Inseparable (16 page)

I glanced at Dane. He nodded. “Dane’s sister was abducted nine years ago. We got a tip that the man who murdered her may have in fact sold her before he was caught. The only name that has come up is Eva’s. How she’s connected, we don’t know.”

Reece nodded, punching details into his keyboard.

“Awesome, now we’re getting somewhere,” he said. “It’s funny, but the information you think will be least useful can actually turn out to be the most,” he added, amused at our surprised expressions.

“So where do you start? How do you know what to look for?” I asked, leaning forward curiously.

“Okay, so first I’ve narrowed down all the legal Eva Feluca’s in New York State. That gives you a list of four hundred and fifty six. If she is somehow involved in this girl’s kidnapping, then chances are pretty good she’s got a record,” he spun his laptop around to show us.

“See here,” he said, pointing to the left column, “there are seventeen women by that name who have a criminal record and of those, five have records relating to sex or drug offences.” He chewed his lip as he hit the keyboard again, “and there we go. Two of the five are imprisoned, one is dead, which leaves you with two possible people who could be your woman.”

“Wow,” I stammered. This guy had been here for less than ten minutes.

“One other thing to consider is that she may be an illegal. In which case she won’t show up in any of these systems,” he added. So basically he was saying that if neither of these were our Eva, then we pretty much had next to no chance of finding her.

“So what now?” Dane asked quietly. Reece looked at him with surprise, as if he had forgotten Dane was even there.

“Now is the fun part. Now we try and dredge up as much info on these two as we can, and see if something makes one stand out as your person,” Reece rubbed his hands together. I studied him as he typed. He was cute, in a boyish kind of way, and though we was probably the same age as Fraser and Dane, his short stature and young features made him look about sixteen. What he lacked in appeal he certainly made up for in cockiness. I’m sure there were women out there who loved that in a guy, but I wasn’t one of them.

“So,” Reece murmured, eyeing me as I took a sip of coke, “are you two like, together or something, or are you up for grabs?” He winked at me.

Up for grabs? What was I, a meat tray at a raffle? I coughed, coke sputtering out of my nose. Dane grinned. I glowered at him, glad he found my reaction to Reece
so
amusing.

“I’m not ‘up for grabs’, nor am I taken,” I retorted haughtily. Satisfaction swept through me as I noticed Dane’s smile had disappeared. That will teach him not to acknowledge my text ‘love you’ slip ups.

“Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying the moves, am I right, brother or am I right?” Reece said, winking at Dane. “Whoa! Bingo!” He suddenly exclaimed, his attention back on his laptop.

“What is it?” Dane and I both said unanimously.

“Eva number one. We have a loooong history of visits to the emergency rooms at various hospitals. Fifteen visits over the past two years alone. Broken bones, bruises, concussions, busted lip, and reports of old healed wounds,” Reece said, scrolling through the records.

“I’d put her ahead of the other possibility, only because the other comes up with nothing, and this one screams of domestic abuse.”

“So where do we start?” Dane asked, “Where would you start?”

“Me?” Asked Reece, looking lost in thought, “I’d start with maybe staking out her listed address, see if you can track her down. Give me your phone,” he said, motioning to Dane. Dane raised an eyebrow at me. I swallowed a chuckle as Dane gave Reece his phone. To say Dane didn’t like Reece would be an understatement, between his condescending tone and his attempts at flirting with me, Dane was visibly far from impressed.

Reece flicked through the phone, opened up the camera and took a snap of the screen. Handing the phone back to Dane, he began writing down some information on a slip of paper.

I looked questionably at Dane, who held the phone up for me to see. It was a picture of a woman. A mug shot. Eva, I guessed. It was dated 2010, so for our purposes it was pretty recent.

“Here is her home address, her social security number, and the details of her car. Make, model, registration,” he explained, handing the piece of paper to me.

“Brownsville,” I murmured, “Where the hell is Brownsville?”

Reece laughed, “
No
, you can’t tell you’re not from around here,” he mocked, his face full of horror. “If you guys head to Brownsville, then you probably want to try and not draw attention to yourselves,” he added, his eyes once again roaming over my body.

“I think we will be fine, dude. Thanks,” Dane said, “If we need anything else, we will call you.” Dane’s tone made it clear our meeting was over. Reece looked confused for a moment, and then seemed to get the message.

