Page 15 of Desire Me
His grin doubled.
“What did you and Eli find out?” she asked.
He shifted his hips, trying to give his hard-on some room behind his too-tight zipper. “I want to meet her.”
Alarm flared in Leah’s eyes. “Why?”
He narrowed his eyes, debating where to start. “Eli hasn’t found anything in police records aside from her original case file. Nothing in missing persons, nothing in any state databases, just nothing. He’s expanding to other states tonight, see what he can find, but that’s a lot of states. She could be from anywhere, and though he’s a helluva lot faster than any detective will be, it still takes time.”
“Okay.” Leah drew out the word. “That still doesn’t explain the visit, though.”
He busied himself putting the lid back on his cookie stash. “Eli also hacked the hospital records and pulled video to get a still of your Jane Doe to use along with the prints the police had.”
“He couldn’t use the photo the cops took?”
“It was taken early, and her face was pretty bruised up. This morning’s shot was much clearer.”
Leah nodded. “And?”
Remi tightened his lips. After Eli had told him what he’d seen, he hadn’t been able to stay home. It was impossible. Leah might no longer be treating the woman, but his instincts were shouting that they were in danger, and he never ignored his instincts.
“Eli found evidence that someone else had hacked your Jane Doe’s hospital records.”
“What? Who?”
That wasn’t alarm in her voice—it was anger. His woman was ready to fight.
He reached for her hand, needing to touch her, to remind himself she was here with him, safe, protected. “That’s what we needed to find out. After Eli pinpointed the times and location of the terminal that was used, we went back to the surveillance video.” He dug his phone out of the pocket of his fatigues, cued up the image, and passed it to Leah. “This is him.”
There wasn’t much to see—dark clothes, hair cropped so close it was impossible to determine a definite color on the grainy black-and-white screenshot, especially with most of it covered by a nondescript baseball cap. “He’s careful to keep his face turned away from any cameras, so we don’t have a clearer shot.”
“Just jawline and body build,” Leah murmured, using her fingers to enlarge the photo on the screen.
“And he’s good at staying in the background, unnoticed.” His heartbeat shifted into his throat just remembering what the security footage had revealed. “You’ve seen him more than once, lev sheli.”
Her hand went to her throat. “He’s been in the ER?”
“Multiple times,” he confirmed grimly. “And I know how aware you are of your surroundings, even in a busy hospital. So yeah, he’s good.”
“A professional.”
Remi nodded sharply.
“But why here? You said he’s been back multiple times.”
“And he’s definitely found her. He wandered the hospital a couple days to find a terminal he could break into without being noticed, but he finally found and accessed her files this morning. My guess?” His gut clenched. “Her hit-and-run wasn’t an accident. This guy”—he tapped the rim of the phone—“either did it or was involved somehow.”
He could see the wheels turning as Leah considered all the angles herself. “We’re the closest hospital to the accident site.”
“Yes. Likely he’s been looking for confirmation that she was dead, but now that he knows she has survived…”
Leah fumbled the phone into his lap even as she jerked on the door handle. “We have to get upstairs.”
He tightened his grip on her hand, threading his fingers between hers to hold her in place. “We will, Leah, I promise. But she’s not in immediate danger. At least, not tonight.”
“Why?”
Her impatient tone was all Leah—find the problem and fix it ASAP.
