And it would all be his fault.
She reached for the yoga pants she’d stripped off a few minutes ago. “I’ll come with you.”
He plucked his shirt from the back of a nearby chair and tossed it on. “No. Stay here in case Zach needs something. And if Seth comes back, you can text me.”
Not only that, when I find him, we might exchange some blunt—maybe even brutal—words.
Heavenly’s shoulders drooped as she dropped her pants. Clearly, she didn’t like it, but she saw the wisdom. “All right. You’ll keep me posted?”
“Absolutely.” He pressed a kiss to her lips.
When he would have stepped into his shoes, Heavenly stayed him with a gentle grip. “Wait. You have to be at the hospital early in the morning. You need sleep. Since I’m volunteering, my schedule is more flexible. Let me go.”
“No. I made this mess. I need to fix it more than I need sleep, and if I have to hunt him down in some seedy part of town, I’d feel better knowing you’re here and safe.” He pressed one last kiss to her soft mouth, swiped his phone off the nightstand, and slipped on his shoes. “I’ll be back.”
He tore down the stairs and picked up his keys, then set the alarm and flew out to the garage before burning rubber down the driveway. He’d barely put the car in drive before he whipped out his cell and called the one person who should know exactly where to find Seth.
River answered on the first ring. “Hey, Beck. What’s up?”
“Where are you two? I need an address. I’ve got to talk to Seth.”
“You sound upset. What’s wrong?”
“I just need to talk to him ASAP. Where are you?”
“He never came home? I left him at the office about two hours ago. We got back from Palm Springs after closing the case. He said he was going to call the client with the news and do some paperwork. Since Dean’s sister apparently brought him home from the hospital, then had to go back to work, I thought I’d come over here and check on him, so I jetted.”
Dean had a sister? First he was hearing of that. The guy had never mentioned her, but whatever. “So you haven’t seen Seth since?”
“No, man. Have you tried calling?”
Some things were better said in person. “As far as you know, he’s still at the office?”
“He must be. I get the feed around the perimeter. It’s like a video doorbell on steroids. Hang on.”
Beck waited impatiently, hoping that River could tell him something useful. Finally, Raine’s big brother sighed. “Yeah. He’s still there. No one has opened the door since I left, and his SUV is still in the parking lot. He seemed pretty wiped. Maybe he fell asleep.”
Yeah, on purpose. “I’ll check there.”
“You’re going to need the code to get in.”
“Code?”
“Yeah, he’s got layers of security around the place.”
Of course Seth did. If he’d even fortified his temporary bachelor pad, then he’d put super, impenetrable security around his office. “Lay it on me.”
River did. Beck had to pull over, find a pen, and jot down the precise instructions, including a twelve-digit code.
“That’s all,” the guy said.
“All?” Beck huffed as he surged into sparse late-night traffic. “If there’d been more, I would have wondered if I’d need Houdini to get in.”
“Seth is…particular.”
“Try paranoid,” Beck drawled, wondering if Autumn and Tristan were the reasons.
But his wife and son were dead. Why should he still be paranoid? Seth had claimed his past was ancient history that would never bite them in the ass.