Page 57 of Lethal Seduction

He looks away. “Fine,” he pulls out his phone and shows me her number.

I enter it into my phone and say, “Thank you, Devon.” I put my hand on his shoulder. His posture sags ever so slightly under my touch. “I appreciate you.”

Devon’s face flushes red. He seems to regain his composure and says, “Sure, whatever.”

I rush out the door and place a call to Tina. It rings and rings without an answer. Fuck.

Calling the police station, I’m patched through to my buddy in tech, Matt. “What’s up?” he asks.

“I need some help.”

“Like official help, or like a favor?”

Technically, there could be concerns for privacy by asking Matt to find Tina Brokaw’s address by reverse searching her cell phone number, but I don’t care. Not when I need to know that Patrick is okay.

“I need a favor.” I hold my breath while I wait for Matt to respond.

“Michael,” he says. “Remember that time you drove me home after I called you in the middle of the night because I was too drunk to drive myself home? My wife and I were having troubles at the time, and I was really lost.”

I nod and let out my breath. “I do.”

“I said then, and I meant it, that I would always be here for you. Lay it on me, man.”

“Not sure if I told you about me dating a guy named Patrick?”

“You mentioned him a week or so ago… everything going okay with him?”

“We had a misunderstanding. I’ll fill you in on all that sometime over a beer, but the important thing is my inner senses are telling me something is wrong. I’ve been working on a case that has spread to his place of work.”

“Do you need me to hack into a computer system or something?”

“No,” I say. “Nothing like that. I have Patrick’s best friend’s name and phone number, but I have not been able to reach her. I am hoping she’s heard from him because he’s not returning my phone calls or messages.”

“Is he avoiding you? I mean… you’re not stalking him or something, are you?” There’s a hint of humor in his voice, but his nervous laugh falls flat as soon as it comes out of his mouth. “What exactly do you need, Michael?”

“You know how I have gut feelings. I haven’t been wrong in a while, and I’m convinced he’s in some trouble. You haven’t met Patrick. He’s not the type to ignore someone’s calls… not over a stupid misunderstanding like we had.”

“Shoot me the information, and I will work on it right away,” he says. “I should have it back for you in a matter of minutes.”

“Great,” I say. Disconnecting the call, I quickly send him Tina’s full name and phone number and then wait. Wait, and then wait some more.

My stomach is in knots, and I have so much pent-up anxious energy I could run a marathon. As I’m contemplating calling Matt to see what’s taking so long, my phone beeps with an incoming text message. It’s Tina’s address. “Thank, God.” I jump in the car and set the navigation. According to the GPS, it won’t take more than ten minutes to get there from here with the current traffic. “Hot, damn.” My luck is turning around.

Ten minutes pass, and I screech to a halt in front of her house. I rush to the front door and look for the doorbell. There isn’t one. I raise my hand to bang on the door when it suddenly opens. Tina screams something unintelligible as she slumps to the floor.

“Are you alright?” I hold out my hand and help her stand.

“You scared the ever-loving shit out of me,” she says. If her eyes could shoot, I’d be dead right now. “What are you doing here?”

“I’m looking for Patrick. Have you seen him?”

“He doesn’t want to talk to you. You really hurt him.”

I put my hands up, palms out in front of me. “You have to believe me. What happened at the restaurant wasn’t what it looked like.”

“And what did it look like, Michael? Because I can tell you what it looked like to him… and me.”

I feel awful about everything that happened that night, but it wasn’t my fault. I didn’t know that a random date I had weeks ago would show up and pretend to be in a relationship with me. But, somehow, I bet Tina wouldn’t give a crap about that. Not when her best friend is hurting like he is.

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