by Barb Han
He felt amazing inside her, all over her.
And then in the next second, he’d taken them to the bed. Her back hit the duvet and suddenly his heft was on top of her, pressing her deep into the mattress.
His hands palmed her breasts and her nipples strained. A well of need raged inside her, building tempo until she was on the edge. She dug her fingernails into his shoulders as she met him stride for stride.
He fit her perfectly as her muscles quivered around his stiff length. Their breath mingled as he drove deeper and deeper toward her core.
And then she detonated around him, letting go of control as sensations rocked her body. With a primal groan, his release exploded inside her at the same time as hers. Chests heaving, he pumped his erection as she clasped her legs around him tighter.
A few seconds later, he caught her gaze.
Again, she expected to feel embarrassed but instead was overwhelmed with a feeling of the world being right.
It was fleeting. She knew it wouldn’t last. But in that moment, she held onto it. She’d never been able to let go with anyone before him.
Daniel didn’t seem to want to break apart any more than she did. So, he kissed her instead. And then he pulled back and caught her gaze.
“Are you ready for round two?”
Chapter 13
Daniel’s cell phone buzzed. He’d put it on silent after Clara had fallen asleep. Making love had changed things between them, at least for him. He had no idea what that meant yet. Hell, he didn’t have anything to offer her. But that conversation needed to wait…
Two people had this number, Jaden Orchard and Emmanuel Simon.
The message was from Emmanuel. He got a hit on the business center lead.
Daniel stepped onto the balcony of the hotel that overlooked the Dallas skyline and an expanse of wide-open sky, and returned the call.
“What did you find?” Daniel asked after perfunctory greetings.
“I got a lot of hits on a social media account on those dates set up by someone calling themselves ArtsyGrl,” Emmanuel said.
Daniel heard the click of fingers on a keyboard in the background. Clara had mentioned early on that Ashlyn carried a sketchbook almost everywhere she went.
He walked to the edge of the balcony and leaned forward, balancing his elbows on the railing.
“I hacked into the account. I’m sending the link. Follow it and you’ll see everything I did,” Emmanuel said. “But, dude, I gotta warn you. The posts stop on the date you mentioned. Based on what I saw this ain’t gonna be good news.”
Daniel clenched his back teeth as he took in the landscape. A few tall buildings made up the bulk of Dallas’s skyline with the round ball at the top of Reunion Tower breaking up the otherwise asymmetrical shapes. That’s what they were looking for. The round ball in the midst of all those tall buildings.
“You should have it now,” Emmanuel said.
Daniel’s phone buzzed in his hand, indicating he’d gotten the text with the link.
“She’s been gone a while,” Emmanuel said, his voice was low.
“We’re going to find her and bring her home.” Daniel felt the need to add, “No matter what that means.”
“She’s young. I could tell from the texts.”
“Thirteen.”
“I gotta cousin that age,” Emmanuel continued, his voice sounded heavy.
There was a moment of silence between the two of them.
“I don’t want to hold you up,” Emmanuel said before adding, “You sure you’re cool with this job? I mean, it’s not your typical gig.”
“Time to make a change,” Daniel admitted.
“We’re have you been, man? I thought you were dead.” Emmanuel was a decent guy and Daniel knew that his contact cared. They were closer than a business association. Caring for people who had his back was habit, ingrained in him from his days in the military.
“For a long time, I have been.”
Another moment of silence—not awkward but respectful.
“Welcome back to the living,” Emmanuel finally said. “It’s good to hear from you again. Keep in touch.”
“Yeah. We should have a beer sometime.” Although, they both knew that would never happen.
Emmanuel said, “Sounds like a plan.”
The two exchanged goodbyes and Daniel had the feeling this wouldn’t be the last time they spoke. As hard as it was to pick himself up and move on, this case had given him something to get out of bed for. The feeling was something he hadn’t experienced in too damn long. It felt a lot like purpose.
