Page 82 of Marked
Chapter 35
Ruin
I leave Lilah at the Keep with Raina and Markus. Her damn haunted expression as I broke the bed seems to be on a vicious loop in my mind. But more than that was the tension still between us, the curiosity. I want to know if she can take all of me, and she does too.
Gage and T remain quiet in the SUV’s dim interior. Caine and Horan seemed only too willing to take the demon’s ostentatious convertible instead of riding with us. Or more accurately ... me.
Sitting around the manor all day was going to leave half the team black and blue. So it was a happy fucking moment when I got the call that Lock Lake PD found an abandoned house not far from Carnage. One with what looked like a Brightex kitchen waiting to go.
Work.
Now that is something I can do.
Hands clenched tight around the steering wheel, I put Lilah far from my mind. “What do we know?”
“State was able to get in touch with Interpol, but it’s going to be a few hours before everything they have gets to us,” T says, leaning between the seats, file folder in hand. “Meantime, the property is registered to a David James.”
“Two first names?” Gage asks, peering back at him. “Sounds like an alias.”
T nods out of my peripheral. “Yep. That’s what I thought. So I had the DMV pull up every traffic cam in the area. And we got a partial plate on an older model Camaro pulling from the garage.” He passes up a picture to Gage.
I glance over to find a grainy image of what appears to be a ‘72 model, with supped hood and dual exhaust in powder blue. Gage hands the photo over, and I press it to the wheel as I drive. “Any ID yet?”
T exhales. “That’s where it gets ballsy, my friend. Apparently the car was stolen about two months ago from a Malcolm James Oglethorpe. Tag is registered to a David Holmes. He reported his tag had disappeared at a car show around the same time. And get this, his car was the ice blue one. Not the one stolen.”
I look at him in the mirror. “Are you telling me this asshole stole a car ...andstole a tag for the same model, only to paint the car he jacked to match the one for the tag?”
T nods. “Yep.”
Gage whistles. “That’s some fucking dedication, yo.”
“Or he’s smart enough to hack the mainframe,” T tells him. “Every car registered in Lock Lake is in their database. It would be too easy to double check for a Camaro the same year model and boost what he needed.Ifhe knew how.”
“Can you do that kind of shit?” I ask.
T shrugs, but his grin is coy. “Yeah. But that shit is illegal. Besides, Monica is only too happy to look up whatever I need.”
His informant at the DMV would stand on the street corner nude and scream she loved T if the woman thought it would help get her back in his bed. But the thing with T, once he has them, he doesn’t want them anymore.
On the other hand, I don’t think I will ever get enough of Lilah.
Damn it.
“This fucker could be our main dealer,” Gage mutters, drawing me from my thoughts as he shuffles through the file. “We need to case the house and see–”
T’s phone shrills some rap song, and he tugs it loose from his tight-ass jeans. His brows knit in the mirror as he listens to the woman on the other end. The confusion fades to a smile. And it is not remotely sane. “Really?” he asks.
“Yes– If you– Just don’t tell them I said–” The voice fades in and out despite my heightened hearing.
“Aww, Rosita. You know better. I would never say a word about us.” His eyes roll. “Yeah. Thanks for the tip. Yeah. Sure, I’ll call you later.” He hangs up and leans on my seat.
“How much do you love me?” he croons.
I peer at him and then glance back at the road. “What do you got?”
His smile is all teeth in the rearview mirror. “Take the next left.”
***
