“Are you going to get that?” she whispered.
Her words didn’t register at first until his brain kicked back to reality and it hit him it wasn’t a ringing in his head but his cell phone.
“Crap,” he growled, not ready to move and certainly not wanting out of her yet. “Whoever it is better have a damn good reason for fucking calling.”
“They always have a good reason,” she groaned, sounding as though she didn’t want the moment to end any more than he did.
He rolled off her, certain he would go into shock from the instant cold that surrounded his soaked cock. Then dragging his jeans from the floor, he found his phone clipped to his belt loop and pulled it free to glare at the number displayed.
“It’s Megan,” he said, wondering what the hell she wanted. “Hello,” he said, knowing he sounded gruff.
“Perry,” she said, her anxious tone not sounding good. “Dani has run away.”
Chapter 21
Kylie wasn’t sure she could move. Her legs were like wet noodles and her heart pounded too hard in her chest. She lay there, managing to tilt her head and stare at Perry’s perfect naked body in the darkness while he stood in the middle of his bedroom on the phone.
“She did what?” he growled, sounding bewildered.
It took some effort to push herself to her elbows and then even more effort to clear her vision from the blurred state it had been in for the last twenty minutes at least. Every inch of her pulsed and the heat between her legs still smoldered at a temperature she could barely control. In spite of how sated she was, just admiring the well-defined muscles throughout his body created a tingling inside her that grew the longer she drooled over him.
“Okay, Megan, calm down. I don’t understand. She wouldn’t just run away.”
Kylie’s attention snapped to his face. Even in the dark she noticed his strained expression, and the heat inside her turned to something more numb. Her antenna went up as reality kicked in with a mean punch. She sat up, easing herself to the edge of the bed, and draped her legs over the side, watching Perry.
“Well, hell. You’re positive… Okay, calm down… No. It’s fine. Just tell me this. Did she walk out the door or did someone come get her?”
Kylie jumped off the bed, grabbing her clothes and untangling them while her heart started racing all over again. This time, though, it wasn’t from passion but panic.
“Is it Dani?” she asked, keeping her voice low, when she figured out what the conversation was about. Megan didn’t need to know Kylie was over at her brother’s house.
Perry glanced at her as if he’d forgotten she was in the room. He didn’t nod or shake his head, though, but instead continued listening.
“All right. I’ll head over that way. Have the girls check her room, her computer, anything you can think of. I want all the information you can gather that will help us determine where she might have gone.”
“What about her cell phone?” Kylie whispered.
Perry mouthed to her that she had left it at the house.
“Check recent messages and text messages,” Kylie whispered.
She barely remembered getting dressed and hurried after Perry when he continued pulling his shirt over his head while heading through the dark house. When he paused in the living room and checked his gun before hooking it in its case to his belt, Kylie patted her waist where her gun would usually hang if she was going out in the field.
“I don’t have my gun,” she told him, meeting his intense gaze when he turned and looked down at her.
There was something unreadable in his expression, something that caused her insides to quicken as he searched her face without saying anything for a moment. Then without commenting, Perry turned, pulled open the top drawer to a cabinet against the wall next to his gun display, and pulled out a nine millimeter and handed it to her.
She didn’t have her security belt, but it wasn’t the first time she ran down someone with only her purse and all she needed inside. Quickly checking the security, then pulling it back to see if it were loaded, she met his gaze again when he handed her ammunition.
“Tell me what’s going on,” she said, feeling an awkwardness grow inside her that mixed with several other emotions she didn’t have time for right now. Anxiety crept over her flesh, leaving damp gooseflesh, but the tightening of her gut was usually what she felt when it was time to make the cut. They weren’t bringing in their guy tonight but going after an obstinate teenager. At least that was what Kylie gathered.
“Dani and Megan had a fight. My sister is pretty upset right now and honestly she wasn’t making a hell of a lot of sense. I guess Dani got mad again when she was accused of agreeing to meet someone online.”
“But we already know that is true. Dani admitted as much to me. She’s got a guy online she refers to as a boyfriend, yet they’ve never met in person. And he’s got a screen name that is spelled funny but pronounced ‘Peter.’ ”
“You told me.” Perry’s voice was deep, gruff, almost pissed sounding when he finished putting his shoes on, then grabbed his keys and headed for the door. “Apparently Dani stormed out of the house, calling her mother a few choice names, and when Megan stormed out after her Dani took off running. They can’t find her.”
“Megan hasn’t called in to Dispatch, has she?” Kylie was already around Perry’s car, reaching for the door handle on the passenger side when he climbed in behind the driver’s wheel.
He met her gaze when she slid in next to him. “Nope. And she won’t unless I ask her to. Why? Are you worried about going on a call with me?”
“Are you?” she challenged. The way she saw it right now, he was putting himself more on the line than she was with the two of them leaving together like this. No one on her side would know about this circumstance, especially if Megan didn’t call it in.
“Nope.” Perry’s profile showed his determination and his jaw was set the way he always held it when he was hell-bent on seeing something through.
As he backed the Jeep out of the driveway the quickening returned in her gut with a vengeance. They’d just made incredible love to each other. She could feel the dampness between her legs, and for the first time since dressing and hurrying out the door she imagined she probably looked like hell-or like a lady who’d just gotten the shit fucked out of her.
Now they were headed out on a call, working together. This was almost as good as rolling over and fucking him again. And if it weren’t for the dire circumstance and the possibility that Dani could run into trouble out at night alone and pissed, Kylie would probably be reveling in the moment, inspired by the opportunity to work by his side, even if it was just this one time. She would get to see him in action. Once she kicked Dani’s obstinate ass, she might just have to hug her for giving Kylie this opportunity.
“You’ve got your cell phone,” Perry said, not making it a question as he headed down the road with his high beams creating lines on the road ahead of them.
“Yes,” she said, again studying the strong features of his profile.
“Good. We won’t have radios. If we have to comb the neighborhood it will be the only way we can communicate.”
“Works for me.”
Perry obviously didn’t give any thought to how Megan would react when she learned Kylie was still with him. Megan opened the front door the moment he knocked but then gawked at Kylie before quickly regaining composure.
“Which way did she head?” Perry asked, ignoring Megan’s reaction to seeing Kylie.
Megan pointed out the door and down the street to their right. “I followed her for about a block before she lost me, I hurried back home to call you.”
“Did she change clothes after we left?” Kylie asked.
Megan searched Kylie’s face, as if drawing her own conclusion about something, and took a moment before
