Page 36 of Untamed Sinner

"Mandy," I say, and my voice comes out unsteady. Not Amanda—Mandy. Because I need that distance.

She hears it. I see it in the way her eyes shutter, the way her body lists away from me.

I force myself to let go, to step back, and she does the same. The space between us feels too wide and not wide enough.

"We should keep looking," I say.

"Yeah." She turns away, and I see her hands shake slightly before she shoves them into her pockets. "Yeah, we should."

We search the rest of the house in silence.

Every room has been ransacked, every hiding place exposed. Whoever was here, they were thorough. Professional.

They didn’t find what they were looking for. If they had, this place would’ve been left exactly as they found it.

Which means they’re still looking.

I look around at the chaos. It’s overkill for a notebook filled mostly with girls who are already lost. Something doesn’t add up.

By the time we make it back to the truck, night’s fallen.

Mandy climbs into the passenger seat without a word. I start the engine, and the dashboard lights cast her face in shadow.

"Dead end," she says finally.

I nod, my eyes on the road. "For now."

"So what's next?"

“We wait for my guy to see what he can dig up.” Right now, two days seems like an eternity, for a lot of reasons.

I pull onto the main road, heading back toward Iron Ridge. The silence stretches between us—heavy, weighted with everything that almost happened in Turner's office.

"How long have you lived in Iron Ridge?" she asks suddenly.

The question catches me off guard. I glance at her, but she's staring out the window, her reflection ghosted in the glass. "Why?"

"Just curious." She shifts in her seat, turning to face me. "I thought you lived outside Chicago."

Frowning, I keep my eyes on the road, but my grip tightens on the steering wheel. “You aren’t supposed to know that.”

She laughs softly. “Uh-huh, Bernard.”

It’s funny how she keeps trying to guess my name. "I have multiple properties."

"The one in Santa Monica looks nice. I always wondered what it’d be like to live on the ocean.”

No one should know about that one—or any of my properties. I go to great lengths to make sure they exist only for the people who need to know about them. I narrow my eyes, staring straight ahead, and refrain from answering.

“I’m kind of surprised you decided to live in Iron Ridge,” she continues blithely. “I thought you have to be a cowboy to live here.”

“I like horses,” I hear myself admit. I’ve been thinking about buying one—I certainly have enough land—but I’m always away on assignment. I used to ride as a kid. It’s one of the perks to Iron Ridge, other than the proximity to the Blackthorn Ranch.

She angles her body toward me. “Horses? Really?”

“They’re uncomplicated.” I shrug.

Mandy laughs. “Of course that’s why you like them.”