Slowly pulling her shirt over her head to avoid the pain in her chest and shoulder, Ana gasped as he swept her under the shower spray with most of her clothes still on. A laugh escaped up her throat as she slid her now-wet hair out of her face. “You couldn’t wait five more seconds?”
He kissed her again, his body pressed against the length of hers. “Not for you.”
HE COULDN’T SLEEP, couldn’t take his eyes off her, and after what they’d shared over the past three days, he knew why. He’d fallen in love with her all over again. This intelligent, confident, beautiful creature who’d slipped in and out of his life. But this time he wasn’t going to let go. Chasing Olivia down with cookie dough at the safe house, sharing his bed with his daughter sandwiched between them, gasping his name as he’d memorized her body all over again in the privacy of the shower last night. It was as though she was already part of their lives, and, damn it, he didn’t want to lose her again. Couldn’t.
Long, dark eyelashes rested against her cheeks, but the change in her breathing patterns homed his attention to the light brown flawless skin of her neck and chest visible above the sheets. “I can feel you staring at me.”
Pain filtered through his nerve endings and he realized he’d propped himself up on the wrong arm for a mere chance of seeing her clearly. “Does Quantico train all their agents in the art of having a sixth sense, or just you?”
“You don’t need to flirt with me.” Hazel-green eyes centered on his as her smile pierced straight through him. Leveraging her elbow into her pillow, mirroring him, she rested her head against her palm. And in that moment the woman he’d built in his head was more beautiful and mesmerizing than ever before. Exactly where she belonged. “You’ve already seduced me with your good looks.”
“Is that all it takes?” He couldn’t keep his laugh to himself, brushing one hand down his beard. “Damn. Wish I would’ve known that before now. Could’ve saved me a lot of time and frustration.”
“Don’t get me wrong, the free cookie crumbs in the sheets and the rainfall showerheads are a bonus.” Skimming her hand across his chest, she shifted closer, her lips barely grazing his as she traced the muscled lines of his abdomen below the sheets. Instant desire seared through him, and he half expected his daughter to interrupt the moment, but the cabin remained silent. “I’m starting to wish we hadn’t wasted so much time apart.”
He closed his eyes. “Ana, I—”
Her phone vibrated from the nightstand, and she set her forehead against his chest. Reality penetrated through the haze they’d created since he’d witnessed her coming to terms with the past in the middle of his kitchen last night, and guilt ripped through him. He couldn’t lie to himself. He’d needed the distraction from the case—from the anxiety he’d never find his son—as much as Ana had, and he wouldn’t regret that, but they couldn’t ignore their respective duties any longer. He needed to find his son, and she needed to find the SOB responsible for taking him. She reached for the phone before the device dipped off the edge of his nightstand, tapped the screen and brought it to her ear. “Ramirez.”
Benning slipped from the bed, reaching for his clothes. He couldn’t hear the voice on the other end of the line but imagined if there’d been news on his son’s location, she’d get the message across.
“Are you sure?” The color drained from her face. Her attention drifted to him, and everything inside him tensed. Ana pinned her phone between her shoulder and ear as she rushed to get dressed. “I’m on my way. Have the director get in touch with Claire Winston again. I want her found. Now.” Ana ended the call, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. Something was happening. “That was Evan—Agent Duran. The forensic lab was working on identifying the owner of the skull, but when they went to compare dental records, they noticed something had been locked between the victim’s teeth on the X-rays.”
“Locked?” Intentionally or forced? Didn’t matter. Whatever it was, it could lead them to the next step in this case, the next step to finding Owen. His throat dried as she bolted from the bed and started getting dressed. “What did they find?”
“A scales of justice charm. Exactly like the one we recovered from your property after Jo West’s body was found in the fireplace.” She slowed, facing him, her boots pinched in her grip. “So now we have two. One could belong to Samantha Perry and the other—”
“To her best friend. Claire Winston.” Hell. Were they about to find another body? Benning sank onto the edge of the mattress, the past few hours evaporating as though they’d never happened. How many more people had to die before they were able to bring this bastard down? How many more had to suffer? “You want Claire found in case she’s another victim. I thought your director confirmed she’s serving with her unit in Afghanistan.”
“As far as I know, that’s the truth, but it wouldn’t be hard to get someone to cover for her. And the army hasn’t always been forthcoming about admitting one of their soldiers might be missing in action,” she said.
“Why would she...” That didn’t make sense. If Samantha Perry’s best friend from high school had been targeted by the killer, how would she know she needed to lie about her whereabouts? Benning stood, his instincts screaming. “They got an ID on the skull, didn’t they?”
“Yes.” She tightened her broken hand around the phone but didn’t even seem to notice the pain. “They were able to match both DNA from the bone marrow and dental records to Harold Wood.”
Gravity cemented him in
