The day before had gone from bad to worse. The frantic woman in the restaurant had been unable to get a ride from the dock, so Jace drove her to the hospital—dropping Ally at her house on the way.

Work the next day had been busy, and the day had shifted into evening by the time he called her.

“Hello?”

Much as he wanted to keep detached, her voice did something to him—made his body relive the time they’d spent together. Maybe it was the touch of huskiness. “Ally. How was your day?”

“I…ah…I’ve been busy.”

“We need to talk about this girl. Have dinner with me tonight.”

He half expected her to refuse. So far, she’d done everything in her power to avoid him, but she was full of surprises.

“Sure. Give me half an hour to get cleaned up. We should check online to see if we can find any trace of her too. My rented house has really slow internet, so I’ll bring my laptop and maybe we can find somewhere with access.”

Jace took frozen chili out of the freezer, and shoved it into the oven with a couple of large potatoes to bake. He had salad greens and wine, and felt sure Ally would open up more if they were alone together, without an audience.

Half an hour later, he arrived at her door and rang the bell. Ally was dressed casually in black jeans and a green sweater. Her face was devoid of makeup, and she carried a black leather jacket and a large shoulder bag.

He drove to his house.

“I thought we were going to dinner.” She stared at his face, making no attempt to climb from the car door that he held open.

“We are. At my house.”

Her lips pursed.

“We need to talk. And I don’t want other people overhearing our conversation. I’m not going to jump you.” Although, taking Crystal into account, the idea wasn’t as abhorrent as it should be.

She considered for a moment, then swung her legs from the car. “Okay.”

He went before her, turning on lights and checking the chili. “Make yourself comfortable.” The main room was open plan—sitting room, dining nook, and kitchen filling the space. She followed him to the kitchen area, and sat on one of the chairs abutting the breakfast bar. He had so many questions—so many things he wanted to know about her—he’d always wanted to know about her.

“Tell me about yourself. I don’t even know what city you’re living in, or what you do.” She was on holiday; in a couple of weeks she’d be gone. Somehow that fact made desperation claw at his gut.

“I live in Seattle. I’m a private investigator.”

Jace felt his eyes widen. What were the odds that she lived in the same city as Crystal, and worked in the same profession?

“Are you from a big family?”

She ran her hands through her hair, shoving it back to reveal her neck. He remembered the taste of her skin. How was that possible after the time that had passed, and the women he’d tasted since?

“There’s just my sister and me. My parents are divorced—I don’t see either of them.” The wince was minuscule, he would have missed it if he wasn’t watching her so carefully.

“Why?”

A more visible wince—he hadn’t imagined it.

“I broke them up. I don’t think either of them will ever forgive me.”

He poured two glasses of red wine, and placed one in her hand. “I don’t understand that. You can’t possibly be responsible for breaking up a marriage.” He’d heard the same thing from Rory before. “My son thought he was responsible for me and his mother’s breakup, but we were adults—it was our decision. Even if she’d never become pregnant, our relationship would have ended. It wasn’t meant to be.”

“Yeah, well this was sort of different.” She sipped the wine. “I suspected my father was having an affair, and I investigated.” She rubbed the back of her neck. “I followed him, took photographs, put together a whole damn dossier.” Her gaze met his, regret in her eyes. “It seemed the right thing to do. But you know that phrase, ‘don’t shoot the messenger’? There’s a reason for that saying.” She drank again. “My parents divorced, but I was the one who took the brunt of my father’s infidelity—my mother hasn’t spoken to me in over a year.”

“Over a year? So this was before…”

She nodded. “A couple of months before our night together. I spent my first Christmas alone, and then my friend Marcie invited me to join her for New Year’s Eve.” Her shoulders rose and fell, and a smile curved her lips. “You know the rest.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong.” He pulled salad greens from the fridge and assembled a salad as he spoke. “Their marriage was obviously in trouble.”

“She blames me for telling her. I think she would have been happier to live in an ignorance-is-bliss bubble, but by me presenting all the evidence—and in front of my sister too—she couldn’t ignore his cheating.”

