“Balls out, cards on the table, I'm in love with you, and if I ever get another face to face with that mother fucking Ghost? I'm gonna thank that piece of shit for sending you to me right before I blow his goddamn head off.”
Her lips wobbled as she sipped in a desperate breath, surprised when she actually managed to speak.
“I've never been in love before.”
“Me neither, so I figure we'll make it up as we go,” he told her confidently.
“You're an asshole for telling me you love me now, when we're driving down the middle of the highway and I can't do shit about it.”
With the grin of a Cheshire cat, Nasa slid his hand a little higher up her thigh. “I'll make it right later. I promise.”
And he would. Of that, Dillon had no doubt.
*****
Dillon led Nasa through the tunnel that connected the two buildings and up into the shelter where Patti waited to greet them.
Petite and curvy, with shiny chestnut hair and the features of a porcelain doll, the shelter manager didn't appear to be the tough as nails womanshe was.
She looked nervous as hell, her doe eyes wide and uncertain as she stared way, way up at Nasa.
After Dillon made the introductions, Patti found her footing and ushered them inside with a quick wave of her hand.
“I've asked everyone to go up to the rec room. I said some work was being done on the second floor to beef up the security. Do you know what it is you're looking for?”
Nasa gave Dillon's hand a squeeze, the signal they'd worked out if he wanted her to keep quiet.
“No. All we know is there's a possibility the girl Dillon took to Oklahoma stashed something here that might draw the Leviathans back.”
Patti's face turned a whiter shade of pale, but she gave a brisk nod and hurried upstairs. Dillon glanced up at Nasa to see him curiously looking around, taking it all in.
“I see why you picked this place,” he told her with a nod of approval. “Two feet of solid bricks, stairways at the interior, narrow windows. It's perfect.”
Dillon felt the glow of that praise throughout every corner of her being.
“You think so?”
Nasa leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of her head, whispering huskily in her ear.
“I'd build a shelter to withstand the zombie apocalypse with you, any day of the week.”
“Ditto,” she murmured back, hoping she didn't look like the love-drunk fool she felt like.
“The girl stayed here for a few hours,” Patti told them, pointing to one of the private rooms on the second floor.
“I personally cleaned the entire space, top to bottom, and I didn't find anything she might have stashed.”
Dillon looked around the small room, envisioning Rachel sitting on the twin bed, searching for a place to hide something small.
The desk and chair were just big enough to sit comfortably and eat a meal at, but otherwise the room was bare.
No dresser, no loose floorboards, no vents, and with all her bruises and broken bones, it would have been incredibly painful to crawl around on her hands and knees to search for a nook or cranny to tuck something into.
“Have you had any other security issues since she left?” Nasa asked casually. “Reports from the other women here of thefts, bags being rifled through?”
Patti narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him, and Dillon wondered if she shouldn't have disclosed the details of Nasa's day job as a private investigator.
Only half an hour ago, Dillon called Patti to explain she hadn't been impressed with the way Detective Bolton handled things, so Dillon was bringing her own investigator in to make sure there was no reason for the shelter to be involved in any further confrontations with the Leviathans.
With the purposeful short notice, Patti didn't really have any way to say no, unless she had something to hide.
To her credit, and because of their last uncomfortable phone call, Patti eagerly welcomed whatever Dillon thought was best.
Dillon hadn't mentioned the PI she was bringing was also her... her boyfriend? She realized she didn't even know what to call Nasa in that regard.
Anyway, she noticed the surreptitious glances Patti shot at their joined hands, and the confused frowns Patti tried to conceal while she worked out exactly what was going on.
The only men Dillon had ever brought in the building—way back before the shelter opened for business—were contractors and workers to do the heavy lifting.
All things considered, Patti probably thought Dillon was a nun and was shocked to discover otherwise.
“Not that I'm aware of. Not many of the women who come here bring anything more than a purse, maybe a backpack of stuff if they planned ahead. Why?”
Nasa waved a long-fingered hand at the larger room of bunk beds. “The Leviathans can't get in here, and for all my belief in their general stupidity, they've got one or two smart guys who wouldn't be above beating the shit out of one of their women and sending her in here with some sob story about wanting to escape their abusive boyfriend to scope the place out.”
Patti's expression turned to one of comical disbelief, looking to Dillon for reassurance that Nasa was joking. Unfortunately, Dillon didn't have any to give.
Until this very moment, it was a possibility Dillon hadn't considered either.
Patti's mouth worked soundlessly a few times before she managed to find words. “Rain told me how evil those men are, but I never thought... it never occurred to me... this is supposed to be a safe place for victims of abuse to rest and recover.”
“It is a safe place,” Nasa reassured her. “My job is to be paranoid, and I want to be sure I'm not leaving any stone unturned. That's all. I assume there's
