“It’s possible,” I said. “If they got your number, they could have gotten access to other things, too. I don’t want to freak you out, but I also don’t want to take chances here.”
He exhaled, running a hand through his shining golden hair. A silver bracelet matched the two silver rings he wore. “Shit. I’m hating theCSIvibes happening here.”
“I preferMindhunter,” I said.
“Of course you do,” Eli teased, crossing his arms. His gaze flickered over me like he was assessing something. “You totally give off ‘special agent with a dark past’ energy. And wasn’t it someone from Stonewall responsible for catching the Raven serial killer? You’re practically made for that show.”
That made me laugh, the tension loosening slightly. My eyes traced his face, lingering on his lips before I snapped myself back to reality. He didn’t just look like Michael; he acted like him, too. Spoke with his hands in the same manner, rolled his neck in the same way, had a similar crooked smirk.
Focus.
“Anyway,” I said, clearing my throat. “First thing—change your passwords. And maybe don’t log in to anything on public Wi-Fi for now.”
Eli nodded. “Yeah, okay. Good call,detective.” He tilted his head. Was he teasing me? “So, what’s next?” he asked. “Because this… this is really starting to scare me.”
“Well,” I said, keeping my voice even. I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire of fear he was already feeling. My job was to quench those flames, not feed them. “Next step is getting more information. We need to figure out if this guy has left any physical evidence anywhere. I’m waiting on the fingerprint results from the cops but I’ll also see if I can track down this phone number. And in the meantime, you need to be careful. No walking alone at night. No letting your guard down.”
“Thank you. For helping me with this.”
Was it wrong that him being so close to me was making me hard? Our legs were practically touching. I leaned forward, petting Lucky as an excuse to hide the bulge. I had made it past my fumble from earlier; I didn’t want to add another one by being too obvious with how badly I wanted him.
“No need to thank me.” I checked my watch. It was still early in the day. I could choose to head home, where I could spend my day combing through the internet,orI could spend more time with Eli and help him set up those cameras I mentioned. Both options seemed perfectly valid to me, but I preferred one much more than the other.
“So, want to head to the camera shop?”
Eli—God, that’s Michael’s smile—clapped his hands together and stood up.
“Let’s do it.”
Chapter8
Elijah Grant
I was fallingfor the detective.
Shit. Was that bad? Was there some morality clause I didn’t know about when I hired him? Should I be running to the nearest church and asking for forgiveness?
Because I wouldn’t mind getting down on my knees and begging.
Yeah, I wasreallyattracted to him. And not just physically, but energy-wise, we clicked. I felt like we operated on similar wavelengths. I felt comfortable—safe—around him, which was wild, considering I’d only just met him.
Then again, I did have a track record of easily opening up to people.
When Benji suggested that we go to a nearby electronics shop so we could pick up a camera, I immediately jumped on the chance to spend more time with him.
“So are you originally from around here?” I asked as we walked through Central Park.
“I am. My parents met after my mom moved here from Colombia. My dad lived here all his life. They got pregnant with me on their second date.”
“They worked quick, huh?”
“Sure did.”
We crossed a busy jogging path, continuing on past a loud dog park. Lucky had his ears perked but didn’t appear to want to join in on the chaos. I didn’t blame him. I wasn’t big on crazy crowds, either.
“What about you?” Benji asked.
“I’m from a small town in Iowa. Probably haven’t even heard of it.”