Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 154595 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 773(@200wpm)___ 618(@250wpm)___ 515(@300wpm)
She’d run from him.
And he was going to find her.
Then he was going to tell her that she wasn’t leaving his side ever again.
It still amazed him that he’d gone from only wanting sex to feeling more possessive of this woman than he’d ever felt about anyone.
But he didn’t want to spend time examining his emotions. Screw that. He would find Maeve. Bring her home. Keep her.
End of story.
“Her phone is still off,” Jesse said. “So we can’t track her that way. Been doing some research into her, though. She’s got an interesting background.”
“Interesting, how?” Why the fuck hadn’t he thought to run a background check on her before?
Because you were pretending this was all about the sex.
Now you know differently, dickhead.
There wasn’t much Gray had ever wanted. Stability. Power. A place to belong.
And her.
That was it.
“Well, up until the age of sixteen, she didn’t seem to exist.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
Jesse shrugged. “Looks to me like someone faked her background. It’s good. But they’re not as good as me. However, they were competent enough to erase whoever she was before sixteen.”
“Are you thinking she was in hiding?” he asked. “WITSEC?”
“Don’t know.” Jesse frowned. “But there’s more.”
“What more?”
“You ever heard of Jenner Knight?”
“Who hasn’t?” He wasn’t into country music, but he also wasn’t dead. The guy was hot right now.
“Yeah, well, look at this.” Jesse turned his monitor around, showing an image of Maeve in a black dress. He instantly frowned. Why would Maeve wear black? She loved purple and gold.
The dress was understated. Even boring. There was no personability. And Maeve . . . she was perfect. Not a hair out of place. Not a smudge on her face. Or a grin.
“That’s not my Maeve.”
Jesse smirked. “Your Maeve, huh?”
Gray shot him a quelling look.
Jesse raised his hands. “Right. Sorry. Forget I said anything.”
“This isn’t the way she normally looks. She’s . . . this doesn’t even look like her.”
His gaze narrowed as he took in the man whose arm she had her hand on. She was leaning into him, looking almost scared. And she was far thinner than she was now.
Thin and pale.
Almost sick.
“So, she knows Jenner Knight,” Gray stated.
“This is them together at some charity dinner about ten months ago,” Jesse told him. “I looked around the news sites at the time and there was a lot of speculation that they were dating.”
Gray tightened his hands into fists at the idea of some other asshole touching her.
She’s mine.
“And?”
“Don’t know. She just seemed to disappear from sight after that, and he’s been seen with several other women in the months since.”
“What did he do?”
“You think he did something?” Jesse asked.
“Had to be him. Wouldn’t be Maeve.”
Jesse whistled. “Dude, you have it bad.”
Gray scowled at him. “Don’t call me that. I don’t have it bad. Maeve is mine.”
“Right, uh, sure, you’ve said that.” Jesse nervously ran his fingers through his hair.
“So, do you have any idea where she is?”
“Well, not for sure. I also hacked into the camera feeds of the closest bus and train stations to where she was staying, and I found this.”
A black and white grainy image came up. Gray sucked in a breath as he watched her move. She was almost shuffling along, hunched over. And when she glanced up, he felt like he’d been sucker punched.
“She looks scared,” Jesse said.
“Is that . . . is that a mark on her face?”
It was difficult to see properly, but it looked like the side of her face was bruised.
Now, the rage racing through his veins was boiling hot.
Who touched his girl?
He was going to mess that fucker up.
“Do you know where she went?”
“I followed her until she got on a bus. But it went to Portland.”
“Then you think she’s in Portland?”
“Yeah, only, the way she looks in that camera and the fact that her phone isn’t working. I don’t know, man. Seems like she’s running from something or someone.”
From him?
But no. It didn’t make sense.
From whoever hurt her?
“Now what?” Gray asked.
“Well, I’ve been trying to work out if she’s using a credit card, but as far as I can tell she doesn’t own one. I just managed to hack into her bank account and she withdrew money in Portland a few days ago. My guess is that she’s holing up and paying cash. But whether she’s in Portland still or somewhere else, I don’t know. And my only lead is Jenner Knight.”
“You think she went back to her ex-boyfriend?” Why hadn’t she told him about Knight?
Because you told her so much about yourself. She didn’t even know that she could come to you when some fucker hurt her.
Jesse shrugged. “I mean, they never said they were together and he was quoted in one article calling her his friend. But even if she didn’t go back there, maybe he has an idea of where she is. Not that he’s likely to talk to you.”