I took Sunday as a personal day. We weren’t always open on weekends, but I’d never been the sort of person who did well relaxing in traditional ways. I’d taken the previous weekends as times to work on my laptop, to compile notes, the sorts of things I could do at home. I even spent time cleaning my entire apartment every other week.

Yesterday, however, I slept in, ate crap food, and did some reading. I was surprised by how much better I felt this morning. Sure, I’d gotten used to being around Clay when we were in Quantico, but I’d had five months to get used to not having him around. But I hadn’t gotten closure until Saturday evening. Now, even though I knew I’d miss sex with him, I felt better knowing that I wasn’t stringing him along.

This morning, I’d filled Adare in about where things had gone with Jenna’s case, then she’d gone off to some appointment while I’d manned the office. She’d promised to bring back some super-caffeinated stuff for me to drink in exchange for me having to stay inside on a beautiful day.

When I heard the door to the office open, I didn’t bother peeking outside, but rather called over my shoulder, “I hope you remembered the coffee. I got all of the paperwork done and all your files alphabetized.”

“I apologize,” a man’s voice came from behind me, “I wasn’t aware that coffee was required for a retainer.”

I spun around, my foot catching on the back wheel of the chair. I stumbled, grabbing the edge of the desk to keep from falling. I didn’t end up on the floor, but I did end up in a strange, awkward position when I finally raised my head.

And saw one of the most gorgeous men I’d ever seen. And considering how hot Rylan Archer and Clay were, that was saying something. Ruggedly handsome, he had just enough scruff to keep him from looking too polished. His hair was a rich brown color and tousled enough to tell me that the wind was kicking up outside. He was tall, well over six feet, and muscled enough to impress me. Then my eyes met his, and I almost stopped breathing. Pure, clear turquoise, like nothing I’d seen on a real person.

And he was definitely real.

And trying not to laugh at me.

“Are you, all right?” he asked as he walked into the office.

“Fine.” I nodded and managed to straighten without looking like even more of a fool. “Sorry about that.”

He shook his head. “No, no, it was completely my fault. I shouldn’t have teased you. It’s how I deal with stress. I’m sorry.”

Stress. Right. He was here for a real reason, not to flirt with me. If he was even flirting with me in the first place. Which he wasn’t. And I wasn’t. Interested. I wasn’t interested in him. Except as a client. That was all.

“Let’s start over,” he said. “I’m Jalen Larsen, and I came here to hire Burkart Investigations.”

Starting over. That I could do. “I’m Rona Quick. Please have a seat, Mr. Larsen.”

He didn’t look much older than me, and from how he carried himself, I was willing to bet that he spent a lot of time having to prove to people that his age said nothing about his abilities.

“Tell me a little about what’s wrong, and I’ll tell you if I can help.”

I gave him the same line that Adare always gave our clients. She’d warned me early on to never agree to take a case before hearing the details. We didn’t turn people away because something was too difficult, but we did pick and choose our clients carefully. One of Adare’s first clients had hired her to find his cheating, thieving wife. His words. Fortunately, Adare was thorough. It turned out that his wife had left him two months before because he’d been beating her the entire three years they’d been married.

“A business acquaintance of mine referred me to you,” he began. “Rylan Archer. He said you were doing some work for his wife.”

I folded my hands on the desk in front of me, careful to keep my expression neutral. Referrals were good, but I knew I had to be careful. He could have genuinely gotten a referral from Rylan, but he could also be lying. Rylan had money, and Jenna had been in the press. He could easily be a reporter fishing around for a story or even some lunatic trying to get at either one of them.

He gave me the sort of smile that told me he knew exactly what I was thinking. He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a wallet.

“Here’s my ID.” He held out the thin piece of plastic. “Call Rylan and ask him if I’m legit. I just ask that you do it now. What I need is a bit time sensitive.”

I took his ID, scrutinizing it for a moment before picking up my phone. If it was fake, it was the best one I’d ever seen. Still, I preferred to be cautious, especially considering what happened to Jenna a few years ago when an obsessed ‘fan’ had found her.

“Hello?” Rylan’s voice came over the line.

“Rylan? It’s Rona Quick. I have a referral in my office and just wanted to check with you that he was legit.”

“If it’s Jalen Larsen, then yes, I referred him to you. He’s a good guy.”

“Thanks.” I breathed out a relieved sigh. “Tell Jenna I said hello.”

“I will.”

As I set down my phone, I handed Jalen back his ID. “What can I do for you, Mr. Larsen?”

“Jalen,” he said, his long fingers wrapping around the card, “please.”

He didn’t seem like he was trying to flirt with me or use his first name to establish some sort of bond between us that would come back and bite me in the ass later, so I nodded.

When had I become such a cynic?

“One of my employees didn’t show up for work this morning. He’s been with me for four years, and he’s never just not showed up. He’s never even come in late. By the time he was a half-hour late, his supervisor came to me, concerned. We tried to get ahold of him, but I finally ended up going to his house. When he answered his door, I knew something was wrong.”

I held up a finger, and Jalen paused. “His name?”

“Theo,” he said. “Theo Ludwick.”

I wrote the name down. “Go on.”

“His daughter’s missing.” Jalen ran his hand over his face, rubbing his cheeks and chin like he wasn’t used to having some stubble there. “Meka. She’s fifteen and has been giving him trouble ever since her mom died.”

“When was that?”

