Page 49 of Unlikely Guardian

He didn’t even have to think about that. “No good whatsoever. You’re staying put.”

Jason turned to leave, but she latched on to his arm again. “Don’t do anything…stupid, okay?” And with that, she leaned forward and hurriedly brushed a kiss on his cheek.

It definitely wasn’t one of those lusty foreplay kisses they’d shared in the foyer of his house. But in some ways, it packed an even greater wallop. Because it was the kind of kiss that people gave each other when they were more than just two people with a child in common.

How much more? Jason asked himself.

But he pushed the question aside. He was about to venture into what could essentially be a kill zone, and he needed a clear head for that. He didn’t want the distraction of his feelings for Lilly to cloud his judgment.

“Stay put,” he ordered Lilly one last time, and he got out of the car before she could stop him again.

Or before he felt compelled to return that kiss.

“So, did you find Corinne Davies or not?” Jason asked the officer once the door was closed and Lilly could no longer hear what they were saying. If it was bad news, he wanted a chance to process it first before he told her.

“No, but we found a car parked just up the street.” They headed in that direction, and Jason looked over his shoulder to cast one last don’t-get-out warning glance at Lilly and a watch-her warning glance at the rookie who was now guarding the car.

“The car we found is a rental,” the officer continued. “We called the company, and it’s Ms. Davies’ name on the rental agreement.”

Maybe she’d used a rental because she was concerned about being recognized. Or maybe because her other car had been stolen and she hadn’t had a chance to replace it. Still, the situation made Jason uneasy. Of course, everything was making him uneasy at this point.

With his hand on his gun, Jason and the officer proceeded out of headquarters’ parking lot and onto the sidewalk. He spotted the silver-gray car right away. It was parked in the center point between two streetlights. In others words, in the spot with the least visibility.

There was another uniformed officer waiting by the vehicle. “No sign of Ms. Davies yet,” the officer volunteered. “She’s not in the car, but we haven’t made a thorough search of the area yet.”

Jason looked around at the street jammed with buildings on each side. There were plenty of places to hide if Corinne had gone inside one of them. Maybe inside and on the roof with a high-powered rifle? He glanced up, half expecting to see her standing there, with a gun aimed right at him.

But Corinne wasn’t anywhere in sight.

Temporarily satisfied that he wasn’t about to be ambushed, Jason turned his attention back to the rental car. He borrowed a flashlight from one of the uniformed officers and checked the interior.

Nothing.

No purse, no jacket, no cell. No sign of a struggle.

That didn’t mean there hadn’t been one.

He put his hand over the hood of the car. He didn’t touch the surface in case it became necessary for them to dust for prints. But he could feel no heat coming from the engine. The car had no doubt been parked there for a while. Perhaps even for several hours.

Jason swept the milky light over the exterior of the car, and when he didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, he began to examine the street and the sidewalk. It didn’t take him long to spot what he’d hoped he wouldn’t see.

“Secure the area,” Jason ordered the officers. “And get the CSI guys out here now.”

Cursing under his breath, Jason angled the flashlight, moving it along the black asphalt. Despite the dark color, he had no trouble seeing the wet spots. Though he already knew what they were, he stooped and touched his index finger to one of the drops.

It was blood.

CHAPTER TWELVE

“Bad news?” Lilly asked. She was lying on the hospital bed, her forearm draped across her forehead.

Jason realized she’d been asking that a lot in the past twenty-four hours. Probably because they hadn’t gotten good news about, well, much of anything.

It had been a long day.

And it was going to get a lot longer.

First, there was the hypnosis and then later Lilly was scheduled for one of those marathon physical therapy sessions at the hospital. But it wasn’t the hypnosis and the physical therapy that concerned him most. His biggest concern was that it was next to impossible to keep her safe while they were away from the house.

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