“Yep.” Lisa grinned and rocked back on her heels. “You aren’t going to believe this one.”
Alana looked up, impatiently waiting for Lisa to continue. She raised her hand, shaking the paper Lisa had given her. “You’re killing me, Lisa.”
“It’s Noah and Aiden’s mother.”
“What?” Alana and Tray both yelled at the same time.
Lisa handed them a picture along with an article she’d printed off the Internet. It was of a young woman, two small babies, and an older man.
“That’s their grandfather,” Lisa explained as she pointed to the picture. “He was mayor at the time. Apparently, there was some falling out with her family.”
“What was the fallout over?” Alana asked.
Lisa shrugged. “Not sure, but one article claims she dabbled in witchcraft.”
“And the family didn’t approve, is my guess,” Tray added.
“Probably so. But there’s more,” Lisa said as she handed them another article.
“More?” Alana asked with some dread.
She glanced down at the paper in her hand and groaned.
“How could Noah not know he’s seeing his mother?” Tray mumbled.
“She disappeared when they were a little over one year old. It’s possible he doesn’t remember what she looked like,” Lisa offered.
“Yeah, but didn’t they at least have a picture of her?” Alana asked in confusion.
Lisa shrugged. “Who knows. But I think you should talk to Noah about it. See what he says.”
“Well, that would certainly explain his seeing her. But why doesn’t Aiden?”
“He saw her that night at the house when he was with us.”
Tray nodded, conceding. “This can’t be residual then. She’s trying to warn him of something.”
Alana shook her head, unsure she believed that line of thinking.
“She’s warning Noah, Alana. That much is obvious. Why are you being so stubborn on this one?” Tray tried to reason.
“I don’t know,” she replied, shrugging. “But something isn’t right with this. Am I the only one who feels it?”
“You probably feel it because you’re closer to the twins, but I have to admit, it seems odd he would be seeing his mother and not even know it.”
“I’ll go by his office and talk to him later,” Alana said, sighing. She definitely didn’t like the bad feeling plaguing the pit of her stomach. Something wasn’t right here.
“Okay,” Lisa said as she waved her hands as though brushing their current topic away. “I know I’m jumping subjects here, but you guys should be used to how my mind jumps around. I met this really weird guy at the library.”
Alana’s head jerked up as concern tightened her chest. “What do you mean by weird?”
“I don’t know. I just got a…” She rolled her hands, trying to find the right words to say. “A creepy feeling. Like I’ve seen him before, or I should be wary of him somehow. Nothing specific, just a feeling. I kind of felt bad for him. He was burned pretty bad. His face, his hands, even his neck. I couldn’t see any more of him than that, but I’m wondering if the burns cover more of his body. He didn’t look all that old, but his hair was white as snow.”
“Was he bothering you?” Alana asked.
“No. He was actually very nice, it was just a gut instinct, I guess. He left, but afterward, I kept getting this feeling that I was being watched.”
“Well, my mother always told me to trust my gut, and as for being watched, from now on, you don’t go anywhere without one of us,” Tray ordered.
Lisa snorted. “Give me a break. He didn’t do anything; he just gave me the creeps.”
“Lisa—” Alana began, but Tray interrupted her.
“Let me handle miss stubborn. You let Noah know what happened.”
“Oh, speaking of which,” Lisa said as she plopped onto the couch next to Alana, dismissing for the moment their pervious conversation. “How did lunch go?”
Alana rolled her eyes and opened her mouth to answer.
“It went well. Food was great,” Tray repeated her earlier words in a dry tone that made Alana giggle.
“Actually lunch went very well. Both men were perfect gentlemen.”
“Well, damn,” Lisa teased.
“I know,” Tray drawled. “My sentiments exactly.”
“Ha ha. Both of you are just a barrel of laughs.”
Tray and Lisa chuckled as Lisa put her hand on Alana’s leg, giving it a gentle squeeze. “If you’re happy with lunch, we are. We’re just giving you a hard time.”
“I know,” Alana replied, smiling. “I don’t know what I’d do without you guys. Especially now.”
“We’re here for ya, babe,” Tray said as he leaned down to kiss her cheek.
“You betcha.” Lisa kissed her opposite one, making Alana giggle.
* * *
Alana knocked softly on Noah’s office door before pushing it open and sticking her head around the corner. “Got a minute?” she asked as he lifted his head to see who was coming in.
“Always,” he said with a smile.
She pushed the door the rest of the way open and stared at the disarray in shock. Papers and files were everywhere, and she had to step carefully as she made her way into the room.
“Wow, I know men who are good at their job can sometimes be slobs, but…”
Noah snorted.
“What happened?”
“Well, if my staff is to be believed, your ghost paid a little visit to my office today.”
Alana froze. “Excuse me?”
“I had someone make a copy of what happened and send it to Tray. He’s probably got it by now.”
“A copy?” she asked, a little confused.
He pointed behind her. “The camera mounted on the corner caught most everything.”
Alana glanced at the camera then back to Noah. “She just ransacked your office?”
