Unleashed. Lori Borrill

wallet’s in the bedroom. It wasn’t touched.”

      “So someone just wanted your car and your phone.”

      “Looks like it,” Rick said, easing down on the couch and rubbing his face in his hands. He tried to consider an explanation, one that didn’t involve him being screwed over by a cunning redhead.

      It wasn’t looking good.

      As if Kevin had read his thoughts, he asked, “How well do you know your lady friend?”

      Rick snorted. There were a number of things he knew intimately about Jessica Beane—if that was her real name. He knew about the freckle southwest of her navel, that she shuddered when he kissed the backs of her knees, and that when she came, her cheeks flushed into pale pink circles. He knew she had a talented tongue and even more talented fingers, and that when he hit a sensitive spot, she purred like a kitten.

      But did he know if she was a car thief? Whether their entire evening together wasn’t just a long, drawn-out plot to rob him while he slept? That was anyone’s guess.

      He dug his fingers through his hair. “Apparently not well enough. I’m not sure she stole the car, but she was gone by the time I woke up.”

      He felt like an idiot just saying it out loud, and as his situation began to sink in, a coil of anger curled in his gut.

      Kevin sighed. “Let me go get my pad and we’ll start making notes.”

      “We’ve got bigger problems than a stolen car.”

      That stopped Kevin in his tracks, and when he spotted the look in Rick’s eyes, his shoulders slumped. “No. Tell me the laptop wasn’t in the car.”

      “The trunk.”

      “Thornton’s lawyers will have a field day with this. It was gonna be bad enough telling them we’re still holding the laptop after they got the judge to release it.” Leaning a hand against the wall, he shook his head. “You’re in for one hell of an ass chewing.”

      Rick really didn’t give a squat about Thornton’s lawyers or the raking he’d get from their department. That laptop had been his one hope at finding something on Creed. Hell, it was more than hope. Rick had been certain that his computer friend would get something off that machine, which would finally get them a solid lead.

      And now it was gone.

      A cold curtain of fury came over him, tightening his lip and clenching his fists at his sides. “I need to get it back,” he stated. “It’s as simple as that.”

      “I’ll call in an APB on the vehicle. Maybe we’ll get lucky.”

      Rising from the couch, Rick took determined steps to his bedroom and flipped on the shower. “While you’re doing that, get what you can on a Jessica Beane. That’s Beane with an E.” He tried to remember the name of her store and only recalled she’d said it was on Powell. Had that been a lie? Was there truth in anything she’d said last night?

      The thought that he’d been duped stung in more ways than he cared to analyze, and as he tossed off his jeans and headed for the bathroom, he chose to stay focused on the task at hand instead.

      “Give me a minute. I’ll need a ride to the station,” he called out.

      “You’ll need more than a ride to the station.”

      Kevin had said it as a joke, but it was true. Today he’d need something he hadn’t had in a long time—a lucky break. And without a doubt, the place to start was by finding one brassy Texas redhead.

      The only question was, what would he do when he found her?