“I know, and once the coroner is able to identify the victims, maybe that will tell us why.”

“It’s not random.”

“It’s not.” He sighed. “Walker and Matt, the temporary guy, are inside avoiding all this shit. Let’s go.”

“Were you waiting for me?”

“Yeah.” He retrieved her things, slipped an arm around her, and walked her toward the door, trying to block her view of the crime scene with his big body. But it was no use. Tessa craned her head to look behind him—and saw far more than she’d bargained for. Missing eyes, missing fingers, missing genitals.

Tessa jerked her stare away. Her stomach bucked. She clapped a hand over her mouth to hold in both a scream and the urge to be sick. She couldn’t imagine that happening to her baby or she would lose her mind.

Zy cursed and hustled her inside, shutting the door behind him before plastering her against the surface with his body, palm over her head as he leaned in. “Why did you look?”

“I couldn’t…” stop myself. She’d had to make sure none of those bodies belonged to Hallie. She had to know what message her kidnappers were trying to convey.

It made her sick.

Yes, Hallie was seemingly alive—for the moment. And Tessa hadn’t known any of those men. Still, she felt the urge to sob. Once, they’d been someone’s son, someone’s brother, someone’s friend. Maybe even someone’s father. They’d had the worst possible deaths imaginable. Her heart hurt for them and all they’d endured. But terror for Hallie, for what could happen to her baby if she broke down and screwed up, gripped her throat.

Blinking up at Zy, she tried to keep herself together. She wished things were different and that she could tell him everything. Today proved that was impossible.

“Couldn’t what? Talk to me.”

Tessa shook her head. “It was just shocking.”

Zy didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure that’s it? Nothing else upsetting you? You haven’t been yourself lately.”

Of course she hadn’t. But she swallowed her scream. It wasn’t his fault that someone had taken her precious baby and ripped her heart from her chest.

She had to get it together and force her anxiety down a notch. All this worry for Hallie would do absolutely nothing to save her. She had to focus on things that would.

“I know. I’m sorry. I was hoping today would be better.” When she’d woken up without Hallie again, she’d known it wouldn’t. “But seeing the bodies…”

Zy sighed and brought her closer, caressing her back. For a brief moment, she propped her head on his solid chest and buried her face in his neck, inhaling him and trying to suck in his strength. “I should have called and told you not to come.”

“I needed to.” If this had anything to do with Hallie’s kidnapper, he’d probably be calling soon. “But thanks.”

Tessa trembled as she forced herself to pull away and head to her desk. By the time she tucked away her purse and her lunch, she looked up to see Zy watching her with a frown. With concern, yes. But today, she saw something else.

She didn’t really want to look at that expression too hard. She was afraid of what that meant for her, for them.

Then One-Mile stepped up to her desk, a rugged cowboy type beside him, hat in hand. “Hey, Tessa. This is my buddy Matt. He’s going to do some temporary work for the bosses. He needs one of the spare computers.”

She wondered what kind of work and why. Normally, she’d care enough to ask. But she heard her phone vibrate and all but dove for her purse. Sure enough, there was her private caller again.

Second ring. God, she needed to answer this. It was so hard to breathe and smile at Walker’s friend when she felt so frantic. “Hi. Nice to meet you. Let me take this call, then I’ll be right with you. It’s daycare…”

Matt nodded, then slid his hat back over his wavy brown hair. “Of course. Thank you, ma’am.”

Third ring.

As he walked off, she looked up to see Zy heading to the back of the office. “I’ll be in the conference room.”

Then he was gone, and she was alone…sort of. But going out front to answer the call was out of the question. She needed to answer now.

Fourth ring.

“Hello?” she gasped out.

“I was beginning to think you weren’t going to answer. That would have been very unfortunate.” The stranger from the parking lot again.

“I’m in the office. It’s a busy place. How is my daughter?”

He laughed. “Un-uh. You know the drill. Information first, then your reward.”

“Forgive me for being jumpy about the three mutilated bodies in front of our office this morning.”

The man paused as if he hadn’t expected that. “Tell me about them.”

He didn’t know?

“The police and the coroner are here. I-I didn’t get a good look. They were all young men. All…” very horribly dead.

Tags: Shayla Black Wicked & Devoted Erotic
Source: readsnovelonline.net