Page 5 of Securing the Odds

He tipped his head as if conceding her point, and she couldn’t help but ask, “You agree?”

“I do.”

She was surprised by his quick response and it caused something warm to flutter in her stomach. Unable to keep meeting his intense stare, she glanced back down at the paper. “I noticed some of these names and places have stars by them and some don’t.” She looked back up, meeting his eyes. “What does that mean?”

“The ones without the stars were a dead end.”

“Oh.” His sister’s name had a star by it. “So, you got useful information from Amy? Maybe she knows where he is now.”

“We’ll try every name on the list.”

Her eyes shot to his again. “Even Busty’s?” She’d never been to a strip club, but she had to admit, she was a little curious.

“If it comes to that.” A smirk had formed on his lips, and a twinkle hit his eyes.

Was he laughing at her?

“So, what’s the first step?”

“The first step is to check out his last known residence. If we’re lucky, he’s still there.”

“And if not?”

He nodded to the paper she held in her hand. “We hit that list.”

Chapter 3

The last knownresidence for Tammy’s ex turned out to be a bust. And the prick hadn’t been kind enough to leave a forwarding address with the landlord.

“So, what now?” Tammy asked Jake as she jogged down the porch steps to keep up with his longer strides.

“Now, we pick up dinner.”

“We’ve got less than forty-eight hours to find Kevin. Don’t you think we should do something more productive?”

“We’ll make phone calls while we eat.”

Jake held open the passenger door of his Mustang and helped Tammy in before going around to his side. “What do you feel like having?” he asked, fastening his seatbelt.

“Anything but Chinese. I had that last night.”

He found the closest burger joint and hit the drive-thru. “What do you want?” he asked, rolling down the window to scan the menu.

He felt a hand hit his thigh, and he turned his head to find Tammy’s face inches from his. Their eyes met, and her lips formed a small smile. “Sorry, I couldn’t see the menu.”

He wasn’t sorry. She’d changed into jeans and a vee-neck tee before leaving her house, and he now had an up close and personal view of her cleavage. She had great tits, and the way she was leaning over had their swells straining against the fabric. He cleared his throat and tried to ignore the massive hard-on he was now sporting. “You know what you want?”

Her eyes darted back to the menu, and he watched, fascinated, as the tip of her tongue came out to wet her upper lip. “Um… I’ll have the chicken salad.”

“Salad?” Did he sound as affronted as he felt? Who chose a salad over a cheeseburger and fries? His eyes darted to her tits again. She was curvy but slim. “I don’t think you need to count calories.”

He watched her cheeks turn pink. “It was actually the health aspects of the meal I was worried about. I don’t eat a lot of fast food.” Her eyes drifted down to his flat stomach. “Doesn’t look like you do, either.”

His lips tipped up, liking that she noticed. “I’m a single guy that doesn’t know how to cook and has an erratic schedule. My diet is shit.”

Her eyes flew back to his. “So how do you stay in shape?”

“I work out.”