Page 82 of Hearts and Hidden Secrets

JONAH

“Can’t we talk first before we start playing rough?” Lab Girl asked me.

Who the hell is this chick?

I mean, I knew who she was. I remembered her from that night. I remembered everything from that night.

Kai had bought our way into the morgue since Melissa’s family hadn’t been interested in me seeing her body.

Then this woman had come in with the keys, and I’d given no fucks as to what Kai and his guys were going to do with her if she protested.

Fortunately, she didn’t, instead, showing me kindness when I never expected it.

Because of that, I found myself easing up on her, just a bit. I stepped back, released her, and stood.

She sat up, adjusting her top—whatever kind of top that was—and brushed her hair out of her face.

I looked her over. Jesus . I felt myself getting hard, just looking at her.

She was medium height, with pale skin and pink lips made just for kissing. A smattering of freckles dusted her cheeks. Dark eyes. A great rack—both were a good handful. Her hair was blond with a reddish tint to it... No . She was a redhead with blond highlights.

She was knockout gorgeous, and I was definitely hard.

She had a healthy body. She was toned, like she ran, but lifted weights on the regular, too. She looked made for rough fucking. Nothing skinny about her.

She gave me a wary look and seemed to consider standing, but decided against it. Instead, she sat back, crossing her arms over her stomach. “You regularly greet people that way? A good manhandling?”

“You know me.” It wasn’t a question, because she did.

I remembered her recognition when she saw me in the bathroom, and sexual interest had come immediately after. She wanted me, and even now she was squirming on the couch.

If I touched her, I bet she was already wet. I moved closer, my mind already there, already wanting to bend down and dip in.

The door slammed shut behind us, and I whirled.

I hadn’t heard Tanner come in, but he strode toward us, his eyes frosted.

“Sorry, babykins, but your very wasted sister and her man accepted a ride home on the club. I passed along your message that you ran into an old friend and are heading back by yourself, since apparently you have your own hotel room.”

Her eyes bulged out, and her mouth dropped open. “Are you kidding?” she sputtered. “No way my sister would believe a stranger.”

He chuckled and tossed a phone to her. “She didn’t. She believed you.”

“What? How’d you get my phone?” She grabbed it, swiping her screen, and froze before lifting heated eyes my brother’s way. “How did you unlock it?”

“Funny how this nightclub has security cameras and can see when a person unlocks her own phone. Going through your texts to find the one labeled SIS was easy work after that.”

A full, red flush bloomed under her skin, traveling up as she glared at Tanner. “You asshole.”

Tanner glanced my way as he went over and sat next to her on the couch, resting his arm across the back. She scooted away, putting ten feet between them. There wasn’t much couch left behind her. She tried to watch both of us at once, her eyes darting back and forth between us.

A calculating look had formed in Tanner’s gaze. She was a mouse to him, and he wanted to play.

“Give me that phone,” I demanded.

Her head jerked my way, and Tanner was across the couch in a flash. He swiped it, unlocking it, and tossed it to me before she could do anything.

“Hey!”

I grabbed it, going across the room to the bar. Putting the phone on the counter, I moved behind, grabbing a glass of ice. “Either of you want a drink?”

“Are you high?” she asked,

Tanner laughed, strolling over to me. “I’ll make the drinks. You do your research.”

My brother knew me so well.

He picked up a glass and pointed at Carson with it. “You stay, but also, do you want a drink?”

She was still sputtering. “You two are nuts. You can’t just kidnap?—”

“Girl, stop talking,” Tanner said, shaking his head. “We can and we did, and if you think you can do anything about this, maybe think back to the first night you met us. Remember the two big guys with us?”

Her mouth closed.

He shook his glass with the ice in it. “Remember the guns that they had?”

I was swiping through her phone, going over her texts, her phone calls, her contacts, the outgoing calls. I lingered on her text thread with SIS, seeing that she was originally from Kansas City. She was up early for her sister’s wedding next weekend.

I went through a text thread she had with someone named Milo—a colleague, I was guessing. Milo told her to enjoy her time off, that she needed to take more time for herself.

What was I doing? Kai had an entire computer team to go through stuff like this.

I pulled my phone out and dialed him, showing Tanner who I was calling. His demeanor changed; some of the fun faded. He gave me a nod, his eyes darting toward Carson. He’d watch her.

With that, I went into Tanner’s actual office room. Kai answered as I was shutting the door.

