Page 76 of In the Arms of a Hero

It gutted him to know she was the target, but this was their first lead. “Yeah, sweetheart. It is.”

The group was momentarily quiet, and Aaron’s mind raced about what he should do. He twisted around and looked at her, then slid his gaze to Andy. “I’m going to call Colt and get him up to speed. Then I’ll call Sam and Hunter. I can’t do much right now, but I’ll be at the station as soon as I can in the morning, and I know Colt will want to meet with everybody.”

“Get copies of those pictures to me,” Andy said. “The VMP can at least search to see if we can find identification on the boat, and then we can track to see who the owner is. It’s a small outboard motor, so there’s a shit ton of them in the area. But we can at least try to find some identification.”

With nothing else to add, Aaron stood and turned, pulling Ivy in for a heartfelt hug. “Thank you for everything.”

She smiled and nodded and then stepped over to gently hug Belinda while the two brothers embraced. Andy offered a cheek kiss to Belinda, and then Aaron stood at the door and watched the other couple leave.

“I’m sure you’re hungry,” Belinda said. “Carrie brought more food, and all I have to do is stick it in the microwave.”

He could see the tension lines bracketing her mouth, and her eyes were not as bright as he’d like them to be. “You should rest, honey. I can take care of that.”

“I assure you that I can handle the microwave one-handed. I know you want to take care of your phone calls, so go ahead and do that. When you’re finished, we can eat.”

He nodded gratefully and placed his first call to Colt, filling him in.

“You take care of your girl, and I’ll call Hunter. He and Brad can get to the office as early as they need to and start working on the pictures. They’ll be able to enhance the photos more than she could.”

“I can’t imagine what the hell they were doing, but the fact that he was staring at her makes me feel that somehow he was able to identify her and what they were doing with something he didn’t want a witness for. But he was in a boat, and she was on the shore. How the hell could he have figured out who she was?”

“It’s too early for conjecture, but we’ll talk about it tomorrow. Try to get some sleep, and I’ll see you first thing.”

“Tell Carrie thanks for the food.”

Colt chuckled. “What can I say? My woman likes to feed people.”

After disconnecting, he called Sam, who was less circumspect than Colt, as he growled, “Goddamn, fucking hell!”

“I know,” Aaron groaned. “But we’ll process it tomorrow.”

Walking from the bedroom back into the living room, the scent of the food Carrie had brought hit his hungry stomach. He and Belinda sat at the table and enjoyed their first dinner alone together since she’d gotten out of the hospital. The food seemed to revive her, and he purposely kept the conversation away from their discovery.

He cleaned up after dinner, and then they showered together. It was hard to keep his cock under control with her beautiful, naked body so close to his, but there was nothing he would ever do to hurt her.

That night, curled up in bed together again, he thought she was asleep when she whispered in the dark. “I know it’s too soon. I know this might freak you out. But after having been shot, I don’t want to keep anything in anymore that should be said. So Aaron, I’m just letting you know that going to bed with you, lying in your arms, feels like coming home.”

Her words pierced his heart, filling every empty spot he’d ever felt. “You make me whole, sweetheart.” With that, she fell asleep, but he lay awake for hours. The sight of the man who stared at her for so long was the only thing he could see.

37

The sun barely peeked over the historic Easton green when, across the parking lot, the bullpen was filled with detectives and deputies. Their gazes were riveted to the screen on the wall as Aaron showcased the photographs showing the suspicious acts of the men in the boat.

“Damn, they were just at the corner in the shadow,” Hunter growled. “Brad and I were going to start on these today.”

“Don’t kick yourself,” Colt said. “You needed to start with her most recent pictures. Belinda was simply looking at photographs that meant something to her and stumbled across this.”

“I’ll send this to the state forensics and have them run it through their enhancement programs. Should get it back soon because that’s not so labor intensive,” Hunter said.

Colt nodded and then looked at the group. “I’m calling Ryan based on what we’ve seen here. I’d like his people to get into the water and see if they can find evidence of what went over the side of the boat.”

“You think drugs? Contraband? Stolen goods?” Brad asked.

Aaron asked. “Making a drop of some kind and didn’t need the water to be deep so that somebody could come along andpick the stash up? Then they realized somebody was watching them?”

“No way of knowing until we have the VMP bring it up, and that’s if they can find it.”

Aaron felt his heart leap, thrilled that Colt was not waiting around but was pushing forward with what Belinda had found. “As soon as that gets set up, can you let me know, Colt? I’m sure my brother will want to be in on that, and I’d like to be at the harbor when they come in to see what they found.”

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