Page 44 of Special Agent Isabella

“Hell, I’m a renowned cook. My specialty is toast.” So saying, he brought out the loaf of bread and plunked four slices into the toaster, and then got a bowl too.

In a few minutes, he had a stack of hot buttered toast in front of them that smelled delicious. He even found some jam and cheese slices. “Now, here’s a meal fit for a king.”

“Speaking of royalty—”

He cut her off before she could say more. “Mission accomplished. If nothing else could turn me away from that creature, the fact that her phone took priority over a missing family member would have certainly done it.”

Nodding at the same time as she chewed her second slice of toast, jam on the sides of her mouth making her appear like a gluttonous youngster, she winced. “Gives us females a bad rap, she does, mate.”

Her silly accent while saying exactly what she thought made him laugh for the first time that night. When she stopped eating to stare at him, he whispered softly, “You never fail to amaze me.”

“Is that good or bad?”

“It’s all good, darling. All good.” He stopped looking at her, scared to see if her expression became angry from his words. Instead, he started wolfing down his own food.

If he had kept his eyes on her, he might have recognized her delight and even seen the tears that rushed so fast, she had to blink quickly to stop them from falling.

* * *

Bella couldn’t believe how wonderful his endearment sounded. She’d never understood why women liked to be called by silly romantic names… until this precious moment.

Blinking quickly, hiding her face behind a wall of soft hair, she continued to chew her food while thoughts rolled around in her mind.

What the hell?

She never cried.

Never!

ChapterThirty-Six

“I’m going with you.” Bella tried to insist.

“Not a good idea. You should stay with Abbie. Who knows what other plans the crazies have to hurt Stacy’s family?” Tanner helped her clean the kitchen and began replacing his suit jacket.

“Abbie’s sleeping. She’ll never know I was gone. I can’t just sit here as if nothing happened, Tanner. I’ve become close to Stacy and the thought of her in the clutches of some wacko who wants to hurt her because of her politics makes me cringe.”

“Okay, fine. I’m going in to see what they’ve found out at the office. I know they were going to search the street cams for a woman leaving the parking lot, but I called in about your idea that the suspect could be a man. Now, we’ll need to go back and check everyone leaving the place, male or female.”

“It was my suggestion so I’m coming. End of story.”

“Okay, but plan for a long session. There’s a lot of people off sick with the flu right now so we could be in for an all-nighter.”

* * *

Hours later, both rubbing tiredness from their faces, they rewound the same video. Bella pointed to the one person she felt was the culprit. “I’m telling you. It’s this car.”

“But there’s a couple in the front seat.”

“I know, but I think the woman sitting with her head against the window could be Stacy. What if the kidnapper put his wig on her head and bolstered her against the door to throw us off the scent?”

Tanner rewound the scene and using his imagination, he could almost see what Bella did. “It could be her.” They checked the license plates and found that the sedan belonged to a Karl Morgan. Within minutes, they had his address and were on their way to question the man.

Unfortunately, the woman who came to the door, angry for having been woken in the early hours of the morning, explained that her husband was in the hospital and had been for many days. Sure, his car sat on the street and though the FBI had the correct license plate number, the vehicle it was registered to hadn’t been moved in over a week.

“Sorry to bother you ma’am.” Bella spoke soothingly. “Obviously, someone pinched your plates and exchanged them with theirs.”

Her apology didn’t sit well with the tired woman. “Well, dammit. Check your info before scaring folks half to death.”

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