me that he’s the same guy from the show earlier, the one Arlo took Cali to. The one my nanny was rightfully drooling over.
A thought that makes me want to scowl a little, but I’m not sure why, even if it's relatively fleeting and not enough for me to focus on.
“No,” I grunt as my cell beeps. “I’m here on business, so if you’ll excuse me…” I grab my phone and get to my feet, ignoring the faint scent of blueberries as I walk past the smiling viking toward the water.
“Maybe I’ll see you around, then.”
I glance over my shoulder to find the man still staring at me before his eyes shift to over my shoulder then meet mine again as his smile grows. “Unlikely.”
“We’ll see about that. At the very least, I plan to see your nanny again.”
I roll my eyes as I look away, annoyed with the way my chest warms and my heart rate picks up over the thought of running into that guy again while we’re here. Arlo doesn’t need to be anywhere near him, the Viking is the opposite of his sweet and innocent nature.
I’ve always thought I’m too possessive to share, but…
At the same time, I’m drawn to the viking, too. I’d be okay with him in our space, I almost want that. Almost, because at the end of the day, I don’t need to start looking at things as if Arlo and I share them, including that good looking blonde.
He seems like a complication neither of us need.
One I intend to keep far away from Arlo.
“‘Bout damn time, bossman.”
I frown at Sylas Walker as I duck under the yellow tape, rolling up the sleeves of my dress shirt as I start walking toward the crime scene.
“Hi, Ves.”
I nod at Marley Chandler as I move past her, relieved to see both of them despite how incredibly annoyed I am.
I’m not irritated with them, or even the situation.
It’s lingering thoughts of that attractive stranger and my nanny, and Butler that has my hackles up, and I have no doubt my team knows the latter. Thankfully. “What do we got?”
“White female. Mid to late fifties.” Walker snaps a few pictures as he talks. “No phone, no purse, no ID. And no eyelids or teeth.”
He’s not wrong about that.
The severed head of this unknown female has been positioned so it’s laying on the back of the skull, dingy white hair fanned around it, her filmy eyes staring straight up into the sky while her empty mouth gapes in the same direction. No lids, no teeth, and apparently, no body.
“It’s over there,” Chandler says as she stands next to me, pointing a gloved hand down the boardwalk to our left. “Most of it, anyway.”
I squint toward the lump about fifty yards away before I turn to her. “Most of it?”
She uses the back of her wrist to push her hair out of her eyes as she nods. “We haven’t found her hands and feet yet.”
Interesting. “We’re sure it’s the same guy?”
“We still need to compare the handwriting, but we’re almost positive,” she says as she holds up an evidence bag with an antique doll’s head inside it. “But this feels—”
“Personal,” I grunt as I start to slowly walk the scene.
The Orphan has never made it hard for us to ID one of his victims. Hell, one of them had his driver’s license shoved up his ass, presented in downward dog.
It’s like he wants us to know who he’s killing, even if we don’t know why, and the fact that he got rid of this victim’s teeth and prints leads me to believe something is very different about her.
I’d even put money on him going the extra mile to keep this woman’s identity as secret as he can for now.
“Cause of death?” I ask as I crouch next to the severed head.
“Nothing definitive yet,” Chandler says as she crouches next to me. “He did a serious number on this one.”
“Which is saying something.” Walker stands on the other side of me. “Considering his last vic was missing multiple layers of his skin.”
He’s not kidding about that.
If The Orphan goes to those kinds of extremes for complete strangers and this kill is personal? There’s no telling what kind of damage he did to someone we think he might actually know.
It looks like I’m going to be in San Clemente longer than I thought, and I’d wager the headache Butler’s text message brought on is going to last the entire fucking time.
One that starts to pound against my temples as I realize I need to talk to Arlo about an extended stay.
I’m all out of sorts after the gorgeous blonde alpha not only hit on my nanny at the show, but slipped him his number before we left the beach.
Something is telling me I need to get my shit together, sooner rather than later.
If I don’t, there’s a good chance I’ll not only lose my nanny, but I’ll blow the opportunity for him to become something more.
Something I’ve been fighting but suddenly don’t have the energy to battle.
Arlo has become far more important to me than I’m willing to admit, but that has to change. It has to change now, because this ache in my chest is starting to trump the pulsing in my head, and that has nothing to do with my workload.
It seems I’m about to complicate my life on purpose, despite how terrible that idea may be.
Too bad I’m a firm believer in the idea that regret would be so much worse.