Page 30 of Her Delta Force Protector

He glanced over his shoulder. “We’re cooking together, panty girl.”

“Stop it.” Jeez, that smirk of his did something to her. He seemed to be back to her playful friend, which was good.

“Don’t think I will. So—”

His brother and Skylar walked in, both with serious expressions on their faces.

Without thinking about it, Harper moved next to Kade, and when he slipped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer, she gratefully leaned into him. Bad news was coming.

“Good morning,” Skylar said.

“Cut the niceties and just say whatever has you here so early.” Kade squeezed her waist, reminding her he was there for her.

“The license plate numbers you gave us don’t exist,” Tristan said.

“Not possible. They’re right there in the photos I took.”

“And that’s why I think something’s fishy,” Skylar said.

Chapter Fifteen

“Fishy how?” Kade wasn’t liking this. People stole license plates to put on their car if they were up to no good, but plates with numbers that didn’t exist? That didn’t make sense.

Skylar shrugged. “I don’t know. Neither Tristan nor I have ever heard of fake license plates. That would be a risky thing to do if you were stopped by the police and they ran the number.”

“Nor have we ever heard of legitimate plate numbers just disappearing from the system,” Tristan said. “Skye and I talked about possible reasons for that, and the only thing we could come up with was that someone who knew what they were doing managed to hack into the DMV’s files and change the numbers. Sounds far-fetched, but anything is possible if someone knows what they’re doing.”

“So, two different people would have had to get new license plates, then one of them hacked into the DMV and changed the numbers to the new ones,” Kade said, thinking out loud. “Or someone did it for them, which, if it’s that, takes our bad guys from two to three.”

“I’m not liking this at all,” Harper said. “Their plates numbers were the only way to identify them.”

Tristan nodded. “For us, yes.” His gaze slid to Kade.

Kade caught on right away. “But not for someone else, say a black hat who might be able to dig deep and see if those plate numbers actually existed once?”

“You didn’t hear that from me or Skye.”

“Copy that.”

“I wouldn’t know a black hat if one walked by me wearing a black hat.” Harper glanced at him. “Do you know one?”

“Maybe, although I’d say they were white hats.” Talon Security had offered their help if needed. He didn’t know if this was something they’d agree to, or even if they had someone on the payroll who could hack into the DMV, but he was sure going to ask.

“And this is where Skye and I stop listening,” his brother said. “Oh, one other thing, Harper. We couldn’t identify the one man you got a photo of. It was too dark to see his features. All we could tell was that he was heavyset and medium height.”

“So nothing I got helps? I don’t even know if I can identify the man who showed up the day I was moving back home and then came to Florida and broke into my dad’s house. I can tell you he had blue eyes so cold that he gave me chills. That’s it. He wore a knit cap the first time, and I couldn’t tell you what color his hair was. He scared me so much that I don’t remember his face. The night he came into my bedroom, it was too dark to see him, but I recognized his voice.”

All of that was said with fear in her voice, and when he found the man who’d hurt her and had her afraid now, it wasn’t going to be pretty. He slid his hand into his pocket and hooked a finger around the hair tie she’d lost in the stable, intending to give it to her. But he didn’t. Letting go of the tie, he left it where it was. He refused to examine why he was keeping it.

Skylar stepped in front of Harper and touched her arm. “You aren’t alone. You have some pretty awesome people vowing to keep you safe.” She glanced at Kade and smiled. “Tristan and I are the law watching your back, but the man at your side is a scary devil. Whoever decides to get his dander up is a fool. He’ll protect you with his life.”

Kade didn’t think he’d ever loved his future sister-in-law more than he did right this minute.

“I don’t want him risking his life for me,” Harper whispered. “I shouldn’t have come here.”

Kade looked at his brother and lifted his chin toward the door.Go away.

Tristan gave him a slight nod. “Let’s go, Skye. I’ll treat you to breakfast.”

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