Maybe she should call the Ghost about the WITSEC leak and the body dump. Connor would be able to investigate that in a way no one else could.

But no. Sophie couldn’t reach out to him—her ex-lover would misconstrue it, and the last thing she needed was more confusion with the men in her life.

Sophie checked back in with the park attendant. She met the young man’s eyes. “Is there anything else you can tell us about this couple? Did you hear anything about where they might be going, and where people like them—homeless transients—might have gone?”

“Yeah. I think they were all talking about heading for Volcanoes National Park, and that Oceanview area outside the park. A lot of homeless end up camping around Oceanview. It’s pretty unregulated out there, kind of a new Wild West. My cousin lives there and says the parties are off the hook.” The young man had a gap-toothed grin.

“Thanks a lot, man.” Jake came up from behind her and handed the kid a twenty-dollar bill. “We really appreciate it.”

Sophie took him to task back at the Jeep. “Wasn’t that kind of like a bribe? Isn’t it part of his job to help us and protect the people who come through the park?”

Jake scoffed. “C’mon, Sophie, don’t be naïve. Money makes the world go ’round.”

Sophie puzzled over that saying as they drove. Money go round? English had so many colloquialisms that didn’t make sense. The earth was a sphere! Oh, but perhaps Jake meant, “go around.” In which case, he was justifying paying off that park employee, who should be cooperative and helpful because it was part of his job. But the young man probably didn’t make much, in which case Jake’s gesture was more altruistic?

People were so hard to understand . . .

Maybe she spent too much time wondering about turns of phrase and their hidden meanings.

But there had been no hidden meaning in that kiss with Jake last night. She definitely needed to avoid alcohol, Jake, and anything to do with a bed.

The mere thought made her chest tingle.

Sophie sneaked a glance at her partner. His eyes were on the road, those big hands loosely gripping the wheel. She liked looking at him more than she wanted to.

She had woken up determined nothing further would happen between them, but faced with malasadas and Jake’s upbeat mood this morning, she found herself just as conflicted as before.

He intended to wear down her resistance.

Knowing that was his strategy didn’t make it less effective. She’d always found his determination and single-mindedness sexy. That Jake’s focus was trained on her made her kind of hot. There was no doubt they were attracted to each other physically.

But on the other hand, she was attracted to Alika as well. She didn’t know her own heart, or body! Her bad choices with Assan and then Connor had wounded and confused her. No, she shouldn’t be having a relationship until she could clearly pick someone she wanted to be with.

But maybe her problem was that she was too old-fashioned. “Conservative as my grandmother’s chastity belt,” Marcella had teased her a few years ago. Did sex have to mean something? Just because she was inexperienced and recovering from domestic violence didn’t mean she had to be celibate in this day and age. Now that she was getting over the scars left by having a sexual sadist be her first lover, could she indulge in an “adult relationship” with a man and have it be just physical?

Jake irritated her, challenged and annoyed her, but she also liked him. She trusted him. And if that kiss had been any indication, he would be very good in bed.

A memory of the creative and healing lovemaking she’d shared with Connor made her curl up tight against the window, withdrawing further from Jake.

She’d thought Connor was the one. She’d found her soul mate, if such a thing existed. He’d been so perfect for her in so many ways.

Except for that one, glaring, impossible problem: Connor’s heart was already given to something she would never agree with.

After her mistake with Connor, she didn’t trust her own judgment. Which is why she was trying to be done with men, and that wasn’t going well at all.

“I’m considering whether or not we could be bed buddies after all.” Sophie hadn’t meant to say the words out loud, but now that she had, she pressed on. “Though I prefer the phrase, “partners with benefits.”

Jake’s gaze shot to meet hers. The Jeep swerved, hitting the center line, and Jake over-corrected in a replay of another conversation. The juxtaposition made Sophie laugh.

“But I thought you just said . . .”

“I know I did. But I kind of want to have sex with you. No, I really want to have sex with you. And I don’t want to be . . . a ‘thing’ with you. If we agree on that, I think we can proceed.”

“Proceed. Huh.” Jake sped up. It was a long drive of an hour or so to Oceanview, along a scenic highway that passed above Kona. Vista views of the ocean and the great sweep of the side of the volcano they were circumnavigating tumbled into a horizon line blurred by voggy mist, reminding Sophie of a glimpse of infinity.