“You’re honest.”

She frowned.

“No. You are.” He filled up her glass again. “That’s not something you can say about many people. Being honest is difficult, there are consequences. But the truth will always come out, so it’s better to face that head-on, rather than pretend.” He had her here, in his house, alone. They were sharing a bottle of wine, and reminiscing about old times in a silent house with his king-size bed upstairs. To all intents and purposes, he had set a seduction scene, one into which she willingly walked.

But he was in a relationship. One he’d been ready to take to the next level.

She licked a bead of wine from her bottom lip, and his cock tightened at the sight.

He never reacted to Crystal like that.

“I spoke to Rory about the girl. He still won’t tell me her name, so I guess we’ll have to keep calling her Sophia.”

“And?”

“He told me not to interfere in her life. He seemed to think it might have dire consequences for his relationship if I take it further.” He dressed the salad, and pushed it to one side. Couldn’t resist staring into Ally’s eyes. “But if there’s a possibility that she’s being abused, I can’t stand by and do nothing—and I’m guessing you’re the same.”

She chewed her bottom lip and then nodded. “I agree. I’ll tell you everything I know.”

* * *

Life was delivering her one hell of a karmic slap. Because the thing she hated above all other was people who cheated, and right now, right here, she was identifying fully with those she’d previously professed to hate.

She knew he was taken. There was no doubt he was someone else’s man. That should have been enough to make him dead to her, but it wasn’t. The electricity sparking between them every time their eyes met across the small table was bad enough, but when added to his other attributes: caring for a stranger’s welfare, and being able to cook like a Masterchef finalist, it was darned near impossible to deny the attraction.

Focus.

Ally swallowed a mouthful of wine, and avoided looking at Jace.

“Sophia is nineteen, and around five foot six. She’s slender, dresses in jeans and has a whole goth thing going on. Her hair is dyed half-pink, half-blue. She told me she lives at home with her father. She has scars on her back—I saw them.”

“Did she tell you where she lived?”

Ally shook her head. “No. I planned to drive her to a friend’s house after questioning her further.” She grimaced. “Unfortunately, she snuck out of the back of my car while I was inside your house.” She should have anticipated that. Should have reckoned the girl might have been quick thinking enough to fabricate a false name when questioned.

“Rory said she doesn’t go to school, and he mentioned the names of a couple of guys she hangs out with, the Marshall brothers. They’re bad news.” He rubbed his chin, thinking. “He said there was a party he wanted to go to…maybe there’s some stuff on his Facebook, I’ll grab my laptop.”

“No, use mine, it has some useful software that could help.” Ally brought her laptop to the table and started it up. Any regular member of the public would be appalled to discover just how insecure their secrets were in the hands of a professional. “Are you friends with Rory on Facebook?”

“Yeah, I insisted on it a couple of years ago.”

“Okay, log into your account and go to his page. Let’s check his Friend list.”

A quick glance confirmed what she suspected. That Rory, aware that his father had the option of spying on his son’s account at any time, used his Facebook sparingly. His feed was full of generic teen material, reposted from the internet, with no personal comments at all to give any insight into his private life. He had hundreds of friends, and it would be beyond lucky if Sophia were one of them, but she checked the list anyway. A quick scan of the photos revealed no familiar face, but many of the entries used generic pictures rather than photographs so they would need to be investigated in more detail.

“What can I do?” Jace was seated close, so close she felt his breath on her cheek.

“Do you know any of these female friends? It would be useful if we could eliminate as many as we can.”

Jace scanned the list, pointing out kids he knew, and could verify weren’t Sophia.

She was so darned aware of him it was difficult to concentrate. If she angled her body a fraction, their knees would touch. If she even looked his direction, their faces would be close enough that their mouths could meet. Her body was on full alert, primed and ready. Her hard nipples brushing against the lace of her bra, the escalating arousal at the thought of touching and being touched by him was making it impossible to focus. There didn’t seem to be enough air in the room.

