Page 90 of S.O.S. Perk

Right now, he and Sloane were packing up and getting ready to head back to their real lives. Not that they’d takenalltheir time in Maine for leisure. In-between winter snowshoeing and him attempting to teach Sloane how to ski, they’d worked the case and still been connected to what was happening back in Boston.

The day after Christmas, a few of Sloane’s team members had broken in to Mr. Shultz’s house while he’d been away for the holidays, but they’d come up empty handed. The man had left no digital trail to anything significant, and there was no gun to be found.

Sloane’s digging around on her laptop had been equally as frustrating. It seemed that Mr. Shultz didn’t own a car. He Uber-ed to school and back, and rented vehicles when he needed to travel further afield. A strange way to live, but maybe it gave him a sense of anonymity so he could continue a sketchy lifestyle?

Sloane had lifted a few of his rentals’ license plates from street cameras outside the man’s brownstone, and digging deeper, found that he had a huge supply of aliases he used when signing his short-term leases. Fishy as hell, but skill-wise, not surprising for someone who spent his life as a computer expert. He could probably create fake document and bogus identities all day long.

The problem was, Sloane had yet to uncover the alias or the car the man had used around the time of Nelsin’s death. Which meant there was no evidence yet, to tie him to the crime, and Sloane was extremely frustrated over it.

Perk’s part of things, on the other hand, had gone smoothly. He’d been feeding bogus phone numbers to Jeremy, ones on which he’d downloaded the game that—unbeknownst to the kid—would connect Jeremy to FBI agents and their planted bank accounts.

Still, Perk hadn’t heard that any of those efforts had panned out. But that was okay. The Feds would eventually let him know if progress had been made.

“Is it wrong for me to be excited about going back to the office where tech support will be more easily accessible?” Sloane asked, chewing her lip as they loaded up the truck.

With the one laptop she’d been using, Sloane had been toggling back and forth between traffic cams, rental agencies, and Mr. Shultz’s footprint, all while interfacing with her office. It had been a lot of extra steps, and extremely frustrating.

“I’m not taking it personally,” Perk assured her, burying deep therealprickle of hurt he felt; not hearing back from her the three words that were constantly on the tip of his tongue. “I’m actually anxious, too,” he told her instead of screaming his love to the yurt-tops. “I need to see if Smalley and Sarge have been able to followanydigital money trails after Jeremy extracted the pertinent bank account numbers and did his thing. But not having heard from them about it…” he sighed. “I’m guessing they haven’t had any luck. And a lack of evidence means I’m not only going back to school, but I’ll be ramping things up at the Nelsin’s.”

Sloane grimaced as they both got into the truck. “Which means putting up with Ms.Handsy-Nelsin.”

“I’m afraid so.”

Perk’s dick seemed to shrivel in his jeans, not just from the cold, but by thinking about that woman’s claws touching him. He choke-laughed. “I, uh, don’t think I’ll have to worry about escalation there, though, past groping.”

“Why not?” Sloane asked.

“Because just the thought of her has my cock retreating. Once she goes exploring, whichwillmake me want to puke, she’ll totally find herself without a willing erection to torment.”

Sloane smiled cheekily. “You’ve never had any trouble with me.”

Perk growled. “Because all you have to do is smile in its direction, and it wants in.”

“So, you’re saying I have your cock wrapped around my little finger?” she smirked.

“Signed, sealed, delivered,” he quoted. “I’m yours.”

Sloane’s face fell. “Yeah. About that…”

Perk wanted to groan.

Was she really going to bring up the whole “love” thing now? When they were leaving? Well… If she was, Perk wasn’t going to stop her this time. Bad timing or not, he really needed to hear where her head was at.

“I haven’t forgotten your, uh, declaration,” she began. “And contrary to my outwardly ignoring it, I actuallylikeknowing how you feel. I understand you’d probably do better if I could return the sentiment, but I’m not sure I can. Yet.”

Perk’s chest fluttered. The “yet’ was more than he had hoped for.

Sloane turned to face him, but her whole demeanor slowly grew more troubled.

Perk knew she felt guilty about not returning his sentiments, which meant he needed to support, not force words from her mouth just to appease him.

“Sloane, it’s okay if you don’t—”

“No. It’s not okay, Perk, and I know it,” she interrupted. “It’s just that…the last time I thought I was in love, my ex shit all over me. He basically made a mockery of what I thought we had between us.”

“He was an asshole,” Perk reminded her. They’d already talked about that.

“Yes, he was. But he, along with my family, have made me question if Ireallyam loveable.” She held up a hand whenhe would have reiterated his certainty. “I know you’re serious, saying it, but I need you to be patient while I slowly absorb the reality of what that means.

---