Page 29 of A Touch of Frost
“Jesse, does this look familiar?”
I hurried over to look over her shoulder. Frost held up a bracelet I’d know anywhere. It belonged to my brother—I’d given it to him years before. My heart skipped a painful beat and I swallowed to kill the hurt.
“It’s Paul’s.” My voice cracked. “It was a present from me. It’s engraved withCaptain America. I didn’t think he still wore that.”
She turned the bracelet over then nodded. “There it is. Captain America. This means he was here, or the jacket was where he is being held.”
“We’ve checked everywhere.” I tossed my hands up. “He’s not here. Unless they have secret compartments and rooms in the walls.”
She handed me the piece of jewelry just as the door at the top of the stairs opened. She tugged me after her, but I managed to grab a baseball bat leaning against the wall. Both of us hid in a section underneath the steps, my body pressing intimately into hers.
Frost smelled like every delicious thing I’d ever put into my mouth.
It was the worse time to be having wet dreams while still awake, but I couldn’t seem to help myself. She was soft and perfect, and I didn’t want to let her go. I didn’t want to think of a possibility of her being with another man.
But I had to behave.
I had to focus. Frost wasn’t armed and this could go very wrong.
He went for the Yankees jacket and began digging through the pockets.
Frost and I exchanged looks before refocusing on the man. Once he was finished, he dropped it on the floor and made his way back up the stairs. We followed to find him on the phone with someone.
“Maybe he’s telling the truth.” The man was saying. “It’s not in the jacket so maybe he did lose it. You’re moving him again? I thought no one knows where you guys are—nope, I don’t wanna know. Y’all are making some very powerful enemies and I don’t want to get involved in any of that.”
Silence.
“Because you seem to love taking risks with your life.” The man barked into the phone. “I don’t appreciate you putting mind in danger.”
He hung up the phone then and Frost and I hurried out and back to the car. Once we were out of the neighbourhood, I turned to stare at her.
“Why didn’t we grab him?” I asked.
“Because Paul is in Montenegro but not at Mountain Head.” Frost told me. “If we grab that idiot, we lose the element of surprise. I think that bracelet was Paul’s way of leaving us a breadcrumb.”
“How would he know we were looking?” I wanted to know.
“I think he was hoping someone would find it and get curious.” She glanced in the mirrors then switched lanes. “When you’re stolen, you grasp onto every little thing you can.”
“Were you ever in the same boat as my brother?”
“Yes. Twice.”
“Did you think you would die?”
Frost cleared her throat. “Both times. The second time I caught a bullet to the chest, almost bled to death.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Yeah.” Frost eased the sports car into the front yard and killed the engine. “But I knew I had people who were looking for me.”
“Paul doesn’t have that hope. It’s not like I’ve been a good baby brother.”
“What do you…”
Her phone chimed and Frost broke eye contact with me to pick it up. “Hey, Tex.”
I exhaled.