“No,” he replied as he dropped two files onto his desk and reached for another. “She apparently sent me a message.”
Alana’s interest was piqued, and for the moment, she completely forgot what she’d come to talk with him about. She walked closer and took the file he handed her.
“When I came into my office, the Internet was up. Twenty-five pages in all, twenty-four of them pages on missing girls. I had one of my officers check the missing persons database. So far, all girls are still missing.”
“You said there were twenty-five,” she said as she flipped through the pages.
“Yep. Keep looking. You’ll see it.”
Alana came to the last page and took a shuddering breath as she stared at the face of her best friend. “I don’t understand,” she whispered. “Why is Lisa’s Web page and picture here?”
“I’m not sure, but truthfully, I don’t like what my gut tells me.”
Alana moved to one of the chairs and sat down, her heart heavy and beating like a frightened rabbit. “Lisa said she met a man today that gave her the creeps. He didn’t do anything, but she felt that she should be wary.”
“Is she okay?”
“For now.”
“Tell her she’s not to go anywhere alone from here on out. I’ll also post someone to keep an eye on her.”
She shook her head. “Lisa’s not going to like that at all. Tray and I have already had this argument with her. Last check, she was still fighting it.”
He gave her a pointed look. “At this point, Alana, I don’t care.”
“Yeah, I’m not sure I do either. Do you think these girls are connected somehow?”
“They span over twenty years and come from several different parts of the country. If they are connected, that’s a long time for someone to be getting away with whatever they’re doing.”
She sat silent for a moment, watching out the window and thinking. Was her friend in trouble? Was that why her picture showed up? They’d never dealt with anything like this. She felt out of her league and overwhelmed. Where
did they go from here? How did Noah fit into all this? And what about Aiden? Why wasn’t Aiden seeing it?
Noah moved around his desk and rested his hip against the corner. The toe of his shoe touched hers, and she felt a weird desire to reach out and touch his leg in comfort. For some strange reason, she felt as though she could sense his turmoil, his tension.
“Did you want to talk to me about something?” he asked softly.
“I’m sorry,” she said with a shake of her head. “Actually, yes. If it’s not too intrusive, I wanted to ask you about your mother.”
She instantly felt a wave of tension tighten her chest, and she frowned, raising her hand to touch just under her throat in surprise. Where had that come from?
“What about my mother?” he asked.
“Do you remember her?”
“No,” he replied, as he stood and walked around his desk, putting his back to her and a wall between them.
“What happened to her?”
Noah shrugged as he began to close down his computer. His discomfort was obvious to her, but was it because she could see it in the lines on his face or because she could feel it?
“She disappeared.”
“That’s it? Just disappeared?”
“Yeah, at one point there was a rumor she’d run off with someone, but we never found out for sure.”
“You never looked for her? Were never curious as to what happened to her?”
“Why would we be?” he asked, his face empty of any emotion.
“I don’t know. She’s your mother. Do you have pictures of her?”
He frowned in slight confusion and shook his head. “We used to, but Gram said every time we would look at them, we would get upset, so she got rid of them.”
Alana’s mouth dropped open. “Did she not think you might want them one day?”
“Alana, what is all this about?”
She glanced down at the file in her hand. Should she tell him? “If you could find out the truth, would you want to?” she asked.
She slowly raised her head and stared into his eyes, still devoid of anything.
“No.”
“Why?” she whispered.
“That was a long time ago. I’ve moved on, and so has Aiden.”
“But you could have moved on from a lie.”
He raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “A lie?”
Alana shook her head, now second-guessing her decision. “Maybe this isn’t the right time.”
“Right time for what?” he demanded.
Alana could sense his agitation and flinched. One of his officers stepped into the room, interrupting whatever she might’ve said, and at the moment, she didn’t have a clue what that would’ve been.
“Sherriff, we’ve got a problem out on I-40 westbound. Tanker overturned.”
“Oh my God,” Alana gasped.
“How bad?”
“At least six cars, several injuries, possibly one death.”
“Get all available on the scene and see if we can get Life Flight out there.”
“It’s already on its way.”
Noah tipped his head in acknowledgment before glancing down at Alana. “I want to continue this conversation later.” He glanced at his watch. “My and Noah’s house around six thirty?”
“Sure,” Alana replied as she stood to leave, still not knowing for sure what she was even going to say.
“I’ll text you the address.” He leaned over as he walked by and gently kissed her cheek, making her stomach flutter. “Take the back roads when driving back to the hotel. The interstate will be a mess for a while.”
Alana watched him go, wondering if maybe she was about to open a can of worms best left closed.
Chapter Seventeen
Noah didn’t have to hear Alana’s truck door slam to know she had arrived. He could feel her, which was something that had him stumped. He’d also felt her nervousness earlier in his office and had wondered, more than once today, what it had all been about. Was it something to do with the questions she’d been asking about his mother? And why had she been asking those questions?
He glanced at his watch, wondering what was taking Aiden so long as he walked to the door, opening it just as she was about to knock.
