Page 56 of Ultimate Justice

God help her, she wanted to touch him. Needed to touch him. Maybe more than that, but her hormones had been on vacation for so long she wouldn’t know one if it slapped her in the face.

Physically, Evan was everything a woman could want in a man. Sinfully handsome, with strong, chiseled features and a body like an action hero, but there was so much more to him. Emotionally, he called to her soul.

Maybe she was only imagining there was something between them. Regardless, it was time to start living again and find out.

The robe swished around her legs as she padded to the sofa. When she rested her hands on Evan’s shoulders, he stiffened but made no move to get up. At first, his muscles were so taut it was like trying to massage a hard rubber ball. Heat from his body seeped into her fingers, and after a few minutes, she felt his muscles relax.

“That feels nice.” His voice was a low rumble.

She moved to the base of his neck, applying pressure with her fingertips there and just into his hairline. His hair was thicker and softer than she thought it would be. “You’re so tense. You need this.” So did she.

“In that case, you’re hired.” He chuckled, another low rumble that traveled to her fingers and sent a shiver through her body. “You have talented fingers.”

He clasped her hand, tugging it so it rested on his pec. His heart beat out a steady rhythm, and she spread her fingers wider, trying to feel as much of his chest as she possibly could.

He shifted to look at her. “Sit with me.” The words were more of an order, but the look he gave her was definitely a question.

“Okay.” She rounded the sofa and sat beside him. Not too close, but close enough to feel the warmth radiating off his body and make her heart beat a scooch faster.

He’d rolled his shirtsleeves up to his elbows, revealing the sinewy muscles. A crystal tumbler with a quarter inch of amber liquid sat on the table beside a bottle of Breckenridge Bourbon. “Want some?”

“Sure.” Anything to calm her racing heart.

“I’ll get you a glass.”

“Your glass is fine. If you don’t mind, that is. I don’t really want much.” Only enough to give her a little liquid courage. She put the glass to her lips, inhaling the creamy sweet aromas of butterscotch and oranges. Over the rim, she watched his eyes dip briefly to her mouth as she sipped, then swallowed. A touch of vanilla and brown sugar lingered on her tongue, and a soothing warmth bloomed in her chest as the spicy liquid trickled down her throat. She nodded to the laptop. “What’s got you working so late? Don’t we have to get up pretty early?”

He nodded. “We do, but…” He closed his eyes, sighing as he pinched the bridge of his nose. “Another boy was reported missing.”

“Oh, no.” No wonder he’d been so distracted since leaving his parents’ house. “Do you think this has something to do with Frank Manello?”

“Don’t know for sure. Kids run away for all kinds of reasons, but the timing isn’t good.”

“How old is he?”

“Eleven. He’s from Aurora. A year ago, the father lost his job and hasn’t found steady work since then. The parents have been fighting a lot, and the father’s been coming home drunk every night. The boy started running away, but he always came home a few hours later. Yesterday, he didn’t.”

“Did they use Frank Manello’s pool cleaning service?”

“No, but we think he recruits kids other ways, too. With him still out there, who knows.” He shook his head, staring out the window into the darkness.

“And the missing boy is eleven, like Noah.” She also had a bad feeling about this boy’s disappearance. “Noah said Frank was in a hurry to get more kids. Do you think the missing boy is a replacement for Noah?”

“Maybe.” He shook his head. “Hell, I don’t know.”

“And you’re worried more kids will go missing.” He was taking this case personally. Maybe that was normal for someone in his position, yet she’d never shaken the feeling there was more to it. “No matter what happens, you can’t blame yourself. You can’t take it too personally.” Or it would suck the life out of him.

“Deck went with the Aurora PD to interview the parents. They think they should have seen this coming.” He took the glass from her and took a hefty swallow. “My parents went through the same thing. They always felt they should have seen it coming, and that they’re to blame for Gracie running away.”

“Why do they think they’re to blame?”

The distant look in his eyes was one of remembrance. “My sister and I were twins, but we were as different as night and day.” He smiled briefly.

“That’s normal for twins, even identical twins. They might look the same on the outside, but up here”—she pointed to her head—“they’re unique in every way.”

“Those differences were tough on my parents.” He made a mirthless laugh. “I was a jock. Sports came easily to me, like it did with my dad. I did well in school, got good grades. Gracie was different.” This time, his smile was real, leaving her to believe he’d been close with his twin. “When it came to sports, she was as coordinated as a giraffe on ice. The only thing she ever beat me at was hide-and-seek. When she didn’t want to be found, nobody could find her. Her mind was more attuned to art and music than sports and getting A’s. She loved painting and playing the piano. She even taught me how to play. We had to do that behind my father’s back.”

“Why? I’d think a skill like playing the piano would be great for a kid.”