“Are you okay?” he asked. “It’s almost two in the morning where you are.”

I started to correct him, but he was right. Kansas City was in the same time zone as Minnesota. “I’m with Tanner.”

“Yes. He said he was going to see you.”

“We’re in Kansas.”

Kai was quiet. “Okay. What’s going on, Jonah?”

“Remember that girl who helped us see Melissa’s body?”

“The forensic technician, yes.”

“She’s here.”

“In Kansas?”

“At the club Tanner owns.”

“She was there when you guys were there?”

“Are. We’re still here?—”

“Leave.”

“What?”

“Leave now. If she’s working for a rival family, they might be on their way. Take her somewhere else. Check her body for a tracker.”

Oh fuck. He was right. Why hadn’t I thought of all of that?

I moved back to the other room, motioning for Tanner’s attention. “We have her phone,” I told Kai. “Could you?—”

“I’m dispatching orders right now. Tanner knows the guy I’m sending to get the phone. He’s local. He’ll do an analysis there, where you guys are.”

“Okay…”

“You’re in Tanner’s area. Let him do the legwork. The girl is with you?”

I stopped and stared at Carson.

She hadn’t moved, but her flush had waned, along with her fight. She had folded in, hugging herself. She looked like she wanted to disappear.

“I’m looking at her.”

“Your job is her. She was taken with you at the morgue. She didn’t care about me or Tanner, but she liked you. Use that. Study her. Get to know her. You’re a genius, Jonah. Use some of that intellect and learn everything about her.”

My dick shouldn’t have been twitching at the thought of doing that, but it was. Which was uncomfortable.

“Got it.”

“Love you,” he said. “It’s nice to hear from you.”

He ended the call, and I put my phone in my pocket.

Then Tanner’s phone lit up, and he read the screen as he set the bourbon aside.

I went to Carson, motioning. “Get up.”

“What?”

“Get. Up.”

“Why?”

I didn’t wait, but I didn’t go for her arm. I took her hand, threading our fingers together, and I didn’t miss the way her body reacted. She shivered. I felt it through her fingers, but she cursed under her breath, gritting her teeth.

If she didn’t actually know why we were kidnapping her, she was great at acting.

I kept a firm hold on her hand, and I stepped in so I was looking down at her, in her space. Her breasts grazed my chest, and I ignored how that made me feel.

Her eyes darkened, holding mine, and she bit down on her bottom lip.

“Melissa was killed by a ghost,” I told her.

“He approached me, asked my name, and then shot her. We weren’t in my family’s territory—a mistake I will never make again—but in our world, coincidences don’t happen.

We’re close to finding this guy who was contracted to kill my fiancée.

So you being here is not a coincidence. The timing, too.

We need to find out who your real employer is.

” I leaned down. She was shaking, but her eyes kept going to my mouth.

I moved even closer. My breath washed over her, and I pulled her flush against me.

I could feel everything now. Her heat. Her pulse.

“You’re either going to help us or we’ll get the information another way. Either way, my brother and I will find out who you work for.”

I could feel the thump thump thump of her heart.

I moved my head back, studying every detail, every hair strand. “You shouldn’t have fucked with my family,” I said softly.

“I don’t even know who your family is.”

My gaze lingered on her mouth, wanting a taste. “If that’s the truth, you’ll soon find out. And you’ll wish you hadn’t.”

“Let’s move,” Tanner announced.

I stepped back, catching her as her knees sagged.

I turned to see Tanner at the door.

Still holding her hand, I pulled her forward, and we stepped out into the hallway.

An entire wall of guards waited there. As one, we moved to the exit.

CARSON

My social media research skills were lacking, severely .

I never would’ve found any of this about him, whoever he really was. Was his whole doctor charade just that? A farce?

He had my hand in his, and as we stepped into the hallway, twenty bodyguards surrounded us.

Six on one side. Six on the other side. We had men in front of us and men behind us, and while we were walking, the blond asshole scrolled through his phone and acted like we were going on a casual stroll through some park.

It pissed me off.

I had no clue who these guys were, but they thought I worked for the guy who’d killed Jonah’s fiancée? I guess? That didn’t bode well. They were wrong about me, but my God... How to convince them? I needed to get out of this alive.

Just stay alive.

I started trembling again, because I shouldn’t ever have had to think something like that.

Jonah tightened his hold on my hand.

I’d thought he was nice. I’d been wrong.

So fucking wrong.