Ashlyn’s family deserved to know what had happened, he reminded himself. Clara deserved to know. And he had a feeling the news was close.
He let his thumb hover over the link in the text message from Emmanuel.
Daniel issued a sharp sigh and dropped this thumb.
The picture on the social media page was of a young girl in a swimsuit as she walked into the ocean. The long blond hair that reminded him so much of Clara’s told him the girl was Ashlyn even though her back was to the camera, which also told him she hadn’t taken the photo. The pic looked recent, as she hadn’t changed from the photos her aunt had shown him. He recognized the crystal water and beautiful scenery. Considering the fact that Makayla admitted she and Clara didn’t hang out on the trip Daniel made the assumption that the photo was snapped by a new—and dangerous—friend.
He skimmed the handful of posts. Not surprising, most of them were selfies taken at various spots on the resort. Oddly enough there were only two likes on each pic. One was hers and the other one came from someone who went by the screen name, BadAss_Bandit.
Warning bells sounded loud inside Daniel’s head as he scanned a handful of mostly innocuous messages.
Until he scrolled down to the last exchange underneath the selfie captioned: Last night in paradise.
BadAss_Bandit: Meet up 2-night?
ArtsyGrl: Idk.
BadAss_Bandit: Scared?
ArtsyGrl: Sneaking out. Duh!
BadAss_Bandit: Chickn?
ArtsyGrl: Me?
ArtsyGrl: I guess.
ArtsyGrl: No.
ArtsyGrl: NVRmind.
ArtsyGrl: I’m just being weird.
BadAss_Bandit: Wear the white bikini?
BadAss_Bandit: Come on.
BadAss_Bandit: I like it.
Emmanuel was right. Daniel freakin’ hated this. Because the implication here was that she was lured away and taken. Again, thoughts of human trafficking and the girl being sold to the highest bidder struck him. He studied the screen as his grip tightened around his phone.
ArtsyGrl: I probably shouldn’t do this.
ArtsyGrl: I mean, my folks are always getting on me about strangers.
BadAss_Bandit: Are we?
BadAss_Bandit: Strangers?
BadAss_Bandit: Cuz I thought--
BadAss_Bandit: I like U.
BadAss_Bandit: I thought we had a
BadAss_Bandit: Cu-nek-shun.
BadAss_Bandit: Just me?
ArtsyGrl: See you at midnight.
Her last message had one of those smiling emojis with hearts for eyes next to it.
Daniel fired off a text to Emmanuel. You would’ve told me if you’d located BadAss_Bandit right?
The response came back almost instantly. Bet your ass I would. Working on it. Strange, tho. It looks like his responses came from the same computer she used.
Daniel responded, asking to be kept up to date. And then he opened the slider and walked inside the room. Sunlight poured over the bed, over Clara who sat up and rubbed sleepy eyes.
“How long have I been asleep?” she asked.
He stalked to her side of the bed and sat down, facing her.
“Emmanuel got a hit.” He held up his cell phone.
She took it from him and studied the screen as he got busy packing up their few supplies.
Clara gasped and he figured she must’ve gotten to the last entry.
/> “Get dressed, Clara. I’m hooking us up on a flight to Jamaica.”
Travel days were always tiring but today had been hell for Clara. Revisiting the resort—the last place Ashlyn had been seen alive—knowing that her niece had met up with someone on her last night there parked an SUV on Clara’s chest. Every passing day made the possibility of finding Ashlyn more remote.
The military plane had gotten them as far as Cuba and then a chopper took them onto Jamaica. The skies had been choppy and she was never more grateful than to be back on solid ground once they landed.
Daniel thanked the pilot and grabbed her overnight bag.
A car waited just off the tarmac and Clara was struck at how little she knew about the man she’d just left the country with. Oh, she knew him in the biblical sense. She could recount every scar and describe every tattoo on his fit physique. She knew his background. He’d had a daughter and a wife, both of which were sadly gone. Whatever the reasons for their deaths it was clear that he blamed himself.
