by Cynthia Eden
“You probably don’t want to hear this, but I think we have another problem.”
No, he didn’t want to hear about another problem. He had enough going on at the moment.
“If you look due south, you’ll find a friendly face.”
Odin took his time and casually glanced due south. Dammit. “How long has he been there?” Ramsey was casually leaning against one of the massive trees near the Humanities building. Like everyone else, he acted as if he was just watching the scene. A curious bystander.
Firefighters had rushed inside.
Odin hadn’t caught even a whiff of smoke.
“Noticed him right after everyone else came scrambling out. Interesting, isn’t it? That he’s here at exactly the same time someone attacked you?”
Not interesting. Infuriating. Suspicious.
Ramsey lifted his hand.
“Did that guy just wave to you?” Jinx demanded.
“No, I think he flipped me off. Better get your vision checked.” Ramsey had turned away and was casually walking from the scene. “Maisey is talking to the security guard and the cops. Make sure your vision is clear enough that you see her every second until I get back, got me? Do not let her out of your sight.”
“On it.”
Odin grunted and gave chase. There was no way he was letting Ramsey leave that scene without having a talk with the bastard. In moments, he and Ramsey had left the crowd behind. Ramsey was heading for a dark SUV.
He opened the door. Started to slide inside—
“Don’t make me drag you back out,” Odin warned.
Ramsey’s shoulders stiffened. He turned. Slowly. “You truly think you could?”
“With minimal effort.” Fury infused his veins. “You don’t want to test me right now.”
“Why? Because your Maisey almost got hurt today? Feeling a little bit tense, are you?” Ramsey closed in on him. “Then imagine how I feel. My Whitney wasn’t just hurt. She was taken. Killed. That means I feel a million times angrier than you do. So I will tell you…you don’t want to come at me.”
As if Odin would ever back down. “Maisey thinks you should know about a phone call she received last night. I think you might have made the phone call, so I wasn’t exactly rushing to contact you but then I looked, and surprise coincidence, here you are.”
Ramsey frowned. “I didn’t call Maisey.”
“No?”
“No.”
Odin measured him.
“I don’t have time for this.” Tension blasted in Ramsey’s words. “What the hell was the phone call about? Did you get a lead?”
“Whitney.”
Ramsey’s jaw tightened. “Do you know how annoying it is when someone gives you a one-word answer? Nothing pisses me off more.”
“The caller was Whitney.” He dropped this bombshell and waited.
All of the color drained from Ramsey’s face. He staggered. Caught himself. “Don’t lie.”
That reaction was real. Hell, Ramsey hadn’t been the caller. “The voice on the line was Whitney’s. Maisey confirmed it.”
The pain that flashed in Ramsey’s eyes was so intense. There was no denying the obvious. He really does care about her.
“What did she say?” Ramsey rasped.
“The caller asked Maisey for help.”
Ramsey grabbed him. Fisted his fingers in Odin’s t-shirt. “Then we help her! We do anything necessary to get Whitney back!”
“The call was probably fake. You take a breath for a second, and you’ll remember how easy it is to fake someone’s voice with those cheap apps that float around.”
Ramsey’s grip tightened. “You don’t know it was fake.”
“And you don’t know it was real.” He looked down. “You’re wrinkling one of my favorite shirts.”
Swearing, Ramsey let him go. “If you think it was fake, what was the point in even telling me?”
“To see your reaction.”
Ramsey stalked back to his vehicle. Jumped in. Before he could swing the driver’s side door shut, Odin caught it. “Why were you here today?”
Ramsey turned his head. “You’re wasting your time with me. Cross my name off your list. I didn’t hurt Whitney, and I haven’t done anything to Maisey.”
Odin just waited. Ramsey hadn’t answered his question.
“You should be afraid of me,” Ramsey suddenly said. “Smart people are afraid. Dumbasses, too. You don’t want me for an enemy.”
“Well, I don’t want you for a buddy, either, so…”
“You’re fucking insane.”
