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One of his hands glided down her back. “Thank God. I can still see you clearly, though.” His free hand cupped her breast. “You’re branded on my mind.”
His words pricked her sexual afterglow. She deliberately smothered the little sparks of doubt that threatened to ignite. He saw strength in her vulnerabilities. Repainted her flaws as unique. She wished she could see herself through the lens he viewed her with. But Reese knew that fortified inner guard was still there. Wedged open enough to allow him in. But how did she manage to keep that shield lowered now that her “gift” was back? How did she balance what she wanted—and God, shewanted—with her own emotional self-preservation?
She pressed a kiss to his torso, banishing the uncertainties in favor of the present. Her fingers slid over his hip, grazing the juncture where they were still joined.
“Round two?” He nuzzled her ear.
“Three.” She lifted her head to brush his lips with hers. “But who’s counting?”
His arms tightened around her and Reese sank into their kiss. A moment later, his cell dinged on the bedside table. “Ignore it.” She nipped at his chin. Moved her mouth down the cord on his neck. “I will. Unless it’s…” He picked up the phone, then stilled. “It’s Mendes. He’s downstairs.”
A tidal wave of frigid water couldn’t have moved her faster. Reese rolled off Hayes and across the mattress, searching the floor for her clothes before remembering she’d slept naked. She sprinted for the attached bathroom. Heard Hayes’s chuckle behind her. “It’s not funny,” she called over her shoulder.
“It’s a little funny.”
Ten minutes later, she still hadn’t found the humor in the situation but strolled out into the apartment to find him serving their guest coffee. Hayes had pulled on jeans and a tee, but his hair hadn’t seen a comb and his jaw was shadowed. Reese probably looked just as disheveled, although she’d at least showered and tamed her curls before dragging on leggings and a Padres sweatshirt. “Good morning, Deputy.”
“Reese. How you feeling?”
She fervently hoped the heat rising to her cheeks didn’t show. “Just some scrapes and bruises.”
“And a rib sprain.” Hayes pressed his mug into her hand and went to the kitchen to pour another. “But we were lucky.”
She sipped to cover the quick flash of regret. Kervin hadn’t been as fortunate. By the time the first policeman had reached them, it had already been much too late for the man. His deathseemed particularly grisly since those responsible for it were still alive. Unless Mendes had come to tell them otherwise.
“Doesn’t look like Thorne’s capture has led to you getting any sleep.”
“Eventually, maybe.” He took a bracing drink. “He’s lucky you have shitty aim. One bullet hit his posterior shoulder. The other grazed his biceps. You said you shot three times?”
Hayes arched a brow. “In my defense, it was full dark and I was involuntarily high.”
“Excuses.” Mendes grinned. “He should be released from the hospital today.”
The news sent a quick shiver down her spine. Reese hid her reaction by lifting the mug to her lips again. But Mendes must have spotted it. “Four armed guards in and outside his room at all times. He’s not going anywhere but to the infirmary in the maximum-security psychiatric facility.”
“Which he escaped from once,” Hayes muttered.
“He should be fresh out of accomplices. We picked up Lisa Sedgewick last night trying to board a cruise ship in Long Beach with a different identity and passport.”
“Surprised she didn’t flee right away,” Reese remarked.
“We figure she waited until she saw the news of how things went down. She fully expected to get away with it.” Disgust colored his tone. “God knows, she’s been skating by for years using other people to enact the crime sprees she instigated. She bided her time, but didn’t return to work.” His gaze slid to Reese. “We checked out what she told you about your brother. I’m sorry. It’s true.”
Her stomach did a slow roll. She deliberately didn’t look at Hayes. “I figured as much,” she said huskily. Her fingers clenched the mug, letting its heat transfer to flesh gone suddenly cold. “I think that’s what Kervin was going to tell me. The photos he took. He must have suspected it wasn’t Ben.” He’d interactedwith her sibling far more recently than she had. “I’m not sure how she pulled it off, though.”
“Our understanding is that all employees in the annex at the facility only work in that one area. Your brother’s ‘transfer’ there didn’t come until after he’d returned from the hospital. The illness he had took a real physical toll. Sedgewick must have realized how rapidly he was declining. When he passed, she had some lackeys smuggle his body out of the hospital through a passage in the old cellar and filled the bed with a fugitive needing a place to hide out.” Hayes cursed, long and imaginatively. Reese’s gaze remained fixed on the coffee as if she could find solace in its depth. “She hired a handful of people whose only job was to care for the new patient and months later, by the time she allowed the regular employees to replace them, no one realized the switch.”
“Where…” She cleared her throat and tried again. “Where was he buried?”
Mendes shook his head. “We don’t know yet what they did with his body.”
Ben had died alone with people who didn’t give a shit about him. And then he was discarded in death, his only value the trust fund he’d left behind. The sorrow and rage could consume her if she allowed it. He’d been her tormenter when she was a child, and his abuse had taken an emotional toll. But he’d been victimized, too, by his mental illness and professionals who should have been looking after his best interests who’d exploited them instead.
“I’m guessing Sedgewick lawyered up as soon as she was apprehended,” Hayes said.
“You guessed right.” The deputy drained his cup and looked toward the kitchen. “Any more of this?”
“I’ll get it.” Reese surged out of her seat, needing to move.