Her eyes widened in surprise, and she took a step back, startled. He grinned. “You’re early.”
“It didn’t take me as long to get here as I thought it would.”
He stepped aside, allowing her to walk past him into the small entrance hall.
“Nice house,” she said, glancing around his and Aiden’s home. “A sheriff in a small town makes that much?”
He chuckled. “Aiden and I bought this place together. We modified it a little. There’re two master suites, the whole basement is a den and workout room, and then of course there’s the outside.” He waved for her to head to the sliding glass door off the breakfast nook.
She gave him a strange look, then walked toward the door, setting the file she had in her hands on the kitchen island as she went. He should’ve been curious as to what was in it, but all he could focus on was the soft sway of her ass, and his balls tightened instantly. Walking became difficult, so he tried to ignore the throbbing and focus on her reaction. Most people were surprised with what they’d done outside, and he was sure she would be as well.
“Good Lord,” she sighed and opened the door, stepping out into the back patio area.
Light steam lifted from the pool and hot tub, filling the backyard. Their pool, spa, outdoor kitchen, and rocky waterfall probably cost more than the house itself, but it was money well spent in Aiden and Noah’s minds. It had gotten a lot of use.
“This is amazing,” she said before giggling.
“Aiden and I grew up with a pool; we just improved on the idea. I also have pool parties here for some of the troubled teens and kids in the area. They enjoy it.”
“I would imagine so.” She turned to smile at him. “Your work with kids actually surprises me a little.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. You just don’t seem the type. You’re hard, sometimes cold—”
He raised an eyebrow in amusement. “Rough around the edges?”
She smiled and pointed at him. “That’s it.”
“Aiden and I both like kids and enjoy working with them.”
He let his gaze wander down her curves, her breasts hard and firm beneath her tight sweater, her long legs encased in the stonewashed jeans. God, he wanted her. He could even feel her desire, her nipples hardening, her pussy moistening.
His stare met hers, and the desire darkening the green of her eyes made his cock jerk within his pants. She’d come here to talk to him about something. Something important—he could feel it—but at the moment all he could think about was ripping her clothes off.
He walked toward her slowly, not wanting to scare her off, not wanting to startle her into fleeing. He gripped her waist, tugging her toward him with gentle pressure. She came willingly. In her eyes he could see what he felt coming from her: her confusion, her lust and need, her uncertainty.
He dipped his head, stopping just short of her mouth. He could feel her heat, her pulse as it pounded through her veins. Could she feel his?
“This is too weird,” she whispered.
“This is nothing,” he countered before covering her lips with his.
She whimpered and raised her hands to the back of his arms, holding tight as he deepened the kiss, sliding his tongue between her lips to taste her sweet mouth. He slid his hands around her back, flattening them to push her against him so that every inch of their bodies touched.
Her body felt so good in his arms. Her scent reminded him of coming home, of belonging.
She broke the kiss with a reluctant moan. “I came here to talk to you and Aiden about something.”
“We’ll talk later,” he growled before capturing her mouth again in a deep kiss that made even his heart race.
Her tongue twirled around his, returning h
is demands with some of her own. He gripped her ass, lifting her slightly and pressing his hard cock into the vee of her firm thighs. He groaned and dropped her back to her feet, moving his hands quickly to the bottom of her sweater. He lifted it, shoving it over her head quickly and dropping it to the floor.
The cleavage of her full breasts fought to spill over her bra, and he tugged the lace down, capturing one pert nipple in his mouth. She gasped and dug her fingers into his hair, tugging him closer and trying to force more of her breast into his mouth. He obliged, licking and sucking till she dropped her head back with a loud cry of delight.
She shivered from the cool air, and for a second he wondered if he should take her inside, but the other part of him was afraid if he stopped, she’d come to her senses and put an end to the blessed torture of her in his arms.
He returned his mouth to hers and reached to undo the clasp at her back. The bra fell to the floor as he moved his hands back around to cup her firm mounds. She filled his hands and then some as he massaged and gently pinched at her nipples. Her mewling sounds were lost in his kiss as he deepened it further, never giving her a chance to protest or remember why she’d come here.
Shaking fingers moved to the buttons of his shirt, and he let go of her breasts to help her. He wanted to feel her flesh against his, wanted to feel her body with nothing between them. It was like he couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get enough. It was like she was a part of him that he needed to be whole.
Her palms smoothed over his chest, sending hot currents of sensations to his balls that almost had him losing control. He gripped one of her hands and placed it over his throbbing cock.
“Feel this?” he growled against her mouth.
She nodded and tightened her fingers around the bulge through his jeans.
“I want to fuck you with this.”
Alana felt a tinge of excitement at his words. She liked the rough edge to his voice, the desire shining in his eyes when he looked at her. She could feel how much he wanted her—or was that just her imagination? And where was Aiden?
Part of her thrilled with the idea he might walk in on them and join in the play. It made her more excited, wetter, hotter—although at the moment, she wasn’t sure she could get much hotter. Her skin felt more on fire than it ever had in her life.
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