Jake finally spoke. “My whole body wants to say yes, I’ll take you however I can get you. In fact, the thought is making me rather uncomfortable right now. But to be honest, I don’t think I want just a casual lay. Because when I think of you with someone else . . .” Jake’s hands tightened on the wheel. The bone of his knuckles shone through the flesh. “I want to rip him apart. With my bare hands. So I guess that’s a no for me, unless we’re going to be exclusive.”

“Oh.” Sophie rubbed sweaty hands on her hiking pants. “That’s too bad, but good to know because the last thing I need is another homicidally jealous man in my life. It’s a big turnoff to me, Jake, as you can imagine. So I regret to say that, until something about the scenario changes, we won’t be having sex.”

“I guess not. But what do you say to a little friendly making out?” Jake bounced his brows at her.

This was her chance to cut off further contact with him, but Sophie found herself unwilling to do so. Maybe a little friendly making out might still happen. The thought gave her tummy a warm glow. “Perhaps.”

They drove the rest of the way in silence until they stopped for lunch at a café in a tiny hamlet called Captain Cook outside of Kona. A gauzy haze softened their view of the long stretch of land below them, ending in black rocks and the sea.

Sophie pointed out to the horizon with a carrot stick. “The vog must make some pretty sunsets with all the particulate matter in the air.”

“Yeah, I’m sure we can see one firsthand now that we’re on the south side of the island. The east side is much clearer, in general.”

They discussed the ongoing volcanic emissions from the active site of Kilauea volcano that had been going on for more than ten years. “I think I like a lot about the Big Island. So much variety in the microclimates, and it’s so big that you forget it’s an island. But the vog seems like a health hazard,” Sophie said. Conversing about something other than their case and their relationship was easy. She was relieved. Whatever happened, she didn’t want to lose her friendly partnership with Jake. They were good together.

On the way back to the Jeep, Jake took her hand again. This time, she didn’t remove it. It did no harm to allow the connection—it felt nice to have him hold her hand.

The first place they stopped when they arrived at the sprawling area of Oceanview was a small general store. Sophie perused a bulletin board thick with notices. “Let’s look for anything that seems like a clue.” She frowned at several missing persons posters. “There are many of these.” She pointed to one of their client. “There’s Julie Weathersby.”

“Yeah, I’m beginning to see a trend.”

“I think DAVID would find this many missing persons in one area statistically unlikely,” Sophie said. “I’ll have to set up a hypothesis and test it, but I predict the confidence interval to be low that this is a normal phenomenon occurring within the population.”

“Speak English, woman.” Jake put his hands on his hips.

“DAVID works on keyword searches for input data, developing correlations between possibly related pieces of information accrued under search parameters. This many missing persons, in the relatively small area of this island, being the result of random occurrence or statistically normal disappearance patterns—well, I think it has to be at least partly the effect of some other factor.”

Jake towed her around the building into shadow, where they would not be overheard by the comings and goings through the store’s battered doorway. “What are you saying? That there is a serial killer at work?”

“Perhaps more than one.” Sophie rubbed her arms briskly at the chill that had passed over her. “I want to input all of these people, try to get a number of how many are missing on the Big Island, and work up a larger picture of what might be going on. This data could be the beginning of a case for the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit.”

Jake scowled. “That investigation is not going to pay the rent, my friend. You are not an FBI agent any longer. We need to stay focused on the case we have, and if it turns up something more, great. Why go looking for trouble?”

“It’s what I do.” The truth of that insight burst across her brain. Sophie turned to Jake. “It’s what I do, Jake. I find things. I fix things.”

Jake’s silver-and-blue eyes were intent as they locked gazes. He was the first to look away, thrusting a hand through his short, dark hair. “I don’t like it.”

Sophie shrugged. “I don’t answer to you. Or Security Solutions, for that matter.”

Jake snorted through his nostrils in obvious frustration and stalked to the front of the store. He opened the door and went inside.

Sophie followed. She paused to photograph each of the posters on the bulletin board with her phone, and the bulletin board as a whole. One small notice in the corner caught her eye.

LOOKING FOR SOMEONE? Call me! I might know what happened to them.

A Hawaii cell phone number was listed in tear-off tags at the bottom. Three of the tags were missing. She tore one off, and made it a fourth.

Jake was likely canvassing the store owner with Julie’s photo as they’d discussed doing. She had time for a quick call to investigate this lead. Sophie walked around the back of the store and took out her cell phone, and called the number.