Page 41 of Protecting Talia

Zip pulled up outside the restaurant where Talia’s apartment was located and spied her car. His heart picked up speed, and he waved Kevlar over. “That’s her car.”

“She lives upstairs?”

“Yes.”

“Let’s go. Maybe she’s just up there asleep.”

He hoped she was up there going through her stuff or taking a nap but knew she wasn’t here. She would have called or texted. There wasn’t any way she would have stayed here, not after what had happened with her new landlord.

When he got to the top of the stairs, he tried the door and found it open. “That’s concerning.”

Kevlar nodded. “Let me guess, there’s no way she would have left it unlocked.”

“No way.”

They stepped in and paused. Kevlar pointed to the phone on the floor. “Is that hers?”

“Fuck.”

“Don’t touch anything. We should call the cops.”

Zip pulled out his phone and checked for a message from Talia, but he didn’t find one. Kevlar was right. They had to call the police. She was missing.

Before the police arrived, he and Kevlar had time to look for anything that would tell them what had happened. It looked like Talia had boxed up the rest of her stuff. She’d probably been here to clean out her place and move the rest of the boxes to his house.

“Is she moving?” Kevlar asked.

“Moving in with me.”

“You two haven’t known each other long.”

“No, and she’d been sleeping in my guest room on the futon, but we were getting closer, and I told her I was in love with her before I left on the mission. She said it back to me. Everything was going great.”

Kevlar nodded. “I don’t like this. Who would want to hurt her?”

Zip blew out a breath. “Her sister.”

Right then, the cops showed up. They made a note about the phone on the floor and the boxes. One of the officers raised his eyebrows and shook his head.

“Where were you this last week?”

“On a mission.” Zip couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Where exactly?” the officer asked.

Zip shrugged. “Sorry, it’s classified.”

The officer raised his eyebrows and was about to say something when Kevlar spoke up. “He was out of the country. We should probably call one of the Jags.”

“Oh,” the officer said. “She wasn’t military, was she?”

Zip sighed and shook his head slowly. “No, sir. But her sister is awful.”

The officer looked up from his notepad and narrowed his gaze. “What do you mean awful?”

“This is a long story. She was talking to a detective.” He squeezed the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger. “The detective’s name is Hyatt.”

“You mean Huett?”

---