Page 73 of Baited

Dammit, she should have called Ethan…but she needed to see Brian’s face. She’d know if he was lying.

The door swung open and Brian stood on the other side of the screen door. His blond hair swept messily over his head, and his eyes widened with surprise.

“Riley, what are you doing here?” He pushed the door open in welcome, but she kept a couple paces away from it.

“Do you have a minute?”

“Sure, come in. It’s hot as hell out there.”

She hitched her purse higher on her shoulder. “Actually, I’m in a hurry. I need to be at work shortly.”

His brow furrowed. “Okay, what’s up?” He stepped his long bare feet onto the porch and closed the door behind him. His hard eyes slid over her body, not suggestively, but it made her senses prickle regardless.

She cleared her throat. “I heard you were looking for me. Is that true?”

He cleared his throat and ran his hand over the top of his messy hair. “Uh, yeah. I saw what happened at the bar last night. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.” A beat passed and his eyes landed on hers. “Are you?”

She worked her fingers over the leather strap of her purse. “Yeah, I’m fine. Ethan and I broke up, but I’m sure you heard that.” She smiled, but her lips trembled on the movement.

Brian’s eyes sparked to life. “Sucks though. If you ever want to talk, I’d love to get together.”

She nodded slowly. Shit. She needed to ask more questions…get on the topic of Hanna, otherwise this had been a wasted trip.

She lowered her gaze to the porch. Heavy butterfly wings scraped against her stomach lining. “Thanks. It’s been reallyhard this past month…since Hanna’s disappearance. Did you talk to her at all before she went missing? It’s just so bizarre.”

His eyes sharpened on hers. “Not really. We bumped into each other a few times but other than a little small talk, we never really caught up. She was always so nice.”

Riley let a soft laugh tumble out. “I’m surprised she didn’t ask you out. She always told me she had a thing for you after we broke up.” The lie burned the tip of her tongue, but she had to keep him talking.

His mouth slid into a salacious smirk. “Is that right? Wish I would have known.”

The butterflies morphed into a tornado, beating against the walls of her belly.

That smirk…

Her cheeks tingled as the blood drained from her face with the force of a sinkhole. She took a step back and a tremor of fear rattled through her.

It could be him.

His head jerked back. “Wait, do you think I had something to do with Hanna?” His voice turned hard and unrelenting. He stepped toward her and she pedaled backward and out of reach.

She swallowed. Shit.

CHAPTER 21

“You got theaddress?” Nate asked as Ethan slipped into Nate’s rental car, passing him one of the two coffees he’d bought. Getting out of Riley’s house in broad daylight had been a challenge. But he’d used the alleyway and snuck in his backyard. He’d changed clothes and drove by the diner and sure enough, Riley’s car had sat in the parking lot.

Nate opened the lid of his coffee and sipped.

“Yup.” He pointed Nate in the direction of Brian’s house. “I even got his work schedule, how good am I?”

Nate’s eyebrows rose. “That’s pretty good. Your hacking skills kind of freak me out to be honest.”

Ethan shrugged. “Not much to it, just got into the fire department’s database. I don’t think security is their top priority. Brian was off between the days Riley had been attacked and when we had found the snake.”

He buckled his seat belt and took a sip of the warm brew. He hated that Riley was at work and that he couldn’t watch over her. It was important for her to stick to her regular schedule, but part of him wanted to sit in the parking lot and be nearby if something happened. But Brian would be at work in an hour. If he didn’t question him now, it would have to wait until tomorrow morning. They couldn’t wait that long.

“We could have our guy.” Nate backed out of the parking lot and pulled onto the road. “Michael is squeaky clean, but that other dude, Brian, has a restraining order from his ex-girlfriend.”

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