Page 10 of Death Raiser

“How’s that working for you?”

“Not well.”

“Are you mentally running through ways to sneak into my building to set up surveillance?”

He pursed his lips. “Maybe.”

“Kang.”

“Morgan.”

“The flower thing is handled.”

He grumbled and his dark gaze flashed with promise across the roof of the car.

“How will you get home?”

He blinked at me and pulled out his phone to check his messages. “I’ll take a cab. Jacobs drove and he’s still finishing up the scene.”

I nodded and shifted my weight from foot to foot.

“You haven’t answered my question,” he said.

“I wasn’t aware you asked one.” I refrained from whistling or batting my eyelashes innocently. He hadn’t asked me out, he only mentioned he wanted to.

Kang reached into the back of the car and picked up a thick file he’d placed there at the beginning of our trip. He walked around my car and closed the distance between us. Tucking the folder under his arm, he reached out to gently cup the side of my face. He stroked my cheek with his thumb and leaned in. “Will you let me take you out on a date?”

I’d probably let him do a hell of a lot more than that right now if he asked.

He didn’t.

Instead, he studied my face again as if mesmerized by the tiny spattering of freckles across my nose and cheekbones. His gaze snagged on my healing bruises again and sucked in a quick breath.

“Yes,” I whispered.

“I look forward to it.” Kang leaned down and pressed a gentle kiss to my cheek. Taking a step back, he pulled the folder from under his arm and held it out toward me.

I used the key fob to lock the car doors before shoving the keys in my purse. I pointed at the thick folder. “What’s this?”

“It’s a copy of your father’s missing persons case.”

I stared down at the folder, not trusting my hands to touch it yet. My heart rate picked up and my scalp prickled. Dad went missing fifteen years ago and while I’d resigned myself to never learning his fate, I still clung to hope. “Why do you have it?”

“I’ve been working on the case for years, but I’m sorry to say I’m no closer to discovering what happened to him than I was six years ago.”

Six years ago.

He’d been working on this case, on the side, since he met me.

I swallowed, my mouth dry, my heart beating madly.

He’d looked into my father’s disappearance after he’d saved my life. Kang didn’t hate me at all. He…cared…for me. And now I knew he also liked me and my entire understanding of the world around me was crashing down.

“I should’ve given you a copy sooner,” he said.

I reached out and took the folder from him and hugged it to my chest. My eyes stung and I blinked rapidly to hold the tears back. “Thank you.”

“I need you to know I would’ve given you the folder regardless of whether you agreed to go on a date with me.”

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