On the screen, the two walked into the hotel, and the image kept playing with little activity at that late hour.

“Okay, what else do you have?”

“I have some cuts from them entering the lobby, but that’s all I had time to find. I’ve seen him here quite a bit over the past months, but not her. It will take longer than a few hours for me to locate any more footage.”

“Show me the lobby.”

He hit a few keys and clicked his mouse. “This is a short clip.”

A different angle, a new camera. Tommy and the girl walking into the lobby and over to the desk. That’s all there was. A short view, five seconds at most. “Can you zoom in on her face?”

He rewound the footage and stopped when they first walked in. The image was clear. He was good. He zoomed in and I pulled my phone out and brought up the picture Elle sent me. I compared the two. It was her. No doubt about it.

“Do you know what room they’re staying in?”

“I asked the girl that worked reception that night. Since it was so late, it was easy for her to pull up the records of the encounter at the desk. Turns out he was checking out.”

Fuck!

“There’s a clip of them leaving and another of them getting into a cab. It shows nothing different from the other two. I can show you, but not now. I have to get you two out of here.”

I nodded in understanding. I didn’t want him to lose his job. “Thanks, man—that’s what I needed.” I pulled out my wallet and peeled off twenty one-hundred-dollar bills. Luckily, I had withdrawn ten thousand dollars before my grandfather sealed my access to my trust fund.

Miles was watching me with a cold sweat breaking across his forehead.

I handed it to him.

“That’s more than you promised.”

I picked up a pen and tore off a corner of one of the papers littered on the desk. I wrote my number down and my email. “The extra is for a phone call the minute you see either of them again. And if you don’t mind, email me whatever clips you can find.”

“Yeah, sure. Now, I need to get you guys out of here.”

We exited the same way we’d entered. He left us to walk down the corridor and into the lobby on our own. Exiting the hotel doors, I handed the valet my ticket.

Declan did the same.

The air was cold and the rain was coming down in sheets. I leaned back against the wall to wait.

“I want to help you with whatever you’re doing,” Declan said.

Exhausted, I turned to look at him. “You have and thanks. I can take it from here.”

He stepped closer. “Tell me what’s going on.”

I considered it for a moment. “I can’t do that.”

“I’m not afraid of him and I want to make sure what happened to Peyton doesn’t happen again—to her or to anyone else.”

It’s not that I didn’t understand where he was coming from, because I did. I just didn’t think it was the best idea to involve anyone else. “Watch over Peyton and I’ll call you if I need anything else.”

“I can help you. You know I can.”

The valet pulled up with my car. “I’ll call you after I get the videos.”

He nodded.

I slipped behind the wheel and took off. In the dark of the night, all I could see was Tommy’s face in my mind. I could hear his voice, “Watch this, McPherson.”

The level of fury building within me wasn’t going to help anything. I needed to stay focused, and waking the angry demon that lived inside me wasn’t going to help the situation.

I dug my fingers into the steering wheel as I sped back to the hotel. I knew what I had to do. Elle needed to go back to her life—without me. I closed my eyes, hating myself for the things I’d done that had put me where I was today.

But until I could take care of Tommy, she wasn’t safe with me. She might not be 100 percent safe with O’Shea, but I knew she was a hell of a lot safer with him than me.

Something felt off as I drove.

Was someone tailing me?

I took a swift turn and then another.

Looked again.

No one.

What the fuck was up with my imagination?

I had to cool it.

Concentrate.

Focus.

The lobby of the hotel was empty and I strode up to the desk, paid my bill with the cash in my pocket, and told them I’d be checking out in the morning.

When I opened the door to my suite, a chill ran through me. The terrace door was open, the curtains flapping against the wall. It was eerily quiet, and panic like I’d never experienced struck all at once.

My heart sped, my pulse raced, and a cold sweat broke out covering my forehead. “Elle!” I shouted.

No answer.

An image of Elle lying naked on the floor with an E carved into her stomach came unbidden. I ran to the bedroom. She wasn’t in bed. My gut twisted into a knot. I drew my gun and approached the slightly ajar bathroom door.

The light was warm and Elle was standing in her white shirt, just about to turn the shower on.

She was fine.

I had to say it more than once to convince myself.

Paranoia was a dangerous thing.

She was a dangerous thing.

She’d gotten under my skin, worked her way into my veins, and was now somehow making her way to my cold heart.

“Logan.” She jumped. “You scared me.”

Setting my gun on the counter, I inhaled a deep breath and rushed toward her.

She’d scared me too.

“Why are the doors open?”

She shrugged. “It was really warm in here and I wanted some air.”

Without a word, I backed her up to the counter and took her in my arms. I held her for the longest time before I pulled away. With trembling fingers, I unbuttoned her shirt and stripped it off her body. She was naked before me and so beautiful. As my eyes shifted, I could see myself in the cracked mirror over her shoulder.

I closed my eyes, unable to look. I didn’t want that constant reminder that burdened my skin to be anywhere in my thoughts.

“Hey, are you okay?” she asked.

My mouth was greedy on her neck. That sweet spot I knew she liked me to kiss was the first place I attacked. My hands roamed her body, never lingering, just needing to feel her everywhere.

Her head was thrown back and her words came out low. “Logan, did you find out anything about my sister?”

Breaking contact with her was a struggle, but I managed to lean back. “I did, but right now, I need you.” I couldn’t hold my words back. I hoped she understood.

She looked at me, and then as if she knew just how desperate I was for her, she started to unzip my pants. We moved together with the rhythm we had created and together we stripped my clothes off.

I was about to set her free, but I couldn’t suppress this need inside me to put my mouth all over her—to lick every part of her, to claim her, to mark her, to make her mine.

A noise escaped that beautiful throat of hers, something hoarse and raw, something akin to the way I was feeling—primitive.

My desire to fuck her was so fierce, I wasn’t sure my legs could hold us. Something was bursting inside my chest. Whatever it was, it was bold and unrelenting.

We were kissing and kissing and before I knew it, I had her up on the counter and her legs were wrapped around me. My cock was right where it needed to be. All I had to do was slide it inside her.

She swiveled her hips in a way that said, Fuck me, fuck me hard, and fuck me now.

I kept kissing her. Her mouth, her chin, her jaw, her throat.

My name slipped out of her lips in a sigh. “Logan.”

With my hands on each side of her face, I blinked a few times until she came into focus. When she was all I could see, what came out of my mouth was a surprise even to myself. “I want,” I said slowly, “to make love . . . to you . . . on the bed.”

The words were dry coming out of my throat and I had to swallow a few times before I could finish the sentence.

I wanted to say so much more, but for now, I settled for that.