Odin considered the situation. “You are the second person to tell me that today. Funny thing is, I feel completely sane. It’s the rest of the world that’s crazy.” He paused. “Why were you here?”
“She said she thought someone was following her,” Ramsey muttered. “I didn’t mention it last night, but Whitney—she said that she thought someone was following her one night when she left campus.” A muscle flexed along his jaw. “I wanted to put a guard on her right then and there, but she laughed. Told me that I was being too protective. That she probably had just imagined it, but that she’d be sure and exercise more care in the future.” His jaw hardened. “Said she’d get the security guard to walk her out if she stayed late again.” His fingers curled around the steering wheel. “I let it go. Some creep was following her, and I let it go. If I’d just put one of my men on her, she’d be safe right now.”
“She told you that she’d go to the security guard?” As far as he knew, Sandy hadn’t mentioned anything about Whitney needing protection.
“Yeah. That’s why I was here today. Wanted to have an up close and personal chat with the guy. Turns out he’s pushing ninety and couldn’t protect a damn fly. Whitney never told me that.” His knuckles whitened.
“You mean you came to threaten his ass then realized that if you used your usual tactics, you’d probably kill Sandy in minutes.”
Ramsey didn’t respond.
“Who’s next on your hit list?” Odin asked.
Ramsey angled his head so that he was looking at Odin. His smile was ice-cold. “Thanks to you—and a helpful blonde who talks very loudly—I now know the identity of your other chief suspect. I think I’ll see how long he can hold out against my, ah, ‘usual tactics,’ I believe you called them.”
Shit. The situation had just gone from bad to clusterfuck.
“Let go of the door,” Ramsey directed.
He didn’t. “Leave him alone. I’ll deal with Clay.”
“After I’m done with him, have a freaking field day.” He started the car. “Let go, or you’ll get dragged along. Your choice.”
The sonofabitch—
“Odin!” Maisey’s voice.
He let go. Ramsey shot away with a squeal of his tires even as Odin spun to find Maisey running toward him.
Jinx was trailing a few feet behind her. “Got eyes on her!” he called in his cheerful voice. “Perfect vision.”
She hurried to Odin. Her breath rushed in and out. “You were interrogating him without me!”
Guilty. He tossed a glare back at Jinx. “Couldn’t you keep her away for a little longer?”
“Didn’t realize that was part of my job. Thought I was just supposed to have my eyes on her. You need to make sure you’re clear when you give orders.”
Maisey’s hands flew to her hips. “Keep me away? Odin, why do you have such trouble understanding this is a partnership?”
He surged toward her. Loomed over her. “Ramsey is dangerous. Whether he’s tied to what’s happening or not, I don’t want you anywhere near him.”
“I can handle some danger. Haven’t I proven that?”
Why didn’t she understand this? “I don’t want you around danger.” You’re too important. And too vulnerable.
“Yes, well, I don’t want you running off and leaving me in the dark.”
“I’m the damn PI! I’m supposed to investigate.”
“And I’m the on
e who just realized why Whitney’s files were ransacked in the storage room.” Her lips tugged down. “It wasn’t her.”
He slanted a hard glance at Jinx.
But Jinx shrugged. “I have no idea what she’s talking about. Maisey just came running up and said she had to talk to you, ASAP. I pointed in the general direction you’d taken, and the game was afoot.”
Seriously?
One of Maisey’s hands flew up and pressed to Odin’s chest. “The caller last night wasn’t Whitney.” Sadness whispered in her voice. “You were right about that.”
“How do you know?”
“Because there were a few old tapes in those boxes of hers. Interviews that she’d conducted a long time ago. I remembered them when we were running out and the fire alarm was shrieking.” Her hand was right over his heart. “I told Sandy about them. He went back in as soon as he had the all clear. He searched, but said the tapes are gone.”
Jinx positioned himself beside Odin. “It would be easy enough to take a recording of Whitney talking and splice pieces together in order to make that call to Maisey.”
Yes, it would be. Too easy.
