Maddox growled. “A fuckin’ rookie handled some of the evidence before we got there. He’s watching the evidence intake, making sure the kid doesn’t screw up again.”
“Think he did it on purpose?” I asked. I’d learned to question everything and never make assumptions.
Maddox shook his head. “No. He’s just a kid in his first few months on the force. Besides, I think Donahue scared the shit out of him and he’ll never make a mistake like that again.”
I chuckled. Donahue was a grizzly bastard and stuck to his code. He didn’t like mistakes and wouldn’t tolerate them from anyone. If you were on his good side, then you were golden, but if you were on his bad side, he’d snarl and lecture you until your day was effectively ruined and you were scared straight.
“What do you need us to do?” Roman asked.
“Our tech department is backed up. This can’t wait. I brought the victim’s phone and copies of the surveillance in the area. It will include footage for forty-eight hours before the abduction. See if y’all can find anything in the days leading up to the blackout or can determine how the person cut the tapes. Fuck. I’ll take anything right about now.” He scrubbed the back of his neck again.
“I’ll get on it. Some of the other guys too.”
Maddox lifted a cardboard box from the floor and pushed it across the table. I stopped it with my hand and put it in the chair next to mine.
“Appreciate it. Call if you find anything.”
Roman nodded, rising from his chair, and shook Maddox’s hand. I did the same and sat back down as Maddox left the room. Roman sat back, steepling his fingers in front of him. “You have time to help comb through that?”
I nodded. “I’ll make the time. Shift some things around if I need to, but I’ll take this and keep Caroline’s case.”
“What’s happening with her case?” Roman asked, putting a file in front of him. Everything in the office was digitized, but Roman still preferred to work from paper.
I groaned and scrubbed a hand down my face. Several late nights and the exhaustion of knowing that whoever had terrorized Caroline was still out there were weighing on me. Every path I went down led to a dead end, and I was locked in a battle of wills with the person on the other side of the screen. They were damn good, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I’d track them.
“They’re pinging IP addresses all over the world. Nothing in the southern United States. There hasn’t been anything else since the note in her car, but she’s freaked out. I’m monitoring all her work technology. She still hasn’t gotten back on her laptop. Every time I think I’ve had a break, it leads to a dead end. The guy is playing with me and with her.”
I wasn’t sure what Roman heard in my voice, but he pushed the file away and set down his coffee mug, staring at me from across the table. I met his gaze, unfazed by his piercing eyes. This look may have gotten others to talk, but it didn’t work on me. Never had. Something which drove him crazy. I smirked and he scowled.
“Kiernan. She is a client. If you cross a line and it goes bad, there are so many scenarios that I don’t even want to think about. There is a reason the rule is in place. It’s an unbalanced power dynamic and she’s vulnerable right now. You’re a good man, Kiernan. I know you wouldn’t hurt her intentionally, but you haven’t been looking for anything serious. What if she is? If you actually think there’s something there and you want to pursue it, wait until you find the bastard and then pursue her. I know you like her, but you have to play this smart, man.”
Anger bubbled in my chest, but I didn’t say a damn word, just stared at him. He didn’t know what was between Caroline and me, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to share. I understood where he was coming from, but I’d never hurt her.
“Understood,” I said. And I did understand him, but that wasn’t going to stop me. There wasn’t a damn thing in this world that could stop me at this point. Not now. I stood up, grabbing the box under one arm, and left Roman in the conference room.
23 Caroline
“What the hell is he doing?” Daphne asked.
She was lounging in the chair next to my fireplace. She lifted her legs when I vacuumed between the chair and the coffee table. Her blond hair was piled on top of her head. The shirt she was wearing had a picture of a cat, and her leggings had tiny skulls on them. She’d come over to drop off a portrait of Kiernan in a kilt, which an author had bought. It was still wrapped in brown paper. I was waiting for him to come over and open it before I peeked at it.
Daphne was staring at Pepper Jack, who was pacing in front of the couch. It was the same couch he always plopped down on, but he wasn’t lying there now. He was pacing in front of it. He’d seen me vacuum before and didn’t seem to have an issue with it until I got closer to him, so this behavior surprised me.
I turned off the vacuum and edged around the coffee table toward him. “What’s going on, bud?” I asked. His eyes flicked to mine then away and he kept pacing. His tongue was lolling out the side of his mouth, and his gaze kept shifting to the couch. “Did you lose a toy in the cushions?”
Kiernan had slept over almost every night for the past week, and Pepper Jack had stayed when he wasn’t here. He didn’t cause any of the destruction that he normally did at Kiernan’s, much to his chagrin, but it made me laugh
