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“I hate to sound like an asshole, but maybe it’s for the best. The Feds told us to back off and we don’t need to be cutting off the hand that feed us.”
Nash wasn’t entirely wrong although plenty of other federal agencies were more than willing to hire them. There was no shortage of government agencies who liked to play outside of the lines. They just needed ways to do it.
Insert him and his friends.
“I’ve got some bad news.” Caden looked up from where he was typing on his laptop. His buddy had finished wiring everything up earlier that morning and now they were monitoring Fletcher’s whereabouts.
“Let me guess. Alexander Fletcher has gone to ground again?”
The rest of the team was now seated around the table, each of them focused on Caden and the news he had to share.
“Bingo. Checked out of the hotel this morning and hasn’t been seen since. His passport wasn’t used to catch a flight. His credit cards don’t show any activity for a rental or train. It’s like he vanished in thin air.”
“Does he have a place in Rome that no one knows about?”
He looked at Austin. The question had merit. The file they received from the Feds didn’t show a residence in Rome, and Fletcher had taken a flight to enter the country, but some information was often left out of what they received.
“I can check to see if there was something I missed the first time I pulled information on him. I wasn’t looking for anything in Rome since he flew in but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have connections he could be using.”
The problem with people like Alexander Fletcher was that usually whoever he associated with was just as much a criminal. That often made information hard to find. Especially the legitimate kind.
“It’s going to take me a few hours to run known associates in the area. I’ll start in the immediate range and work outward. I’m not saying I’m going to find anything, especially since the last few years he’s been keeping a low profile. That’s a good time to make some new connections that the Feds don’t know about. If I can’t find anything, then I know a few people who can.”
Luke cursed. This easy “couple of days at the most” job was turning out to be anything but. And it was all because of a certain woman who had a penchant for pencil skirts and high heels, with raven hair and green eyes that had flecks of brown around the edges. If only he could just forget she existed. But alas, that wasn’t who he was.
Instead, he pulled his phone out and opened the system browser. It still had her information from the last time he searched her.
Monica’s company was only fifteen minutes away and her apartment was even closer. She lived in a high-end neighborhood just outside the city limits. He was tempted to drive over there and see for himself that she was okay but he nixed the idea. That was bordering on stalkerish and that wasn’t how he wanted to come off. There were certain lines that a man just couldn’t cross.
“I can see the wheels in your head turning from here.”
Nash had moved to the other side of the table when Caden had come over.
“Trying to remind myself that just stopping by her place on my way home is a bad idea.”
“It’s only a bad idea if you sit outside and watch her like a creeper. Knocking on her door to make sure she’s okay and telling her what we know about Fletcher couldn’t hurt.”
Damn, Nash was right. If he went home, all he would do was worry that something had happened. Even if she was rejecting his calls, she could’ve been forced to do so.
Or she just doesn’t want to talk to you, idiot.
Since when did he let a woman mess with his head so damn much? Normally his relationships were simple. He didn’t have them. At least not anything he cared that deeply for. He had sex. Occasionally with the same woman more than once, but since he didn’t stay in one place for long, that was rare. Letting a woman into his life was dangerous and something he avoided at all costs.
But Monica was different. He had known that when he sat down at the bar next to her. There had never been a woman who called to him the way she had. It was almost like an invisible force had pulled him in and he couldn’t stop it if he tried. Taking her to his room had only solidified that connection.
At the time, he hadn’t wanted to admit how much it hurt when he woke up alone. He had tried to brush it off as “meant to be,” but then just as quickly as she left, Monica was thrust back into his life. And that was the moment he knew she was meant to be in it.
“You know what, you’re right,” he told Nash. “I can go over there and tell her what we learned about Fletcher.”
If she kicked him out, then he would accept it. He wouldn’t lie and say it wouldn’t hurt. He wasn’t in love with her, but feelings were developing and it would suck that they never got to explore that.
“That’s the spirit. Channel your inner Ryker.” Nash bumped his fist against Luke’s shoulder.
Flipping his friend off, he grabbed his keys off the hook. “I don’t need my inner Ryker. I do fine all on my own.”
“Maybe some lessons wouldn’t hurt,” Ryker chimed in.
Ryker was the resident ladies' man. The one who flirted with anything that had legs. Old or young, Ryker would find a way to charm the pants off any woman. That wasn’t the goal for the evening. He already knew he and Monica had a connection in the bedroom; it was outside it they needed to work on.
