Page 73 of Sizzling Nights

She sipped the water Mitch had given her. Marco sat with his arm around the back of her chair.

Mitch glanced at Marco. "Is your contact on board?"

"Yep. He's simply waiting for me to call with the results."

Mitch nodded and continued typing something on his computer.

Gabby clapped her hands together. "I've got it. It's working."

She turned her monitor so they all could see it. The dark screen populated with text. It rolled quickly as the information was compiled and filled the screen.

The text filled the page so quickly it was difficult to read anything. Theresa finally asked, "How long will it take to decipher what all this says?"

Gabby grinned at her. She had strawberry blonde hair and cute freckles dusted over her nose. "Once we reach current days, I'll have it decipher into readable text. I can ask it to sort it by date. By location. By travel times or when he's been in his car or away from his car or anything in-between."

"That's amazing. Can you also pull out data on phone calls?"

"Yes. Calls he made and calls he received."

Theresa pulled her laptop from her backpack and opened it on the edge of Mitch's desk. "Here are the phone numbers of Shooter's wife, Keely, and my editor, Carolyn Sutton. Can you also have it pull out times he was near these two phones, as well as calls made to and from?" She wrote the numbers on a piece of paper and handed them to Gabby.

"I sure can."

Gabby took the information Theresa gave her, and Marco leaned forward. "Are you hoping to prove Shooter was involved in Carolyn's murder?"

"Yes. And Keely's. If his phone is in close proximity and is equal to the time of death, we can also have authorities arrest him for Keely's murder. As to Carolyn, I don't know if he had lackeys do that work or if he did it himself, but I'd like to prove one way or the other his involvement or lack thereof."

Marco's fingers squeezed her shoulder and he nodded. "Super smart."

She blushed slightly. Praise from him always made her blush. Praise from a man such as Marco was high praise indeed.

She took a deep breath; her body was exhausted. Her brain was tired too. Glancing at Marco, she could see dark circles forming under his eyes. They needed to sleep.

"Mitch. Is it possible for Marco and I to go home and rest for a few hours?"

Mitch nodded. "Of course. When you wake up, we should have this information deciphered in several different ways and be able to decide how we want to proceed from there."

"Thank you."

Marco leaned forward and shook Mitch's hand. Theresa waved at Gabby, who grinned but kept typing. She seemed to be in her element doing this, despite the late hour. Or was that early hour? She glanced at her watch; it was now two-thirty in the morning. It was becoming a bad habit to be up at this hour. She needed her beauty sleep. If not for beauty, she sure needed it, so she didn't get crabby.

Marco took her hand as they left Mitch's office. He opened her door and waited for her to get in before making his way around the front of the vehicle and getting in on his side. She buckled her seatbelt. As soon as Marco started the vehicle, she rested her head on the back of the seat and closed her eyes. She'd been working on this case for more than two years. She'd been on the run for the past year and it felt like it was starting to catch up with her.

"Hey there, sleeping beauty. We're home."

She opened her eyes to see Marco looking down at her from the open car door. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I fell asleep so fast."

He held his hand out to her, and she gratefully accepted his assistance to pull her from the vehicle. He chuckled. "You snored."

"I don't snore!"

He laughed. "You do."

He unlocked the door and they stepped inside. Relief swept over her. Marco reset the security system and took her hand once more. She dutifully followed him to the bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed and kicked her shoes off. Without another thought, she lay back and fell asleep into a deep sleep.

She felt hot.She pushed at the covers to get some relief. A strong firm arm wrapped around her waist and a sturdy chest pressed firmly to her back helped her to relax. She managed to kick her legs from under the covers, still in her sweatpants and T-shirt from last night.

"I don't like you sleeping with clothes on." His husky voice murmured in her ear.

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