He isn’t free. She straightened her shoulders and took a deep breath, directing all her attention to the computer.

She opened up a text editor and noted the names in a separate window on-screen. The brothers Jace had mentioned weren’t Facebook friends with his son. Later, she’d check if they had accounts. And check the other social networks too.

“This gives us somewhere to start.” She had to get him to move away before she did something crazy. “Maybe you could use your laptop too, and we can get more done.”

Jace left the room, and returned moments later with his laptop.

He booted it up, and she set him a task of checking the rest of the girls Rory was friends with, while she dug deeper.

“Some more wine?”

“Please.” Drinking wasn’t wise considering the undercurrents flying around tonight, but she needed something to take the edge off. They sat in silence, working together yet apart for the next half hour. She followed a reference to the party Jace had mentioned and checked out the people who had been invited, following leads, and forming a picture of the groups of people Rory knew by discussing individuals with Jace. She checked and cross-checked names. Jace’s nearness meant she couldn’t hack into Rory’s account and check his direct messages. He looked uncomfortable reading his son’s posts; he’d be appalled if she snooped through Rory’s most private information.

“You have tape over your webcam.” Jace’s words broke her concentration.

“Everyone should. People can spy on you otherwise.”

“Is that true? I’ve heard it, but I presumed it was a conspiracy thing.”

“It’s true. I advise everyone to do it.” She glanced at Jace’s laptop. “You should.”

He walked into the kitchen and returned with another bottle of wine and a packet of Band-Aids. He filled both of their glasses, and pasted a Band-Aid over his webcam with a smile.

“I have fifteen girls here.” He swiveled the computer around. “I’ve gone onto their pages, and found pictures they’ve posted—do you want to take a look?”

She sipped wine while she checked the accounts he’d flagged. None of the girls were Sophia. “This is proving harder than I expected.” But at least they were whittling the list down. Five girls remained unidentified, one of them might be the mystery girl, but Ally would need to do more research to find out. She jotted down the names and checked details she could glean from the pages, GPS coordinates from the pictures, searching through family links, noting any promising leads as she went.

“You’re good at this.” Jace leaned back in his chair, watching her.

“I should be. I spend my time finding people.”

“Have you always been an investigator?”

“No. I studied to be an accountant. I spent a shitload of time doing people’s books before I discovered my strength was in research and switched careers.” He didn’t need to know she spent most of her days finding what people wanted to keep hidden. That she was an expert when it came to cheating. That she could hack into his private emails and reveal all his secrets as easily as she could make a jug of coffee. “It seems like a glamorous job, but believe me, it isn’t. Most of my time is spent looking for anomalies, spotting things that don’t seem quite right.” She was running scans on family members now. Checking for criminal records of the fathers and brothers of the unidentified girls. “She could have been lying to me.”

Sophia had lied about her name; maybe she didn’t live with her father. Maybe she lived with a grandfather, a brother, another relative.

“She came up with a fake name at a moment’s notice. Everything she told me could be false.”

“You saw her back.”

Ally looked into Jace’s eyes. He was right. The scars had been real. “I did.”

“And she stayed with Rory when she could have left him on the road. So we know what sort of person she is.”

Ally nodded. “She cares about him. She didn’t lie about that. And you’re right; she’d been hurt. We have to believe she lied for a reason. She said her father would be angry to hear she wasn’t at her friend’s house as she promised.” Ally chewed her bottom lip. “There must be an easier way to find her.” Her hair was distinctive, but her appearance would be easily changed with one packet of box dye. “Where else might they have met?”

There was a chiming from Jace’s laptop. A Skype call.

Ally caught the caller’s name: Crystal.

“I have to take this.” He pressed answer before angling the laptop away. The screen filled with an image that would be burned in her skull forever. Crystal, her boss, clad in a minuscule pair of silver sequined panties, sky-high silver sandals and nothing else, standing in a living room holding a glass of champagne.

“Oh, Jesus.” Jace jumped to his feet, grabbed the laptop, and headed for the door. “I’ll take this in the bedroom.”