Page 35 of Paternal Instincts
Chapter 9
Aslan
Since Ruiz was stuck with Daddy duty, I left him at the house with orders from Quaid to “Dig deeper, goddammit,” and promises of “Tell Costa I’ll get a warrant.”
GPS took me to a middle-class area in Parkwoods, a neighborhood north of Victoria Village where the Davises lived. Quaid waited in the blacked-out Charger but got out the instant I parked, meeting me at the end of a driveway leading to a two-story craftsman-style home.
I was surprised when Quaid askedmeto meet him at the house, figuring he would want his partner beside him for what could be a potentially shady interview, but he’d insisted.
Quaid read the question in my eyes as I approached with the tablet Ruiz had loaned me wedged under one arm.
“Explain yourself, hot stuff. I’m on leave. Why am I here?”
“No, you’re officially my bitch, and I need you.”
I chuckled. “Is that so?”
“Nixon’s parents and brother are at the house, and tension is high. Imogen’s parents are on their way, and Jordyn felt it best that oneof us was present when they arrived. Our liaison officer is fresh from the academy, and the situation is too delicate to leave her alone.” He motioned to the tablet. “Show me.”
I scanned the neighborhood, ensuring we were alone before locating the section of video Ruiz had transferred onto the device. I let it run as I explained. “We felt that solely looking for the missing child in these videos wasn’t an effective approach, so Ruiz downloaded images of as many family members as we could find online. The parents, the grandparents, aunts, uncles, along with pictures of Jude and Clementine.”
I paused the video, earning an annoyed look from my husband. I held up a finger, asking for patience as I continued. “Did you know your boy friend is a fucking genius?”
Quaid’s lips twitched. “His brain is a bit of a turn-on.”
I chuckled. “You’re incorrigible.”
“You started it. Stop calling him my boyfriend, and I’ll stop playing the part.”
“Stop making it one word.”
“Why do you antagonize him?”
“Same reason you do. It’s fun.”
“One of these days, we’ll go too far, and he’ll run and never look back.”
“Nah. He loves you in his own quirky, super-straight way. Just don’t ask him to admit it.”
Quaid smirked and scanned the street before stealing a quick kiss, lingering and hitting me with a hooded gaze. “You’re not jealous, are you?”
I howled and tugged him closer. “Not even a little.”
“Get to the point, handsome. I have a missing kid and a severely pregnant surrogate ready to pop any day.” Sobering, Quaid pulledfrom my arms, a worry line emerging between his brows. “Did you call Bryn? Is she okay? How’s she feeling? I planned to visit today until this happened.”
Using a thumb, I rubbed the creases marring his forehead to no avail. They remained, growing deeper with my fussing. “She’s okay. I called. We didn’t chat long. I told her about the case and asked her to contact me if anything changed because you might be neck-deep in a recovery. Now, can I explain about Ruiz’s boner-inducing genius? It’s hot out, and I’m going to sweat through my shirt at this rate.”
Quaid’s devious smirk appeared as he shifted focus to the paused tablet. “He’d kill you for that remark, you know.”
“Oh, I know.”
“Go on. What am I looking at?”
“Like I said, Ruiz gathered images of as many people involved with this family as possible. He scanned their faces and uploaded them to a program so that it would alert us if there was a match in the surveillance videos. It took him a while to set it up, but considering I was expecting hours of viewing footage, it actually saved us time.”
“It found something?”
I nodded.
