Blake's Pursuit (Scanguards Vampires, #11)(12)

When Blake opened the car door, Lilo turned to him. “Can you recommend a hotel? Nothing too expensive, but in a safe area.”

“You won’t need a hotel. You’re staying with me. I thought I made that clear earlier.” He was sure he’d told her that she was coming with him. Why else would he have made her pack her suitcase?

“I can just as easily stay in a hotel. I really don’t want to be a burden. And you don’t know me.”

“You’re a friend of Hannah’s. That’s all I need to know. Besides, if we want to find Hannah, we need to work together.”

She gave a hesitant nod, then eased into the passenger seat. He got into the driver’s seat and started the engine. He was pulling out of the parking lot and into traffic, when Lilo shifted in her seat.

“You’ve gotta turn around. We didn’t give the police Hannah’s computer and tablet,” she suddenly said. She pushed a lock of her blond hair behind her ear. “I don’t know how I could have forgotten that.”

He glanced at her for a brief moment. “The police will sit on her computer for days before they get an IT expert on it and get into Hannah’s email. We don’t have that kind of time.”

“But what are you gonna do with it? I told you it’s password-protected. And I already tried a few passwords without success.”

“I’ll get the company’s IT department on it. They’ll be able to crack it.” He pulled his cell phone from his pocket, but before he could dial Thomas’s number, the phone rang. “Speak of the devil.” He pressed accept, then hit the speaker button. “Hey Thomas, you’re on speaker. I’m in the car with Lilo, the owner of the cell phone I had you trace. Anything new?”

“It pinged off a tower at the airport earlier in the evening,” Thomas replied. “But nothing since.”

“That must have been when I got off the plane and checked my messages,” Lilo said.

Blake nodded. “Makes sense. Thomas, keep monitoring it.”

“I sent a text message to it and called the number, too, but it’s going straight to voicemail. Sorry, it’s a dead end for now.”

Before Thomas could disconnect the call, Blake stopped him. “Another thing: can you come over to my house and look at a laptop and tablet? They’re password-protected. I need to know what’s on them.”

“Now?”

“The sooner the better.”

“Sorry, I’m going into a meeting in a minute.” There was some mumbling, as if Thomas was holding his hand over the mouthpiece. “Okay, Eddie just volunteered. He’ll be there shortly.”

“Thanks, Thomas.”

“You bet.”

A click on the line, and Thomas was gone.

“Your colleague has a meeting at midnight? Who works those kind of hours?”

Hearing a hint of suspicion in Lilo’s voice, Blake met her look and smiled warmly, hoping to dispel all her doubts with his charm. “Security is a twenty-four-seven business.”

Slowly, she nodded. “I guess I knew that already.” She took a breath. “Your colleague didn’t even ask what all this was about. You didn’t tell him that we’re trying to find Hannah.”

“I don’t have to. He knows when I ask him for help, it’s because it’s important. That’s how the company works. We don’t question our colleagues’ requests. It goes both ways.”

“That requires a lot of trust,” she mused.

“In our business, trust is everything. Sometimes our lives depend on it.”

“You mean when you’re protecting somebody as a bodyguard?”

“Some assignments can be dangerous, but we’re trained well.” It also helped that as a vampire he had a few secret weapons up his sleeve. Better than any fictional British spy.

But it was time to stop Lilo from asking any more questions. “So what do you do in Nebraska, Lilo?”

“I’m a writer.” She turned to look out the window. “What neighborhood is this?”

Blake suppressed a chuckle. It appeared he wasn’t the only one who didn’t want to answer questions about his work. “We’re driving through Pacific Heights.”

“Oh, I’ve heard of it. Pretty.”

“What do you write?”

She shrugged, as if it didn’t matter. “Mysteries.”

“You mean murder mysteries?”

“Not necessarily. Not every book is about a murder. I write about all kinds of crimes. Or rather solving crimes.”

He made a mental note of that. If Lilo wrote crime fiction she had to be smart, and he’d have to stay on his toes to make sure she didn’t discover his secrets. It would only complicate things.

“So who’s your protagonist? A female detective?”

“A bounty hunter.”

That response made him toss her a quick look. “Seriously?”

“Why?”

“Well, you’ve got stiff competition in that genre. Few are as good as Maxim Holt. He’s got that market cornered.”

“You’ve read the Morgan West bounty hunter series?”

Blake nodded. “Just finished Anatomy of a Bounty.” And he would have finished it earlier, if he didn’t have to look after thirteen hybrids, who couldn’t shut up for even one minute.