And that created a whole other problem. The one I’d been dreading. Hoping to somehow avoid.
Once they showed up word would get out that Casey was talking to the us. That looked bad, even though she was barely cooperating.
That was it. Game over.
Her life would be in jeopardy the moment I put in the call.
I stared at her, my jaw ticking. She was part of this officially now. On the books. But that didn’t mean I wasn’t going to do every damn thing I could to keep her safe.
Even if it meant bending the rules a little.
Or, a lot.
“Pack a bag. You’re coming with me.”
“What? No!”
I stepped closer and she backed away into the wall. I leaned over her, staring deep into her huge eyes. I wanted her to tell me the truth dammit!
“Tell me this wasn’t Dante. Tell me you have a psychotic exboyfriend. Because from what I have found so far, you don’t.”
She stared at me, breathing fast. I nodded, taking her silence as a ‘no.’ So what if I’d admitted looking into her personal life, or lack thereof?
She didn’t need to know how Goddamn happy it had made me to know she wasn’t attached. Hell, it looked like she never had been.
The girl’s online profile was devoid of boyfriends, past or present. No family photos either. It was devoid of almost anything except her dubious taste in reality television.
She liked the pages of almost every cheesy housewife show in existence.
It was set to private, but we had ways around that. It wasn’t even hard. I could access her private messages if I wanted to. Her emails. Her texts.
I hadn’t found one thing that indicted there a guy in her life. There was nothing. Other than her and Mason talking about the damn animals all the time.
I had run facial recognition software too. Searching to see if she had another name, or a hidden profile. A rap sheet. Overdue library books. Parking tickets.
Anything.
So far it had come up with zilch. No images of her on a milk carton, no Instagram pictures of her on someone’s lap.
Of course, it was still processing. So I kept hoping something would come up. Because as far as I could tell, Casey Jones hadn’t even existed until four years ago.
And that was going to complicate the case. And anything that came after.
Because for some crazy reason I couldn’t imagine letting this girl out of my sight.
She clearly had other ideas. She glared up at me, clearly not intimidated by my closeness. I could smell her. I was inches away from her lips. From her delicious body.
“I don’t need your protection.”
“Yes, you fucking do.”
I was close enough to kiss her. I was hard as a rock, just from standing there. I could feel heat and electricity jumping between our bodies.
She shook her head frantically.
“They’ll kill him. If they think- if they think I know something.”
I gripped her arm, but not hard. I stared at my hand where I held her, then back into her beautiful, panicked eyes.
“Don’t you?”
She shook her head again but there was no conviction in it. We both knew she was lying. And we both knew she was in danger.
I let my eyes slide over her, resting on her tempting lips.
“It doesn’t matter now. This place is going to be crawling with forensics soon. Even if you don’t know something, it’s going to look like you do.”
She blinked and I smiled at her, trying to look reassuring. Now that I’d decided to take her with me, I felt better. I would keep her safe.
And I would catch the killer.
Then and only then would I decide what to do about this insane attraction I had for little Miss Casey not-her-real-name Jones.
“Get packed.”
That stubborn little chin came up.
“I won’t leave Mason.”
“Mason can handle himself.”
“I don’t care. I owe him.”
I pushed away from the wall and pulled my phone out.
“Fine. I will get him in custody too.”
“No- wait!”
Her hands reached for me. I held perfectly still, barely breathing through the chain reaction that simple touch set off.
Her hand. My shoulder. Straight to my cock.
“Get packed or I will do it for you.”
I shook her off and put the call in for someone to pay Mason a visit. He would get picked up and taken to a safe house. One set up by the agency.
Of course, I didn’t mention to anyone that I was taking her.
Or where I was taking her. That was going to stay completely off the record. Nothing official about it.
Or legal.
She was coming home with me.
Cassandra
It would be okay. Everything would be okay. I’d made Connor promise.
And for some reason, I believed him.
Mason would be safe. Pissed off, but safe. Connor had even agreed to take all the animals to the safe house too.
But not the same safe house I was going to.