Defending Morgan (Mountain Mercenaries #3)(67)

Morgan frowned. “What was that about?”

“I need to go downstairs for a second.” He pushed away from the island and turned to head to the bedroom, where he kept his shoes.

“Wait. What’s going on?”

Morgan saw him hesitate before turning back to her. “That was the doorman. He said a . . . woman was here, saying that I’d called for her. He wanted to know if he should let her up.”

“A woman? Who?” Morgan asked.

“I don’t know, but Robert thinks she’s an escort.”

Morgan blinked. “A what?”

“A prostitute.”

“Are you serious? You wouldn’t call for someone like that.”

“Of course not,” Arrow said with conviction. “I’m guessing someone is messing with me.”

“One of your friends?” Morgan asked hopefully.

At that, he took the few steps back to her side. They were close to being eye to eye since she was still sitting on the high stool. “No, beautiful. They’d never do that, especially knowing you’re here.”

Morgan’s stomach sank as the implications settled in. “Someone wanted to upset me, then.”

“That’s my guess,” Arrow said evenly. “But whoever did it underestimated you. Underestimated how much we care about and trust each other . . . right?”

Morgan nodded immediately and brought her hands up to grip his hips. “I trust you, Arrow. I know you wouldn’t do that. But . . . what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to go downstairs and talk to whoever this woman is. See who hired her and gave her my address. This is a good thing, Morgan.”

“It is? How?”

“Because with everything they do, they leave more of a trail. Eventually we’ll gather up all the breadcrumbs, and it’ll lead us right to him.”

“I hope so.”

“I know so. Now, I need to grab my shoes and get downstairs. Will you be all right up here? Don’t open the door to anyone, and don’t answer your phone. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Should I call Gray or someone?”

Arrow shook his head. “No. I want to talk to this woman first. Then I’ll call Rex and Meat and get them on the case. Then I’ll call the others.”

“Okay.”

Arrow stared at her for a beat longer, then smiled. “I love you. Thank you for not freaking out and for trusting me.”

“Of course.”

He kissed her quickly, teasing her with a swipe of his tongue over her bottom lip, then he was gone, headed for the bedroom to grab his shoes. He was back within seconds and stalking toward the door. “Remember, don’t open this to anyone.”

“I won’t.”

Then he was gone.

Morgan hopped off the stool and picked up their plates. She wasn’t hungry anymore and knew if she tried to finish the delicious omelet, it might reappear in an unappetizing manner, so she dumped it in the trash and put the dishes into the sink. She refilled her glass with orange juice—it was weird how much more she loved the stuff now—and went into the living room to sit and wait for Arrow to return.

It took an hour before he finally reappeared. He didn’t look pissed or upset in the least.

“What happened?” Morgan demanded.

He kicked off his shoes, came over to the couch, and sat next to her, pulling her against him. “Nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing?”

“I mean, nothing. The woman was pissed that she’d been set up on a wild-goose chase. Her services don’t exactly come cheap, if you know what I mean. I ascertained that she was working of her own free will, that she wasn’t forced to come meet with me. I informed her that what she was doing was illegal, then asked politely if I could inquire as to what she knew about the person who’d hired her.”

Morgan couldn’t help but giggle at his explanation. “What’d she say?”

“Nothing very useful. She works with a group of other women, and they have ads on several different sites on the web. They take turns replying and accepting the various jobs. This one came in late last night through a generic Gmail address. Apparently that isn’t unusual, as most people who hire them don’t want to be identified. The instructions stated that she was to show up this morning right at seven o’clock and to bypass the doorman if at all possible. She had my apartment number and my name and was even informed that the ‘lady of the house’ might be willing to partake in a threesome if the opportunity arose.”

Morgan wrinkled her nose at the thought.

“Right? But Robert was on duty and didn’t let her sneak by. He called me, and that was that.”

“Can you track who hired her?”

“If they’d actually paid her ahead of time, maybe. But the woman was promised that I would pay for her services, plus a twenty percent tip. The email is probably a dead end, but I’ve already got Meat on it. At the very least he can get the IP address, which will give us the general location of the sender. We can go from there.”

“Do they have any more leads from Lane or Lance?” Morgan asked.

“No. But both seem to be in the clear for now. Meat is having a harder time following the trail of the men Sarah associated with. Motorcycle gangs are notoriously good at keeping their mouths shut, and it’s been a long time since you were taken from that parking garage.”