“Right. Well I guess that’s my cue to leave. Call me if you need anything,” he winked at me, “Especially you, cutie,” he said, lowering his voice. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dane was ready to pop. Part of me was secretly thrilled that he was so annoyed by the attention Reece was giving me, the other part of me wanted this douche to leave.

“See you, Reece,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Chapter Eighteen

Once he had gone, Dane let loose.

“Can you believe the nerve of that guy?” He ranted, pacing along the window. His arm extended up to his head, where he ran his hand through his hair, “I mean, he was harassing you,” he grumbled.

“Relax Dane. No harm done. And we have all this stuff to go on tomorrow,” I added, pointing to the list, “Where is the photo of Eva again?” Dane handed his phone to me. I studied her. She looked to be in her early twenties, though her eyes looked much older and full of torment, as though she’d been through a lot in her life. Her long dark hair looked dull and listless, and her skin was pale. At one time in her life, I didn’t doubt she had been a very attractive young woman.

I put his phone on the table, and lay down on the couch. Dane sat down, crossing one leg over his lap. He gave me a smile. I smiled back, but inside I was melting.

Oh boy. Don’t smile at me like that.

His smile made me want him so badly. It was amazing how that crooked little grin could make me drop every defence and insecurity, and just make me need him.

“What?” He said, amused. I blushed as I realised I had been staring at him like a dork. “Why were you looking at me like that?” He pressed. He grinned again. He knew. He knew exactly why I had been looking at him. He knew his smile made him irresistible to me.

“I wasn’t staring, I was thinking,” I argued, poking my tongue out at him.

“Oh yeah?” He grinned, “about what exactly?”

Oh god, there’s that grin again.

“Lil?” Dane cocked his head. He slid off his chair, and knelt down in front of me, “you’re in a world of your own tonight,” he whispered, pulling me down and kissing my lips tenderly. He was right. I wasn’t thinking straight. Maybe it was jetlag? Because yes, a three hour flight could do that to you…

I let his lips join mine, aware of his hand wandering under the confines of my shirt. I liked this. I liked this a lot. Sighing, I sat up. Thinking about how much I enjoyed kissing him had made me think about how much I liked this guy, which of course made me think of ‘that’ text message.

Love you. Argggh! Why the hell had I done that?

“Lil?” Dane’s forehead creased, half amused and half concerned. He climbed onto the sofa next to me, his arm over my shoulder. He kissed my forehead as he waited for me to say something. “Now you’re starting to worry me, sexy,” He frowned at me, his fingers brushing my blonde stands of hair from my eyes.

“I’m embarrassed!” I confessed, my hands flying to cover my face, “In that message yesterday…” My voice trailed off, too horrified to repeat those words to him. Again.

“Lil-” He began.

“No, please don’t! The last thing I want is your pity. Please, forget it,” I pushed him aside, removing myself from the sofa, away from his intoxicating smell, and that sexy, wonderful smile. I had to get away.

“I’m going to get some air,” I muttered, grabbing my key and heading to the door, ignoring his pleas for me to stop. I was so embarrassed. No, I was past embarrassed, this was mortifying. And that wasn’t even the worst part. The worst part was the fact he hadn’t said it back, or
anything
at all. What I thought were mutual feelings, I had obviously misread somewhere along the line.

I repeatedly hit the elevator down button, knowing it wouldn’t make it arrive faster, but unable to stop myself all the same.

“Lil. Will you wait a second.”

I turned around. Dane stared back at me, both shocked and amused at my outburst. Great, so he thought this was funny, wait until Kella and Fraser came back from dinner, and we could all have a good old fashioned laugh about it.

“What,” I growled, knowing the last thing I needed right now was him in my face.

“Jesus, Lil, let me speak,” He laughed, grabbing hold of both my shoulders so I couldn’t look away. I sighed.

“Fine. Talk,” I said through gritted teeth.

He laughed again, “You’re such a strange girl,” he said, shaking his head in dismay. That’s what he wanted to tell me? “Lil…” He warned, as I opened my mouth to speak. I quickly shut it, wishing he would hurry the hell up so I could leave.

“Okay, I didn’t want to say it like this, but here goes. I love you, Lily,” Dane said simply. I stared at him, open-mouthed, as he chuckled softly.

