Hailey couldn’t believe how lax Easton’s security was as she broke in through a side window. Sure, the window was only accessible after she’d rappelled down from the roof of the six-story condo building, after temporarily blocking the building’s security cameras. But still, he should have had all of his windows secured.
She’d kick his ass later for the oversight—once she figured out where the hell he was and who’d kidnapped him.
And once she knew he was alive. Because he just had to be. She refused to believe anything else.
Her sweet foster brother, whom she’d cut out of her life years ago, along with two other foster brothers. She couldn’t think about that right now, couldn’t think about any of them. Especially since Easton had reached out recently, wanted to catch up.
And she’d agreed to lunch since she’d been in town anyway on a job, and then at the last minute she’d canceled—because she was an asshole. Also because of her deep-seated abandonment issues and guilt at cutting him out so thoroughly years ago. She knew she had issues, would likely drown in them one day because of her own cowardice. And therapy sure as shit hadn’t helped.
If she’d met up with Easton yesterday for lunch, he wouldn’t have been kidnapped. And even though she knew that, sure, technically his kidnapping wasn’t her fault, she was feeling the blame for ghosting him.
She wanted to scream at the world right now.
Hopefully, she could make up for it and find out who the hell had taken him—and save him. She owed him that much. And then she’d make his kidnappers pay. But that was for another day. She had to focus on the first step—finding something that could help her track Easton down.
If she had to guess why he’d been taken, it was because of something he’d been working on. The man was a gentle giant, a gifted scientist who only wanted to make the world a better place. He’d already made huge headway on research for ALS and was apparently working on something else that had the scientific community abuzz.
As she slid from the window opening into his living room, she quickly scanned the place, not surprised that it was shockingly neat. Even his gray and white throw pillows were fluffed up perfectly on each end of the bigger couch. He’d always been like that, with nothing out of place.
No television in his living room—no surprise—but bookshelves lined two of the walls. And they were filled with some
she’d read and most she probably wouldn’t understand. All science-related stuff way out of her wheelhouse, but she scanned them nonetheless, looking for anything out of place.
Her gaze snagged on an old photograph, and she froze, staring at four kids. They’d all been lined up: Easton, Cash, her, and Jesse. They’d all had their arms around each other, standing in that order. Jesse had been the bookend next to her, pulling her close. Possessively. And she’d been tucked up against Jesse as if that was exactly where she belonged.
Jesus, they’d been young. A handful of sixteen- and seventeen-year-olds who’d already seen the worst the world had to offer.
But that had been a really good year—the best of her life. The year before everything had gone to shit.
Shaking off the memory of that day, she snagged the small frame off the bookshelf, then tucked it into her backpack before she moved to the kitchen.
She’d come back to the bookshelves later, but first she wanted to look at a couple spots where she thought Easton might have hidden something. Because he’d always been like that, squirreling stuff away. Hell, they all had. They’d hidden personal shit they couldn’t easily take with them, and old habits die hard.
Maybe she was wrong and nothing would come of her search today, but she had to try.
Because it had been ten hours since his kidnapping, and the cops were useless. She could move a lot faster than they could, and she didn’t need to worry about pesky things like warrants and the law. Nothing would stop her from finding Easton.
If she could just figure out what the hell he’d been working on. Because this had to be related to his job since the man didn’t appear to have a personal life.
She’d already started digging into Easton’s financials, and so far they seemed normal enough, but she’d be doing a deep dive as well.
When her phone buzzed, she glanced at the caller ID and slid in her earpiece as she moved into the kitchen. “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” Reese said, her tone light. “Done breaking into your friend’s place?”
“In the process.”
“Any issues?”
“Nah, I’m good.”
“Okay. But I want to go on record as being annoyed that you didn’t ask for backup. And that you didn’t do this the easy way. You could have just called—”
“Is the only reason you called to bitch at me?”
“That would imply I’m being unreasonable, and I’m not. You should have brought backup. And you should have called your old foster brother! He’d have let you into Easton’s condo.”
“You’re annoying when you’re logical.”
“Did you… Did you just agree with me?” Reese whispered.
Hailey rolled her eyes as she moved into the kitchen.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me.”
