“The palace hotel. We’re in room 22,” I said, “Or we can meet you in the foyer downstairs,” I added quickly. Why didn’t I say the foyer first? Something told me I didn’t want this wacko in my room.
“Nah, probably best in your room, darling. The last thing we want is to be overheard,” He laughed at his double meaning. I made a face at Dane, who nodded and rolled his eyes.
“Okay. See you soon.” Hanging up, I gaped at Dane, “What the hell was that? And he’s Fraser’s cousin?”
“Cousin who got himself expelled from one of the top universities in the country,” Dane pointed out, amused. I shook my head, still reeling. I hated being referred to as baby, or darling. The only person who got away with it was Dane; I loved it when he called me sexy.
“The important thing is he can probably help us,” I said, more for my own benefit than Dane’s. How hard would it be to convince Dane to stay in my room tonight? I didn’t want to risk this Reece character trying to hit on me, which I had a feeling he would.
Ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Looking at Dane, we both got up and headed for the door. Reece strolled in as soon as it opened, without being invited, high fiving Dane, and stopping to stare at me.
“Well, Frase didn’t tell me what a hot piece of ass you were,” he cocked his head and let out a low whistle. I felt Dane tense next to me. I put my hand against his chest, to reassure him it was okay.
“Can I get you a drink?” I asked, opening the fridge.
“A beer would be great, honey,” Reece smiled, throwing himself down on the sofa, “so, what’s up?” He asked as he kicked his shoes off.
If the situation had been different, I might have laughed at Frase’s cousin being such an ass, but it wasn’t. The fact was Reece was probably our best shot at finding Steffy if what Fraser had said was true, and that meant playing nice. No matter how hard that might be.
“Here you go,” I said, smiling sweetly as I handed him his beer.
“You want one?” I asked Dane, who shook his head. “Okay. So, we need to find an Eva Feluca,” I said, sitting next to Dane.
“Right,” Reece said slowly, “can you give me anything than her name?”
Shaking my head, I made a face. This wasn’t going to be easy.
“You’re lucky you’re such a looker, honey,” he murmured, pulling a laptop out of his bag. I rolled my eyes, biting down on the urge to go off at him. “Okay, so give me something. Why are you looking for her?” He asked curiously.
I glanced at Dane. He nodded. “Dane’s sister was abducted nine years ago. We got a tip that the man who murdered her may have in fact sold her before he was caught. The only name that has come up is Eva’s. How she’s connected, we don’t know.”
Reece nodded, punching details into his keyboard.
“Awesome, now we’re getting somewhere,” he said. “It’s funny, but the information you think will be least useful can actually turn out to be the most,” he added, amused at our surprised expressions.
“So where do you start? How do you know what to look for?” I asked, leaning forward curiously.
“Okay, so first I’ve narrowed down all the legal Eva Feluca’s in New York State. That gives you a list of four hundred and fifty six. If she is somehow involved in this girl’s kidnapping, then chances are pretty good she’s got a record,” he spun his laptop around to show us.
“See here,” he said, pointing to the left column, “there are seventeen women by that name who have a criminal record and of those, five have records relating to sex or drug offences.” He chewed his lip as he hit the keyboard again, “and there we go. Two of the five are imprisoned, one is dead, which leaves you with two possible people who could be your woman.”
/> “Wow,” I stammered. This guy had been here for less than ten minutes.
“One other thing to consider is that she may be an illegal. In which case she won’t show up in any of these systems,” he added. So basically he was saying that if neither of these were our Eva, then we pretty much had next to no chance of finding her.
“So what now?” Dane asked quietly. Reece looked at him with surprise, as if he had forgotten Dane was even there.
“Now is the fun part. Now we try and dredge up as much info on these two as we can, and see if something makes one stand out as your person,” Reece rubbed his hands together. I studied him as he typed. He was cute, in a boyish kind of way, and though we was probably the same age as Fraser and Dane, his short stature and young features made him look about sixteen. What he lacked in appeal he certainly made up for in cockiness. I’m sure there were women out there who loved that in a guy, but I wasn’t one of them.
“So,” Reece murmured, eyeing me as I took a sip of coke, “are you two like, together or something, or are you up for grabs?” He winked at me.
Up for grabs? What was I, a meat tray at a raffle? I coughed, coke sputtering out of my nose. Dane grinned. I glowered at him, glad he found my reaction to Reece so amusing.
“I’m not ‘up for grabs’, nor am I taken,” I retorted haughtily. Satisfaction swept through me as I noticed Dane’s smile had disappeared. That will teach him not to acknowledge my text ‘love you’ slip ups.
“Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying the moves, am I right, brother or am I right?” Reece said, winking at Dane. “Whoa! Bingo!” He suddenly exclaimed, his attention back on his laptop.
“What is it?” Dane and I both said unanimously.