Page 50 of Forbidden Wish

“In a minute,” he said, keeping hold of her. “Do you have access to their bank transactions?”

She shook her head. “But Snake Guy, that picture I have, I got it from the camera at the convenience store across the street.”

“A bank would have cameras,” he said. “You said that’s where Heather was last seen.”

“Yeah, but I show a little cleavage at the convenience store, I get a guy to help. I doubt banks are so liberal. Do tellers have access to camera footage?”

“Banks will be digital.”

“So?”

“I’ll make some calls.”

“You can’t hack banks.”

“Ican’t,” he said. “But there’s always a guy who knows a guy.”

“Oh, is there?” she asked. Another thought hit her. “I’ll call Steeple. He might know someone.”

“You know who else might know someone?”

“No,” she said without equivocation, knowing exactly who he was implying. “I’m not calling my father unless the world is on fire.”

Shoes. Hair tie. She headed toward the bedroom.

“This will come out one day,” he called after her. “That you put your life on the line for a story.”

Spinning on the bedroom threshold, she caught the frame. “To save other women,” she said and flashed a smile. “And I’ll create a distraction before he goes postal.”

“You think there’s anything in the world that distracts him from his baby girl’s life being at risk?”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe you lusting after me.”

“I’ll do a lot more than that.”

“Which we’ll tell him and he’ll forget all about the life on the line stuff.”

“That the reason you slept with me?” he asked, the corner of his lips rising. “For cover.”

“Yep, absolutely. Best part about it is it’s more than one use. We’ll just have to keep on doing it.”

He shook his head as she retreated to the bedroom. Call the hospital. Go to Mila’s place. The list stalled. Guilt still ate at her. Being with Jagg made her happy, but it didn’t feel right to embrace that bliss.

With him on her side, at her side, the chance of figuring this out was a hundred percent better than it had been yesterday.

TWENTY-ONE

NO CHANGE FOR MILA and Steeple was out of the office. His life was his office, so it had to be something big to separate him from his desk. All the time he spent worrying about his reporters, they could do with worrying about him sometimes too.

Jagg stopped the car outside the convenience store. She put her phone back in her purse and got out not expecting him to join her.

“What are you doing?” she asked, rushing over to block his path onto the sidewalk.

“What am I doing? Thought this was the place.” He glanced around. “Not a lot of birds on this block.”

“We only need one bird. One bird got me that picture of Snake Guy.”

“So let’s go.”

---