Page 110 of The Trouble With Bad Boys

Carina broke away from me, leaving my hands aching for her as she paced the floor. “Something’s happened to Nevaeh.”

The hairs rose at the back of my neck. “Where is she?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know!” She pulled to a stop in front of me. “I haven’t seen her in days. She called me four days ago to tell me she was sick and wouldn’t be coming in. I got a text the next night saying she still didn’t feel good, and I haven’t heard from her since. She’s not answering my calls or texts, and when I went to her apartment, she wasn’t there.”

“What do you mean, she wasn’t there?”

“I mean,” she said, lowering her voice, “when I didn’t get an answer, I took the liberty of breaking in, and she isn’t fucking there!”

I spun on my heel and yanked at my hair, my heart racing in my chest. “What about family? A boyfriend? Do the girls know where she is?”

She was already shaking her head before I could finish. “They haven’t talked to her. She hasn’t been overly close to them for most of this year. We don’t know about a boyfriend, and she has no family around here.”

“Fuck!” I paced the floor in front of Carina, trying to figure out what to do. “The cops won’t fucking care. She’s an adult. If there’s—” I stopped and spun back to face her. “Were there any signs of foul play? Was her apartment trashed? Anything broken?”

She shook her head. “Nevaeh’s a mess, but her apartment wasn’t any worse than how she leaves her space here.”

I cringed. Her lack of order drove me crazy, but the police wouldn’t use a messy apartment as proof that something bad happened to her.

“What if…” Carina put her hand on my arm, tugging my fingers away from my hair. “What if we called Vinny? Or Lee Bridgewater?”

“You want to call your exes?” My blood boiled in my veins.

She pursed her lips. “They can help. When that woman, Kelly O’Connor, went missing and the police wouldn’t do anything, Lee did. He saved a boatload of women from being sold, certainly he could help find Nevaeh.”

“You want to call your exes?” I said even louder, because I was seeing red.

Carina crossed her arms. “This isn’t about my exes, Kingston, it’s about Nevaeh.”

I gripped the outside of her arms, and her smooth skin soothed an ache inside of me. My blood cooled with her in my grasp, my breathing slowed. My chin tucked to my chest, I told her, “I know, darling, I know. It’s just…”

When she wrapped her arms around me, I held on to her as tight as I could.

“I can’t lose you, Carina,” I whispered against her forehead, chest going tight. “I know we’ve only been together for such a short time, but it kills me to think of life without you by my side.”

She peered up at me, and it felt like her eyes were scraping my skin with every sweep of her gaze across my face. My heart squeezed as she loosened her grip, my throat closed in on itself as she leaned back.

But then she stole the breath right from my chest when she grabbed me by the tie and yanked, slamming her perfect red lips to mine. There was possession in her kiss, in the slide of her tongue against mine. In the way she cupped her delicate hands around my face and held on like she shared my fears.

Our kiss slowed, and she brushed her thumbs over the short hairs on my face. I pressed my forehead to hers.

“I don’t want to lose you either, King.” She nudged my nose with hers. Tightened her hold on my cheeks. “Do this for me. Something’s not right, and I don’t think either of us could sleep if we didn’t act and Nevaeh was hurt.”

Sucking in a deep breath, I wet my lips, then let it out. “You’re right. Let’s see what they can do.”

* * *

It turned out that Vinny and Lee were all too happy to get involved. Carina had barely said the words we need help, and the two dropped everything and told us to meet them at Bridgewater Security. By the time we pulled up out front, Lee was waiting at the door. He led us through the building to a room that looked like a small auditorium, where Vinny was already scouring the internet for information on Nevaeh Vega.

“What do you know?” Lee asked after directing Carina and I to have a seat.

She crossed one leg over the other, the short skirt of her dress rising up her thigh, and my entire body became alert, watching for any signs of a threat from either of the men. “Nevaeh has been with us for almost two years now. She’s always been a great worker, gets along well with the clientele and our staff. It’s just recently that things seem… different.”

“How do you mean?” Lee asked, and it turned my stomach to have Carina’s attention on the big man.

“Well.” Her face pulled into a grimace, and she glanced over her shoulder at me. “There’s been a change in policy lately.” She turned back to the front of the room when Vinny spoke up.

“My father told me about that.”

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