Page 76 of When He Defends
“Emerson, are you paying attention to anything I am saying?”
Her gaze had been on the stand-up paddleboard rental booths that waited down on the beach. She’d gotten lost for a moment, imagining Kim smiling at Anzo as she balanced perfectly on the board. He’d filmed her doing that. And… “I’m the luckiest bastard in the world.’”
He had been lucky. Until the end.
“I was thinking about the vics,” she said, replying a bit too quickly. But shehadbeen thinking about the victims and feeling so very sad for them all. Lives cut short just when they should have been at their happiest.
Gray grunted. “For the moment, how about you stay focused on us?”
She frowned at him. They’d already crept past two of the pool areas, then edged around the tennis court and the pickleball areas. Nothing out of the ordinary had jumped out at them. “What is it, exactly, that we’re looking for in the middle of thenight?” Everything was dead quiet. She hadn’t even seen security guards patrolling the grounds.
“I’ll know it when I see it,” he muttered. He turned and stalked forward.
“Oh, that’s clear.” She advanced and plowed right into him when he spun around. His hands rose up and clamped around her shoulders.
She wasn’t wearing her heels. Heels hardly went well with sand, so she’d traded them for flat sandals that strapped around her feet. A billowy skirt. A soft blouse. Meanwhile, Gray was clad all in black. He blended perfectly with the night.
“I don’tknowwhat we’re looking for,” he added, voice carrying just to her. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t search.”
Okay. Again, not clear. “Is this going to be a gut-instinct type of situation?”
His hold tightened on her. “I had to fight for this case at the Bureau. The kills are too scattered. Victims in different states. Different methods of death. If Cass hadn’t come to me, so very certain of his friend’s murder, so certain that Kim hadn’t killed her husband, the perp would still be flying under the radar. I don’t even know if therearemore vics. No judge is gonna give me warrants to search here—the ties are too flimsy to order a full search of the resort. And the resort owner will lawyer up way too fast when he finds out what is happening. So you and I have to investigate as best we can. We have to look for something that doesn’t belong. Something that might point us in the right direction.”
Footsteps. Emerson heard them shuffling closer even as Gray swore. He pushed her back with his grip on her, turned quickly so that she would be the one spotted—easier to do in her brighter clothes—and he put his mouth on hers. Kissed her beneath a softly swaying palm tree.
The footsteps drew closer. She heard whistling.
Though it was pretty hard to concentrate on the footsteps and whistling when Gray was close and his mouth pressed to hers, tempting her to part her lips, to taste him, to?—
“Oh, sorry, folks.” A cheerful voice. “Almost didn’t see you there.”
Gray let her go. Her head turned toward the voice. She saw a flashlight hitting the ground nearby. She was glad the light hadn’t been directed right at their eyes.
“Kinda late for a stroll, isn’t it?” The voice belonged to a security guard. She could see the hotel’s uniform. The star-shaped badge she’d noticed other security guards sporting at check-in.
“I wanted to take a walk under the stars with my new bride.” Gray lifted her hand to his lips.
A shiver skated over Emerson when she swore she felt the lick of his tongue against her skin.
“Oh, the view out here is killer,” the guard readily agreed.
Emerson stiffened at that particular word.Killer.
“A million lights shine in the sky. But to really see the stars best, you should head away from the resort. The darker it gets around you, the more incredible the view above is.” He waved at them. “You stay safe out here.” He strolled away, still whistling.
Gray kept right on holding Emerson’s hand.
She watched the guard vanish. When he was gone, she slowly exhaled. Should she ask for her hand back? “So, that’s our plan? Fake kiss if we’re spotted?” Emerson nodded. “Got it.”
He growled and let her go. “Just stay close.”
“Right. Because you might need to grab me and kiss me to fool a guard. Check.” Her heart was racing. Not from fright. From the kiss. Dammit, how could he be so unaffected? Did the previous night’s activities truly mean nothing to him?
Emerson cleared her throat. Focused on the vics. “Look, we know two of the couples went paddleboarding. Or, at least, thewives did. The husbands watched. How about we head out on the beach and get a closer look at the rental booths? You can see if your spider senses start tingling there.”
“Not funny, Emerson.”
“I thought it was,” she grumbled.