“Can you see me?” She glanced around the big space, looking for any electronics Reese might have hacked into, because Hailey wouldn’t put it past the talented woman.
“No, I just know you. And I want to go on record again as saying you need to get over your trust issues. You’ll never be able to move on and have a real life or relationship until you do that.”
Hailey pulled in a steadying breath, praying to a god she wasn’t sure existed for a bucketful of patience. Because holy shit, enough with the lectures. She knew she was screwed up and lonely; she certainly didn’t need anyone to remind her of that.
“That said,” Reese continued, “the real reason I called is to update you on the Urichko job.”
“And you couldn’t have texted?” Hailey pulled out the trash can under the kitchen sink, then moved the neatly organized cleaning supplies out of the way. He’d even put them in order by size and color. Man, she really missed Easton. She knocked on the bottom of the cabinet, trying to see if there was a false panel, but couldn’t find any seams when she felt around.
“Well, yeah, but I wanted to remind you that I think what you’re doing is dumb, and I love being right. Also, I thought you’d want to hear this directly from me. I found what I needed on that sorry excuse for a teacher.”
“Oh yeah?” Belinda Urichko was a high school teacher who had no business
teaching, so even though this was so far out of their realm of normal work, Hailey and Reese had taken the job for free.
Normally they took jobs for people who were desperate, who had no one to turn to, those who’d been bullied by the system that was supposed to protect them. This didn’t exactly fall into that category, but it was still a worthy case.
After putting back everything in the kitchen, Hailey walked to the guest bathroom, moved everything out of the cabinet under the sink, and started feeling around—bingo.
“Yep. Complaints from her three previous schools. They weren’t easily accessible, and it’s clear they were intentionally buried. And there’s a hidden relationship with the current director of her school.”
“What kind of relationship?” Hailey managed to pry off the bottom of the cabinet to reveal a hollowed-out area with a laptop in a plastic bag. She pulled it out then quickly put everything back in place.
“Cousins through marriage, so I’m guessing that’s how she got the job.”
“Good work. I’ll call you back when I’m done, get more details.”
“Okay. Are you sure you’re fine doing this alone? I don’t like that you’re without backup.”
“Yeah, but thanks.” Normally they worked in pairs for any recon, but this was different. No one had hired them. She was doing this to help a friend, and no one had any idea she was here. The threat level was minimal. “I’ll be heading back to the rental soon.”
They’d rented a place here a couple weeks ago for another job, then the Urichko one had landed in their lap, and then… Easton had been kidnapped.
If Hailey believed in kismet, she might think she was supposed to be in the Virginia area. And maybe she’d already screwed up because fate had given her the opportunity to have lunch with Easton and save him, and she’d blown it.
“I think I found something good,” Hailey continued, burying thoughts of fate and all that bullshit. “But I’m going to do another sweep.” She just wished
she knew what she was looking for. The laptop might not even matter, but she was going to check it out anyway. Why keep it hidden if it wasn’t important?
“See you soon.” As Reese disconnected, there was an alert on the building’s security cameras, reminding her that she needed to reset the system again on another loop so she’d have more time to search.
After doing just that, she moved to the bedrooms, pushing down the guilt at invading Easton’s home. It was certainly nice, nothing like the places they’d bounced around in when they’d been kids. And clean too, which was no surprise. Big windows that let in a lot of natural light, and everything was in neutral shades—because anything too bright bothered Easton. At least if it overwhelmed a room or a space. As an adult, he’d clearly managed to create a space that mitigated his sensory issues, and she found tears pricking her eyes that he’d done so well for himself. That he’d created a wonderful space that was all his.
And whoever’d taken him had better pray for mercy.
Gritting her teeth, she stepped out of his bedroom into the hallway, planning to make her way to the guest room or office next, and found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.
She blinked, her eyes locking on the bluest eyes she’d ever seen. They belonged to a tall, lean god who deigned to walk among mere mortals.
Jesse Lennox.
Her first love, her first everything, the man she’d never gotten over—the one whose heart she’d had to break so he would move on from her.
She sucked in a breath as the world actually stood still. Time forgot how to move as she stared into those soulful eyes. And she knew that in a few hundred years all the calendars would be off by juuuust a fraction because of this very moment. When the only sunshine she’d ever had in her life walked right back into it.
