Page 12 of Hunted Temptation
Maybe Iama fucking creep. Whatever. At this point, I feel like maybe I should just own that shit. Elodie sits up, her eyes staring straight ahead. I don’t know what she’s looking at, but she is focused.
Then she shakes her head once before she throws her legs over the side of the bed and stands. I watch as she stretches her arms high in the air before she bends at the waist and touches her toes.
I’m not sure why it’s sexy, but it makes my cock twitch. She moves toward the bathroom, slipping inside and closing the door behind her.
Not much time passes before she shuffles back to the bed, then slips under the covers and closes her eyes. Glancing at my watch, I frown at the time. I hadn’t realized it was so late. Looking back at Scoggins’s GPS location, I realize he hasn’t moved. This isn’t something to do with work. This is without a doubt something else.
HALE: INDUSTRIAL BUILDING. OWNED BY POINTE INDUSTRIES
My blood turns ice cold.
I know that name.
Instead of texting him back, I call him. “Did you really say Pointe Industries?” I ask.
“The same.”
“How?”
We share a moment of silence. Maybe we both need to let that sink in. The man who abused us our entire childhood, the man we killed, was involved with and I thought the owner of Pointe Industries.
“We need to call Theron,” I grind out.
I’m not pissed at him. I’m pissed at myself. I can’t believe I didn’t think to figure out what the fuck else that company owned. Hale doesn’t reply immediately. Instead, he inhales a deep breath and holds it for a moment before he lets it out slowly.
“We have dropped the fucking ball,” he grinds out.
“How the fuck were we supposed to know?” I ask. “It was supposed to be a shell of a shell company.”
“It’s Ravet,” Hale grinds out. “We should have known he would continue to fuck with us, to evade us, even after we killed his ass.”
“That’s about the long and short of it,” I mumble.
A few seconds later, he responds that he’ll set something up, maybe a virtual video meeting for tomorrow sometime. Thanking him, I go back to the cameras and the GPS. Nothing has changed.
Since I won’t be able to sleep, especially now that Ravet has been brought into this again, I focus on Pointe Industries. I need either Lucille or Nadine to get to work on this. They’re the only ones who can do some serious fucking digging really fucking fast, like lightning speed.
Sending Lucille and Nadine emails, I give them all the information I have. The moment I hitSend, the tracker starts moving. The car is heading away from the warehouse and coming back into town. I expect him to go straight home, but he doesn’t. He detours to the police department.
Pressing my lips together, I lean back and look at the computer screen. Elodie is still asleep. She looks peaceful. I can’t imagine what that’s like. To have a peaceful anything, let alone sleep.
I take a deep breath. I don’t know what will happen, but I’m also not sure I’ll be able to walk away from her. My feelings haven’t changed a single fucking bit.
I want to keep her for myself.
Even though I know it’s wrong, I don’t think I can just turn my back on her when this is all finished, when she’s left alone.Vulnerable. And I know that makes me a sick fuck. But I’m only a marginal sick fuck compared to her father and whoever the fuck is involved with Pointe Industries.
ELODIE
I’ve been tooanxious to eat. My stomach is rolling and clenching over and over. I feel like I’m going to be sick. I wish I would just get it over with and throw up. I probably will after, though.
After.
I hate thinking about after. Pushing the thoughts out of my head, I turn on the water in the shower, letting it heat up as steam fills the small room. I close my eyes and inhale the steamy, thick air, allowing it to clear my sinuses and calm me, but only slightly. I don’t think anything could completely calm my nerves at this point.
Showering, I wash my hair, shave, and then lotion everything before I carefully apply all my makeup after styling my hair. I’m still not sure what awaits me for the night, but I don’t want any part of it. As much as I try to hide my nervousness, I know I fail.
My father has made it clear that I’m to be perfect and on my best behavior. Whoever this person is, he’s important, so much so that my father seems to be nervous as well. And Chief Scoggins is never anxious.
