Page 27 of Tapped

Nothing.

The doorbell rings again. There’s no way anyone can sleep through this.

I raise my voice. “Evie! I need to answer your door. Turn off the alarm.”

The banging ensues as a deep voice bellows from the other side, “Evie! I found out what happened yesterday. You can’t keep this from me forever. Open the damn door.”

Shit. She must be able to sleep through a freight train.

I take the stairs two at a time and turn down the hall. There are too many damn doors. Who needs this many rooms? She only has one kid.

There are a set of closed double doors at the end of the hall. Damn. My grandma always said, no good deed goes unpunished, and since I rarely do good deeds just to do them, I had no idea what that really meant.

But here I am, in a Miami mansion looking for the woman I’m supposed to be protecting while someone is banging her front door down, hoping no one trips the alarm. I can hear Tim yelling at me for spending the night in a strange woman’s house who’s directly involved with my Colombian case. And all of that would lead to more paperwork, which I am not down for.

So I knock on the double doors and hope to hell the good doctor actually wakes up. “Evie. Someone is at your door. If you don’t get down here soon or kill the security, you’ll have cops swarming your house for the second day in a row.”

I put my ear to the door as my insides tighten.

“You okay? I’ll bust through this door if I have to—”

The lock turns.

I’m not prepared for what I see.

Wide, dark eyes angle up to mine from her phone before she turns it to me and whispers, “It’s my dad.”

My brain barely computes what she said because she’s wet.

Literally dripping.

And naked.

At least I assume she is since her small frame is wrapped in a towel gathered at her tits.

Her hair is glued to her glistening skin, every drop dances down her bare body before disappearing into the thick, white towel.

When she speaks again, I’m forced to shake myself from the trance her wet body has thrown me in. “Chase is still asleep, and I need to get to the hospital to check on a patient before clinic. I turned off the alarm, can you please let him in before Mrs. Rollings next door reports me for noise pollution? She maxes out her hearing aids and can literally hear a pin drop from Orlando. I’ll get dressed and be down in a minute. Thanks!”

Thanks?

She slams the door in my face.

She doesn’t really slam it since her son is asleep. But the lock is clicked with force.

I jog down the stairs and make my way across the house to the front door. The screen on the security system reads all clear. Her dad needs to shut the hell up, so I turn the lock and pull open the enormous door.

He takes a half-step back and looks up at me with tense, wide eyes that are the same deep chocolate as Evie’s. “Who the hell are you and where are my daughter and grandson?”

“Evie is upstairs with Chase. She’s getting ready for work.”

He straightens his spine and claims the space he just put between us. “You didn’t answer my other question. Who are you and what are you doing here?”

I never, and I mean never, tell people about my job if I don’t have to. I give him just enough of the truth to pacify him. I hold out my hand for him. “Micah. I was Evie’s security detail last night. She told me to let you in and she’d be down in a minute.”

He stares at me for a beat, so I step to the side and let him through. I glance around her front yard where the sun is coming up and don’t see any activity. Not even a jogger or stray cat. The neighborhood is eerily perfect.

I shut the door and turn to find Evie’s father stalking through the house. “Evie! Get down here and explain what the hell is going on!”

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