“Close your mouth, sexy. You’re catching flies,” He murmured. I shut my mouth. “I love you. I love the way you say whatever comes into your mind. I love the way you eat like a horse in front of me. I love the way you would do anything for the people you love, like travel halfway across the country. For me.”

“But I thought…” My voice trailed off. He loved me! I couldn’t hide the smile. I grabbed his face and kissed him.

“I didn’t want my first time telling you I love you to be in a message,” he added, “I was going to tell you here. Tonight,” He waved his arm around.

Shit, he was planning a romantic moment, and I had ruined it.

“No, you’re not going to do that,” he warned, reading my expression, “this is perfect. We are perfect.” He nibbled on my neck. The lift opened, and out walked Kella and Fraser.

“God you two, get a room,” Kella joked. She threw me a ‘what the hell is going on here’ look. I shrugged, giggling.

“How was your night?” I asked as we walked back down the hall toward our rooms.

“Yes, really nice. Fraser took me to Central Park where we ended up getting frisky-”

“Kella!” Fraser’s voice boomed down the hall. He looked flustered at her honesty. I laughed, knowing this was normal behaviour for Kella, and something he was going to have to get used to, fast.

“What?” Asked Kella, confused.

“Some things should stay between us, okay?” He grumbled, shaking his head. Kella rolled her eyes at me, mouthing something I didn’t quite catch.

“Fine. Whatever,” she sighed, making a face at his back, “so how did you guys go, anyway? Did you hear from Reece?”

“Yeah, we think we’ve tracked down Eva,” Dane showed them the photo, and filled them in on what Reece had dug up, “the only problem was your cousin kept trying to hit up my girl.” He narrowed his eyes at Fraser, who held his hands up in defence. Meanwhile, Kella raised her eyebrows and smiled. I knew what she was thinking, ‘his girl’.

“Hey, I never said Reece was a good guy,” Fraser laughed, “There’s a reason I only see the guy at Thanksgiving and Christmas. In fact, I think I warned you he’s a bit of an ass,” he grinned, wrapping his hand around Kella’s waist.

“Well, we’re going to have an early one. We need Kel to be on the ball when she faces the parents tomorrow,” he joked. I almost laughed. Poor Kella looked terrified, and she was
never
scared of anything.

“Good luck” I giggled, giving her a kiss. Dane and I stood in the hall awkwardly after Kella and Fraser had left, standing right outside both our rooms, which were opposite each other.

“Do you want to come in?” I asked shyly. Why was I so nervous? Because this would be the first time since we’d said the ‘L’ word.

“Of course I want to come in, do you really need to ask?” Dane whispered in my ear. He slid his hand around the nape of my neck, holding me as he kissed me. Every part of my being responded, from the tingling in my toes, to the way my stomach fluttered at the feel of his touch, to the shivers that rippled down my spine.

I turned to my door, swiped the card, and led Dane inside. His hands roamed my body, as if he couldn’t stand not touching me, for even a second. Once the door was closed, he began to unbutton my top. As the last button came away, his hands slid around my waist, his touch warm against my skin. I jumped, the sensation tickling me.

“What, you’re ticklish?” He chuckled, tickling me as I yelled for him to stop.

“No!” I gasped, collapsing against him in a fit of giggles. I removed my shirt, looking him straight in the eyes and my hands moved to unfasten my jeans. He stood back, watching me with anticipation as I wiggled free of my pants.

“God, sexy…” He moved towards me again, this time taking me in his arms roughly, hoisting me onto his hips. His erection pressed against me through the confines of his pants. If his inability to keep his hands off me didn’t tell me he wanted me, this certainly did.

I kissed his neck, his ear, working my way around to his mouth. I could taste the chocolate from his dessert, which only fuelled my need to have him, taste him, and feel him.

Standing against the bed, he gently lowered me, gazing upon me for a moment before slowly unbuttoning his jeans. I kept my eyes fixed to his, briefly running them over his body as he removed his clothes. He cocked his head, amused at my distraction. I blushed.

Caught checking out my hot boyfriend. Is that what he was? My boyfriend?

He gently held my feet, bending them until my knees were pressed snugly against my stomach, before parting them and crawling between them.