Page 54 of Wicked and Claimed

“Mixed bag. I want to circle back with Bianca, one of the targets who escaped. She was at the mall with her ex-boyfriend. They got into a fight, and the asshole left her there. She called her mom and was waiting in the food court for her ride.”

“And she went to the bathroom.” Haisley sighed. “Then her bad night turned horrific.”

Nash nodded. “At first, she thought her assailant was her boyfriend messing with her. Then she realized this guy was much bigger and stronger. Since she had just finished a self-defense class, she managed a few maneuvers and fled to the well-lit food court. She said ten seconds later, she looked back to scream at someone to grab him, but he’d already disappeared.”

“Oh, god. How terrifying, but I’m glad she escaped.”

“Me, too. Her mother has hardly let her out of her sight since that happened in September. Bianca has anxiety and nightmares now. She even insisted on being homeschooled because she’s afraid to leave her house.”

“I hope she broke up with the boyfriend, too.”

Nash sent her a ghost of a smile. Haisley always advocated for herself. She never understood when other women didn’t have her backbone, and he loved that about her. “She did. I asked. After that interview, I talked to another of the victims who escaped, Summit.”

“That’s her name? Poor thing. As another person with an unusual name, I feel for her. I’ve always said that I’ll punch the next person who calls me Paisley, but I’m sure she gets called all kinds of crap.”

“Probably. Hell, I’ve been called Hash, Mash, Lash, Bash, Stash…” He laughed. “But Summit has multiple ways for people to abuse her name. Sydney, Sheila, Shelby?—”

“Or synonyms like Mountain, Peak, and Pinnacle.” Haisley rolled her eyes. “Since tons of people are inconsiderate and can’t be bothered to learn someone’s actual name, she probably gets all of the above. What was her mom thinking?”

“That she would be ‘unique.’”

Haisley snorted. “That’s overrated. Sorry to sidetrack you. So you and Ethan talked to Summit…”

“I did for quite a while. Garrison had to take care of something for the bosses. She broke down a couple of times. Her dad glowered at me and kept trying to end the interview, but she insisted on continuing. She told a story similar to Bianca’s, except that Summit mentioned a janitor closing off the hall to the bathroom just before someone tried to nab her. Earlier in the day, I spoke with Mrs. Wright, mom of Kaylee, the girl abducted on Christmas Eve. She couldn’t tell me much, but she thought she remembered seeing a male janitor, too. I want to ask Bianca about that. Maybe he’s not involved, and it’s just a coincidence that he cleaned the bathroom before Kaylee’s disappearance and before Summit was nearly abducted. But maybe not.”

“Good idea. It sounds like too much of a coincidence, if you ask me. Just to let you know, I followed up with Mr. Benedict about his involvement in the day-to-day operations of the mall. He said he’s far too busy for that.” Haisley rolled her eyes. “Yeah, too busy giving me a hard time. He claims he leaves all the ‘little things’ to the mall’s general manager. Have you caught up with him?”

Nash shook his head. “He’s back from vacation tomorrow. Apparently, he left four hours after Kaylee’s abduction to spend Christmas away. Who does that?”

Haisley reared back. “I get that it was a holiday, but we’re talking about a girl’s life. Asshat.”

“Exactly.”

Silence fell between them, and Nash filled it, if for no other reason than to keep Haisley talking to him. “So what did you do last night, besides stop in and check on Madison? Ethan told me. That was nice of you.”

“Poor thing looked green. She says she felt loads better, so I can’t imagine how much worse she must have felt when it was bad.”

“Do anything interesting after that?”

Haisley hesitated, and he could almost see her trying to decide whether to tell him about Jasper. Finally, she shook her head. “Surfed online. Watched some TV. Went to bed early.”

Nash stifled his disappointment. She’d open up to him eventually. He was determined. But it would require patience. And he’d have to thaw the ice between them first. How he’d do that wasn’t clear, but he’d improvise until he succeeded.

“What about you?” she asked. “After you were done with your interviews?”

Just a guess, butmasturbating to thoughts of youwasn’t the answer she wanted to hear.

He shrugged and avoided the subject of Jasper and CSI. “Ate while I flipped channels. Nothing special.”

It would have been so much better if he could have cuddled up with Haisley before he stripped her down and spent half the night inside her. Even the thought had his cock hard and pressing uncomfortably against his zipper, as if it knew Haisley was close and wanted a hit of its favorite drug.

Down, boy. Down.

“Anything else about the case I should know? Any suspects?”

At this point, everyone remotely associated with the mall was a suspect, but between his brain and his gut, he was narrowing it down. “Not yet.”

She bit her lip again. That was Haisley’s thinking face, but watching her sink her teeth into that plump, soft lip always drove him a little insane. “I’ve been thinking about a conversation I had with, um…a friend recently. At this point, I’m convinced these abductions are an inside job. It would be easy to point the finger at the maintenance man since he seems super resistant to keeping that hallway lit, but I’m wondering if this is a group effort?”

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