Page 35 of Hot & Bothered

No wonder Jace’s leads through work came up empty. Once Michaela left the province, his resources to find her were limited. And if she left the country, then he was up shit creek and without a paddle.

It was a battle of conscience every time he heard more of what the Harty Boys were up to. He knew what they were doing was mostly illegal, but at the same time, it was necessary.

His moral code was strong, but the quest to find Michaela Mackinley and put an end to Tiberius’s threat was stronger. That was how he rationalized it. That was how he found the balance enough to sleep at night. What the Harty Boys were doing was for the greater good. They weren’t hurting anybody, and since Jace’s resources had been exhausted, the logical next step was to let professionals do their thing.

He was on his first night shift after two day-shifts and just woke up. He went hard at the gym after work last night, then hard again this morning before his nap, so his body was already exhausted.

He rolled into bed with Peyton last night and could barely keep his eyes open. She didn’t seem put out that he was too tired for sex.

That’d never happened to him, though.

Even with all the training he did and his busy work and volunteer schedule, if sex was available, he always found the energy reserves.

Maybe he needed to take it easy for a few days. He always thought he ate enough that he’d never have to run on fumes, but perhaps they were fumes of a different kind. Mental fumes.

Making his smoothie, he glanced out the window of his apartment at the harbor. A seaplane cruised in, the last of the day, probably since it was already starting to get dark out.

Even though he preferred milder temperatures, he still lived for summer—particularly on the island. Long, warm days and fresh, locally grown fruits and veggies galore.

Peyton told him as he drifted off to sleep wrapped around her that the last known location for Michaela was Nashville, but he was already asleep before he heard anymore. Then she was gone when he woke up in the morning. He woke up shortly after, hit the gym, came home, did some laundry, then crashed again before he needed to head out for his 6pm shift.

A knock at his door made him pause before he hit the button on his Vitamix.

Who the fuck was knocking and didn’t buzz up first?

Peyton?

There was a pretty strict rule in the building that unless you recognized the person, you didn’t hold the door open for anyone, even if they “claimed” to live in the building.

In nothing but his black boxer briefs, he padded across the kitchen to the front door and peered through the peephole. But there was nobody there.

Then he remembered that he’d ordered more protein powder online, and the mail carrier often came right to Jace’s door, knocked, then left the package.

Thinking nothing of it, he opened the door, expecting to see a box on his welcome mat, but was instead shoved in the chest by an unexpected mountain of muscle in a black hoodie.

Tiberius.

Jace stumbled backward into his apartment and Tiberius followed, letting the door shut behind him. “Haven’t heard jack-shit about my sister. Figured I’d come and see how things are going?”

Caught off guard, and basically naked, Jace had to stop for a moment to stabilize himself and get his bearings. He scanned his apartment for something he could use as a weapon. He had his knife block, but that was all the way in the kitchen on the counter. There wasn’t really anything within arm’s reach.

Sure, he was trained in self-defense and how to take down a perp, but Tiberius grew up in the foster system and had been on the streets and in prison. The man knew how to fight dirty. And even with Jace’s training and growing muscle mass, Tiberius was probably the same weight as Jace, or more.

Swallowing, Jace backed up as Tiberius stalked forward. He had the hood of his sweatshirt pulled up over his head and there were dark circles under his eyes.

“Listen, man, wearesearching for her. I swear. But you need to give us more time.”

“You’ve had three fucking years!” Tiberius roared. “Almost the moment you put me away, Rhys pounced on her. Got her hooked on heroin, then she was willing to do whatever he asked her to do for a fix.” He swallowed. “And I’m guessing a smart cop like you knows exactly what he asked of her.”

“You were only away for eighteen months. Where have you been for the last year and a half?” He could already tell that Tiberius didn’t want to hurt him. The man wasn’t a monster. He was a product of circumstance. Rhys and his gang held Michaela’s safety over his head, and Tiberius was in debt to Rhys, so that’s why he committed the heinous crime that put him away in thefirst place. Jace actually asked the judge for leniency. Tiberius didn’t know that, though. He blamed Jace for his incarceration. And therefore, for Michaela getting trapped with Rhys’s crew.

Tiberius blinked a few times, processing Jace’s question. “Was lookin’ for Michaela, but when I couldn’t find her and ran out of money, I went to work. Got a laborer job up in the oil fields. Need money to travel to find my sister.”

“So what brought your back here?” The longer he kept him talking, the more time Jace had to come up with a plan on how to get Tiberius out of his house and call the police.

“Rhys got out of prison,” he said without any emotion. “Needed to ask him somequestions.”

“Where’s Rhys now, Tiberius?” Jace asked slowly.

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