“It wasn’t her,” Maisey said once more. “He’s jerking me around. Trying to manipulate me.”
“More than that, sweetheart.” Her touch seemed to burn through his shirt. “He’s trying to kill you.” He hadn’t just wanted to injure her with the “accident” in the storage room. Or with the attempted abduction. The bastard’s goal was clearly to take out Maisey.
And that shit was never gonna happen.
Chapter Fifteen
“Now that you mention in it…” Sandy rubbed his chin. “I do remember Whitney coming to me and saying something about feeling a little nervous when she was heading to her car.”
They were in Sandy’s cramped office. The fire trucks had left. The crowd had finally vanished—and so had Clay. When Odin had returned to the Humanities building with Maisey, he’d discovered that Clay had cut and run from the scene.
Except Clay hadn’t been able to go too far. Jinx had tagged his car. They knew the man had just driven back to his house. And I’ll be seeing you soon to finish our talk.
But first…
Sandy.
“Whitney didn’t mention this to me,” Maisey fumed.
Sandy shrugged. “It was a one-time deal. I walked her to her car that night. After that, she came and said it had all been a misunderstanding. That she’d found out who’d tailed her, and it was just someone who’d needed a little help.”
“Help?” Maisey pounced on that. “Did she tell you what kind of help?”
He scratched his chin again. “No, and I didn’t ask.” His gaze fell. “Sure wish I had now, though.”
Odin let his gaze drift over the small security office. Stacks of paperwork. Campus flyers. A cold cup of coffee on the ancient desk. “What about the security cameras in the Humanities building? Did they catch anything useful today?”
“They were shut off.”
His gaze jumped back to Sandy. “Say that again.”
“Shut off, son,” Sandy raised his voice. “Shut. Off.”
Odin narrowed his eyes. “Who shut them off?”
“Heck if I know. Was trying to pull up the stuff for the cops—you know, they need to investigate all that vandalism—but just got static. Looks like the whole campus system went down around eight. Thought we might see something, but…nope.”
Great. Fabulous. He glanced at his watch. They were wasting time. He needed to confront Clay, before Ramsey got to him. “Come on, Maisey.”
She took his hand immediately. His fingers curled around hers. Touching her seemed to steady some of the pulsing tension that coursed through his body. He didn’t speak, and neither did she, not until they were out of the building and the warm sunlight was hitting down on them.
“Convenient, isn’t it?” she finally murmured.
“It’s a lot more than that.” Odin turned toward her. “He’s on campus. An employee. A student.”
“Has to be,” she agreed with a quick glance around them. “It has to be someone who is familiar with the layout of the college. Someone who knew about those tapes in Whitney’s storage boxes.”
“That takes us back to Clay.” Round and round they went. “He knows we suspect him now.”
“Because you wanted to rattle his cage,” she noted with a crook of one eyebrow.
Oh, he hadn’t just been interested in rattling. “I want to shove the fucker into a cage.” Just so they were clear.
Her lips tightened. “But when you were doing all that rattling, he didn’t give up anything to you.”
For a moment, Clay almost had. “There was something in his eyes. When I talked about making people vanish—I could have sworn that for just a moment there, I saw fear.”
She inched closer. “Fear doesn’t equal guilt.”
“But you’re only afraid if you have something to hide.”
“Excellent point.” She shivered. “Okay. So maybe we need to rattle him a little more.”
“Yeah, but the problem is that Ramsey is ready to go after him, too. We need to get to Clay first.” His Jeep waited. They turned as one and started rushing toward it.
“We’re done.” A woman’s voice. Angry. Sharp. “I don’t care anymore. I don’t want to hear your excuses. You are never there when I need you. I have put everything on the line for you, but now I don’t think you’re worth it.”
Odin glanced to the left. Saw the blonde from earlier—Heather—arguing with a thin, lanky guy in the parking lot. As he watched, Heather spun away from the man and started to storm off. But the man—with thick, brown hair and a swirling tattoo sliding up his neck—grabbed her. He whirled her to face him.
