Total pages in book: 159
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 155775 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 779(@200wpm)___ 623(@250wpm)___ 519(@300wpm)
Oh, that’s why they were here. Cash had brought her here to help find her sisters. Relief filled her as she nodded.
Cash turned to her as Brody left the room. “Come here, Addie. You need to sit down. You’re shaking. Come drink this hot chocolate.”
Oh, so now it was all right for her to drink the hot chocolate, was it? She shook her head at him. He was out of control.
Brody returned with his laptop, sitting down and opening it. “Right. Sorry. Does someone want to tell me what’s going on?”
“Yes, I would really like to know that too,” Ink said.
Addie moved back in her seat by Cash. Her legs were trembling so hard she didn’t think she could stand much longer anyway. And she didn’t want to embarrass herself by collapsing to the floor.
Just as she settled in her seat, the door crashed open again. She squeaked and jumped.
“Does no one know how to enter a room quietly, for fuck’s sake?” Cash muttered.
The man who walked in stared around at them all in surprise. “What are you all doing here?” He scowled as though it was a really big imposition that they were here. He was huge, with wide shoulders and extremely tall. His head was shaved bald, and he had a kind of menacing appearance that immediately made her lean against Cash.
“Butch, do you remember that I own the place?” Ink said dryly.
Butch suited him. He grunted.
“What are you doing here?” Ink asked.
“Needed a quiet place to think. Apartment to my left has a sick baby that cries all night, other side has a nympho who humps all night.”
“That’s more than I needed to know,” Ink said. “Now that you’re here, you might as well sit in. I might need you to work this job anyway.”
How much did it cost to hire these people to find her sisters? And maybe they didn’t even need to be found. She had no idea. She probably should have just gone back to the bar.
“Someone talk,” Ink said gruffly.
Addie hunched in on herself, feeling ridiculous because the words just wouldn’t come. Ink gave her a look, and his face seemed to soften. “Not angry at you, sweetheart. It’s just that if your sisters are missing, every minute counts.”
Oh, God. She hadn’t thought of that, and she’d wasted so much time.
To her surprise, it was Ralen who started to speak. He told them everything from the brawl, finding her, and going to the hotel.
“There was no sign of them at the hotel?” Brody asked.
“No, and that’s the really odd part,” Cash said. “When we got to the hotel room, we found it trashed.”
“Trashed?” Brody asked. “Why would somebody have trashed it?”
“Addie said that one of her sisters tends to keep the little card holder that the hotel keycard comes in,” Ralen explained. “We think that maybe someone found and used it.”
“Fuck,” Butch said. “That’s a stupid thing to do.”
Addie glared at him.
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh, so you do have some fire.”
“Don’t talk to her like that,” Cash said in a deep, low voice.
There was a definite warning in there, and the two men glared at each other. Did they know each other?
If they did, they didn’t seem to be good friends. In fact, they seemed like they were heading into enemy territory.
When she looked at Ralen, he was glaring at Butch too.
Sheesh.
“Right, let’s just take things down a notch,” Ink said. “So we think someone found the keycard and went to the hotel room to trash it. They steal anything?”
Addie shook her head.
“No?” Ink gave her a look of surprise. “Nothing?”
“Maybe you didn’t have anything they wanted, and then they got angry and wrecked the place?” Brody asked.
“There was a little bit of jewelry,” Cash told them. “The laptop was locked up, but there were still things they could have taken. However, that’s not the strangest thing. There was a message on the mirror in the bathroom that said: Leave or Die.”
Ink sat back in his chair with his arms crossed over his wide chest. “Leave or die?”
Cash nodded.
“Why would someone leave a message like that?” Ink looked at Addie as he asked the question. “Brody, do we have an iPad that Addie can use to write?”
Brody nodded and left the room. This time, he managed not to hit his knee on the table.
Which was just as well, since she hated to think what the man watching on the camera would say.
“Addie, I know it’s strange that someone is watching, but he might actually be able to help,” Ink said.
He must have seen her looking around the room.
“If I feel like it,” the voice drawled. “Although this is keeping my interest. I do like a mystery.”
“You also have a soft spot for women in distress,” Ink said.
“You’ll take that back,” the voice said silkily. “I have no soft spots. If you say that again, I’ll show you all the soft spots that a knife can penetrate without killing you.”