Page 64 of My Temptation

“Beth’s been good for him. I have a feeling he didn’t have great experiences with women in his past, and he just assumed they were all trouble. She’s slowly changing that.”

“You helped too, you know,” I pointed out.

“Me?” Surprise was all I heard in her tone. “How?”

“The way you were with Beth and how determined you were to find her. We all noticed the change in his attitude. That’s because of you.”

I glanced at her and noticed she was smiling softly. “Thank you for saying that.”

“It’s the truth.” I pulled into a parking spot in the lot next to the hotel and turned off the engine. “Why do you look so surprised to hear it?”

“I haven’t worked with many men who value me in the way I’ve been valued at Elite. Nick did when we worked undercover together, but there wasn’t anybody before him. And now at Elite, well, it’s just different. I keep expecting to hear I’m not good enough, smart enough, or fast enough, but all I hear is encouragement.”

“You’re never going to hear that from us,” I said.

She smiled. “I’m starting to believe that.”

“Good, because it’s true.” I gestured toward the hotel. “You ready to go in and make the call?”

“Are you kidding?” She laughed and shoved open her door. “I’ve been waiting to make this call since the day we arrived.”

Some of the tension I’d been carrying left my shoulders when I rounded the car and fell into step beside Mila. Maybe we were finally going to make some progress.

20

MILA

“What do we know?” Brody’s voice sounded through the speaker, and I stared at Ethan. We knew we were also on speaker because when Brody called us last night, he said they’d scheduled a morning meeting with the whole team for an update.

“He’s still in Devil’s Lake.” Ethan began. “The tracker's been on his car for two days and hasn’t moved.”

“Have you been back to the house?”

That was Striker’s voice. I’d know that deep, almost growly voice anywhere after spending a few months in close contact with him.

“We went again last night to monitor,” I replied. “My hope was that he would leave and we could get into the house, but no luck.”

“I’m not sure you should go into the house,” Brody said. “It could be dangerous. We don’t know anything about this man.”

“I agree,” another voice began speaking, and since it sounded so much like Brody, I realized it had to be Jax. “The best thing to do right now is to trail him. We need to know more about him, where he goes, where he works, if he does work, and especially who he spends time with.”

“Got it,” Ethan replied.

“Hard to believe he has a nine-to-five job if he hasn’t left his house in two days,” I pointed out.

“I agree,” Jax replied, but his voice changed. “Can only assume if he works, he does that from home or he has something on the weekend.”

My eyes met Ethan’s again, and I knew we were thinking the same way. “There’s no way his work is legit, right?”

“No, not a chance. He was affiliated with Daniel Sullivan,” Jax replied. “Other than Beth, everyone at Daniel Sullivan’s home voluntarily worked for him. We know Samson was there.”

“We also know Sullivan didn’t trust him and thought he was shady,” Striker added. “Says a lot about a man who Daniel fucking Sullivan didn’t trust.”

"True,” I agreed. “Considering Daniel’s businesses were shady, you’d think he’d like someone like Samson.”

“Maybe Daniel considered him competition,” Ethan pointed out.

“That’s what we need to find out.” Jax agreed. “Now that we know he’s there, we need anything you can find on his business dealings. If he has any, where they happen, who they’re with. We’ll get a hell of a lot further following a business trail than a personal one.”

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