Ripper(18)

“Yeah,” the Ranger replied. “We have some missing supes. It’s not a bunch, four cases, all young women, but considering how small the community is, I was asked to look into it.”

“Were they hookers?” I asked, getting that tingle in the back of my skull that told me I was on to something.

“Not exactly,” Sloane prevaricated. “Look it’s an open case. I really shouldn’t talk about it.”

Something about the way he spoke had me sitting up tall again. He was hiding something. It was there in the way his eyes tightened. If not hiding something, he was definitely blowing me off when he shouldn’t be. If he was working missing persons, he should want to trade notes. “But if I could get a look at your files I could maybe see a pattern. Were the girls all in college? Were they all from Dallas? What do you mean not exactly? How do you not exactly prostitute yourself?”

“Whoa, slow down, sweetheart.” Sloane turned to Jamie, his eyes wide.

My brother chuckled. “I told you. She’s a bulldog when she’s on a case. She really might be able to see something you missed.”

Sloane seemed to consider it for a moment and a little thrum of excitement rode through me at the thought of looking through Sloane’s files. The puzzle would be there, laid out for me to solve. Just for a second I thought I could do something, something important.

He turned his blue eyes on me. “How about we make a deal? You promise to not get trashed again like you did last night and I’ll let you have a peek.”

Humiliation swept over my body like a wave, and I watched Jamie tense. He was waiting for me to explode, but I was done wasting energy like that. Sloane wanted to be an asshole? Who was I to stop him? I certainly didn’t have to take it though. I stood up. “Keep your files, Sloane. I don’t need ’em. Lock up when you’re done, Jamie. I take it Nate’s looking for drugs?”

I ignored Sloane’s stare and focused on Jamie, who relaxed a bit when he realized I wasn’t going to make a scene. “You know how he is. Someday promise me you’ll throw him a bone and leave a little bag of parsley or something hidden in your underwear drawer for him to find.”

I leaned over and kissed my big brother’s cheek. Sloane didn’t matter. He didn’t mean a thing to me. He was one more hot guy who thought he was better than everyone else. “I promise. Now, I’m going. I can’t stand all the brotherly concern. Call you later.”

I walked out without another glance at the gorgeous man I wasn’t going to be seeing again for various reasons. I heard Nathan going through the drawers in my bathroom. I should have yelled and screamed and told him to keep his hands out of my business, but I didn’t. Nathan had been the one to find me bleeding that day so long ago. If it hadn’t been for Liv, he would have been the one to hold me while I died. He deserved some leeway.

“I hide my hardcore stuff in with the tampons, Nate,” I yelled and giggled a little at the thought of him pawing through feminine necessaries.

Nathan’s head poked out from the bathroom door. “Don’t think I won’t look, Kels.”

“I know you will.” Despite our fight the night before, I felt a great rush of love for him. He didn’t understand me the way Jamie did and I annoyed him greatly, but he never backed away. Dan was wrong. I already had a couple of people who wouldn’t let me push them away. “Your vigilance has kept me from becoming a heroin addict.”

Nate’s face softened and he gave me a little smile. “That’s the plan.”

I decided to needle him a little. He’s my brother. It’s my job. “Hey, and when you get to the little drawer in my nightstand, why don’t you go ahead and change out the batteries on the vibrator? They were low a couple of nights ago.”

I heard his strangled scream. “Disgusting, Kels.”

I was smiling as I turned and ran into the brick wall that seemed to be shadowing me that morning. I tried hard not to blush because it would have been nice to have not mentioned a vibrator around Sloane. “Excuse me.”

“I’m sorry.” Sloane didn’t move an inch. “I didn’t have any right to make a dumbass statement like that. I was rude, but you threw me off a little when you mentioned meeting Nate’s friends. It’s a bad idea to be vulnerable around them. I don’t like the thought of some of them taking advantage of you, but I don’t have any right to judge. I wasn’t really doing that. I was thinking more along the lines of protecting you, and I get that I sounded like a judgmental douchebag. I’m sorry.”