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One of the doors farther down the hall opened, and Nina stepped out, dressed in her usual jeans and T-shirt, her short blonde hair a little messy. Today’s T-shirt had a picture of a UFO with the words “Get in, loser” written beneath it. When she caught sight of Dorcas, she let out a squeal and hurried toward them.

“Oh, my God. I’m so happy to see you!” She caught Dorcas in a bone-crushing bear hug that squeezed the air from her lungs.

“It’s good to see you too,” Dorcas wheezed with her last bit of breath.

“Shit, sorry.” Nina let her go and then shifted her attention to Nate. “Thanks for keeping her safe.”

“No problem. It’s all part of the service. Is that kitten as big of a pain in the ass as your other half makes him out to be?”

Nina shrugged one shoulder. “Yeah, well. Kind of. I put him in the bathroom this morning so I could get ready for work without him getting underfoot, and he shredded the shower curtain.”

“Oh, no!” Dorcas flinched. “I’m so sorry.”

“Eh, it’s no big deal.” Nina waved a dismissive hand. “I never really liked that shower curtain. Now I have an excuse to replace it.”

Still, Dorcas felt bad about the damage. Knowing Nina, she wouldn’t let Dorcas pay for what the cat destroyed, so she’d find a way around it, like taking her and Austin to dinner, or buying them a nice bottle of wine.

“Do we have any clients coming on-site today?” Nate asked, and Nina shook her head. “All right, in that case I’m locking everything down. Don’t let anybody in unless you know who they are.”

Nina gave him a mock salute. “You got it.”

He looked to Dorcas, and there it was again, that little flip in her belly that was becoming part of her new normal. His voice softened. “Once I’m finished locking up, I’m going to bring the flash drive to Larissa, then I need to take care of a few things in my office. If you need anything, give me a call.”

Dorcas watched him leave, enjoying the way his jeans cupped his very fine ass. She shouldn’t be thinking about him that way. Her focus should be on her missing sister. For all she knew, Rita could be lying in a ditch, and here she was falling for a man who was wrong for her in every way.

Nina cleared her throat, and Dorcas turned to find her friend grinning like a kid who just got away with something.

“What?”

“Nothing.” Still grinning, Nina gestured to the open doorway to the right. “Why don’t you come into my office? We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”

The windowless room looked more like a tech startup, with computer equipment all over the place and large spools of wire stacked in one of the corners. An open laptop sat on the cluttered black desk, right next to a coffee mug that said “Keep calm and press Ctrl-Alt-Delete” and a picture of Nina and her husband from the day they eloped to Vegas.

“Please, make yourself comfortable. Can I get you something to drink? I’ve got water and Diet Coke in the mini fridge.”

“No, I’m good, but thanks.”

Nina rounded the desk and settled down on the black leather office chair. She waited to speak until Dorcas had claimed the seat on the other side of the desk. “So how are you doing? Really?”

“I’m tired but fine, all things considered. Nate’s been doing what he can to make things as close to normal as possible.” The chair creaked when Dorcas leaned back against it. “He told me about Rita’s background check.”

Clearly nervous, Nina fiddled with her wedding ring. “Are you mad?”

“What? No, I’m not mad. I’m more surprised than anything. Honestly, I just don’t know what to make of some of the things you found.” Like that mystery job her sister had worked during her last two years of college, the one that may or may not have something to do with her disappearance.

The lines on Nina’s forehead softened a little. “Yeah, well, hopefully you’ll find her soon and she can fill in the blanks.”

She hoped so too, but the longer it took to find Rita, the more she worried about whether they’d find her alive.

Nina sipped her coffee and set the mug back on the warmer. “Now tell me about what happened last night. Austin gave me the bullet-points version, but it was pretty sparse on details.”

The first memory to pop into Dorcas’s mind was her kissing Nate in the hotel room. The feel of his lips, that catch in her throat. How, deep in her heart, she secretly wished they’d done a whole lot more. But it felt too personal, too intimate to share, even with her best friend. So instead, she shared every other detail, from the time they checked into the hotel to the moment they arrived at Jackson and Navarre’s house.

Nina picked up her mug and took another sip. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“What?”

“The part where fireworks happened between you and Nate.” A knowing smile lurked in the corners of her mouth. “It’s written all over your face.”