Chapter 2
—It wasn’t a fall, but a crash.—
“Hailey,” Jesse breathed out even as he sheathed his pistol, tucked it neatly underneath his jacket. Nausea swelled in him that he’d pulled a weapon on her, even inadvertently.
Her tawny brown eyes widened as she stared up at him, clearly as shocked as he was. She still kept her dark hair long, and today it was pulled back in a simple braid. The rest of her clothing was nondescript—dark pants, dark sneakers, and a long-sleeved black shirt tucked into her pants. She was the hottest burglar to ever walk the earth, he imagined.
The fiery star who’d crashed into his life years ago, then left his heart in cinders when she’d walked out of it.
Words. Find some, he ordered himself.
She recovered first, hitching her backpack up slightly as she glared. “What the hell are you doing here?”
He wasn’t sure why she was shouting. Or why the hell she was here. But he drank in the sight of her as he held up the key, his tone dry. “I have a key. And my fingerprints are programmed on the biometric lock. What are you doing here?”
And how the hell had she gotten in?
“The cops are incompetent and have no leads on Easton. I’ve started running his financials and thought I might find something law enforcement missed.”
“You want to help find Easton?” After she’d abandoned all of them? He stared hard at her.
“Of course I do!” She was back to shouting and seemed offended he would ask.
“The Feds are involved too now.” Because he’d called in favors and demanded they take over.
“Since when?”
“Since an hour ago—and they’ll be stopping by here soon enough.”
She cursed under her breath, then shot him a hard glare, those tawny brown eyes flinty. “Are you going to turn me in for breaking in?”
“I’m going to ignore that question.” He glanced over his shoulder, looking down the hallway, still wondering how she’d gotten in. “How the hell did you break in here anyway?”
It was six floors up. He was here only because security had alerted him to some glitches in the camera feeds. As Jesse turned around, Hailey was already moving past him, making her way to the front
of the condo—and not answering him. “Answer the question, Hailey.”
She swiveled to face him, her expression carefully blank, and he hated it. “You want to know, fine. I hacked into the camera system, put the security feed on a loop, used the back entrance to the stairs to gain entrance to the roof, then basically rappelled down onto Easton’s patio. Though rappelled is a bit of stretch. I basically dropped down on a rope. From there, I got in through one of his windows—which he needs to fix when he gets back. I would have broken into his front door but wasn’t sure what kind of biometrics he had and didn’t want to waste the time or risk running into any neighbors. For the record, all his windows should be secured.”
And she seemed absolutely indignant that they weren’t.
He blinked, realized she was dead serious. Well, that explained the camera glitches. “You could have just called me. Or Cash.”
“Okay, yeah sure. I’m sure you guys would have loved to hear from me.”
He ignored her response because it was asinine. “Did you find anything?” Because his only priority now was finding Easton—even if this blast from the past had knocked him on his ass. Maybe not literally, but holy hell, his brain was still catching up that the only woman he’d ever loved was standing in front of him, looking pissed off and even more gorgeous than before.
“No.”
He narrowed his gaze because her nose did that little scrunch thing she’d always done when lying. It was subtle, but it was her tell. “Stop lying. What did you find? We can work together.”
“I’m not working with the cops.”
“I meant you and me.” At a slight sound, he paused, frowned. Then he held a finger to his lips, and she nodded as he tugged her back down the hallway.
She ducked into the guest room and silently slid her backpack off as he pulled out his pistol again. He didn’t normally carry, but after what had happened to Easton—one of his best friends being kidnapped in the middle of the day with no warning, no request for ransom, nothing—he was being extra careful. Both he and Cash were. They were
worth a hell of a lot more than Easton, but it wasn’t a secret they were all friends, and that Easton worked for Jesse. Which was why Jesse kept expecting a ransom, but so far nothing had come in.
The lack of ransom demand had him more worried than he wanted to admit to himself.
Moving quietly, Hailey withdrew a can of bear spray from her pack and pulled out the orange tab to unlock it. Then she slid on goggles that should have looked ridiculous but somehow looked adorable, because of course they did. He blinked in surprise at her weapon of choice, but turned back to the door as the faint sound of footsteps sounded from the kitchen area. ...
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