Page 46 of Axe-ing for Trouble
The device was the definition of a needle in a haystack, but I was more hopeful than I’d been since I arrived.
He’d kept the flirtation to a minimum. Not that it helped much, since everything about Jude oozed sex appeal. I’d love to brush it off to hormones and broad shoulders, but it was more. He was smart, strategic, and invested.
The way he studied the map and asked questions was hotter than I could have imagined. I’d been working alone for so long that I’d forgotten how helpful it could be to have another person pushing me, questioning me, forcing me to be my best.
He stood up to stretch, making his T-shirt rise a few inches above his belt, revealing a sliver of taut, pale skin covered in a dusting of hair that took concerted effort to ignore.
“I need to get back to work, but tomorrow”—he pinned me with a look and tapped the map—“we’re doing this.” Before he could go on, his phone rang.
He dug it out of his pocket and quickly swiped the screen to answer. “Hey. Gus,” he said as he brought the device to his ear. “I’ll be back in a —”
His words cut off, and his face fell. In the next heartbeat, the blue of his irises was the color of a tumultuous storm.
“When? How many?”
He paced the room, silent, as Gus continued speaking. With every lap he made, his shoulders drew up farther and my stomach knotted more painfully.
At one point he closed his eyes and tipped his head back, as if asking for help from the heavens.
“Fuck,” he said again. “Yeah, I’ll stay here. No, she’s fine.”
He eyed me, and when the pity in his expression registered, my heart sank.
“Chloe did what?” He huffed. “Of course she did. Do you have a photo?”
He turned on his heel and headed the other direction again.
“Send it over. I don’t have the criminal file, but the pictures are in there, right?”
For a moment, he paused, and when there was a murmured response on the other end, he started up again.
“Okay, great.”
When he finally ended the call, he studied me from the other side of the island. The concern in his eyes made my breath catch.
“What’s going on?” I asked, anxiety rolling through me.
“I’m gonna stay here with you for the rest of the day.” He pulled his glasses off and cleaned them with the hem of his shirt, moving in a methodical circular motion. “We had some visitors over at the office.”
Dread joined the anxiety, the two sensations dueling to take over inside my body. “Visitors?”
“A group of bikers drove around the campus, looking in some of the outbuildings and the newly repaired machine shop.”
I clutched my good hand to my chest. “Oh shit.”
“A couple of them walked around the property, taking photos and trying to get into locked buildings. Chloe went out there and threatened to have them arrested for trespassing. They left without much fuss, but she’s shaken up.”
“Did she recognize any of them?”
He pressed his lips together as he slid his glasses into place again. “Gus is getting the security footage. He’ll send it over. Maybe you can ID some of them. Chloe mentioned seeing that tattoo on more than one of them.”
I frowned. “The tattoo I mentioned to Parker?”
Chin dipped, he hummed. “Last year, a couple of guys followed her. Harassed her a little. They had this distinctive tattoo. He’s gonna send me a picture. The guy they arrested for arson had ink on his arm. What do you want to bet it’s the same design?”
He bent at the waist, petting Ripley, who’d been hovering close since the moment Gus called, sensing Jude’s distress.
Nausea clawed up my throat. Were they looking for me? Or trying to start trouble?
