Holding Her Close by Lexi Ryan

Author:Lexi Ryan [Ryan, Lexi]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Ever After, LLC
Published: 2016-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

Cade

“Where’s Janelle?” Gormong asks, when I step into his office.

I slide a Starbucks cup across his desk. “At the hotel. I’ve got Davis with her, though. She’s covered.”

Gormong takes a long pull of his coffee and studies me. “Want to pretend you’re not in a horrible mood and get down to business, or do you need to take a minute to share your feelings and shit?”

I grunt. “I’m not going to honor that with a response.”

He lifts a shoulder. “Wife filled me in on the drama between your actress and her ex. And anyone with a pulse can tell there’s tension between you two. I’m just saying we can talk if that’s what you need.”

I narrow my eyes at him. “No, you’re saying your wife will be on your ass for all the details the tabloids aren’t supplying.”

“Harsh!”

“You can tell her that Janelle and I are fine.” What a lie. We aren’t fine. We aren’t anything. Tom’s appearance this morning was enough to jeopardize even our fictional romance, enough to remind me why I need to keep my distance.

“Fine?” Gormong grimaces. “You’re sending me home with fine?”

“At least you’re admitting your ulterior motives now.”

The corner of his mouth twitches into a grin. “Hey, you can’t blame me for trying. Happy wife, happy life, right?”

I wouldn’t know. “So the case,” I say, changing the subject none-too-subtly. “Where are we with security footage at Janelle’s condo?”

He shifts uncomfortably. “You’re not gonna like it.”

“It’s gone?”

“On the night before she returned—and the night Courtney went missing—there’s a gap of a few hours in the footage, as if someone went in and erased it. They’re giving us a list of employees who have access to the digital files, and we’ll start interviews.”

“The more people you talk to, the harder it’s going to be to keep this quiet. People will start asking questions. The media would love to get their hands on all the details of this story.”

“I know. And since the HiLo is requiring we get a warrant before they’ll share their security footage of the night Courtney disappeared, we’re at a bit of a standstill with that line of the investigation. In the meantime, the more we learn, the uglier this case gets.”

“What do you mean by that?” Then it hits me. The question I haven’t asked. The question I’ve put out of my mind because to stay sane I have to believe that Janelle isn’t in that kind of danger. But I know now. Even before I ask. “What were the results of the rape kit?”

Gormong’s mood shifts in an instant. He drags a hand over his face and studies his desk.

“Fuck,” I whisper. “What did they find?”

He swallows hard. “Her exam showed no internal injuries, but there were traces of semen. It can’t be from her husband, because he’d been out of town for the previous week. We have samples being analyzed now, and when we have DNA information, we’ll see if we can find a match in the database.”

I grab my phone.

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