“Three years ago,” he answered promptly. “Betsy had cancer. He was two weeks short of his one-year anniversary and didn’t think he’d be able to take more than the three-day bereavement time. He’d already used up all of his other paid time taking care of her the last month before she died.”

“Was he?”

Jalen’s gaze jerked back to me. “Was he what?”

“Able to take the extra time?”

A muscle twitched in his jaw. “Of course. I’m a businessman, but I’m not more concerned with the bottom line than I am with doing the right thing.”

A man with a strong moral code. I liked that. “I didn’t mean to imply anything else. Just trying to get a feel for things.”

He eyed me for a moment before continuing. “Meka’s a freshman at Centennial High School. When she didn’t come home Friday afternoon, he tried calling her, but all he got was her voicemail. He called the school and found out that she’d left after third period, giving the office a note that he’d supposedly written about visiting her mother’s grave. He went to the cemetery, but she wasn’t there, and the groundskeeper hadn’t seen her.”

“Has he filed a police report?” I asked.

His entire expression darkened as he scowled, the muscles in his jaw popping with agitation. “He went to the police Friday night and was told that she hadn’t been gone long enough to file a missing person report. When he came back the next day, he was sent to talk to a random cop. He filed an official report, but the officer he spoke with said that Meka had most likely gone off with some friends for the weekend and she’d be back Sunday night, worried about getting in trouble.”

I understood that having a waiting period to file a report cut down on cops wasting time looking for people who’d gone off to do something and forgot to leave a note, but there were times I thought that a lot more missing people would’ve been found unharmed if the search had begun right away. Just because a rebellious teenager ran away didn’t mean she wasn’t in danger.

“Theo spent all Saturday morning and afternoon trying to find her. He called friends, went on her social media accounts, even called her phone company to see if they had any way of tracking her phone.”

Jalen’s frustration was palpable, and I wondered if he was close to Theo and Meka, or if Jalen was simply the sort of person who cared that deeply. Rylan had vouched for him, and the way Rylan had been with Jenna and the kids the other night told me that he had high standards.

“According to the phone company, Meka’s phone was off and showed no activity since Thursday night around nine o’clock. No one he spoke to could tell him anything.”

I made a note to keep that in mind when speaking with Meka’s classmates. Just because they hadn’t talked to her dad didn’t mean they were clueless. Friends would have wanted to keep her out of trouble, and enemies would’ve wanted to keep her missing longer, so she’d be in more trouble. Anyone who didn’t think a fifteen-year-old girl would have those sorts of enemies was either naïve or had enjoyed a completely different experience growing up than I had.

“So, the police are actually looking for her?” I asked.

Jalen made a disgusted sound. “If you can call it that. As soon as Theo finished filling out the paperwork Saturday night, the cop tossed it onto a huge stack of other papers on a desk and said that the detective would take a look at it first thing. Theo called yesterday and was told that he’d be contacted when they had something. He wasn’t given the detective’s name or anything. No one came by the house or came to ask him questions. It seems like as soon as they heard she’d had some problems, they wrote her off as a runaway.”

I frowned. I hadn’t exactly spent much time working with the police department here, but Adare had told me that they were generally friendly and helpful. Then again, as far as I knew, she hadn’t worked any missing kid cases.

“A couple questions,” I said finally. “You know Mr. Ludwick well?”

“I do.”

“Do you know of anyone who might want to hurt him? Get revenge on him?”

Jalen looked insulted that I’d even asked. “No! Of course not!”

I held up my hand. “I’m not trying to speak ill of him, but I need the truth. If he’s gotten into any altercations that you know of, borrowed money, come into a lot of money recently.”

Jalen shook his head. “Theo’s a straight-shooter.”

“You said that his wife died of cancer three years ago. Treatments can be extremely expensive.”

“I covered them,” Jalen said, the muscle in his jaw popping again. “My employees all have good health insurance, but I know that not everything gets covered. I have what I call ‘grants’ where if an employee or their immediate family have certain medical emergencies, they can apply to have some, or all of the costs covered.”

I was impressed but pushed it aside. He wasn’t the focus of the case.

“I’d like to take the case,” I said, “but I need to be clear about something first. I don’t care who’s hiring me, who’s paying for it. My goal is finding Meka and bringing her home safely. I’ll probably step on some toes, ask things that people don’t want me to ask, and they definitely don’t want to answer.”

“I’m okay with that,” he said.

“I’m not a cop. I’m not collecting evidence to be used in court. That means no search warrants, but also that a good defense attorney would most likely get anything I find thrown out if there are charges to be brought. I’ll ask questions, follow rumors. I don’t need corroboration to follow a lead, and I don’t need to read anyone their rights. I don’t make arrests. It’s all about finding Meka.”

Jalen nodded. “If there are any legal issues, we’ll take care of that later. Bringing Meka home is my top priority.”

“Then we’re on the same page.” I held out my hand for him to shake. “I’ll get one of our standard contracts, then take some contact information from you. I’ll also want to come to your place of business tomorrow and talk to your employees. They probably don’t have anything to do with this, but I want to be thorough.”

“I appreciate that.”

The moment he clasped my hand, electricity shot up my arm. I barely suppressed a shiver. Damn. If he wasn’t a client, I’d be having a whole other conversation with him. As it was, I made a mental note to ask Adare the policy on hooking up with former clients.

A girl could dream, right?