Page 19 of I'm Not in Love (I Promise)

“That’s good. Hear anything else about the house from the other night?”Blake’s house.My ears perk up as I wait for his response.

“Jasper’s out with that woman tonight, fishing for more info. Otherwise, nothing. Orlov is squeaky clean. I can’t find anything about someone named Sweeper anywhere. Even the cameras Jasper planted the other night have been pretty dull. Just Orlova and some other woman seem to be there most of the time. No sign of a man yet.”

Cameras?

My throat goes dry so I gulp down some beer. I should have realized Jasper would have planted some. He better not have put anything in Blake’s room.

“Damn. When I was in there briefly I was getting tax evasion vibes, not kidnapping. But I guess it doesn’t hurt to keep an eye. Where did he put cameras?” I feign nonchalance and get up to grab the plate of pizza.

Leon takes the plate with a muttered thanks and bites into the slice like a starved animal. “I guess I was hungry.” He chews, takes a sip of beer, then answers. “Kitchen, living room, entrances. Why? You see something?”

“No, like I said, nothing out of the ordinary. Was just wondering.” I fold my pizza and take a bite.

“I think he put one in the bathroom too, pointed at the shower.” He shakes his head. “Fucking Jasper.”

My hand pauses halfway to my mouth. He can’t be serious? I know Jasper’s an idiot but he’s not a perv. No one gets to see Blake’s body but me. “You’re serious?”

“Wish I wasn’t. Don’t worry, as soon as I saw the feed, I shut it down. I gotta say though, man, that brunette… Fucking hot.”

“Delete it,” I seethe.

He raises his brow. “What?”

“Delete the fucking footage.” I drop my half-eaten pizza and clench my fist.

“I didn’t save it, brother. Calm down.” He narrows his eyes. “What’s with the meltdown?”

“Nothing. It’s just fucking creepy. We’re not those guys. I’m gonna kick Jasper’s ass when I see him.”

Leon sighs. “That makes two of us.” I sit forward with my hands on my thighs. “He told his parents where we are. I heard him on the phone with them earlier. I swear he got hit in the head one too many times playing ball.”

I groan. We’ve decided to keep certain things to ourselves. Mainly, where we’re living. We don’t need Mr. and Mrs. Shea knocking on the door for Sunday dinner and seeing guns and surveillance equipment laying around the apartment. They think we’ve started a consulting business and are helping out with the search for Bailey during our downtime. Yeah, we take on odd jobs here and there. Mainly Leon with his tech shit. But the majority of the time we’re chasing leads. Plus, Leon’s rich British daddy left him a nice, fat bank account when he turned eighteen. Leon hates using the money, but he knows we have no choice, not while we’re focusing so much time on shit that doesn’t pay.

“You think they’ll show up?” I ask. As much as I love the Shea’s, it’s not a great time.

“Nah, or at least I hope not. We’re far enough away that they won’t want to drive to see us.” Leon reaches for his phone again and checks the screen.

“I’m gonna head out for a bit. Check out a couple potential leads,” I say. I’m restless and exhausted at the same time. If I were to try to sleep right now, I know I’d be tossing and turning, thinking of Blake. I get up, throw my plate away, and set my empty beer bottle on the counter. “You want to come? Get some air?”

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll see you later though.” He’s back to typing on his phone so I leave him to it. I’m halfway out the door when he interrupts. “Wait, come back. I just got something.”

Looks like you’ll have to wait, Blake.

CHAPTER EIGHT

DAMON

We’re drivingthrough the dark streets, heading toward the highway. Leon seems like he’s alive again for the first time since we left Palm Cove. His leg vibrates in the passenger seat while he types the address into his GPS.

“I’ll call Jasper to meet us there,” he says.

“Back up a sec. Where are we going and what the fuck is going on?”

He takes a breath and looks up from his phone. “I’ve been working this lead since we got here. Telling this guy named King that we’re looking for work. That we’ve been recruiters down in Florida and just moved up here. I dropped the loser from Palm Cove’s name and said he told us to meet up with someone named Sweeper. Long story short, we got a meeting with him.”

I let his words sink in. He’s been working nonstop like an animal and we finally got something tangible. “Fuck, yeah,” I say. “So where are we headed?”

After pickingup Jasper at a bar in town, we pull up to a club called Velvet. My mind’s whirling with the new information Leon was able to find. This day has had so many fucking ups and downs, it’s a wonder I haven’t crashed yet.

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