“Hey!” Maisey immediately called out. “Is everything all right?”
Odin was already closing in. When the man had grabbed Heather, he’d grabbed her a little too hard. “Let her go.”
The guy didn’t. “Mind your business!”
“This is my business. You’re being an asshole in public, so that makes it a public concern.” He looked at the hard grip on Heather. “Let her go.”
“Let me go, Steve,” Heather snapped. “Right now. God, this is so embarrassing.”
Steve let her go. But he was glaring for all he was worth. “Don’t come crawling back to me!”
Heather straightened her shoulders. “I don’t crawl to anyone. You must have mistaken me for someone else.”
Steve’s hands were fisting. Odin stared at them, then looked up to lock eyes with Steve. “What you’re gonna want to do is take some breaths, calm the fuck down, then get the hell out of here.”
Steve’s face flushed a deep red. It was easy to see the other man’s intent. It was also apparent that Odin had about eight inches and nearly seventy pounds on the guy. “Try it, though,” Odin invited.
Steve apparently thought better of trying anything. He bolted. Jumped in a sports car and flew out of there like his life depended on it.
“He is such a dick.” Heather sniffed. “Sorry you had to see that, but he needed to know we were done.”
Odin swept his stare over her. “He get physical like that a lot?”
“Steve? No. First time.” She straightened her glasses. They’d already been straight. “You think you know someone, and then they have to go and show you their true colors. Disappointing.”
Maisey touched her shoulder. “Do you need a ride home?”
“No, I got it, but thanks. I appreciate you trying to look out for me.” A quick smile. “You remind me of Dr. Augustine. She was always looking out for people, too, you know. Her interns weren’t just her students. We were family.” She swiped at her cheek. “I need to go. I-I’ll see you around soon.” She scampered toward a parked four-door car.
Odin could tell Maisey was worried as she watched the younger woman. “What do you know about that guy?”
“Not a lot. Steve Barrington is a computer science grad student. I d
on’t see him much. Just when he comes around and I happen to pass him and Heather in the halls. He always seemed quiet. Pretty devoted to her.” Maisey met Odin’s stare. “But sometimes, we can all trust the wrong people.”
Odin thought about the scene that had gone down between him and Clay. Maisey had seen every brutal second of it. “I’m not like—” Odin stopped. “I would never hurt you.”
Her brow furrowed. “You don’t need to tell me that.” She walked around. Jumped into the Jeep.
He found himself lingering by the passenger side of the vehicle. “But I want to tell you. I don’t want you thinking that I could turn on you. That’s not me. I would never do that.”
Her hand slid against his cheek. “Big, tough Odin. I know who you are.” She leaned forward. Pressed a kiss to his lips. “And I know what you would and wouldn’t do. I know you wouldn’t hurt me. But I also know that you would hurt anyone who tried to come for me.”
Yes. He would. In a heartbeat. “Do I scare you?”
“Do I look scared?” Her hand lingered against his cheek.
“I think you look absolutely beautiful.” But then, he always thought that about her.
Her smile bloomed. Her dimples flashed for him. “Careful, or I’ll start to think there’s a whole lot more between us than just the case.”
She didn’t get that yet? “What do you think last night was about?”
Her lips parted. She didn’t speak. He realized he needed to get his ass in the vehicle and move. He hurried around the ride. Leapt inside. Had the engine growling moments later.
But Maisey touched his hand. “Last night…why don’t you tell me what it was about?” She seemed to hold her breath.
His head turned toward her. “It was about me wanting you more than anything else in the world.”
“I felt the same way.” A whisper.
“I still feel that way.” It was all he could do not to pull her into his arms. “It’s not about the damn case. I want you, and I intend to have you, over and over again. When the case ends, you’re not getting away.” Shit. That had come off way too possessive and hard, but he felt that way. “Ah, Maisey…”
“Neither are you, Odin. You’re not getting away from me just because the case gets closed.”