Page 104 of August

He was laughing, too. His kisses rained down gently, touching her tears.

He was right. She had a long road of recovery ahead, but it’d be a walk in the park with the man she loved.

EPILOGUE

At his desk, August smiled at the text from Gigi. As much as he hated being away from her, he loved coming home from work to her every night. And fuck, he loved receiving her flirty—and sometimes salty—messages during the day.

Today they were flirty and he was all over that shit.

It’d been over a month since everything had gone down with the cartel, and each day put the past further and further behind them. Each day was confirmation that she was safe and they could move forward.

August lifted his head as Rami appeared in the doorway, a cup of coffee in hand. “What’s up?” August asked, putting down his phone.

“I figured you were heading home so I wanted to tell you we got the Arnold case. Brick’s gonna take it, though, so you can have the weekend off.”

Exactly what he’d needed to hear. And he could already hear bedsprings squeaking and Gigi’s moans in his head. “Nice. Thanks.”

“Dana’s still here finishing up some things, but I’ll be clocking out last so I’ll close up. See ya.” He rapped his knuckles on the doorframe then crossed the hall to his office and shut the door.

Nearly 5:00 p.m., it was time for August to leave. He moved his mouse to shut down his computer, but an email notification made him hesitate. Clicking on it, he instantly straightened.

The email was from Dare.

Hey, sorry for the wait. It took quite a while to use facial recognition on someone last seen nearly three years ago—practically fucking impossible. But I found an image of a man who matches Zain’s facial analysis. Could be a dud. But check it out. Not sure I can be of any more help.

Dare

August stared at the photo. It was relatively clear, but the man wore a keffiyeh on his head and the shot was of his profile. Nonetheless, the man’s features were damn similar to Zain’s. August looked at the date on the image. The photo had been captured two-and-a-half years ago. He slumped and rubbed his temple.

It was probably a dead end. Fuck.

But if Zain had been alive then, there was a possibility he was alive now. Or not. Either way, it was the most helpful piece of information they’d found since Rami told August about his missing brother.

August opened the file he’d created for Zain months ago and brought up his driver’s license photo. He lined up the two images side by side.

Holy shit.

The resemblance was uncanny. August rubbed his fingers together. He hadn’t told Rami he’d asked Dare for help, nor had he had any solid leads to share until now. Thing was, he didn’t want to give Rami any false hope. He needed more intel. Especially considering how old the image was.

He’d much rather show Rami something recent.

Rami would never stop searching for Zain. He didn’t talk about his brother very much, but August suspected that on some of the nights he stayed late, he was doing research, trying to find out who’d taken Zain—and if they’d killed him. He needed closure.

He hadn’t had much time to work on finding Zain, but now that there could be a lead, he needed to dig more. Only he didn’t have the resources Dare did, and it seemed Dare felt as though he’d exhausted his efforts.

Maybe there was a better option. Someone who wasn’t as personally invested. Someone who had skills and connections.

He hit print and waited for the machine to spit out his findings. Then August stuffed the papers in a folder and made his way to Dana’s office. Over the last month he’d gotten to know Taschen’s sister. She was both extremely skilled and a conscientious hard worker. He knocked on her door.

“Come in,” Dana called.

“Got a sec?” When Dana nodded, he walked in and closed the door behind him.

Her neatly arched dark eyebrows drew together. “Everything okay?”

Tapping the file in his palm, he nodded. “Uh, yeah. Just heading home, but I wanted to ask you something.”

She leaned forward on her desk, her striking blue eyes lit with interest. “Shoot.”

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