Clara didn’t want to consider him on a professional level, to evaluate him as though he was sitting in a chair in her office. The habit was hard to break.
There’d been one person in the last five years who she’d considered dating seriously, Brendan Andrews. One night, during an argument he’d baited her into outlining ‘his issues,’ as he’d put it. She’d made the mistake of obliging him, sharing her clinical opinion. Brendan had told her the next time she wanted to analyze someone that she’d be better off looking into the mirror.
He’d walked out and shut the door behind him. He was right. She’d been analyzing everyone around her instead of the person in the reflection. Brendan’s words had seared through her normally-impenetrable walls. Clara excelled at avoidance. Inconvenient truths had a way of doing that, piercing through external layers and shooting daggers through the heart.
Other than Daniel’s losses and his ability to slip in and out of the country without leaving a trace—much like a ghost—that was the extent to which she knew about the man.
She appreciated that he’d sat next to her on the trip, quietly, not trying to force her to talk. Her emotions were wrung out. The messages that she’d read dozens of times over the course of the day spun around in the back of her mind in a constant loop.
Besides, she’d been too busy admonishing herself for not seeing any of this coming.
Ashlyn had kept so many secrets. Oh, baby. Why?
The question looped in her mind on the way to the resort. Having Daniel beside her kept her from a full-scale panic attack. She knew to take deep breaths. She knew a dozen other ways to calm her mind. None of her tricks worked. There was something about being on this island, being so near the last place Ashlyn was seen alive that caused her heart to thump painfully against her ribcage.
After a short ride, Daniel pulled past the security gate and parked the car at the tropical resort.
Jamaica Royale was stunning. Dark was descending but there was still enough light to see clearly for now. Rosewood, palmetto palm, and coconut palm trees were everywhere. There were breadfruit, banana and plantain. All flourished. Ferns grew almost everywhere she looked. Hibiscus trees and Canna contributed so much color. Lizards in a variety of sizes and shades of green scattered about the pathway to the main building. The place was high end with all the trappings.
It struck Clara as she walked into the grand marble-floored lobby that a little more than two weeks ago Ashlyn had walked these same steps.
Another wave of emotion slammed into Clara like a physical blow. The only thing that kept her legs from giving way was Daniel. His arm was looped around her waist and he held her upright.
The smiles the workers wore as they passed by felt like a mockery. Two performed double takes at Clara and she instantly realized they must be noting the resemblance between her and her niece. Everyone else welcomed them with a smile like nothing bad had ever happened, which caused all kinds of anger to stir inside Clara.
Dammit, how could life go on when her niece was missing?
A dark thought struck. What if they couldn’t find Ashlyn? The thought made it hard to breathe. It felt like Clara’s entire world was collapsing around her, sucking her into the current and out to sea forever.
“Are you okay?” Daniel’s voice came as barely a whisper. She’d felt him move closer to her, felt his reassuring touch.
Clara refocused on the mosaic tile and putting one foot in front of the other. “Being here is harder than I expected.”
“You’re doing great,” came another reassurance and Clara wanted desperately to hold onto those words as they approached the grand lobby area.
Daniel had made the reservation under the name Roger Staubach in order to ensure no one knew their names or could piece together the real reason they were there. He’d said that the fastest way for workers to zip their mouths shut would be to alert them to the fact that Ashlyn’s aunt was on the resort. She worried about the pair of workers who seemed to look twice at her.
Clara thought back to what Daniel had said when she’d first met him. She shouldn’t be on the island. He would do better with the investigation if he was alone.
Clara and Daniel stood in line at the check-in area, his fingers around hers kept her grounded.
“Next in line, please,” the smiling attendant said. Her nametag read: Kenise.
Daniel smiled at her and the woman blushed.
“May I help you?” Kenise asked, her voice a little higher in pitch like she was flirting.
That voice was fingernails on a chalkboard to Clara.
