And since the last thing he needed was to have her go missing on him, too, Olly heard himself say, “Fine. You can go. But youdo what I say, when I say it, exactly how I fucking say it. That clear?”
Scarlett’s eyes shimmered in the warm glow of her headlights, grinning as if she’d just won a very important battle. Before he could even react, she grabbed his face with both hands and pressed her lips to his.
“Thanks, partner,” she whispered. “I’ll meet you back at my hotel.”
With a light tap on his cheek, she left him standing there and walked back to her car. Turning his head, he watched from over his shoulder as Scarlett slid behind her wheel and shut the door.
After making a three-point turn, the confounding woman actually waved at him as she drove past. And Olly was left there wondering what the hell had just happened.
7
The following night…
“How long arewe going to sit out here like this?” Scarlett kept her gaze locked on the building before them.
Not the brick, non-descript, two-story one positioned half a football field’s distance from where they sat. The other one.
Single level. White metal siding. Blood red door.
A bright neon sign above it readThe Mystique,and according to Brooke’s source, Rose had been spotted here two weeks before.
My sister was here. She may still be here.
Rose could be inside that building this very second, and they were just sitting here. Waiting.
“We’ll give it a few more minutes,” Olly rumbled from the driver’s seat. “Let the crowd grow a bit more.”
“Won’t more people make it that much harder to find her?”
“Probably, but it also provides us with more coverage.”
“Coverage?” She looked over at him.
Her heart kicked against her ribs when those hazel eyes turned her way. “You were thinking, what…we walk ourhappy asses inside and start flashing Rose’s picture to all the employees? Start asking the other strippers if they know where she is?”
Scarlett shifted in her seat to face him fully. “No, smartass. I just didn’t realize we needed to go all incognito. She’s never seen me, so I’m not an issue. And if Roseisinside, and she was brought here against her will like we’re assuming, I’d think she’d be pretty damn happy to see you. Either way, I don’t see why we have to go all Cloak and Dagger trying to find her.”
Olly’s lips twitched with what she could only assume was the urge to smile. He did that a lot, she noticed. Fought against his body’s natural reactions. It was almost like the guy wouldn’t allow himself to be happy.
She’d almost seen a smile the night before, though. Almost. They’d been standing in that parking lot behind what used to be La Cocina. She’d called him out for sneaking up on her, and he’d…smirked.
Not a full-blown smile. More like a small, crooked grin. A sexy grin that had made her toes curl and her mind think of all sorts of naughty things. And then he’d kissed her.
Hot. Wet. A hint of minty sweet.
Scarlett had spent half the night in her Durango hotel room staring at the ceiling and thinking about that damn kiss. Replaying it over and over again in her mind for fear she’d lose the memory come morning.
Thankfully the images of their brief but passionate embrace hadn’t been stolen by the night. If anything, her lust-filled mind had created new images. Fictional ones where her phone hadn’t started ringing. And the best kiss she’d ever experienced hadn’t come to such an abrupt end.
But her phone did ring, and the news Brooke passed on was more encouraging than Scarlett could have hoped for. So she’d gone back to her hotel, packed enough clothes for a few nights’stay, and then she’d gone back downstairs to the lobby where Olly had been waiting.
When she’d mentioned going to his place so he, too, could pack, the intriguing man had mumbled something about already having a go-bag in the trunk of his car. Less than seven hours later—after a couple quick pit-stops along the way—Scarlett had found herself showered and under the covers inside a small hotel room on the outskirts of Durango.
An adjoining room right next to Olly’s.
“See, this right here is exactly why I made the comment last night about this not being part of your world,” he rumbled back. “We’re working under the assumption that the people behind Rose’s disappearance are, at the very least, involved in a human trafficking ring. Guys like that aren’t exactly open to outsiders coming in and exposing the shit they’re doing. Anyone on the inside suspects we’ve come here to do anything but enjoy the show, they’ll kick our asses out.” He added a belated, “At best.”
“And at worst?”