Page 20 of Phoenix

Lindsay had her hair twisted into a messy bun and was covered in flour as she laughed with Sadie—Hunter’s wife and the best damn baker in Tennessee.

Sadie was showing her how to knead dough, her voice warm and patient. Lindsay was smiling like she hadn’t been nearly abducted the day before.

That smile settled something deep inside me. I intended to put that happy, satisfied look on her face every day for the rest of our lives.

She spotted me and rushed over, dusting the flour off her hands. “How’d it go?”

“Need a shower after being in that apartment,” I grunted. “But it wasn’t a total bust.” I raised the notebook and handed it to her. “We found this.”

She flipped through it slowly, brow furrowed. “This looks like tracking data.”

“Yeah—wait. You recognize it?” It suddenly occurred to me that I hadn’t had a chance to really get to know her…other than what her pretty pussy tasted like and how fucking beautiful she was when I was making her come.

“Maybe. Numbers are kind of my thing. I’m getting my degree in statistics.”

My brow shot up. “Just when I thought you couldn’t be any more perfect.”

Lindsay’s sweet mouth curved up into a sassy smile. “Perfect? Please. You haven’t even seen my spreadsheet skills yet.”

I burst into laughter, then smirked as I leaned in, my voice rough against her ear. “If you keep talkin’ like that, I’m gonna clear my desk and bend you over it. Club business be damned.”

Lindsay’s breath caught in her throat, and a shiver shook her body, making me grin even wider. Yeah, that was definitely gonna happen. Soon.

Her eyes dropped back to the notebook, and she cleared her throat. Then her brow furrowed. “Huh.”

“See anything that stands out?”

“I’m not sure. Let me try something. Can I see his bank statements?”

“Sure, baby. Let’s go to my office.” I ignored the bright red that bloomed on her cheeks. If I didn’t focus on something else, she was gonna spend the rest of the night being fucked on my desk and every other flat surface I could find.

She called out goodbye to Sadie, who winked and waved. Then I guided her out of the kitchen, through the lounge, and down the hall to my office. She dropped onto the chair at my desk, and I opened my laptop, using my thumb to unlock it before setting it in front of her. Then I pulled up the spreadsheets I’d created with all of Paul’s financial transactions.

“Wow. This is even better.”

I dropped onto a chair beside her and tossed my arm across the back of hers. Then I trailed my fingertips along her neck as I drawled, “I aim to please.”

“Stop that,” she whispered, shifting restlessly in her seat, her pretty freckles fading from the flush covering her skin.

I put my lips on her jaw and glided them along the line, then up to her ear. “Is that what you really want?”

She bit her lip and tossed me a disgruntled pout that was so cute, I couldn’t help chuckling. “No,” she finally admitted. “Just, um, save it for later.”

Chuckling again, I gave her a little space to do her thing. There would be plenty of time for teasing, seducing, and driving her all kinds of wild. We had the rest of our lives as soon as this bullshit was behind us.

She flipped through the pages of the notebook and scrolled through the spreadsheets for a few minutes.

“Yep,” she murmured after a while. She pointed at a column of numbers. “Some of these match up to ATM withdrawals.”

I arched a brow. “You sure?”

She nodded. “See?”

Pointing at numbers on the screen, then to numbers in the notebook, she showed me how she’d come to the conclusion. I whistled, impressed. “I’ll be damned, baby. Nice catch.”

Lindsay beamed at me, pointing at another column. And these look like betting odds. See this column? Looks like wagers and outcomes. Wins, losses.”

“That’s why he was always broke.”

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