At least he had an appeals board. He kept his eyes steady on Karina. She seemed a little concerned. Master Will shook his head and ran a hand over his brow before nodding and stepping away. He felt better when both Master Will and his sub walked away. “So did you run a background check on the brother-in-law? I don’t like him.”
“I didn’t like him either,” Sean agreed. “He pushed her to feel bad about dating. It’s been years since her husband was killed in the line of duty. He was NYPD.”
Shit. Would she marry another cop? He was mostly behind a desk at this point in his career, but there were always risks with his job. He wanted to know the story so badly, but he stopped himself. That was Karina’s story to tell, and he would hear it from her or not at all. “So what’s the line on Terry Mills?”
“He’s drifted a lot. His mother died before his brother. The father was killed in a boating accident when Terry was sixteen. The family made their money off the dad’s business. He had a boat and gave tourists tours of Long Island Sound. Kevin became a cop in the city, but Terry took the boat and kept up the business after he turned eighteen. After Kevin died, he took the boat to the Caribbean and had been working there until he showed up in Dallas a couple of months back.”
Derek frowned. “I thought he’d only been here for a few weeks?”
Sean shrugged. “He told Karina he came to rehab his broken arm. I guess it was worse than he said.”
“A broken arm heals in six to eight weeks. I’ve had more than one broken bone.”
Sean shook his head. “Look, I don’t like the guy, either, but we’re looking for a serial killer.”
“He would have known her e-mail. He might think that’s still her e-mail.” His brain was working overtime. Yes, they were looking for a serial killer, but what if they were being manipulated? What if they were seeing what the killer wanted them to see?
Sean’s eyes widened. “I’m going to call Adam. I’ll have him check into some things. Do we know the doctor he’s been seeing?”
He shook his head. “Find out and keep it quiet because Karina doesn’t need to know anything until we’re sure.” It would kill her. It would threaten her calm and he wasn’t going to do that again unless he had to. “And see if we can put a tail on him. I’m going to make sure Karina isn’t alone with the man again, and I think I need to break into her apartment manager’s office. That shouldn’t be hard.”
“Fun. Why?”
“He’s very interested in a package she’s supposed to get.”
Sean’s eyes narrowed. “He mentioned it the first day. I’ll get on it and we’ll find out where he’s staying and tail him for a couple of days.”
“Good.” He didn’t like the coincidence. He’d been a cop long enough that he knew coincidence was just a word people used. Coincidence usually meant something shitty was about to happen.
He didn’t like the fact that her brother-in-law had shown up and suddenly someone had her name on a grain of rice and that meant death. Yeah, one plus one equaled two, and that usually meant that money was involved.
Money was involved far more often than psychosis. Most people with hormonal challenges got help and never hurt a person. People who were greedy on the other hand…
Karina walked his way. God, she was gorgeous. His Gorgeous Girl. His. Fucking his. She wouldn’t stray. She wouldn’t look another way. She would take all that love and lust and send it his way if he was lucky. She would take that sexy feminine energy and spend it on the man who brought her comfort and pleasure and who made her feel loved.
He was going to be that man. He was going to be that man if it killed him.
“Hey, I got you a rum and Coke.” She smiled his way and winked to let him know it was just a Coke. Hers would be the same.
He kind of thought hers would be the same for a different reason. How did he tell her that it was okay? How did he tell her he didn’t give a fuck? Would she even believe a damn word he said at this point?
There was only one reason he could think of if she had a record. Karina Mills wouldn’t harm another person. Karina wouldn’t commit armed robbery or even shoplift.
But if her life was bad, she might hurt herself. She might have taken drugs to escape when she was young.
And he knew damn well she would pull herself up and fix the problem because that was the kind of woman she was. She was strong and brave and so fucking gorgeous it hurt to look at her.
She was everything a man could want.
“Thanks, gorgeous.” It hurt to not call her what she was. He knew it was dumb, but she was his baby. He’d never called Maia that. When he was young, it was because that was what his dad called his mom. As he’d gotten older, he’d realized that Maia wasn’t his baby.