A red hair tie caught his attention. It must have come off her hair when they were wrestling. He put it in his pocket to give her later...when she’d calmed down and wasn’t tossingwhatevers at him.

Chapter Thirteen

Theo Watson answered a call from his cousin Rex Sorenson.

“I got her,” Rex said.

“I’m with Stockton.” Theo glanced at their business partner Stockton Rawls. “Rex found her.” He put his phone on speaker so Stockton could hear. “Where is she?”

“Not sure yet,” Rex said. “She just used her computer for the first time since she clicked on my link. Give me a little time to trace her location.”

“Call me as soon as you know where the hell she is.” Theo disconnected from Rex without waiting for an answer.

“Explain to me again how Rex can find her?” Stockton asked.

Theo resisted the urge to roll his eyes. He’d explained it twice already, but Stockton barely knew how to turn on a computer. That was fine because as the owner of three successful strip clubs around Fort Bragg, Stockton was their money man. They were in Stockton’s office in his original and biggest club, Venus, and Theo had to admit that Stockton had the best girls of any of the local clubs.

Theo kept his resentment over Stockton’s wealth hidden. A detective barely made enough to exist, and he sure as hell couldn’t afford to enjoy the finer things in life. He was fucking tired of living paycheck to paycheck, and this venture was going to change that.

From the time they’d discovered girls, he and Rex been each other’s wingman. They shared the same taste—dark and bent. They often shared a girl or girls at the same time when they could talk the women into it. Sometimes that required a little help. Get them drunk or slip them drugs and you could get them to do almost anything.

They’d met Stockton here at Venus, and over time, the idea to make and sell porno movies had been born. Stockton provided the funds for the equipment, Theo the muscle and the ability to keep the cops out of their business, and Rex was their filmmaker. Rex had a full-time job in the IT department of a bank, but just for the thrill of it, he was also a black hat hacker, which was coming in handy in finding Harper Jansen.

Little did she know that when she’d clicked on the link from the nonexistent Detective Johnson that Rex had installed a Global Positioning System and Wi-Fi tracker in her computer. They’d just been waiting for her to log on. He knew he hadn’t killed her, so the story that had circulated among her friends that she was dead was as phony as the tits on a stripper.

He should have killed Harper Jansen when he’d had the chance, would have if her father hadn’t come home. He’d barely made it out of the house without getting caught.

Luck had been on their side when he’d been the one to intercept her email to his police department. He didn’t even want to think how things would have gone down if someone else in the department had gotten it before him. She had to be stopped before she ruined everything.

“You better hope he can find her,” Stockton said. “You sure the police can’t tie Abby’s death to us?”

“I told you, the case is closed. Accidental overdose.”

Stockton had supplied the pills. The ones they’d given Abby were supposed to be ecstasy, like they had been for Lisa. Theo had almost taken out his gun and shot Stockton when the asshole admitted he’d given Abby fentanyl instead.

Because he had, and Abby had died in the warehouse, they’d had to close that site down. Well, they would have vacated it anyway because of Harper Jansen not minding her own business, but he was still pissed at Stockton and the headache he’d caused.

The man was damn lucky Theo knew how to hide evidence and set a scene that wouldn’t raise questions. They’d moved Abby’s body back to her efficiency apartment in the deep of the night, and Theo had made sure he was assigned the case. None of the other cops particularly wanted another overdose case, so that part had been easy. Abby in her bed, a small baggie with some fentanyl pills still in it on her nightstand, and there you go...drug overdose. Case closed. And it needed to stay closed, which meant Harper Jansen had to be eliminated.

“Anything comes back on me, you won’t like the consequences,” Stockton said.

Theo gritted his teeth. He didn’t like Stockton. The man was a bore and a slob. Theo managed not to curl his lips in disgust as his gaze roamed over the red stains on his shirt. There was no excuse for not keeping in shape and looking your best. The guys at the station had nicknamed him Dapper, thinking they were insulting him. They weren’t. Theo was proud of always looking his best.

Chicks loved a well-dressed man, and it didn’t hurt that he was good-looking. They told him so, but he didn’t really need them to. He had a mirror. He knew he was what women considered hot with his black hair, blue eyes, and handsome face, and he worked hard at keeping a six-pack women licked their lips over.

All he had to do was give a woman the look he’d perfected...the hooded, smoldering eyes, and just enough of a smile to show off his dimples, and he could have them on their knees in no time flat, begging to pleasure him.

The first time he’d had Harper Jansen’s roommate on her knees, Lisa had only known him an hour, not even a challenge. The girl was a talented thing, eager to please. Entirely too clingy, but useful. She’d balked at making a porno movie, but a little happy pill, some wine, and a bit of warming up, and voilà, they had the star of their first movie.

When he found Lisa—because Miss Jansen was going to damn well tell him where she was—he was going to have to punish her for disappearing. She had a movie to finish.

And as soon as Rex located Harper Jansen, Theo was going to make her sorry for interfering. But first, he’d have a little fun with her.

Chapter Fourteen

Early the next morning, no one seemed to be around when Harper got up and went for a run. Running was something she’d learned to enjoy in the Army. She liked the burn in her muscles, the runner’s high, and the benefit of keeping in shape.

The street the brothers’ house was on was residential, the homes spread out. The leaves of the trees lining the road were starting to turn their fall colors, the air was brisk, and she settled into the rhythm of her run, the only noise her trainers slapping the pavement.