“We have a reservation,” Daniel said, he didn’t seem to notice or care about Kenise’s actions.
“Name?” The woman readied her fingers on the keyboard and stared at Daniel’s mouth.
“Staubach,” he supplied. “Roger.”
Kenise’s fingers tap-tap-tapped. Her face lit up. “Here it is.” She looked up as though for confirmation. “A suite.”
He nodded and she refocused on the screen.
“Is it possible to stay in the Jaguar suite?” he asked, naming the exact room that the DeSanchos had booked.
“Let me see what I can do.” She studied that screen like she was memorizing a paragraph for a final exam.
Clara took the opportunity to look around. Hadn’t Makayla said that her younger brother had seen Ashlyn hanging around the lobby? All of this would be so much easier if Clara could just interview the staff and get real answers. Someone had to have seen something and she was adept at telling when someone lied to her. Or so she’d thought. She questioned her abilities considering the secrets her own family had been keeping.
But then, Daniel had been right. It was impossible to be objective when it came to family. So much of his harsh actions when they’d first met made sense now. Even then she’d realized down deep that there was good in him. He’d experienced loss. He was a man reacting to pain that was still raw.
Clara refocused, glancing around the lobby and hoping something would stand out. She thought about the generic-feeling report that had been sent to Stella. Royale management’s investigation had arrived three days after Ashlyn’s disappearance. It recounted staff member accounts of overhearing conversations with Ashlyn and her friend stating that she needed to get away for a few weeks and had no intention of going home.
The corporate office had painted a picture of a runaway and said that they’d be in contact the minute she turned up. Based on what Clara had learned in the past couple of days she couldn’t blame Ashlyn for wanting to avoid Stella’s house.
Clara’s mind snapped back to the present when Kenise said, “I can do that for you. No problem.”
The woman continued punching keys for what felt like an eternity.
“These will get you in.” She looked up at them, studying Clara like she was actually seeing her for the first time. Of course, up until now she’d been focused on Daniel. Clara didn’t like the extra attention. She and Ashlyn looked too much alike and
Clara didn’t need Kenise making the connection and alerting others on the staff to watch what they said around her.
“Should I use the credit card on file for incidentals?” the woman asked.
“Yes.” Daniel leaned over the desk and Kenise’s gaze quickly shifted. “I’d appreciate that very much.”
He seemed to pick up on what was going on and his sexier voice drew the attention back to him immediately. Did he always have that effect on women?
More pangs of jealousy hit.
Clara already knew that sex with the man was beyond the best she’d ever experienced. It felt like so much more than sex; they had a real connection.
Looking at Kenise, Clara wondered if he had that same ‘connection’ with every female he met. The man had the chiseled, rough, bad boy looks that made women lose their minds and their hearts.
Heat drew to Kenise’s cheeks as she smiled up at Daniel. She handed over the card keys. Clara caught the woman brushing her fingers against Daniel’s palm and beaming at him as he took the offering.
Jealousy was a hurricane brewing inside her chest but she had no claim to him, except for the fact that the afterglow of their mind-blowing sex was still on her.
But she shoved all those thoughts aside as she let the reason they were here absorb. This was the last place Ashlyn had been seen.
Sixteen days ago.
The Jaguar suite rang true to its name. Framed artwork depicting the animal hung on the walls. The tropical theme reminded Clara of Ashlyn’s fifth birthday party. Ashlyn had always loved to be read to and Jungle Book had captivated her.
Walking around the living room of the three-bedroom suite, Clara was gutted.
She looked to Daniel for reassurance and saw that same brokenness in his eyes. Was that the mutual attraction playing out between them? Two damaged souls seeking comfort in each other’s arms? It felt like so much more.
Clara lived alone and had been alone for most of her adult life. She never let anyone in after what had happened when she was a teen. She’d erected walls so high no one could climb them, so thick no one could tear them down. She’d learned to exist after her world had crashed down around her.